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Published: November 11th 2007
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I crossed the boarder into Chile at 1 am. It was in the same mountains I had only visited a few days before. We all had to get off the bus and let everything be searched. I froze! Luckily, I was much to sleepy to care much. Once back inside the bus, I unrolled my new sleeping bag, on the suggestion of a friend, and slept in my seat in my bag. Wonderful! I have never slept so well on the bus. I got a solid six hours of sleep and never awoke (AC is a big problem on these buses for me. Can you imagine? It was freezing out and they still have it on!).
Anyways, I arrived at about 7 am. I walked to the nearest hostel. I was a little dissapointed because it was so expensive (14 dollars a night!) ... and it has no hot water... and breakfast is not included... and it was cold. I didn´t much care, as I fell into bed and slept for a few more hours.
When I left the hostel, I wasn´t yet to impressed by the city. I thought about getting ticket and leaving the next day... who
needs to stay in this expensive place? But as I walked around... I couldn´t help but feel as though I would like to stay forever! If ever a city was made for me, this would be it. Its as though they collected every weird creative person in the world and let them loose here, to do just about anything they want.
The city is on the ocean (smell the salty breeze!!!), and from there, it rises steply toward large hill summits. There are roads, but for walkers, you spend quite a lot of time ascending and descending stairs. But all of these stairs are in small alleys behind and around the houses. Everything is quite and still and the sun in shining down from above. EVERY surface is decorated, painted, plastered, tiled... the street, the walls, the windows, the patios, the gardens, the fire hydrants. It seems as though such expression is openly encouraged, and, in fact, in one section of the city, the murals are cordoned off and protected in an out door museum of sorts. There seems to be a lazy cat every three steps.
The architechture is completely odd. In the main drag of the
city, it is typical colonia. And very pretty, as it always is. But the rest of the city is strange. While it maintains the typical colonial look, and complete with beautiful wrought iron baloconies, well cared for wood doors, stone patios, the buildings are all made of metal siding. The walls and roofs are metal! That corrugated cheap looking stuff. In the nice houses, it blends right in, and is colored vibrantly. There are also a few housed that look german. Nestled in the hillside, I expect little gnomes to live there.
I´ve decided to stay the extra day and do some drawing tomorrow.
Other interesting things:
The hamburgers don´t come in a patty, its just all jumbly... still tastes good though.
They have more american brands, but everything is more expensive.
Chilenos do not have the argentinian obsession with crackers.
Walking and driving seem strickly regulated. I don´t know if this is a result of the old regime? There are velocity meters on MOST corners. Inside of my bus last night was a meter that told us how fast the bus was going, and whether that speed was regulation or not.
There is more often toliet paper
in the bathrooms.
The Italiano is a favorite hotdog here... I´ll have to try it because it is everywhere, but I´m intimidated... they smoother is in gacumole.
I discovered a new artist that I liked. Unfortunatly, the main museum was closed 😞 , but I found a few other small ones. Museo Lucas showcased his many cartoons. They seemed a cross between edward gorey and gary larson... very good stuff.
I also happened to find a gallery of contemporary art... a real gallery with stuff for sale. It was alright. I saw a few things I thought were interesting... something I like about Chilean art is that it seems more political. It seems a bit heftier than argentinian art. Not that I should say yet though, I´ve seen very little of it.
There are military personel everywhere. It shouldn´t be to surprizing as there is a naval base in the area. The funny thing is that my guide book said that people aren´t allowed to take pictures of the navel boats. That is an odd and scary sort of comment. If I was standing on the shore and I didn´t take a picture, who would stop me? I´m not sure.
I do have one good shot of the harbor, sans military ships. But they are there, and they are quite impressive, I can count atleast 8 big ships.
I think I´ll do some more walking down by the ocean tonight.
peace
Kelly
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