Congress and Camping in Horcón
Trip Start
Jul 13, 2005
1
14
32
Trip End
Mar 02, 2006
Valparaíso,
Chile
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
How is everyone? What's new in your distant locations? It was great to get some of your notes, if I haven't responded yet, its because I've been lazy. But, I'll get around to it soon!! Everything here is going great, although I still haven't gotten around to doing my school work... I need a little K college shock collar to zap me in order!!!
The rest of last week went by rather uneventfully, though the weather was rather miserable. Cold, foggy, and a little windy at times...resembling October in Michigan, not in Valparaiso. In a side note, we all complain about the weathermen being bad, ect. From now on I won't complain about the weathermen in the states. Last week we looked at the weather and it said, sunny sunny sunny for the next week. What did we get? Cloudy, foggy, windy. And it's not just this week, it's always! Very strange, the weather here seems to be more unpredictable than lake effect snow! Too bad I dropped that meteorology class, perhaps it would be wiser to study that topic in the states...
Thursday we visited the Chilean Congress, its building is right here in Valparaiso, about 2 blocks from the university. You may ask, why is the congress in Valpo, if the capital is in Santiago? I would answer, I forgot to ask the tour guide that exact question! However, I do know that it moved here during the Pinochet dictatorship, and it has to do with Valpo being his hometown, and also a sort of symbolic exiling of the congress from the capital.
The building is very ugly and out of place in this historic city, almost a disgrace to the skyline. Compared to the elegance of the capitol in DC, or even state capitols in the U.S, its plain, well, plain!
The security to get inside was at best absent, (however congress was not in session). We got to see the senado, the diputados, and the main chamber where the congress meets all together. Got some cools bits of info about when people get mad at the congressmen they throw monedas (coins) at them. There's a fantastic little warning sequence for misbehaving onlookers. First strike, they give a verbal warning, second strike: they ring an alarm bell, and 3rd strike: red lights flash, and the carabineros (police) come in to haul the offending party away! Sounds kind of silly, but I wouldn't mess with red flashing lights and carabineros!
We got to see the library of congress, which is small, but nice and modern, where apparently anyone can come in and check books, and use the computers. There was also this old ladies pageant thing, so a bunch of cute over 70's were there competing from around the country. They were very interested in talking to us, where we were from ect.
Friday was spent working on a little homework, watching a little TV, and generally bumming around the house! Saturday began similarly, and we ate a nice big family almuerzo (lunch) and Veronica was in a kind of fussy mood, and so Tomas and Diego were sort of giving her a hard time, it was just like home, sort of! The food was yummy as usual, and it was nice as always to hang out and eat and talk with the family.
In the evening I got all my camping stuff in order and went to the central plaza of Viña to meet my friends Jessa and Daniela to go camping in Horcón, a caleta (fishing village) a couple hours up the coast. For much of the way we traced the route I took on my bike a couple months ago. I was shocked to see how far I had actually made it, and to think that was soo long ago!
We got to Horcón in the evening, and my friend Eric who had already been there and camped, had told me where to find a good place to camp on the beach. We walked along the beach for about an hour, passing about 4 signs that said it was forbidden to camp, until it came to an end at a rock face and a little cave. It was a quiet location so we decided to go ahead and chill there. We hung out for a while watching the sun descend into a gorgeous display of color etc. Somehow the sunsets here on the ocean are always some of the most spectacular I have ever seen. Perhaps that will be one of the things that I will never forget about my time here... although the pictures will never do them justice.
We set up the tents, checked out the cave (turned out to just be a deep hole in the cliff), and then sat and watched the darkness settle in, the gaviotas (sea gulls) make noises and, then the stars come out. Somehow I had never camped on the beach before, and it was the best illegal thing I have done here! We sang songs, and had a great time until it got pretty late. All that was missing was a campfire and s'mores. I slept pretty well and woke up to the crashing waves that kept me company all night.
In the morning we ate some breakfast and then retraced our hour march back to Horcón. There we walked around town, went to their artesan fair, saw them launch a boat with horses (the old fashioned way) it's the only place that still does this. Then we sat down and had a delicious seafood lunch overlooking the ocean for 3 dollars. I had fried merluza...which someone said was Chilean sea bass, but I don't really know (you fish experts can yell at me for not knowing the difference!) But wow it was rico (delicious)!! Strangely enough one of the study abroad programs from la Católica were visiting Horcón that same day for an hour, so we ran into them, which was funny! It's too small of a village to handle 20 gringos descending on it!
We finally said goodbye to lovely Horcón and headed back on micro to Viña. I got home to an empty house (the fam was visiting relatives in Limache) so I took a hot shower, unpacked and aired out my camping stuff.
Monday after classes, I walked out of the university building and there were tons of police cars and stuff. A couple micros had gotten in a crash, and it seemed fairly serious. They took away several people in ambulances. Glad to know that I ride those everyday!
Well if you are still awake, hope you are all doing well, making Halloween plans, etc. I'm going to miss that rush of sugar! If you have a down moment, feel free to drop me a note with what you are up to! Take care everyone!
Abrazos,
