¡Valparaíso:así me gusta!

Going to Valparaíso (the locals call it Valpo) was a great decision! It started with Manu picking me up from my hostel and having to cram myself into his mom's SUV with a awesome mix of 5 chileans and peruvians! Valpo is an hour and a half outside of Santiago on the Pacific coast. We met up with Peter and got to stay at his house, which is absolutely beautiful! Not only does Peter have the best roommate/landlord ever, but the house is on a hill that overlooks the ocean! After many hugs and kisses between everyone we went to the grocery store and Manu made us a fabulous dinner consisting of meat and rice with a delicious mushroom cream sauce. Manu, if you're reading this, you really should open up a restaurant...like NOW. Adriana and I helped a little, that cheese wasn't going to cut and put itself on the crackers! After dinner we hit the Pisco pretty hard and everyone (9 in total) went out to a club called 'Máscara,' which reminded me of a Chilean version of my old 'go to' bar in Boulder, 'Bacaro.' That night I used my favorite Chilean equation: Pisco + Keeley=dancing machine. After a few songs I was in my own little world, dancing like the little engine (or in my case Italian) that could. For the most part, I was dancing by myself! It could be that no one could keep up with my awesome rhythm/dance moves, but in reality no one wants to dance with 'elbows mcgee.' Although I may have failed the elbows part, it was an overall successful night because I didn't headbutt anyone (an embarrassing and painful move that I do more times than I like to admit...ooops!). We danced the night away and of course I had to hit up a late night food stand for a snacky-poo on the way back to Peter's house. I forget what it was called, but I had the most delicious meat sandwich with palta (avocado)...yum! Needless to say, I slept like a rock.

It definitely took awhile to get going the next day (technically the same day), but I got my shiz-nat together and Peter and I went out to eat lunch. Since Valpo is right on the water, we went to a seafood restaurant and ate like kings! We shared a crab empanada (wowza!), congridae (a nice white fish), and paila marina (a thin broth loaded with seafood/fish). Afterward we went on a wonderful stroll around Valparaíso with the lovely Lautaro. After walking around for three hours (mainly uphill....) I decided that we deserved a pastry and we stopped into a pastelería and bought a huge crema berlina that we had to immediately sit down and eat. I also made the boys go back to this cute wintery store where I bought an adorable black dressy coat (it has pleats-so cute!) for around $28 USD. That day I found out that was placed in Punta Arenas, the capital of the Magallanes region! Since I was scheduled to fly out of Santiago early Friday morning, I decided to leave Valpo Wednesday night so I could get all of my miscellaneous errands done on Thursday.

Thanks to everyone, especially Peter and Lautaro, for a great time in Valpo. I loved this city so much that I believe I am going to have to live there for at least a month after my program ends November 24th. I have been thinking about it and if I return to Colorado, I will have back-to-back winters.....no thanks! Besides, I need to send Sasha down here so she can pick out which dog she wants to be her Chilean brother/sister!

¡Muchos besos y abrazos!

Keeley : )

Next blog: My life at the end of the freaking world or help! I can't feel my legs!
I will also have my snapfish site updated with all of my photos for everyone to look through!

Pictures in this blog:
-Peter and I doing 'jumping' action shots
-the brightly colored houses of Valparaíso
-the pastelería where I bought the crema berlina (top left hand corner of the display case)....I told the employee that she was in my shot afterward and finally got a smile out of her!