As I mentioned, the mass that cate and I had wanted to go to was already over when we arrived. Thus, I failed at witnessing a major religious holiday in latin America like I had wanted to. However, amandas homestay family invited us to their weekend house which is an hour outside viña by train. Amanda is really close with her mom so we felt very welcomed. They were having a traditional parrillada (barbeque with different meats), but her mom said that we should bring our own food so we packed some pasta and a couple of bottles of vino for the gathering. They of course shared their meat and wine as well. I tried my first churripan- bread, chorizo and pebre which is the Chilean chimichurri which slight alterations…obviously anything with chorizo is YUM. Her tio was super friendly, unlike her sister and other cousins but I guess that’s to be expected from girls of the same age. Not to say that that excuses their unreasonably cold attitudes towards us…from what ive encountered, the girls here are just unkind to gringas. The house also had a pool so we tanned after finishing all three bottles of wine plus some appertivos that they offered us after we tipped our third bottle. Needless to say, all three of us were pretty borracha (drunk) and struggling to get on the blow up animals in the pool. We got a ride home later that evening from amanda’s mom, who proceeded to tell us how odd they found it that we were able to finish three bottles of wine. Oh, if only they knew.
We were surprised to discover upon returning that the majority of bars near cates house were open so we caught the end of a happy hour at a local karaoke bar. The MC was trying to rile the crowd, and to my astonishment, the majority of people who ended up performing were guys, who all did these super serious love songs. Cate and Amanda serenaded me with Madonna’s “Like a prayer”, which got the attention of many a fellow in the crowd. More of cates friends met up with us and we concluded the night by watching an impersonator of latin America’s Elton John give lap dances to male audience members while promoting his new CD…apparently, ricky martin isn’t even worthy of being the opening act for the real guy. Im forgetting his name right now.
Yesterday we went to valparaíso by micro. The people and the architecture make Valpo a more bohemian version of Viña. Something about the water system and its poor construction + the summer season makes valpo and viña very fire prone and at around 3pm the entire sky was covered with a musky grey smog and ash was falling from the sky. We had lunch at one of their best restaurants which was this French place with a menú del jour (fixed menu), and then walked around to photograph the buildings and some really sick murals. The meal resulted in a minor food coma so our walk back to Viña turned into another ride on the micro. After a much needed nap, I tried to run along the pier but the debris of the fire made it difficult to breathe so I stretched on the rocks and came home to get ready.
A few hours later, friends from cates program and friends of friends came to pregame at our apartment. We drank pisco (a locally liquor similar to whiskey) and diet coke and then boarded the buses for valpo. We went to this underground disco called la salla. The states doesn’t really have an equivalent of discos. Theyre a mix between the dancing and spacious vibe of a club with a more bar-esc grungy aesthetic. The only thing that comes to mind is what I IMAGINE fangtasia to be like---anyone with me? La salla had three rooms- reggae/electronic, drum/bass, and mainstream club music. The night was fun although it was frustrating not feeling comfortable making conversation with my semi-conversational Spanish, a gringa accent, and a lot of loud music to yell over. The only thing I can say is that girls do not have the same bathroom line etiquette as in the states; if one friend is waiting and others see her in line, they just jump right ahead and hold the door for one another. All I could muster was an angry glare, but seriously, waiting in line for the bathroom can be an agonizing experience..and then to be cut?!
We got home at 6am and only slept till 12 because we had a friends despedida (going away party) to drunkenly trek to. His homestay parents really solidified my decision to look for a family in Buenos aires. And they had the most incredible view of the pacific + all of the roof tops of lower Viña- buenissimo! His mom served us pisco sours which satiated my hangover only slightly. Lunch was served with excellent wine from Mendoza. Interestingly, they eat the main course (e.g chicken and rice) and then the salad AFTERWARDS. ¡Que extraño! We visited cates first homestay family afterwards to drop off a gift that she had bought them in barioloche.
Its amazing how much more can get done in a day when the sun sets soo late. New York in July usually has a maximum of 13 hours, but the sun has been setting at 9:45, on average! Cate and Amanda are visiting her homestay mother for this upcoming semester and then meeting up with this French guy that we met in la salla. Tomorrow we’re heading to an isolated beach near las dunas, which are apparently some incredibly but windy sand dunes to the east of Viña.