Viña del Mar

Okay so! Viña del Mar and Valparaiso. It was an amazing weekend!

So originally, we wanted to leave on Friday night, get there around 10 pm, drop our stuff off at the hostel, and then go out for the night.

Dana and Kylie were still living in their hostel in Viña, called El Jaguar, and there were about 10 or so of us coming from Santiago (Me, Hannah, Lizzi, Natalie and a guy named John all went together. Mike, Miller, Allen, Joe, and Kevin all went together, separate from us). I went online to make a reservation at their hostel and the website never confirmed my reservation. I didn't receive any kind of confirmation, and I tried calling and emailing them and they didn't answer. So with Noah's help we found another hostel nearby, in a really cool area of Viña, pretty much on the main strip.

We ended up getting to the bus station really late, and the tickets for the night were all sold out. So we went back to Lizzi's apartment, had some pasta and wine (exnay on the pasta for me :) ) and just hung out. We bought bus tickets for the next morning around 9 am. We all met at the bus station that morning  and took the hour and a half bus ride west to the the ocean. Arriving in Viña, around 11 am, I was immediately impressed. I thought, "Wow, I wish I lived here." It reminded me so much of southern California, and the ocean was there, so for me it was just a no brainer.

We walked around and went to the beach for a few hours. It was really nice and the weather is relatively mild. We were having trouble getting a hold of Dana and Kylie, but we eventually did around 8 pm and went to their hostel. All the other guys were there too, and apparently there were a bunch of empty rooms in the hostel we could've stayed in! If only they would've answered their phone... oh well.

When I saw Dana and Kylie again it was like a missing piece of me was back again. It sounds so silly but they are definitely two people I felt an immediate connection with and I was so happy to see them again. We drank wine, hung out at the hostel, Allen and Miller cooked some food (salad, grilled veggies, steak (none for me thanks!)) and it was a great time. The night reminded me a lot of what it is like to study abroad. You meet people and you bond with them almost immediately, and very deeply, because you're all in this boat together, no matter where or what background you came from. You're all still teaching English in Chile. It's a pretty cool thing.

All night Dana was talking about going to a salsa bar, and as it got later, I think people were thinking it wouldn't happen. But Dana was telling me all night that no matter how late it got, we were still going. So around 1 am, we left for the salsa bar.

Viña and Valpo are two different cities, but they are basically right on top of each other, so it takes about ten or fifteen minutes to get from one city to the other. The salsa bar was in Valpo, so we hopped a bus (there are literally hundreds of these little buses that will stop anywhere, on any street and just pick up people and take them from Viña to Valpo or the other way around. They swerve and speed down the roads and part of me felt a little unsafe on the way there, but it turned out okay! We arrived in one piece.

The salsa bar was super cool. To get in it was about 3,000 pesos, which is about $5, and that included one drink. We went in, I got a pisco with ginger ale, and we went upstairs to the dance floor. The bar was themed like a pirate ship, and had wooden blanks on the walls and cool wooden columns with ropes around them throughout. We danced a little salsa (well, I tried) but mostly enjoyed the music and each others company. I watched people couple up within the group or with random people on the dance floor. Some Chileans tried to hit on me and told me I had beautiful eyes, but once one of them asked me if I ate McDonalds every day (cause I'm American, so duh), I was like okkkkaaayyy no more. I danced with Lizzi and Dana, a little with Kylie (but she's also a gringa so that drew some attention) and met these really cool Argentinian girls. They were from Buenos Aires, and also staying in the same hostel as Dana and Kylie. They were so sweet and tried to teach me to salsa (I just don't have latina hips).

Around 5 am we headed home. I got into bed around 6 am and had to wake up by 9 to get the bus back to Santiago with Lizzi. It was overall a VERY fun trip and weekend, and I was sad it had only been one night with all of us together. I wish we could've spent the day at the beach all together too. But in the end I was was more tired, hungry and just feeling sick. I hadn't gotten good sleep since then, but I was still feeling pretty sad in the days leading up to Viña, so it was good for the soul. I felt uplifted and less alone and maybe like I'd start to be a little happier and more adjusted here.

Next post about my second week of classes, apartment options (help! I need advice!), and my second real weekend in Chile.

Besos,
Ally