Friday night, Laura and I first of all went to the Santiago Marathon expo, to get our shirts and numbers for the 10k we would run on sunday. We came back to her house, found out we did not get a Senior Apartment (but we're getting the next best room on campus so it's okay), and went out for dinner and a few drinks. We went to a little restaurant with traditional Chilean food which was so delicious. Laura got a typical dish called Pastel de Choclo which is like a corn, polenta-type caserole with chicken and vegetables. I got a stew with brisket, onion, potato, pumpkin, rice and corn on the cob. It was delicious and I would easily say that it was the best meal I've ever eaten. Laura also insisted that we get a traditional drink called Pisco Sour, which was also delicious and kind of like a margarita. Then we met one of Laura's friends from her program and went to a bar, had a drink and danced.
This is me, Laura and her friend Ryan. Don't know who the girl on the right is, she joined in my picture. Also clearly the person taking the picture was really tall.
'On Saturday after a brief run, Laura and I headed to the music festival called Lollapalooza. This is the first time it's happened outside of the US and it worked out so well that it was in Chile the same weekend I was. We'd ordered our tickets in advance but the willcall line was ridiculous. We had to wait in line for many hours, and actually had to miss the first few performers. People were getting really upset and the police showed up on horses and with fences in case a riot started. Things didn't actually get riotous but it came close. Luckily we got out tickets after only 3 hours of waiting, unlike some people who waited 5 or 6. All this because we cut the line!
Here's the tiny willcall tent with people storming, and me "being happy" waiting in line for a long time, and the fences surrounding the tent after we finally got out of there:
The concert was really really fun, and we didn't miss the big acts. We saw Ben Harper, and lay in the grass and napped during the soothing music of the National, and danced to the Killers. I won't put pictures of that up here but they're all on my facebook.
Sunday was super fun. We woke up extremely tired from being out the last two nights, but made it to the start of the race. There was an impressive amount of people there, especially since you never see anyone in South America running normally. Laura and I just ran the 10k, but there was a half marathon and full marathon, and there were 20,000 people. This used to be a very small race, and while it still is, it got much bigger this year because the marathon course can be used to qualify for the Olympic Trials. Laura and I had a goal to break 1 hour in the 10k (6.2) which we figured we should be able to do in our sleep. However, because there were so many people and the streets were not that wide, we hit 3k (less than 2 miles) in 20 minutes, meaning that we were going at a snail's pace. Side note: my favorite word in spanish is caracolear which means to move like a snail. Caracol = snail. That's what Laura and I were. But we ran along this really nice park and the "river" Maipú which is more like a stream and at the 5k started to speed up a little bit. I didn't see the km markers after that but we finished in 54-something, thinking that we still had another km to go. In retrospect we could have gone a lot faster but we beat our goal and had lots of fun so there's nothing to complain about.
Here, Laura puts on her game face:
Us after we cross the finish line:
After finishing we followed the crowds to where the food and drinks were. We got Gatorade, fruits and yogurts. The marathon was part of an initiative to get the citizens of Santiago to be healthier, and so they were handing out stickets that say "Elegit vivir sano," or choose to live healthy. I asked the woman for another one, and because I definitely did not sound Chilean (people did tell me I sounded Argentine while I was here), she asked if she could interview Laura and me as foreigners about our experience. We said yes and next thing we know we're talking to the ministers of tourism and health with a CNN Chile microphone in our faces! Unforunately I don't think our clip was used on tv, so I don't have a link to what we said, but I did snag a picture of the reporter and camera man!
After the interview and watching 3 Kenyan men finish in a row to win the marathon, Laura and I headed back to her house to shower and change. She headed back to Lollapalooza to see Kanye West and other performances, and I went on to snap a picture of the Santiago skyline from her window, see my friend Scott from my Birthright trip (Scott is working in La Serena, a city north of Santiago), and do some touring on my own.
I was then left to my own devices (and Laura's Chile guidebook) to explore the city. I climbed a hill/fortress and took in some sun and more of the bizzare Santiago landscape--urban sky scrapers and the serene Andes mountains. Then I headed over to La Chascona, one of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda's three houses. The movie Il Postino takes place here about him. I wasn't able to go inside but I was happy enough to see the unique architecture of the outside. I then hit up the Museo de Bellas Artes, which is known for its poor collection of Chilean fine art. I totally concur with that statement. There was some interesting art but it was mostly 20th century and not "fine" by the definition that it is not modern art. There were some good exhibits though and it was free, so I am definitely not complaining. What was more fun was sitting on the steps of the museum watching a mime in the street and a bizarre dance/theater group putting on mini acts in the crosswalk when the light turned red. After this I treated myself to a nice Peruvian dinner of steak, veggies and potatos, a glass of red wine and chocolate soufflé with mint ice cream while doing some reading.
The city is fairly smoggy, but the mountains are definitely there in the background:
On Monday, I got to check out the Catholic university that Laura attends, and while she was in class, I went running. Then we went to the museum under La Moneda and saw some great and varied Chilean and American art, then we went to the market, I bought some aladin pants which are all the rage in South America and Israel (basically not in the US), we had some ice cream and I headed to the airport. Even that was exciting because there was a Dunkin Donuts and I got a coffee coolata! Ive been missing my iced caramel lattes terribly.
All in all, I had a wonderful weekend in Chile. I'm so glad I went, especially because I now have two pages of my passport completely filled in! On to uruguay for the next stamp...
Laura and I took an equal number of pictures on our cameras, and it turned out that I had all the serious, nice looking ones, and she has all the goofy ones, so once she posts her pictures (AHEM) check back to see how many funny faces I made!
Atlantic to Pacific,
Rachel
jajaja me encanta!!!!!!! That weekend was soo fun and I can't wait to come visit you in BA! And I'm putting up my pictures now haha don't worry.
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