Blogs from Viña del Mar, Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 5

I LOVE my Chilean family the Olivares. When I first walked in their house they had a banner hanging that said ¡Bienvenidos Brenna! in the colors of the Chilean flag accompanied by balloons and an exquisite bouquet of flowers. I live with mi mama Edita, mi abuela Ana y mi hermano Rodrigo. They are all incredibly kind and speak no english, except for Rodrigo who knows a few random words. My room is very small but has everything I could need. They also have a dog named Donna and a water turtle left from a past student named peanut butter (la mataquilla de mina, is very rare and expensive here). Edita also gave me a cell phone left from a past student, ¡es perfecto! They feed me three meals a day and each one is delicious! ... read more

So we did indeed go to the club and boy was it a wild night. It was Aldo’s birthday and he wanted to buy a bottle himself but I told him that I don’t care how they do it in France, when it’s a man’s birthday he doesn’t buy his own drinks so I tossed the old Bank of America Platinum Black card down with some serious buying power and we proceeded to dance the night away. I try to watch my money while travelling but as Mattcam put it, that’s just a reckless disregard for my money which is so true. There were a lot of really hot girls at this club and we were in VIP so I figured that we’d be able to talk to some of them or at least make some ... read more

Por muchas razones ya queríamos llegar a Chile, mencionaré dos. Uno. Varias semanas antes de llegar a Chile se nos dijo que por ninguna razón, motivo o circunstancia nos atreviéramos a seducir a un policía con las famosas 'mordidas' o 'coimas' ya que son bastante derechos. Como ésta virtud brilló por su ausencia en la mayor parte del viaje por parte de los servidores policías, ya queríamos circular en un lugar donde al ser parados por la policía no sintiéramos la furia de ser robados de manera oficial. Todo cuanto escuchamos de la policía o mejor dicho carabineros fue más que cierto. Dos. En Chile visitaríamos la última misión por parte de MTW (mission to the word (misión al mundo)) y eso significa que llegamos a la curva final del viaje, lo cual me emociona bastante; ... read more

WARNING. THE FOLLOWING ENTRY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, HOWEVER THE EVENTS THAT TOOK PLACE WERE FAR TOO FUNNY TO OMIT FROM THE BLOG. Apparently, The most dangerous thing to watch out for in Chile are spiders, in . The Two to watch out for are the black widow which is commonly known worldwide but the real nasty bugger is the Chilean recluse. its bites cause renal failure, fever and eventual death. They live INSIDE dweelings and in bedsheets so shaking out cloths is a must! Im getting renal failure thinking of them! Bear in mind a south american spiders you can smash off a limb with your copy of rugby world and they are still 86% combat effective. heres a tip, use your big heavy copy of Lonely planet and put em down for ... read more

Right, no internets for the past few days so its catchup time. Im going to post the first Vino Entry up here and the second tomorrow... I'm walking around town carrying a packet of dried dogfood. Niamh has taken it upon herself to feed every stray dog in Vina del Mar. One of the things that strikes you about South American cities that there are dozens upon dozens of stray dogs wandering around. The Latino tradition of machismo extends right down to the animals and the concept of chopping off the wandering dogs plumbing is seen as a big no no. You'll see dogs swill sunning themselves on the shopping streets, whole packs lying out in public parks and should you make eye contact with one it will potter along after you hoping to score a ... read more