Friday, July 27, 2007

Friday, July 27, 2007

If it makes you feel better to know, the US isn’t the only country with ridiculous amounts of Red Tape. I had to wake up super early (6:45) and go to the Registro Civil, or the Civil Registry, to get our Cedulas or Chilean ID cards. We got to the building at 8:30, waited outside in line till 9, and then got numbers. It took over 3 hours for our whole group to get processed. Luckily I wasn’t too far back. Anyway, after I got fingerprinted and photographed, I had a retina screen, DNA sample and a urine sample. Just kidding. But they are pretty detailed and I’m glad I only have one more step in this 4+ step process before I am legitimate.

We headed out for Valparaiso around 1:30 pm. I went with Courtney Wilson and Nicole Amaral. Valparaiso, with its bohemian flair and charming old buildings, is the busiest port in Chile. Almost the entire town is crammed on a series of Cerros or hills overlooking the bay. We got in around 3:30, met up with Eric, then walked up a HUGE hill to our hostel. Some other kids in the CIEE program, Brandon, Samantha, and Kristen, found the place and we ended up hanging out with them most of the time in Valpo. We stayed in a French owned hostel with people from all over Europe. In fact, the owner told us we were some of the few North Americans to stay there. Once we got settled, we jumped on a bus and headed to near by Viña del Mar, the posh, resort beach town about 20 minutes north of Valparaiso.

In Viña, we walked to the beach and watched the sunset over the ocean. Amazingly, it was relatively warm, so I took over my shoes, rolled up my pants, and waded into the ocean. Check out the photo! Unfortunately, while the photo was being taken, a huge wave unexpectedly came and soaked the bottom of my pants. They didn’t dried till the next morning, but I somehow never got too cold.

After sunset we walked around Viña and finally found a place to eat. Courtney, Nicole, Eric and I shared a huge order of fajitas in a totally touristy tex-mex place. But don’t be disappointed. Chile really doesn’t have that amazing of food except for really fresh seafood. But no of us were in the mood and we are cheap, so the tex-mex was perfect. Despite the fact that we’d stuffed ourselves and we were wearing winter coats, we got delicious Chilean ice cream and sat on the wave breaker rocks under the full moon. It was so great to hang out with Eric and have him meet my friends. It’s amazing, but not surprising how well they got along. We discussed everything, in the usual Eric style, until we couldn’t stand the cold anymore. We caught a bus back to Valpo, put on some more layers, then found a great Cuban dance club/bar. We somehow snagged the last table, had a drink and watched people Salsa, Cumbia (sp?), and even some Chilean versions of line dancing (including the electric slide to Salsa music!)! We joined in for a few songs, but the dance floor was packed and we didn’t really have boys to dance with. Plus we were by far the youngest in the whole join. Despite that, it was still a blast. We headed back up the hill to the hostel and slept with the three of us in two twin beds pushed together.