¡Dieciochado! ¿Me chacay?

Buenos dias uno y todos,

Once again broadcasting from the heart of Chile, this is Elvagabundonumerouno from Valparaiso. Well, I can honestly say that I´ve never had 5 straight days of such fast, innocent and endearing fun as I have in the past "working week". That your trust should not waiver, I must clarify that the past 5 days were anything but a working week for nearly every Chilean, save the Microbus, Taxi and Collectivo drivers, a handful of locales (small corner stores) owners, tv and radio announcers, high-class pyrotechnics engineers and probably a few more overachieving enterprises that I´ve forgotten. I think I´ve mentioned before that the 18th is Chile´s Independence Day. And at an even 200 years since shrugging off the Spanish Crown´s dominion, El Bicentenario absolutely dwarfed any 4th of July celebration I´ve ever seen. Just today, I saw a television commercial advertising some bank card, that went something along the lines of, "Let´s imagine Chile without its freedom¨. Cut to scene with cartoon characters, all adorning mustaches and goatees (to mimic the Spaniards), with an official sitting behind a desk that says,"In the name of the Crown we must do something-or-rather. Long live the Queen!" The other mustached cartoon characters unenthusiastically agree, followed by a narrator that says, "But 200 years of freedom is more fun", cut to scene with clearly noticeable bare-faced cartoon characters enjoying themselves in a backyard at an asado (barbeque). With all the schools, universities, and most professions on holiday, we proceeded to carretear (partake in fiestas) with the best of ´em.

Arriving in Santiago at 4:30 in the morning, I picked up my mochila grande from the baggage claim with a relieved feeling, thinking that, if my backpack can make it through LA and Bogota, maybe I can too someday. I proceeded through customs, paying the $140 USD repatraition fee that the U.S. charges Chileans to enter "the homeland", I say bollocks to that prideful and nationalcentric term, and vice versa. I dutifully declared the plant material that I had in my pocket, but the officials seemed unconcerned at my bag of Spitz sunflower seeds. I then changed the $85 USD that I had in my wallet into Chilean pesos. To give you an idea, right now about 500 pesos is equal to $1 dollar. A 20 minute busride from Valparaiso to Viña del Mar costs about 350 Chilean pesos, to take the Metro (a much quicker and more comfortable way to travel between the two cities) costs about 400-450 pesos. A 1 litre beer is anywhere from 1,200-2,000 and I payed 2,500 pesos for a plain cheeseburger and fries. A more typical Chilean food, the empanada de pino costs about 700-800 pesos. My friend Kristin described pino the best, as "beef stew with eggs and olives inside of (leak proof) bread. Parenthesis my own.

Possibly factored into the cost of living, but absolutely priceless is the sheer beauty of this place. Palm trees, smooth and sandy beaches, dunes, high rise apartment and office buildings, naval and transportation ships moored in the bay, immaculate sunsets, not to mention the Chilean women all currently compose my definition of absolute beauty. Most of the Chilenas I have met thus far are warm and friendly, with a slight fascination for gringos and the U.S. culture. With long, flowing, dark hair and eyes to match, most of them don´t seem to experience the obesity problem that plagues countries like Australia and the U.S. If I know that looks are important to me, but not by any means the whole kit ´n caboodle, and proclaim it thus for all you folks out there in tv and radio land, that still makes me shallow huh?

Yesterday we went to the sand dunes in a town just north of Viña called Reñaca. Thats Wren-yah-cah amigos. A couple of other groups of friends from Western, one group studying in Valdivia that included my former next-door neighbor, Marie, and another group that included a friend from the Ham, Laura all met up out at las dunas. We rented a sandboard at the going rate of 3,000 pesos, or $6 dollars per hour. It wasn´t until a Chilean dude, who strangely introduced himself as Clayton as well, gave us a small thing of candle wax (vela) did the sport kick into high gear. It was flippin´ sweet riding that board down the enormous hills of sand, and it didn´t hurt when you crashed! Unlike longboarding. Hang ten broseph!

El dieciocho, or the 18th, was Chile´s actual Independence Day, although, as I stated earlier, the festivities spread themselves nicely out over 5 or so days. Krisitin and her host mom, Antonieta and I went shopping the day before at a flippin´ huge supermercado, properly entitled "Jumbo". There were seriously about 4 floors of parking garage below an enormous warehouse filled with all sorts of groceries and house-hold necessities. What a better way to celebrate 200 years of freedom than with a back patio family asado (BBQ). Choripanes (chorizo sausage in a bun) topped with pebre (a suped up Chilean version of pico de gallo sauce), vacuna (baby cow), asparragus, pasta salad, chips, pickles and more were all among the delacies served at our asado familiar. Fancha (beer and orange Fanta soda), some amazing Chilean wine, and pisco (a type of hard alcohol made from grapes) graced my pallate to wash it all down. These liquids also catalyzed a sweet musical session consisting of two guitaristas, myself and another very talented Chileno, playing and singing songs by Creedence, John Denver and other Cuico (a style of music typical in Chile) songs in the living room. I tell ya´ what, we sounded darn good after a couple fanchas, vasos de vino and piscos.

I am presently staying in a pension owned by Kristin´s boyfrien Ian´s fmaily in Valparaiso. Now that may sound like a friend´s sister´s childhood dog´s grandmother story, but I am absolutely honored to call these people and other Chileans I have met my new friends. It was extremely gracious of Antonieta to put me up in her house for a few nights, serve me salmon and rice dinners and basically take me in as one of her own. But, I figured that it was time to find a place of my own and start pulling my own weight, at least a little. So I took Ian up on his offer to stay in a little windowless room in his family´s pension for around $160 dollars a month. Not bad at all considering it comes with a shared kitchen, baño, washing machine and a television set with just about any channel you can imagine. Not that I am going to be watching the accursed box too awful much, but it is nice to tune into an episode of Friends or Simpsons every once in awhile.

Needless to say, it´s goodtimes down here in Chile. Today everyone had to get back to the grindstone and I am doing somewhat of the same. Time to buy some groceries and seek out something meaningful to do with my time, either a job or a volunteer opportunity.

Long-winded? Yes. Necessary? Maybe not. But from the South to the North, on up that good ol´ Pacific Coast, this is Elvagabundonumerouno signing off. PEACE!