Santiago, Chile

This is my fourth day in Santiago and up until now I´d done very little. The weather had been shitty and I hadn´t been feeling great, so after going out Saturday night with my new friends Javier, Rodrigo, Vincent, and Catalina I did just about nothing Sunday and Monday. Monday I engaged in the guilty pleasure of watching three movies in a row at the hostel--something absolutely verboten in a foreign country with limited time (don´t worry, I won´t review them for you here...).

But, today was glorious and sunny; and I´m feeling nearly 100%. So, I covered lots of ground--which is easy in Santiago because although the city is large and dispersed, the central area with points of interest is relatively compact.


Plaza de Armas
I started my day at the Plaza de Armas, conventiently located just a few blocks from my hostel. The plaza is dedicated to those who fought and died for Chilean independence. In addition to statues, it features nice benches for chilling, artists painting and selling, regular gatherings of street performers, and, today, a book fair. I bought a few children´s books in Spanish to practice.







The Plaza is bordered on one side by a large and ornate cathedral. I must admit that large and ornate cathedrals do not make me happy--especially in poor countries. I can´t help but think that if god does exist (s)he wouldn´t want people to spend money on gold statues of Jesus and intricate carvings of apostles while people go without food and clean water.




In front of the cathedral, I met my new friend Tomas, a boyhood friend of Jorge from YLS. I thought we were meeting for lunch, but what I got was much better--a short guided tour of downtown Santiago.


Coffee with Legs
Our first stop was a bit mind blowing. Tomas took me to Cafe Selva for what he called ¨cafe con piernas,¨or ¨coffee with legs.¨ This is a coffee shop that looks quite like a strip club inside. There are no tables, just loud music and women in thongs and bikini tops serving beverages and dancing with customers.



Apparently this is extremely common in Chile--these places are all over the place. Here are the two strangest parts: First, these places aren´t even open at night--strictly a daytime affair. This particular cafe was open from 9am to 8pm. Second, this place was right in the middle of a regular looking mall, next to sneaker stores, etc. And, there were at least 2-3 other similar places in the same mall. I didn´t see anything like this in Argentina. Not that I was looking, mom.


Important Buildings
Fortified by coffee and Coke (most of you know I´ve never had a cup of coffee), we went to see some important buildings. First, the stock exchange, appropriately labeled Bolsa de Comercio, which translated directly means ¨Bag of Commerce.¨




Next, their White House...




...and Supreme Court.




Lunch at the Mercado
After Tomas and I parted ways, I walked to the Mercado Central for a seafood lunch. You can check out my food in the ¨Comida Tipica¨series, but here´s what the inside of the market looked like.





Cerro Santa Lucia
After lunch, I headed to Cerro Santa Lucia, a beautiful park on a large hill which provides some great views of the city (cerro means hill in Spanish).

Egos and Phalic Edifices
Finally, those of you following the blog will note that Argentina has a smaller version of the Washington Monument on Avenida de 9 de Julio. I commented that it seems every country needs its own phalic symbol. Well, it seems I was right. And, it seems further that the size of that symbol is directly related to the size of the egos of the citizens. The U.S., of course, takes the cake for self-absorbtion; Argentines are known to be the most hauty of the Latin Americans; and then there´s the smaller, less arrogant neighbor to the west with their monumento pequeño:

U.S.A.



















Argentina



















Chile

El Volcan Pacaya

On Sunday, 2/18, Corey and I went to go see an active volcano about two hours from Antigua called El Volcan Pacaya. We were able to get within 30-50 yards of flowing lava--definitely not something that would be allowed in the U.S.

There's not much point in describing the scene with words, so I've just posted a bunch of pictures and a video. Above are some pictures from the way up. The ones below should give you an idea of how hot it was:

















Finally, check out this video. It's hard to hear what I'm saying (nothing of consequence), but it gives a good feel of what it was like to be there:

Mi Vida en Antigua, Guatemala

I'll soon leave Antigua, so here's a little window into my life here...

Antigua is a small city (pueblo) of 40,000 in the southwest/central part of Guatemala, situated between three volcanoes. It was founded in 1543 and served as the Spanish colonial capital for 233 years. Much of the town was destroyed by a major earthquake in 1773 and although it was rebuilt, the colonial capital was moved to Guatemala City.

The weather here is just about perfect. It gets up into the 80s most days, but with almost no humidity. At night it cools off to the low 60s or even 50s.

This first picture is me in front of Antigua's famous "arc," which I believe was the only structure to survive a particularly nasty earthquake.

This is La Merced, the largest church in town. I pass it every day on my way from home to school. Construction began in 1548, but it was ruined by earthquakes twice and wasn´t completed until 1855.

Here I am with my two "maestras," Delmi on the left in "traje tipico" (traditional clothing) and Carla on the right. I started with Carla and really liked her, but had to switch in order to stay with morning classes (8-12) as opposed to afternoon (12-4).

Here's my host family--along with five students they're currently housing. Last night was Corey's last here in Antigua, so he and I cooked dinner for everyone. As I mentioned before, they're truly fantastic. They speak slow, patient Spanish with us and correct us constantly with complete good nature.

Chris and Megan, both Canadian. Megan is in language school, but Chris has been here for a few months and hasn't been attending classes for a while. He is quite simply the busiest guy I've ever met who does absolutely nothing--in fact, Chris does the "nothing" of three men. This makes him a great person to know b/c he's checked out every bar, restaurant, etc. in town.

This is Tess and Uulay, both Swedish and both very cool. They had an...interesting relationship.

Here I am drinking whisky with Corey the night we met the rest of these clowns.

And, here's four of us overlooking Lago de Atitlan from the town of San Pedro (about 2.5 hours from Antigua).

Finally, here's Corey and me with our newest roommate Craig who works on cruise ships in Alaska.

We´re in a bar called Reds which became our regular hangout. It´s directly across the street from La Merced.