After a fun, but tiring trip La Serena, I took it easy for a weekend.
Oct. 21:
I started the day by going grocery shopping with Jenny. And as always with her, it was an adventure. To explain why, I have to recap a bit.
While I was in La Serena, two new UC (California) students joined our homestay. They came to Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile to Human Rights. Caroline is a sociology major from UC Santa Cruz and Catalina is a physiology major from UC Davis. They're both right around my age and all four of the students living in the house get along really well. However, with four girls in the house, plus Jenny, things got a little tight. There was definitely a tense transition time - specifically about having food for all of us- and unfortunately the Cat and Caroline had a rough first week. (I feel them though - I was in the same boat when I arrived). In an attempt to help resolve this, I compiled a grocery list for all of us with the basic foods that we eat, and went grocery shopping with Jenny to make sure that we had the food that we needed.
We went to Jumbo - A big Chilean grocery store equivalent to Meijer. Afterward, we went to a feria, an open air market, to buy produce. It was hectic, but a cool experience.
I made myself a burger for lunch and decided to head into the city center to meet up with Susi for a tour. However, I was taking my time getting there, and when I arrived the tour was long gone. Not only that, but suddenly, I didn't have data, which I am very rarely without.
I found my bearings and spent the afternoon/evening leisurely wandering the city by myself and stumbled across some cool things like the Plaza de Armas, Museo de Arte Precolumbiano, an old train station and el Museo Bellas Artes. I made my way to el Barrio Italia for some dinner and came across a shawarma place. It small and friendly and reminded me of on of my favorite restaurants back home, Al Madina. I really miss the food in Cincinnati.
That night, all of the girls in the house, and some other friends, went out to party in Bellavista. Chileans party late into the night - often until 4-5 in the morning. Thankfully, at about 3 am we decided it was time to come home.
Oct. 22:
The next day, I wanted to show Caroline Cerro San Cristobal (park with the cable cars).
This seemingly simple trip turned into an adventure when the bus did not stop at our desired stop, and, instead, continued in a tunnel below the, taking us to the other side of town. In Chile - the socioeconomic divide is big, and it's not hard to see. As soon as we emerged from the tunnel all of the high-rises, expensive houses, and nice stores were nowhere to be seen. There was a distinctive lack of bus stops and I, again, was without data. It wasn't unsafe, because it was daytime, but it was uneasy and kind of shocking how quickly everything changed.
It was pretty incredible to see the cerro 6 weeks later - the mountains were no longer covered in snow, the thick layer of smog had faded, and the area was packed with tourists. Unfortunately for Caroline and I, we got stuck in a cable car full of affectionate couples, haha. It was worth it though, because the view was just as stunning as before.
