Time flies!

It is hard to believe that I have been here two weeks now! I feel like I have learned and experienced so much, but at the same time it feels like yesterday that I was in sunny warm Wilmington.

Tuesday was a long but extremely fun day. Class started at 8:30 in the morning with a charla about Chilean pop-culture. Everyone, including myself, really enjoyed this guest speaker. He was was easy to understand and had a great sense of humor. We had normal class afterwards however Valerie let us out early, because at 2:00 we were to meet her at a restaurant called Coco Loco for lunch. She did not tell us where it was and our "mission" was to find it without asking our families. It really was not too hard to find, only four blocks from where we have class and twenty or so stories up.

With our extra time, a group of us went up into the cerros to walk around. We found a neat little shop with lots of art, and hand crafted South American goods. Bren and Josh bought native looking shirts that were from Bolivia. I would have bought one, but I did not want to look like I just jumped on the band wagon, even though I did see them first! The other reason I did not buy a shirt is that when I heard they were from Bolivia, I figured I'd just get one when I am IN Boliva! (How is that for authentic?)

More about Coco Loco... After the shopping in the Cerros we treked back toward the restaurant, grabbed an elevator and headed to the top. Now, the truly unique thing about Coco Loco is that it is a "Restaurante Giratorio." Giratorio from the verb "girar" to spin! Not only was this an upscale restaurant, but it had a revolving floor giving diners a 360 degree view of Valparaíso. We had a full three course meal, with cocktails, wine, and tea, and it was Valerie's treat. Everything was delicious and we had and extremely long "sobremesa" which is after dinner conversation. Then the whole group including Valerie went to a local pub to grab a beer, and then head home.

Wednesday: normal class, lunch, exploring time, then 3:30pm our second caminata. This caminata began in the Plaza Sotomayor, right on the water. We all got into a boat and were given a tour of the harbor. Not only did this give us an amazing panoramic view of the city from the water, but we also got to see a huge bustling industrial port at work. We passed some of the ships of the Chilean Navy and some very, very big containers ships. After the boat tour we walked to another ascensor and rode it to the top of a different cerro. At the top there was another great look out point "mirador" and lots of vendors. One of the vendors had a whole slew of original watercolor paintings of the area which were all very reasonably priced. I am most definitely making a return trip for a purchase. Many of the vendors sell beautiful jewlry made out of silver and lapuz lazuli, both of which are found in Chile and hence fairly cheap. (I am taking orders now if anyone would like something!)

Thursday was our trip to Isla Negra, the house of Nobel Prize winning poet Pablo Neruda. If you do not know him, get on google, he is an extremely important man both in the world of poetry and politics. Neruda is from Chile, was an active member of the communist party (which after lots of studying on this subject I have come to learn that in America we are taught a profoundly biased view of communism and socialism) Neruda had three houses in Chile, La Sebastiana in Valpo, La Choscana in Santiago (Choscana means crazy hair and the house was so named after his third and favorite wife Matilde) and his favorite house Isla Negra. Isla Negra (not an island by the way) is situated right on the coast with a great view of the ocean. The house is extremely odd, just as many poets are. The running theme is nautical and a lot of the rooms resemble boats. The house was a lot different than I had thought, and not really all that impressive. Neruda collected lots and lots of stuff. None of it looked like it was of any great value, no famous paintings or art, more like 100 different pipes, or scupltures of hands, or seashells.

After the tour of the house we all hung out on the rocks by the beach for a while and then had a mediocre lunch in a local restaurant. It must have been the better of the few restaurants in the town though because the town of Isla Negra is essentially the sticks.

Now I should probably be sleeping because we are leaving at 6:00am for two days of skiing in the Andes. Ciao