Santiago was absolutely wonderful. More modern than Buenos Aires, the city has one of the best subways I have ever been on. Much cleaner and more modern subway cars than Boston or New York. One of the most breathtaking aspects of Santiago is its location in the middle of the Andes. We took a furnicular train up Cerro San Cristobal to take in a bird's eye view of the city.
A bit thirsty from the walk around the top of the hill, we got something to drink. Ryan got Mote (not to be confused with máte), which is this ridiculously sweet concoction of grains, apricots and apricot juice -- what a sugar buzz.
After grabbing a delicious churrasco sandwich with avocados (the meat reminded me of gyros, yum!), we headed to La Chascona, one of Pablo Neruda's three homes in Chile. The best way to describe Pablo Neruda is a rockstar poet. Neruda won the noble prize in literature in 1971. Neruda was extremely eccentric and a lover of architecture, so his homes in Chile were converted into museums. I wish I was friends with Neruda. This guy was friends with most famous Latin American writers and artists -- Pablo Picasso and Diego Rivera were his drinking buddies. We saw artworks that were made just as gifts from Picasso and Rivera for Neruda. He was also a big collector of funky junk and one of his famous collections is paintings of watermelons. Seriously, too cool.
In the evening we met Mallika and had dinner with her host family. What a fun night! We were offered pisco, a grape liquor common in Chile and Peru. It tasted somewhere in between vodka and rum -- pretty good with coke (that is called a piscola). The conversation over dinner was terrific (so was the dinner -- they made fajitas!) because it covered such a wide range of topics. We discussed differences between Chile and Argentina, such as people and even slang/curse words. We also got to learn more about Mallika's host mom's tango school and their family. I love how willing to share people are in South America! Here is Pramod and I with Mallika's host parents and sister.
After dinner we met up with a lot of other Harvard kids who are doing programs in Chile this summer. We went to an Irish pub (there is a lot of British influence) and then to a club. Nightlife in Chile is far less intense than Argentina. Chilean dance halls close at 4 am not 8 am like in Argentina. I guess in Chile, people understand that nightlife should really just be during the night.
Deciding to not go to sleep that night (or really the two hours before we needed to be up anyway), we got ready for our early morning 21-hour bus ride back to Buenos Aires. This conference/vacation in Mendoza and Chile was absolutely fantastic. Not only were all the places we visited gorgeous and activities we did tons of fun, but the vast array of interesting people we met on this trip really added value to our travels. I left feeling like I had truly experienced life as a backpacker meeting and chatting with fellow travelers. While we could have been more comfortable in a hotel, living in a hostel allowed us to get to know more people and share our adventures!
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