Valparaiso y Viña del Mar

Hola!

The past five days have been so busy and exciting!  We started classes on Wednesday.  I am taking a Chilean culture class and a Chilean literature class.  Both seem really interesting!  We have so much reading to do for each class, though.  And the culture class is 2 and a half hours!  That's pretty long, in my opinion.  Luckily, though, we are going to be watching Chilean movies every other class, so that should each up a lot of time.  The literature class is being taught by one of the professors from UD, and the culture class is taught by two professors from Universidad Mayor, where we are taking our classes. 

Last week I did a lot of exploring around our area of Santiago!  I'm definitely becoming more familiar with the city.  Living in a city is so different from what I am used to!  On Thursday, some of us were trying to find Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago.  While we never found the house, we ended up walking around the city for three hours!  We explored all around the river and surrounding areas.  So much walking! 

While my time in Santiago was fun last week, I'd much rather talk about my weekend!  We left Santiago at 8am on Friday and drove to Valparaiso!  Valparaiso is a port city about an hour from Santiago.  It's built on the mountains by the ocean, so the entire city is hilly.  The houses in Valparaiso are gorgeous- so many different colors and shapes!  We got out of the bus and walked through the streets to a lift that people use to go up and down the mountain.  That was pretty cool and so steep!  After Valparaiso, we ate lunch in a cute restaurant.  I ate fish!  For those of you who don't know, that is a big step for me haha!  We then drove through Viña del Mar.  We stopped at a giant clock of flowers and took a picture.  Legend says that if you take a picture in front of the clock, then one day you will return to Viña del Mar.  We shall see!  We also got to see one of the three statues from Easter Island that are not still on the island.  That was pretty cool.

After that, we went to our hotel.  It was pretty adorable and pretty close to the beach!  My friends and I got changed and went straight to the beach for the afternoon.  To be honest, the beach was pretty much like most beaches, but it was still great to be on the beach in January!  I stayed there all afternoon, then left for dinner.  It was a pretty excellent day.

On Saturday, we woke up early enough for the great breakfast at the hotel, then went to the beach for shopping!  There were tons of little stands with jewelry, clothing, and other little things.  I bought a lot!  We bought some fruit from a stand for lunch and then went to the beach!  The Chilean sun is SO STRONG, though, so we did not stay for too long!  Unfortunately, I still got really burned.  Oops!  In Chile, they have dinner at 8 or 9pm, so the restaurants are pretty much deserted until then, so I have been eating late, too!  The nightlife here starts much later than in the United States also, so I have been staying up pretty late!

Sunday we left the hotel early and drove to La Isla Negra--Pablo Neruda's third house in Chile.  The house and view were gorgeous!  He clearly had a lot of money and enjoyed collecting some strange things.  We then ate lunch in a cute little village.  I tried this Chilean dessert called mote-- a sweet tea with corn and a dehydrated peach.  It was pretty weird, honestly.  It had been pretty chilly all weekend in Viña del Mar, but it was so warm in this village!  I definitely got more sunburn :-(

We got back to Santiago around 5pm here and I was pretty exhausted, so I went back to my host apartment and worked and chilled the rest of the evening.  It was nice to have a break after so many days of little sleep! 

Some pottery on the street of ET. This one's for you, Kyla!

View from the bus on the way to Valparaiso

The whole group at a rest stop!

Valparaiso!

Valparaiso

Me with Valparaiso behind me!

Valparaiso!

Lift up the mountain!  Super steep

Statue of man who discovered Valparaiso... I think

Me again!

Whole group in front of the Swiss clock!

Moai from Easter Island!  (and stray dog... they are everywhere!)

Viña del Mar

Viña del Mar at sunset

Look Dad!  If the mariachi band doesn't work out, you could come play your trumpet in Chile!

Cool sand art

Stands along to beach

View from La Isla Negra

La Isla Negra

Weird Chilean dessert drink.  They love it!  Note that the peach looks like a brain

Now I am at the university eating lunch!  We are eating outside because it is GORGEOUS out!  I am glad to be missing all the snow in New Jersey.