After a solid breakfast of bread, fruit, and coffee, our two-car crew headed inland for the day. On the way we stopped at a beautiful reservoir, Embalse Puclaro, for a photo op, then continued on to the town of Vicuña. Once in town, we took a tour of the Gabriela Mistral museum, which inside was relatively boring, but it had an amazing garden in it's back lot that was incredibly peaceful. Following a slow walk through the town, we got back in the cars and continued our drive out to the Valle de Elqui.
This valley has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. It is covered with miles upon miles of grape vines, sadly not dedicated to the production of wine, but of pisco. While it is tough to find pisco in the United States, and even if you do it is quite expensive, it is certainly the liquor of choice in Chile. There are numerous brands and strengths...I think of it as the Chilean equivalent of Mexican tequila, but you can mix it with coke (piscola) or combine with sweet and sour (pisco sour) or papaya juice as we discovered later in the day to make a "Serena Sour." The vistas were simply incredibly as we drove along the windy road through the valley.
We eventually got deep into the valley to the town of Pisco Elqui, where we stopped to have a classic Chilean lunch followed by a tour of the Mistral pisco factory. The tour guide did not have the best voice for tours, but the factory had amazing architecture and it was interesting to learn about the whole process. Following the tour, we drove back out the valley which was twice as pretty as when we entered, with the sun going down, shining on the hillsides.
On our way back to La Serena, we stopped at a family friend's house of the host brother of Finn, Alejandro Ramirez, whose cousin is Norma Ramirez, an incredibly talented artist. She is married to a Mexican artist, Luis Gastélum, and we were very lucky to stop by their place for drinks, snacks, and a chat. Their house is amazing, walls and floors made of mosaic, and their located right next to a river that you can hear from the inside of the house. Norma helped a group of artists design many of the projects that are in the Parque de Paz in Villa Grimaldi and is currently doing various exhibitions here in Chile.
The following morning, I left early with Finn and his parents on a drive back to Santiago. This drive was gorgeous as well. It reminded me a lot of Southern California with the coastal vegetation, but also very different since there are views of the Andes mountains in site as well. The area is also much less populated, but every so often there are small resort resort communities near the beach. At one point on the way back, Finn's mother decided that she wanted to show Finn and I this town that her and her and her husband had discovered earlier in the week while looking for a place they could play tennis. The town, Zapallar.
This place was remarkable. Green and lush, Zapallar is a small bay inhabited by upper-class Chileans and used as a weekend getaway destination. With very little roads, the town is made of mostly of walking trails. On one end of the bay, there is a rock mountain with a single tree situated on top, quite picturesque. We walked through the entire town in fifteen minutes, and then sat down for seafood appetizers as a quick break in between our ride home. Too bad Zapallar isn't enjoyed by everyone in Chile, only the privileged, but I guess I can understand why with it's size and limited housing. Still, quite a magical place.
Once back in Santiago, I stopped by Bar Basic to find out the situation with my new job. The owners said they wanted me to come in the next day for some training. What I did not realize was that this training was as a bartender; I thought I was going to be a server. Well, turns out I am happier as a bartender since it is something I haven't done before and I get to practice my Spanish with the Chilean servers as they request drinks. I'll be working there 2 days a week, Sundays and Mondays, which works out great cause I am usually in there every Sunday anyways and now I get to get paid. The salary is 2 dollars an hour, but I get all the tips from people who sit at the bar, as well as 30% of the tips from the regular tables. Comes out to a decent rate, especially by Chilean standards.
Wednesday was the date of the big game, Argentina v Chile. Since two of Argentina's best players, Juan Román Riquelme, Carlos Tevez, were both suspended after receiving red cards in their previous match against Uruguay, the match up was more favorable than it could have been, but most Chileans still figured Argentina and their infinite supply of futbol talent would be able to pull off the win. This is especially true since Chile has not beaten Argentina in any sort of futbol match in 30 years, and never in a FIFA-official match. This all changed on Wednesday night, as Chile won 1-0, with a fantastic goal by a 22 year old striker, Fabian Orellana with only 7 national game appearances. After the match was over, 3,000 people got together in celebration downtown. In addition, Argentina's coach, Alfio Basile, quit following the loss. Chile is now tied with Argentina for 3rd in the South America group in qualifying for World Cup 2010 in South Africa, and does not play another qualifying match until March of 2009.
On Thursday of this past week, I turned in an essay for my Gringo 101 class, the second of three essays and once again it had a free topic based on what we had learned over the past couple weeks. I chose to write mine on how a social democracy is the best system for Chile when compared to the political-economic systems of the past 30 years. Eh.
Not too much else is going on in my world down here. I got work tonight and tomorrow, and municipal elections are coming up here in Chile. These are a big deal for the country since depending how each municipality votes, it will determine which candidate "La Concertacion" or the group of leftists parties, will select to run against conservative Sebastián Piñera. There are posters covering every street corner, while political aides hand out flyers to passer-byers.
I am currently looking up some options for a weekend fishing trip somewhere down south for the second week of November, but prices are looking a bit steep at the moment. It is so strange to think that it is practically the end of October already. The countdown till the end of the program has begun, but I don't want it to end. Wish I had the time to do so much more, but I also understand I am here to study. I don't need to lament, I am sure I'll be back.
->I'll be posting more pictures from the weekend within the next couple days. I am waiting on my buddies to give me copies.
