Walking tour 2

19 Julio
Fuimos a (we went to)
- Pablo Neruda's house La Sebastiana. Neruda was an awesome dude. I officially love every single one of his houses. This one had a great view of the beach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Neruda
- walking tour of the street art
- had a traditional dish AKA huge fat lunch. It consisted of french fries, egg, onion and a huge I MEAN HUGE pile of meat. This was a beast. I ate way too much of it. But hey, it's a cultural experience right? It was in this amazing cool resturant with nick nacks all around the room and people wrote on every possible surface. I am pretty sure they only surved the fry dish too. The place is J Cruz and was in Valpo (cool website below)
http://www.jcruz.cl/

- bought my ticket to Peru after extensive deliberation
- went to class around 6:30 then the sniffles came into play, full force. In class we learned more about the chilean education system. This link talks about it more extensively http://www.mineduc.cl/
-was miserable and had to take a cold shower when I got home. Needless to say, my cold is sticking around :(

Hoy necesito descansar. Today I need to rest. Class this morning was interesting but yesterday was a very long day.

Pablo Neruda-Museo de Historia-Mercado Central

Hoy voy a muchos paises en Chile.


First we met up with Nichola and Cassie at Plaza de Armas, Mitch.  It was a cold and foggy morning, so we decided to not climb up anything because it would be pointless. Instead we started out at Pablo Neruda's home.  I love places where you are able to almost feel the presence of history or a persons life.  This house is called La Chascona after his wife and mistress Matilde Urrutia and her wild frizzy hair. She was quite beautiful and was his first wife. Below is a picture of a painting by Diego Rivera of his wife. There is also a Salvador Dali painting that was a gift in his home. It is so cool to think of all these great artists hanging out being friends in the 60's 70's supporting communism and fighting against government control.

The home is split into three separate homes.  The first was where Matilde lived it was at the bottom of the three.  It had a room with curved ceilings like a boat and originally overlooked water.  In this home there was a secret passage way from the dining room to the upstairs.  Now that I think about it, I don't remember seeing a kitchen.  I must have overlooked it somehow.  From the living area you took a small spiral staircase to the upstairs.  Then you have to climb exterior stone steps to get to the main house.  It was truly beautiful even on a cold cloudy day.  In the main house and around the outside there are eyes, strange circular white eyes hanging.  When you go to the second floor you almost run into them as you take the stairs.  The main home is also designed like a ship and has modern style decorations.  The third building is the Library which was probably my favorite because it had the warmest heater and a huge fireplace, big windows and a porch overlooking the other homes.  Here we learned about how Pablo Neruda wrote the history of his life, but due to his involvment and open support of communism, he was unable to publish it so his friend and Matilde published it under a false name and title.  However as soon as you turned to the first page you instantly knew the true author and title.  I found that fascinating.  The guide was a lovely woman who spoke beautiful spanish that was so easy to understand.  I was happy that I was able to follow the tour so easily.  After this we headed to eat at el mercado central.  On the way we saw a protest, we actually followed it all the way to the market where they held up traffic.  There were dogs parking, cars honking, people yelling.  It was quite the scene.

  

The central market was strange because you walked through this VERY fishy room then go into this beautiful eating area.

- food--I think it was pig wrapped in fat with bread, spicy salsa and bread.  Did I mention there were no menus and there was chanting in the bar area. Good times

- history museo- Salvador Allende's glasses

- Really cold, that's why we went into the museum, then on the way to the market I bought some tea with milk and a cookie that was filled with a sweeten condensed milk caramel that is supposedly popular here

- stores- Santa Lucia Mercado- I bought a cardigan...yes...it's made of alpaca 

-  Went to a friends house party with Chilean, French, and Australian people.  There where Cheetos, chis pops (aka giant cereal pieces that are fruity flavored) chips and smashed avocado.  

Primer dia Sur del equador

I bought a couple travel books for my time in Chile.  Although I thoroughly enjoyed reading them I am starting to think they are redundant.  All you need is an open mind and a talkative personality.  During the layover and on the flight I got some of the best travel information I could ask for.  The girl who sat next to me on the plane was also 23 and knew the ins and outs of Santiago.  Same with the woman who shared an outlet with Ryan at the airport.  Did I mention the flight was delayed by an hour.  But we got here.  This morning I got to see the sun shine on the Andes.  Then as soon as we arrived a the Castillo Surfista Hostel in Santiago the owner gave us even more information.  In about an hour or so we are going to go on a walking tour and get to be full fledged tourists...needless to say I am looking forward to it.  I really love the city already.  There is a definite nip in the air and my fingers are chilly as I type.  It is so weird being completely out of my element again.  I think the first day in a new country is always the most scary and the most exciting.  It is hard to remember the differences between Chilean culture and our own.  Luckily at the cafe today the waiter basically told us flat out, would you like to add the standard 10% tip.  I said yes.  Gosh I love new places, new people and new cultures.  I had papaya juice (juice isn't Zumo its Jugo) and ate some of Ryans tres leche cake.  It's a good thing it wasn't just mine or I would have eaten ALL of it, probably in .5 seconds. Yum.

Spark Notes:
- The city feels like Spain with gardens and art sculptures everywhere
-  Chilean boys are easier to talk to in Spanish than girls...
-  My bank was hidden in a hospital so that was fun to find
- I suck at getting directions from people in any language
- you double (sort of) the currency to figure out what it is in dollars   (200,000 pesos is $400)
- I will probably freeze tonight

Walking Tour
- new awesome tour friends
- awesome guide who drank with us after and was so happy and friendly
- cool bar- Bar La Nona
- Salty meat, cheese and olives
- el terramorto- grownup rootbeer float
- saw all the sites on the tour- learned some stuff
- Ryans is the navigator