Valparaiso
The road from Mendoza to Santiago was very beautiful. It went along the Aconcagua valley. The bus was going through snowed mountains, very slowly. At one point we were going down the hill in a zig-zag fashion. The view of the zig-zag was amazing. The famous zig-zag in San Francisco is nothing in comparison to that one.
I stayed in Santiago only one day. The city resembles Buenos Aires in architecture but has none of its charm and liveliness. Santiago seemed to me rather gloomy and sad. It looked neglected and dirty. Chile is the richest country in South America but this doesn't show in the standard of living. There are no cozy cafes, only fast food places and lots of McDonald's. I walked around the center and took a few buses to go around the city. I visited the cathedral which I didn't find impressive and the museum of precolumbian art which was very nice. It housed a temporary exibition entitled "The gold of Columbia" and the artefacts were very interesting. And so was the text accompanying the artefacts. It mostly had to do with shamanism of the tribes which lived (and some still live) in the present day Columbia. It talked about the tribal believes that man, animals, plants and spirits create the world in equal parts and pass from one being to another. The masks of pumas and other animals the shamans wear mark their temporary "change of skin" and transformation into another being. The change of skin represents a change, one of the many changes a being goes through during its lifetime (and lifetime means many lifes). I talked about the exhibition with the owner of the hostal in Valparaiso and he told me that in Yamana language there is no such thing as one word representing a certain object. For example "a tree" is represented by many words depending on a person's relationship to it such as a person's standing far from or near to the tree, underneath it, or if a person has climbed it, or sees it with leaves or not. In English I think we would have to say "aneartree" or "afartree", "atreeinsummer", "atreeinwinter", "atreeihaveclimed", etc. Isn't it amazing? They are the people who lived in caves and their only dress was the skin of vacuna in winter but they developed such amazing language which takes into consideration not only objects but also the relationship to it, the feeling one gets when experiencing it. I find more and more interesting what I learn about the indigenous cultures of South America. The exhibit included many details concerning shamanic rituals and indigeous cultures in general. It was the best part of Santiago. Otherwise it was gloomy... Chile is very expensive. The prices are NY prices. Coffee is $2. I think this makes Chileans gloomy - NY prices but low salaries. The hostal I stayed in in Santiago was $6 (the cheapest according to the guidebook) and it was very disgusting. The only reason I spent there the night was that I got sick again - some virus which totally knocked me out - and didn't have the strength to look for something else. It was by far the worst hostal I have ever seen. I like exposed brick and peeling paint but exposed cardboard and peeling wallpaper is ugly. Maggie if you think your bathroom is ugly you should see that one. You not only need flip-flops to get into the shower, you need an airproof suit like the one used by astronauts and Gene, I am sure you haven't seen such concentration of fungi as I saw in that bathroom. Fuj! It was a kind of place you wouldn't want to touch anything for fear you would get glued to it. A bus took me to Valparaiso. I asked a policeman how to get to Concepcion where hostal Luna Serena is. The policeman looked at me and asked "Are you travelling alone!? (Are you out of your mind??) This a very dangerous city, even in daylight." Hmmmm... But he told me where the bus was (I feel safer taking a bus than a taxi) and I strapped my backpack tightly to my body and got on the bus. The driver didn't know where the street was at which I wanted to get off. He left me at the top of the hill, in the center of the Concepcion district. I looked into the guidebook and didn't find on the map the street at which he dropped me. It was Sunday, there was nobody on the street, no cars, and no taxis... For the first time during my trip I missed my bed, delirious with fever I wanted to sit and cry. But that lasted a minute. I decided there were worst things in life than being lost in Valparaiso, even if it was "a very dangerous city". I decided to walk downhill and taking one random turn and another random turn down the narrow streets I found myself at the door of the hostal Luna Serena. When I was pressing the doorbell I thought that my guardian angel is a mighty angel. The hostal is in a beautiful old house and has beautiful aristic interior. I drank hectolitres of steaming tea and slept away the virus. I woke up in a much better shape today and went to tour the city. It is one of the most amazing cities I have ever seen. It is a functioning port (I saw the cranes skilfully moving the huge containers from cargo ships onto the trucks) so it must have the modern port equipment but the rest of the city looks as if time stopped in it 150 years ago. I read Isabel Allende's "Daugher of Fortune" in which she described the city. She described it as it looked over 100 years ago and it looks today excatly as she described it. The city is located on the hills surrounding the port. Down by the docks there's an area of banks and restaurants, up on the hills there are houses. The house area looks like one big shanty town. Little houses are built of brick, wood and tin. They are very poor looking but are all painted in most amazing bright colors. There are narrow winding streets and a few lifts going down to the port. Some streets are very clean, some have an amazing amount of garbage on them. Many houses are falling apart. There's loundry drying in all windows. The houses are right next to each other - there are no gardens of any type. It is a city where many artists live so among all this neglect and garbage there are beautiful grafitti on walls and other signs of artistic creativeness of the inhabitants. There's also an incredible amount of cats here. They are everywhere, sleeping in groups on windowsills, on tin roofs, in the parks, in the stores... They are all fat and happy looking. I walked around and rode on the buses around the city and my eyes were round as saucers with amazement. So far the two cities which are so amazingly different from all other cities are La Paz and Valparaiso. I don't even know how to properly describe them...
I stayed in Santiago only one day. The city resembles Buenos Aires in architecture but has none of its charm and liveliness. Santiago seemed to me rather gloomy and sad. It looked neglected and dirty. Chile is the richest country in South America but this doesn't show in the standard of living. There are no cozy cafes, only fast food places and lots of McDonald's. I walked around the center and took a few buses to go around the city. I visited the cathedral which I didn't find impressive and the museum of precolumbian art which was very nice. It housed a temporary exibition entitled "The gold of Columbia" and the artefacts were very interesting. And so was the text accompanying the artefacts. It mostly had to do with shamanism of the tribes which lived (and some still live) in the present day Columbia. It talked about the tribal believes that man, animals, plants and spirits create the world in equal parts and pass from one being to another. The masks of pumas and other animals the shamans wear mark their temporary "change of skin" and transformation into another being. The change of skin represents a change, one of the many changes a being goes through during its lifetime (and lifetime means many lifes). I talked about the exhibition with the owner of the hostal in Valparaiso and he told me that in Yamana language there is no such thing as one word representing a certain object. For example "a tree" is represented by many words depending on a person's relationship to it such as a person's standing far from or near to the tree, underneath it, or if a person has climbed it, or sees it with leaves or not. In English I think we would have to say "aneartree" or "afartree", "atreeinsummer", "atreeinwinter", "atreeihaveclimed", etc. Isn't it amazing? They are the people who lived in caves and their only dress was the skin of vacuna in winter but they developed such amazing language which takes into consideration not only objects but also the relationship to it, the feeling one gets when experiencing it. I find more and more interesting what I learn about the indigenous cultures of South America. The exhibit included many details concerning shamanic rituals and indigeous cultures in general. It was the best part of Santiago. Otherwise it was gloomy... Chile is very expensive. The prices are NY prices. Coffee is $2. I think this makes Chileans gloomy - NY prices but low salaries. The hostal I stayed in in Santiago was $6 (the cheapest according to the guidebook) and it was very disgusting. The only reason I spent there the night was that I got sick again - some virus which totally knocked me out - and didn't have the strength to look for something else. It was by far the worst hostal I have ever seen. I like exposed brick and peeling paint but exposed cardboard and peeling wallpaper is ugly. Maggie if you think your bathroom is ugly you should see that one. You not only need flip-flops to get into the shower, you need an airproof suit like the one used by astronauts and Gene, I am sure you haven't seen such concentration of fungi as I saw in that bathroom. Fuj! It was a kind of place you wouldn't want to touch anything for fear you would get glued to it. A bus took me to Valparaiso. I asked a policeman how to get to Concepcion where hostal Luna Serena is. The policeman looked at me and asked "Are you travelling alone!? (Are you out of your mind??) This a very dangerous city, even in daylight." Hmmmm... But he told me where the bus was (I feel safer taking a bus than a taxi) and I strapped my backpack tightly to my body and got on the bus. The driver didn't know where the street was at which I wanted to get off. He left me at the top of the hill, in the center of the Concepcion district. I looked into the guidebook and didn't find on the map the street at which he dropped me. It was Sunday, there was nobody on the street, no cars, and no taxis... For the first time during my trip I missed my bed, delirious with fever I wanted to sit and cry. But that lasted a minute. I decided there were worst things in life than being lost in Valparaiso, even if it was "a very dangerous city". I decided to walk downhill and taking one random turn and another random turn down the narrow streets I found myself at the door of the hostal Luna Serena. When I was pressing the doorbell I thought that my guardian angel is a mighty angel. The hostal is in a beautiful old house and has beautiful aristic interior. I drank hectolitres of steaming tea and slept away the virus. I woke up in a much better shape today and went to tour the city. It is one of the most amazing cities I have ever seen. It is a functioning port (I saw the cranes skilfully moving the huge containers from cargo ships onto the trucks) so it must have the modern port equipment but the rest of the city looks as if time stopped in it 150 years ago. I read Isabel Allende's "Daugher of Fortune" in which she described the city. She described it as it looked over 100 years ago and it looks today excatly as she described it. The city is located on the hills surrounding the port. Down by the docks there's an area of banks and restaurants, up on the hills there are houses. The house area looks like one big shanty town. Little houses are built of brick, wood and tin. They are very poor looking but are all painted in most amazing bright colors. There are narrow winding streets and a few lifts going down to the port. Some streets are very clean, some have an amazing amount of garbage on them. Many houses are falling apart. There's loundry drying in all windows. The houses are right next to each other - there are no gardens of any type. It is a city where many artists live so among all this neglect and garbage there are beautiful grafitti on walls and other signs of artistic creativeness of the inhabitants. There's also an incredible amount of cats here. They are everywhere, sleeping in groups on windowsills, on tin roofs, in the parks, in the stores... They are all fat and happy looking. I walked around and rode on the buses around the city and my eyes were round as saucers with amazement. So far the two cities which are so amazingly different from all other cities are La Paz and Valparaiso. I don't even know how to properly describe them...
posted by Asia Kabat at 5:42 PM
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