Before I do that, though, I am going to be traveling to Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales within the larger Patagonia region of Southern Chile. And before that, I am going to write this post.
A few weeks ago I went to visit my friend, Rodrigo, in La Serena. Rodrigo had moved there as a result of transferring schools. La Serena is about six hours north of Santiago by bus and is mostly known as a summer beach resort. However, La Serena is also fairly well-known for its "neocolonial architecture", having preserved many old buildings (and especially churches). Additionally, for any new buildings built in the city center, they have to follow strict guidelines so as to keep with the neocolonial style. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera when we went strolling around the city center.
We had originally planned on getting a group of four or five of us to come up to La Serena. However, it ended up being only me and our friend, Emilie. Rodrigo is living with his grandmother, and that is also where we stayed. His grandmother was hilarious, if not a bit senile. Within five minutes, she asked me twice if I had been to La Serena before, and then later asked Rodrigo the same question about me. His grandmother also constantly harassed him to do chores and things. Hilariously, she always made the requests from another part of the house:
(in Spanish, from the other end of the house)
"Grandson, can you do the dishes?"
"Yes, Alicia!"
"Rodrigo, I need you to get some things at the store!"
"Yes, Alicia. OK!"
There were time when we couldn't exactly hear what she was saying, but even so, Rodrigo still replied "OK, Alicia!"
After wandering around the city square, Emilie and I met Rodrigo at the basketball courts of his school. Rodrigo's classmates are all 17 or 18 while he is 22. They really look up to him, which I found really funny. While his classmates were playing a pick up game of soccer, we were drinking on the bleachers and chatting. Felt like high school all over again! We ended up going out with a few of his friends.
The next day we went to the beach and just relaxed the rest of the evening. Although it was a relatively uneventful weekend, it was a nice, laid back time.
At the beginning of this month my best friend from university, Ry, came to visit me. On our first day we went to the biggest soccer match of the year. The match is between Universidad de Chile and Colo Colo. The two best and most popular soccer clubs in Chile. However, this isn't any old soccer game. Universidad de Chile represents the middle and upper crests of society, while Colo Colo represents the lower part(s). I don't really know enough about the history of these two teams to know how that symbolic association came about, but it apparent everywhere. When I go to the poorer parts of the city, there are tons of people wearing Colo Colo jerseys just as there are people wearing Universidad de Chile jerseys around my area.
Our tickets had us sitting in the galeria, which is where the fanatic fans are. When we got into the stadium, however, the attendants that were helping to sit people some weary of directing us to our assigned section. They said something about how it's on the complete other side of the stadium (they made it seem like it was miles away) and that there were a few open seats right in front of us. I think they were just worried for our safety because we were foreigners. BUT, the great thing is they seated us in the most expensive section in the entire stadium. So we had seats with chairs and also shade over our heads.
As expected, the fans hurled profanities without heed. When Universidad de Chile scored, many fans in our section would stand up and yell and make obscene gestures at the Colo Colo fans in the other section. In fact, there was a high metal fence separating the sections...and on top of the fence were sharp spikes. I guess it is a pretty serious game!
At one point, Colo Colo fans were literally pulling out their chairs and throwing them on the track that surrounds the field. I was a little worried that were going to have trouble leaving after the game, but I didn't even see any fights or anything. Universidad de Chile won 5-0, which is a record score for them in their match history with Colo Colo.
I took Ry to most of the standard tourist sites: San Cristobal hill, Santa Lucia hill, the Bellas Artes Modern Art Museum, Mercado Central, La Piojera...but also some less well-known areas as well. We went hiking in an area I have been to a couple of times. A nice area just outside of the city called Aguas de San Ramon. We also went to this restaurant called El Hoyo (The Hole). I was actually a bit nervous because El Hoyo is in kind of a bad part of town and were going at night. There weren't a whole lot of street lights, so we were definitely quick on our feet getting to the restaurant. The restaurant specializes in pork. We shared a huge pork leg (pernil) as well as pork pieces cooked in a ring of fat (arrollado). Plus, we had a pitcher of terremotos (strong alcoholic drink). I can't even describe how huge the pork leg was (we didn't bring the camera unfortunately), but we did have leftovers for sandwiches. Then I made a broth with the bones!
Ry and I also made a short trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. We spent the entire day enjoying the beaches in Vina del Mar and all of the colorful houses and hills of Valparaiso. Unfortunately, this was around the time that we were both sick, so we basically had dinner and a few drinks and then called it quits. On Ry's last night, we went out with my friend Boris, to the politically left-leaning bar called The Clinic. The are pricy, but the place itself has a lot of character. The owner of the restaurant is also in charge of a political satire publication also called The Clinic. After dinner, the three of us met our friends Mark and Leslie, and we went for a little bit before I started to feel really sick.
Overall, it was a great week with Ry, but the fact that we both were sick did put a damper on things.
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