So after a very tumultuous 9hr delay in panama (arguing in Spanglish about my promised $400 voucher, praying for a bar of internet to send word to cate about my delay, popping and then subsequently regretting popping pimples in the bathroom) I arrived in Chile. I was unpleasantly greeted with a steep entrance fee of $130 for American citizens. My two bags however, were waiting for me, cosmetics in tact- so already this trip is starting off smoother than Guatemala. I wearily walked out into the crowd of expectant Chileans eager to greet family and older men trying to get me to ride in their taxi or rent their apartment, but Cate and Amanda were no where to be found. My optimism had nearly evaporated by the third time I asked “¿Has visto dos gringas?” (have you seen two white girls?) until suddenly, in the window of the airport café, I saw the amandas hair and cates grin. We waved and made silly moments until I decided it was no longer appropriate to make a spectacle of myself.
After a couple of minutes of hugging and coming to terms with the fact that we were all together, and in south American, AND HOW UNBELIEVEABLY STUPID WE WERE NOT TO HAVE EXCHANGED ANY INFORMATION ABOUT OUR FLIGHTS, we boarded two buses to Viña del Mar. the countryside was incredibly beautiful but different from the type of vegetation that I was used to seeing in Guatemala. It kind of reminded me of new Hampshire in the summer, because of the rocky hillsides and sparse greenery in some areas. However, as we got closer to the coast, that type of scenery changed.
Because of my 5:30am arrival in Santiago, by the time we made it back to the apartment that cate and I are staying in, it was only 9:30am. We both took long overdue showers, followed by naps in our respective sleeping areas (a hard bed and a red velvet couch). Afterwards, we grabbed lunch at a bar near cates house and made our way towards the mall. Mind you it was the day before Christmas Eve, and thus the mall was a mad house. We met up with Amanda and proceeded to buy groceries in a wallmart/Mercado type place and then took a microbus home. The violence and terror of the ride was familiar. They also have these things called collectivos which are more or less taxis with preordained routes that will pick you up if they aren’t full. That’s the only form of local transportation Ive encountered thus far, excluding the nicer buses from the capital and the presumably bigger buses that take people from Viña to Valpo. Sadly, when I described chicken buses and their gaudy religious exterior to cate and her friends, I was met with blank stares. We came back to the house wear we cooked turkey burgers, and had a salad of palta (avocado….not aguacate?!??) and tomate. The girl whose apartment we’re staying in is super fantastic. Shes this 29yr old hip Chilean who speaks no English and is the manager of the mens Zara here. At times, I had trouble following her and cates conversation but eh its only day 1.
Afterwards, we walked to Cates friends house where I sampled the local marijuana and was predictably disappointed. There were two other girls that were at this guys house so it was a small gathering but Amanda and I nonetheless proceeded to dominate the noise and energy level. I was surprisingly lacking much of a filter for this interaction because it probably would have been smarter to remain sensitive to the fact that these girls did not want to hear the lineage of “sarah lana” or particulars about my 10 yr plan. Cest la vie!
The next morning, cate and I caught up on some much needed sleep and headed to the beach to say farewell to one of cates travel buddies. This expedition turned into a 2 hour tanning session which resulted in some pretty horrific tan lines and a face that’s currently incapable of expression. Afterwards, we came home and made a heaping portion of stir fry, and then paid a visit to the house that cate will be living in next semester. Cates new mom is beyond wonderful. Somehow, even with the language barrier , I managed to direct the conversation to my bowl-movement issues. This then led to a foot/pressure point massage by cates new mom. Shes a professional, but still- how did that happen? Cate says that it’s a rare thing for a woman to be living on her own, and that her program is semi-uncomfortable with students living in a single-adult house but im really pleased that cate is going to live in such a spiritual, new-age environment. Then we visited amandas highrise that overlooks the pacific. We didn’t get to meet her family but tomorrow we’re going away with them to what seems like their summer/weekend house. Cate and I had the intention of attending midnight mass but as we walked up the main boulevard later that night, we realized that all masses are held earlier because people open presents AT midnight. The church that was still open for prayer was pretty and less tacky than the churches that im used to seeing in Latin America. Cate has the same opinion but then I thought back to one of the main ideas of my Religion in Latin America class which is that piety in Latin America very visually oriented, and gaudy display cases of biblical scenes featuring large plastic characters is not only appealing but very consistent with their idea of worship.
As mentioned, tomorrow ill be heading to the country side for a day or two. Im happy that Amanda has been able to foster such a close relationship with her “family” and im interested in seeing how they interact.
Thus far, the thing that im most excited about is the architecture. Its not that it itself is that interesting but the fact that I can relate to it because its another metropolis. It always worried me that I was a latin American studies major but that when I traveled here (only central america until now), I could never see myself truly enjoying or building a life in one of their central cities. Its nice to know that there exists some type of median between the industrial urban environment that I’ve come to love and partially require from New York, and the layout and architecture of cities in Central America. And from what I hear, Buenos Aires is very much in line with this aesthetic, just on a grander scale. For example, the visible extent of globalization in Central American cities was the McDonalds and the occasional Pizza Hut. (as an aside, in central America, the idea of fast food vs. local/homecooked food is completely backwards. Fast Food is strictly special occasion type thing.) But here, Cate showed me the recently-opened Starbucks…which completely rocked my world. Try and think about that- a designated third world country with an establishment that makes specialty coffee drinks… its almost oxymoronic. Prior to coming to Chile, I would have thought that that type of thing would be unintelligible to ‘Latin American people’ because I had grown so accustomed to the central American conception of wealth—and spending $4 on frappaccino would be seemingly ridiculous to them. (I was also told that chile has the most thriving economy in all of Latin America-¡Que interestante!) This example is just one part of the idea that this city and its architecture/establishments reflect an entirely different norm from what ive come to expect from latin American/third world cities. Maybe that was naive of me from the start, but on the flipside, it would have been just as naïve/insensitive to expect that every country has wealthy cities. So I guess I just prepared for the ‘worst’…