Since I last wrote, I've been contiuing to settle into my schedule, which has been a little bit difficult because I have yet to start my internship with English Opens Doors. My classes have been going well, and I have my first couple of papers of the semester due in the next 2 weeks, so my school work has been building up a little bit outside of class.
This past weekend, Easter weekend, I went on a little day trip outside of Santiago to Valparaíso (Valpo, for short), one of the bigger coastal cities about an hour and a half away from
Santiago's center. It was a really nice day! I went with a friend from my EAP program, Tessa, and we really enjoyed ourselves.
(Picture: Tessa and I with the bay in the background) On Saturday morning, we hopped on a bus at 8:20 in the morning and arrived in Valpo around 10am, and my first impression was that the city felt like San Francisco. It was even foggy when we arrived! There were tons of hills with colorful houses, cable cars, a bay, I felt right at home. The first thing Tessa and I decided to do was go see one of Pablo Neruda's 3 houses which have all been converted into museums for the public (I thought it would be fun since I'm taking that poetry class). Neruda's Valparaíso house is called "La Sebastiana," named after the Spanish builder who designed it. It is 4 stories tall, and has huge windows on every floor that look out towards the water. Absolutely beautiful! It was a good first stop for our day.
Next we took a little bus down to another area of Valparaíso to take a ride on one of the many "ascensores" or elevators that transport people up and down the many hills. In our case, we took a trip down the hill to sea level to find some lunch. We walked around for a bit and ended up stopping for a hamburger and a hotdog (Chilean style, with tons of avocado) and then walking around near the port. We decided to try and find a market that our waitress had told us about, but after about 45 minutes of walking (she said it should have only taken 20) we decided to take Valpo's version of the metro, which was above ground, back to the main port.
(Picture: the boat we took around the bay!)
When we got there, we decided to take a little boat ride for about $2 around the bay, which was really fun! We got some great views of the city from the water, and we ended up talking to a couple of chilean architecture students who studied at one of the universities in Valpo. They gave us a recommendation to visit the Mercado Central, which everyone said was very dangerous for tourists, and to take a specific elevator to get "una de las vistas más hermosas de la ciudad" (one of the most beautiful views of the city). When we got off the boat we decided to take their advice and go to the market, against the recommendation of my guide book and a couple of locals (saying it was infamous for petty theft). We ended up being perfectly safe, and the main market was actually pretty cool, but a lot of it seemed to be closed for the Easter holiday. In the fish part of it, we walked by and saw a few buckets of crabs for sale that were STILL MOVING! I guess you can't get much fresher than that! I didn't take any pictures of those though, for fear of being robbed.
The last thing we did was take the elevator that the students had recommended, that was very close to the market, and they were right: the view was absolutely breath-taking. We walked around up there for a bit, becasue there was a couple of artisan stands where we bought some souvenirs (I bought a magnet for the fridge and a watercolor of the city). We stopped to have some tea and hot chocolate, becasue it was getting colder out with the sun set, and we headed back to the bus terminal.
We had such a nice day over all. The sun even came out for most of the day after lunch, and it even ended up getting a little hot! The one thing that I could not get enough of in Valparaíso was the grafiti and murals that covered most of the buildings. The art was so colorful and unique that it gave the city such an interesting vibe, I can't wait to go back. I hope to stay for more than one day next time I go because I feel like there is so much more to see!
Here are some pictures I took about the grafiti:
and here are some other pictures of Valparaíso from through out the day:
Coming soon: pictures of my apartment and roommates!
Hope to hear from you all soon!
Love, Amara
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