Dar Gracias

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope this blog entry finds you well, pleasantly stuffed and enjoying the company of family. Although I miss you all and wish I could be there enjoying the day, I have a lot to be thankful for down here in Chile. So while I should be working on homework before heading off for the weekend, I thought I’d share some fun things I’m thankful for:

Some Puerto Montt Fun Moments You might have missed:
- The elation of climbing along the cloud-shrouded, snowy side of Volcano Orsono to come out the other end with the sun in our faces and a incredible vista of Lago de Todos los Santos and the towering glaciers around its edges its most edmerald colored waters.
- Peulla and the petting zoo/animal Safari. Simply ridiculous.
- On the tourist boatride across Lake Llanquihue, I ran into an Irish guy I met while staying in Bellavista my first two days in Santiago. He was crossing over from Bariloche, Argentina. Verdadamente, un mundo chico. We went out for drinks later that night and said farewell and cheerio once again as he faded off into the night like so many other acquaintances I’ve met along the way.
- Before departing for the airport, Helen and Peter Bing financed a lunch in the small, quaint-as-hell town of Frutillar. Around the mid 19th century the Chilean government was having too much trouble putting down indigenous Mapuche resistence, so they imported a bunch of German farmers. Those eficient immigrants got to work and settled the southern lake district with gusto, cutesy archectecture, waterwheels, tourist black smith shops, chocolate, pristine landscaping, and a yearly classical music festival. Walking by the waterfront passing the Black Forrest style bungalos, I couldn’t help humming Edel Weis…you look so happy to see me.

Thursday, I got an email from my Irish friend telling me he was in Santiago once again and that we should go out for drinks. We did. It was fun. We are currently facebook friends, and I’ll be damned if I don’t make it too his lovely rolling green hill nation sometime soon.

Friday marked the month count down until I leave Santiago on December 16th. I celebrated it by going out for lunch with a friend to a neighborhood I’d never been before (Barrio Brasil home of University students and palm lined streets where the only thing for sale is used car parts) and feeling slightly depressed that I’m going to leave with a lot of neighborhoods like this unexplored. I decided before I leave I’m going to spend a day riding to the final stops of the metro lines, getting out, looking around, and feeling like I know Santiago a little bit better.
That night I went with some friends to a place called El Tunel. It’s a discoteque that used to be a subterranean strip club. It’s bad news… but a lot of fun.

Saturday, I forced myself out of bed with the strange memories of a strange night floating around my head to do something productive, or atleast worthwhile. I walked around the city and discovered a lovely new park and then went to El Museo de Artes Visuales in Barrio Lastarria, where I saw the exhibit of Chilean sculpture Pancha Núñez. She makes these huge mixed media sculptures with bright colors and whimsical source material. Worth a google image search. That night friends and I went to go see a play by Chilean university students about the war in Iraq. It was the first time in awhile I’d even thought about the war. How strange to see a Chilean take on a great American travesty. It certainly wasn’t pretty.

I feel the weight of the count down until I leave. I feel glad to be heading into the Andes to Mendoza tonight (Argentina’s wine country) with my friend Eva Dehlinger (as in Dehlinger winery in Sonoma county, Dehlinger) and then to Valparaiso the seaside city of central Chile next weekend. But I wish I had more weekends like this past one to enjoy the simple life of a Santiaguiño, late lunches with the family, strolls through the parks, free musuems on Sundays, hopping discoteques and with a free piscola upon entrance, and plenty of reasons to avoid doing homework.

Happy Turkey Day!