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Published: March 5th 2020
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Nochebuena Sunset in Zapallar
Sunsets pair well with Ice Cream It’s summer in Chile, and that means Santiago drains of people and everyone heads off for summer vacation. Traffic is lighter and the city is quiet. Everyday is sunny and 30-35, every Sunday includes an afternoon BBQ at your friend’s (including lots of wine) and really, my favourite, most evenings include sitting out on our terrazza and enjoying the beautiful Santiago summer nights.
This also means that the protestors, politicians and maybe police have all gone on vacation too, as despite the ongoing turmoil in the country, there has been relatively little protesting going on, except for the usual Friday night shenanigans in Plaza Italia/Dignidad that have been ongoing since the social crisis started in October. It is however, still on everyone’s mind, as right now there is a lot of anticipation for the return to work/school in March, when things look likely to flare up again…at least if you ask, well, anybody in Chile...including the Uber drivers. And as soon as you start into a conversation with any Uber driver, the talk first turns to asking where we are from (what, you mean my Spanish has an accent…quelle surprise!), and eventually to, what do you think about what is
Christmas in Zapallar
Look at all the hosers who dropped in to celebrate happening in Chile. And while I do enjoy espousing the bastion of equality that is Canada, including discussing our public health care system, and I do sympathize with the plight of the Chileans who are fighting for more, I don’t know if I can go through another Uber ride while having to have that conversation…I might just record myself talking about it, and then I can just replay it for every Uber driver. And while I am also very animated about the situation when I am drunk on my way home from a night out, and more talkative to my Uber driver, when I am driving up to my mansion in my nice neighbourhood while telling the driver to “keep up the good fight”, I do feel somewhat hypocritical. “I feel your pain brother, now time for me to go for a swim! Ciao!”. I slipped the last guy 5 lucas (5,000 pesos, or about $10) the last time I got dropped off at home because I felt like such a cuico piece of sh*t for telling this guy that hey, I’m totally down with the cause, keep up the good fight…then realized I was home, in front of my
Feliz Navidad...
...mostly to Maelle's hair house with the pool and electrified Jurassic Park fence designed to keep all the flayte’s out…anyway, March is supposed to be wild, so I assume I will be having this Uber conversation more, or maybe I’ll just stay behind the electrified fence and avoid it altogether.
In the meantime though, it has been a beautiful summer. We had family visit for Christmas as my sister and her family along with my parents made their way down for a Chilean Christmas. It’s interesting to watch people go through the, for lack of a better term, culture shock that I went through a year and a half ago and is now mostly forgotten. “Hey Steve, why is this like this?” they would ask. “I dunno, this is Chile, it just is that way” I would say. You don’t realize how quickly you adapt to the way things are, and eventually accept them, good and bad, and move on (on most things anyway). Regardless, after arriving on December 19, we all left the next day for a week in Zapallar, about two hours west of Santiago. We rented an incredible place right on the Pacific, on these rocky bluffs above the crashing
Pacific. This place was a bit of a dream to be honest. Since one pool wasn’t good enough, there was also a second heated pool downstairs, since it can be chilly on the coast (it’s about 10-15 degrees colder during the day on the Chilean coast than it is in Santiago during the summer, which can be a nice break from the 30-35 degree heat). The house was built around a massive great room with 10 foot tall windows looking out to the Ocean. And having all the kids together for Christmas, really made it magical, particularly with the two five year old girls, for which Christmas is absolutely right in their wheelhouse. They explained many things about Santa that I did not know, including about his elves and how they made gifts. As the sun went down on Christmas Eve, we spotted a vapor trail off in the distance, and said “Oh my gosh, that must be Santa going to deliver presents!”, and I thought Zoe and Annabel’s heads were going to explode. They grabbed the binoculars and said “that’s him, that’s really him” and then plotted on how they could stay up and catch him delivering the presents…oh no we said, Santa won’t come unless you fall asleep…which they did fairly promptly after they were tucked in, which gave us time to begin the customary midnight present wrapping extravaganza! Anyway, between the house, the nearby beaches, the nightly fresh fish and seafood barbeques, and a Christmas with four young cousins together, it will be a memory that I will absolutely cherish. Kids sure do bring back the magic to Christmas.
After returning from the coast and spending a second week sweating it out and seeing the sights of Santiago, including a lovely walk down to the warzone that is Plaza Italia (what happened to all the traffic lights?), all the guests returned to Canada, and the house was left eerily quiet. And slowly life returned to routine, and while we have had no big trips this summer, we have spent our time between the coast, the city, and the wineries in between, and I’ll tell you, there is nothing wrong with spending a Santiago summer like that…oh look, 30 and sunny again, great, let’s hit the pool! If our kids aren’t swimming champions by the end of our time here, well, I’ll probably be ok, but you know…I guess it would be nice if they were.
Anyway, watch the news in March though as things might start to get crazy here again…who knows, maybe the prognosticators are right, but for the sake of me and my future Uber rides, let’s hope they’re wrong.
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