Life is Good

Actually Life is GREAT!!! I just got my luggage which I was sure might have been lost forever in the abyss that is our flight system. Plus I’m in Santiago! Everywhere I go, snowcapped Andes are a beautiful backdrop to the landscape. All the volunteers here are super nice and we’ve been running around and exploring the city together. Today (my second day) we went to the Pre Columbian Art museum. It was full of great pieces and here’s an interesting little tidbit, apparently, hallucinogens were used frequently by many of the ancient civilizations in South America. A lot of the works of art had been inspired while under the influence or commemorated the use of hallucinogens. Next, we took a stroll thru the Mercado central (central market) for lunch and over the bridge to a produce market. There were fresh fruits and vegetables as well as a meat market (the smell there was awful!). You could get a kilo of clementines (about 12 of them) for 300 pesos, which is roughly 60 cents. One thing I did notice though, was that chocolate tends to be a bit more pricey, at about two dollars a bar.

Next we went looking for this cemetery where Salvador Allende was buried. Salvador Allende was the president when the coup of September 11, 1973 happened and Pinochet took over. It’s a touchy subject here because during his regime it’s estimated some 3,000 died and over 80,000 were incarcerated without trial and about 30,000 tortured. But Pinochet is also credited with economic reforms that have made Chile the most economically successful country in Latin America. And the United States and C.I.A. were active supporters of the Pinochet regime….probably because we’re so afraid of socialism, but I don’t think brutality in favor of any form of government is just. That’s just my opinion. There was also a memorial for all the people who disappeared and a wall full of every person who died in opposition.

Yesterday, I started the day exploring the city on foot. We found the equivalent to the White House, which was cool. I tried some paila marina in the Mercado central. I’m typically not a big fan of seafood; I like my fish fillets and sushi. But I knew the seafood is great here so I took a local’s advice and tried the paila marina. It was this broth soup full of funky looking seafood I had never seen before in my life! Seriously, it looked like it came straight from the sea with mouths and other organs intact. I might just stick to fish from now on. Next, we hiked up Santa Lucia which is I guess a church?? I’m not really sure it just had a bunch of steps and once you get to the top you get amazing views of Santiago.

After dinner I tried my pisco sour. Pisco is the national drink here and it’s distilled from these grapes and it’s kinda like a brandy I guess. For those of you who know me I’m not a big fan of sour and after my pisco sour, I still was not a big fan of sour. But it is the national drink so I’m probably going to be consuming a lot of it over the next five months. I tried it on the rocks and it is potent! Whoooweee! I could get used to that. Actually next time I order it I’m going to try it with coke, they mix it with coke or sprite so maybe I’ll like that better.

Tomorrow starts our orientation so I’ve got an early day. I’m just so happy I have my luggage. You don’t know how excited I am about that. Ok it’s really cold, I need to get up and walk around. O yah it’s winter here, so it gets down to the 30s at night and it briefly reaches 60 during mid afternoon. Regardless, the hostel I’m staying doesn’t have heat so I’m constantly freezing and looking forward to my desert more and more each day! I forgot to mention I’m going to the Atacama region which is the start of the Atacama Desert which is the driest place in the world with no recordable rainfall. But! There are great beaches and all the locals I’ve told say it’s a very beautiful place!!! I just gotta watch out for these poisonous spiders which are only dangerous to a small percentage of the population….