After Peru, we flew into Santiago, Chile, which is the country’s capital and city of around 8 million. By the time we got to our Airbnb it was 11pm, but we were super hungry so headed out in the barrio of Providencia for, of course, some lomo saltado for Mitchell and veggie options for Adrianna. The next morning we accidentally slept in until 11am because we hadn’t changed our watches to 2 hours ahead, so we thought it was only 9am. We were set on walking to Pablo Neruda’s house, the most recognized Chilean poet. Alas, it was over 90 degrees outside so we stopped for some fresh smoothies on the 45 minute walk there. When ordering these smoothies, I remembered how difficult to understand the Chilean dialect is. It was as if I was starting from square one in Spanish- I couldn’t understand the girl making our smoothies, and she couldn’t understand me. It took me a day or two to remember the dialectal differences. Chileans drop a lot of their “s”, so más o menos sounds more like ‘ma or meno’, and they use some funky words like ‘pololo’ for boyfriend, ‘cachai’ for you understand me?; but above all, they speak rapid rapid rapidly fast!
We took the audio tour at Pablo Neruda’s house, and the family enjoyed it more than I anticipated, though we were not allowed to take pictures of anything inside. Pablo Neruda’s final days alive were during a time of political instability in Chile. The dictator Augosto Pinochet came into power via a coup d’etat of the elected president Salvador Allende, and for the next 20 years Chile suffered many human rights abuses. Neruda’s poetry emphasized political beliefs and his support for Allende, and he ended up passing away from cancer within 2 weeks of the overthrowing of the government. There’s obviously tons more to the story than that, but Neruda was and still is a very important figure for Chilean literature. We next headed to Cerro San Cristobal, which is a large metropark in the center of the city with great viewpoints of the massiveness of the desert area. The funicular wasn’t working, so we just took a bus; we couldn’t stay up there too long as we were boiling from the heat! We headed down, got lunch and drinks in the popular Bellavista barrio, enjoyed the 9-9:30pm sunset, and headed home the night.
The most exciting part of this trip, for me, was returning to Viña del Mar/Valparaíso to see my host family once again. It has already been 3.5 years since studying abroad for a short summer in Chile, but at the same time I can’t believe I had the chance to go back and visit them. We reached the bus station in Santiago and hopped right on en route to Viña only 1.5 hours away. It was insanely cloudy once we got there, which was strange to me because it is summer. When I was there in the winter, it was always sunny. Luckily, the sun comes out and all the clouds disappear around noon-1pm- phew! Plus the temperature is much cooler on the ocean, around 70-75, perfect. Once we got my family’s house, we spent all afternoon sitting out on the patio and catching up. My host sibling were now much older, and the extended family was in town for the holidays. An Argentinian guy happened to meet my host cousin in Peru while biking across South America, so he ended up coming to my host family’s house for the indefinite future. Because the doors are always open, my host sibs call their home the “embassy”. Plus, they have international students, nearly all from USA, year-round. It has got to be an amazing experience I wish I can have, too, in the future. In the evening, we headed down to the beach a mere 5 min walk down the stairs and enjoyed some ice cream and hot chocolate in town. It was extremely busy in Valpo/Viña (they are sister cities) due to New Years, so we spent most of the time up at the house. A lovely night of guitar, singing, and talking lasted until the late hours with the perfect view of the ocean outside.
The next day we headed to downtown Valpo on the micro, which is an old, ticket local bus that travels at the speed of light along the coast. For 400 Chilean pesos, or ~80 cents, we arrived to Cerro Alegre after a transfer to the metro. Valpo is a city with many colorful, vibrant hills, each with its own personality. Cerro Alegre is known for its artsy culture and numerous murals all over the walls. Street art and graffiti is legal here, and the art that you find is oftentimes very beautiful. After walking around here for a while, we headed down the hill to Emporio la Rosa for “one of the world’s top 25 best ice cream shops”. Afterwards, we went back to my university that I studied at for a few photos then bought a ton of ingredients for guacamole at the huge market to make for the family once we got home. That night, we played Ataque, which is almost like risk. My host mom is very intense about this game, but my brother, who played with host brother, ended up winning the game. I played, not knowing anything that was going on the whole time! It’s a very interesting mix to have half people speaking Spanish, half English, and a few of us who can translate between everyone. Luckily, my host sibs are basically fluent in English.
The next day was New Year’s Eve, and everything in town shuts down for the day, as well as New Year’s Day. We did a lot of hanging out at the house all day, especially preparing for the night ahead. We spent the whole day out on the patio while people came and went, and there was constantly music playing. My whole host family has musical talent, both playing instruments as well as singing. One of the cousins said that our family has other talents, but I told her “No, we don’t!”. Once the sun set pretty late, everyone started drinking and then around 11:30 we headed to the neighbors house. It was a gigantic house, and the back yard had a totally non-obstructed view of the ocean and the port where fireworks were set off. After the 30 min show, we got to dance around for a while with some locals and other foreigners who were trying to teach us different Latin American dances, basically a disaster but nonetheless very fun. We stayed up way too late (for me at least) until 4-5am. I haven’t done that in a while.
New Year’s Day was a pretty lazy day except for something that Mitchell did. He was coming back outside onto the patio and just ran into the glass door because he didn’t notice it. The glass shattered completely and he ended up cutting above his knee pretty bad along with his fingers. Luckily, my host cousin Macarena is a nurse and she was able to temporarily bandage him up. I thought it was hilarious but everyone else, not so much! The next day the wound wasn’t healing because it was so wide, so Maca’s doctor friend came over and he stitched Mitchell up with some local anesthetic. We are so fortunate we didn’t have to take him to the doctor and paid all the extra money!
The rest of our time in Chile was spent wandering the hills, where Adrianna and I found my favorite mural in Valpo; we ate a lot of alfajores, which are like a chocolate wafer filled with manjar/dulce de leche; we bought some completos, which is a hot dog covered in mayo, avocado, ketchup, and anything else you desired; we had a mysterious appearance of balloons in the house basement, so we almost called the police to tell them we didn’t know where they came from….; we played multiple more rounds of Ataque which Mitchell and Cleme continued to win; lots of words were said with hilarious accents/translations between English and Spanish; and we spent a lot of quality time with the family that made me so happy. Chile will always have a special place in my heart, and it was a privilege to be able to spend all this time with my own family and host family all under the same roof. My host mom is simply the best. Plus I ended up leaving my bathing suit by accident in Chile, so I guess that means I will have to go back and get it in the near future!
After Chile, we headed back to Quito for a day or two when we were able to visit the Equator and say our goodbyes. Time truly flies by way too fast when you’re on vacation, but to be able to spend my winter break in South America with my family is truly a holiday season I will never forget. I think the fam now has a greater appreciation and understanding of the culture here, and they all have expressed interest in learning Spanish now. All in all, we had a fantastic time, nothing went wrong (!), and we all love each other even more now. The first thing they did once landed in the States was order a delicious pizza. I would do anything for some quality pizza right now!
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading about our family travels 🙂 Until next post.