Well everyone, Hannah and I have arrived. We've been in South America for about a week now, and we've discovered just a couple of things about our time here. For one, 10 hour plane rides are the worst. I'm pretty sure that none of us got any sleep on the plane. We arrived in Santiago sleepy, grumpy and hungry. Lucky for us, our taxi driver plowed through our lack of spanish, and was possibly the best tour guide we may ever have. The three things I was able to pull from his conversation:
1. the neighbor hood Renca la Lleva has a lot of unsatisfied youths, who don't like the name of the neighborhood
2. after dark, all the neighborhoods are dangerous for gringas
3. go to the plaza de armas for tourist things.
Also we've discovered that our spanish skills may be quite a but rusty. It's been frustrating trying to figure out all the words and have conversations with people, but most people are patient. We've come to appreciate the simple things in life. Being able to figure out the simple things, is difficult without knowing the language intimately. We've been getting better at it, but sometimes the frustration gets the best of it. I suggest a good cry to sort it all out. Below is an example of ill translation at it's finest.
It was a good try..... really what is the difference between get and make?
Anyways after checking in and a nap we explored the "bohemian neighborhood" of Patio Bellavista. It had a bunch of nice shops and neighborhoods. Now, what I have to tell you is that the Latin American definition of bohemian and the US version are different.
Bohemian in US: free love, hippy style elton john
Bohemian in Latin America: rich yuppies and modern bars.
We also traveled up to see the statue that overlooks the valley in Santiago We went on the funicular, which is a 100 year old cog rail type thing. There were very pretty views of the city and it's definitely worth doing. We also went to Pablo Neurda's third lover's house, La Chascona! That was really interesting and we learned a lot. Later we had dinner in the Lastaria neighborhood at a really great italian restaurant. Chileans have an interesting view on Italian, it's.... hard to describe.
The next day we went to Buenos Aires. Our plane was at 1:00, or at least we thought it was at one. What that really meant in Latin American translation was, we will board the plane, when we feel like it. Our plane finally left at 2pm and we made it to Buenos Aires. The culture of the city, is definitely like the "Paris of the South" and we enjoyed such restaurants as La Cabrera and Geronimo. Argentinians really know how to do their meat! We took Buenos Aires by storm and saw El Teatro Colon, the obelisk, La Casa Rosada, we walked down Defenda, toured El Zanjhon, el Cemetario Recoleta, and had the best gelato on Los Estado Unidos.
Feelings about the Cemetario, it was creepy!
All about flat stanley loving!
Lastly we went to the park of the infamous John Shea kidnapping story. If you've ever met my mother, she'll have told you this story, not once, but probably about 10,000 times. Once upon a time when I was 2 and John was 3, we lived in Buenos Aires. My mother would take us to La Plaza del Liberador de San Martin to play and frolick. This is also the place where my mother would learn some spanish and one of the things the locals told her, was to keep a good eye on John. Apparently his ginger locks of silky hair made him attractive to kidnappers. One day at said park, my mother looked around and there was no John to be found. She thought he had been taken and in a fit of emotion panicked and ended up crying on a bench. Not two minute later did that little rascal John pop out of a bush and say "don't cry mommy, I is just hiding" THAT JOKESTER. So in remembrance of this family story etched into the Shea family minds, here is a picture of said park for all to see.
I think Hannah is in love with Buenos Aires, something to do with the trees. I'm working on her love for Santiago. I think we just need it to grow on her. She's not used to the mountains.
Now we are finally back in Santiago, we had the best Peruvian food ever tonight at La Mar. (Picture Below) It's summer, here, which makes me so happy, but even Hannah thinks it's hot. Tomorrow, there's more adventure to be found, and friday we're moving in with our host mom Mirta! I'll let Hannah tell you about how it went when we first met her! Hasta Luego!
