For my last week in Chile, I was not planning on doing too much except for seeing friends, doing a lot of partying, and going on a lot of wine tours. I had already seen most all of the landmarks in Santiago, so I wasn't concerned with seeing them again (many I had seen more than a handful of times over the course of a year). For a variety of reasons, I was only able to schedule in two wine tours. Some wineries only did group tours, one winery was randomly not doing a tour the day we tried to go, and others simply never responded to my tour requests. Nothing too special about the wine tours I did go on, although one of the wineries was located at the base of a mountain on the east side of Santiago. One particularly interesting fact was that since the winery was built on a slope, the grapes grown at the bottom of the slope have a slightly different flavor than the ones at the top. This is because the ones grown at the top experience slightly cooler temperatures. It would probably only be possible for a sommelier to taste the difference, but it was an interesting fact to learn nonetheless.
During the week I went out with my friends, but it was the big bang I was going out with that I was really looking forward to. I organized my despedida (going-away party) to begin at my favorite bar in Santiago...and in Chile, really. The notorious La Piojera. I've written about it multiple times in past entries, but it bears a re-description. This riotous, rough-and-tumble establishment is something like 90 years old and has been saved from developers by its loyal clientele (according to Lonely Planet guide books). During the day, the place has a solid group of older regulars, but after the sun goes down, out come the young Chileans of all types: college kids, business professionals, and troublemakers. Also, there are good amounts of foreigners. There are some things I have come to expect when I go to La Piojera: there will be one or more individuals that are waaaay too drunk, there will be at least one fight and/or at least one person will get kicked out, and the bar area will stink like stale piss. As luck, or rather unbridled regularity, would have it, all three things previously mentioned occurred.
There were tons of people at La Piojera on that Friday night my group had to crowd around towards the entrance. After struggling to get drinks because some rookie was working behind the bar, we went to another one of my favorite places, La Fonda Permanente (The Permanent Block Party). Another dirty dive club with cheap drinks and great live music. Over the course of the last year, I had many nights out that, in the swirly, smoky haze of Santiago nightlife, have some how ended up at La Fonda Permanente. La Fonda is guaranteed to have great Cumbia music every weekend, and this night was no exception. Hilariously, and typical to Chilean nightlife, we arrived at midnight and absolutely no one was there. But by the time the band started playing (1:30...2:00 a.m...? Who knows?) the place was all but packed. We danced until the band was done playing, and then we went to a karaoke bar and did awful renditions of good songs until about 5 a.m. Highlights being my friend Adam getting up on stage to cooly perform a number of gangsta rap songs from the 90s. Another being when my friend Belen and I performed "Kiss" by Prince. As intoxicated as I may have been, I was definitely conscious enough to realize how awful we sounded. That's what you get when you do karaoke and only know the chorus of a song (doh!). After a long night of friends, booze, dancing, music, karaoke, and goodbyes, it was finally time to head home. I said my last goodbyes with tearful hugs with the last people standing (Belen and Emilie) and hopped into my last late night taxi in Santiago.
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