Valparaiso

Bay of Valparaiso
(There was a huge forest fire nearby, hence the smog in the sky>

My first "this isn't Korea moment" happened on day two of my time in Chile. I woke up on Thursday morning at my hostel in Santiago and I assumed I could reserve a bed again at 11:30 am. I was informed the hostel was full and check out was at 12 noon. Instead of trying to find a new hostel during a busy weekend, Alex and I decided to leave Santiago for a few days.

We took a two-hour bus ride from Santiago to Valparaiso. Upon arrival, we met a Chilean girl who gave us directions to our hostel on the other side of town. We got the city bus, as instructed, and headed towards our stop. A man on the bus told us where to get off, but before we got off, in English, he said "dangerous" as he pointed towards an up-hill alley. We decided it would be best to take a taxi up the hill since we didn't know the exact location of the hostel. Somehow, our taxi driver drove us over 3 kilometers back towards the bus station before I asked him "Donde va?" (Where you going!?) Luckily, we were able to find the hostel number on facebook and called to get directions.

Our weekend in Valparaiso was spent bothering the receptionists at the hostel (like 90% Alex), wandering through the streets, looking at the architecture and street art, and throwing the frisbee at every plaza or park that we came across. Valparaiso, located on the east coast of Chile, is a port city with lots of rolling hills and great views. It has many small, winding streets that reminded me of walking through Granada in Spain. Many walls and buildings in the streets had been painted over or tagged with graffiti. Below are some of the highlights of the street art that we saw.

I found 사랑 (love/amor) in Chile!

Street art in Valpo

More street art

We also made some new friends. First, we met a Korean girl from Seoul travelling through South America. Her English, Korean and Spanish were all better than ours. At the hostel, one of our roommates asked us for toothpaste, so naturally, I asked if we could follow her and her friends for the day. They were Chilean and they took us to an art museum and taught us a few phrases in Spanish. We went to a park where we eventually won them over with our sweet frisbee throws. At night, we ate dinner together and they introduced us to the joys of a Chilean alcohol called Pisco.

New amigos (friends)

So far we had traveled to two cities in Chile, Santiago and Valparaiso. Our next trip would be a short bus ride over to Vina del Mar (vineyard of the sea) which you can see in the top picture, it's the city across the bay with the beach in front of it.

Santiago: First Day and Food

I arrived in Santiago, Chile on Wednesday, March 11. The first thing I noticed was everything is expensive. It was $30 USD for a taxi from the airport. Do you want to sit down at a restaurant and eat? It will be a minimum of $8 USD with a 10% tip. Sadly, I have not found a kimbapchunguk (김밥천국) in Chile.

I arrived in Santiago around 9 am and I spent my first day walking through the city center looking for food and looking at the different shops and plazas (public parks). After the jet lag began to hit me, I took a nap (the first siesta). Later, I met my friend Alex, another teacher from Busan in Korea. Of course, on our first night in Santiago, we went to a frisbee practice. The team is called Blue Wings and a lot of the team's players are from Venezuela. Although we liked the team, we can not play with them due to a conflict with our work schedules.

After frisbee practice, we walked through the city center to look for food. Ironically, it seems like hot dogs and hamburgers are the national food here--and empanadas, of course. The hot dogs are called "completos" and the hamburgers are called "lomitos". Below are photos and descriptions of the food I usually eat at restaurants in Chile. Next time, I'll write about my trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.

Empanada: Baked bread filled with various ingredients such as cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables.

Lomito: Hamburger bun filled with sliced pork, guacamole (avocado), tomato, sauerkraut (fermented cabbage) and mayonnaise.
Completo: Hot dog with guacamole, tomato and mayonnaise.
French Fries: Pretty good when warm.