Las noches en Chile

July 25, 2009

So last night was my craziest night in Chile thus far. As most know, I am not a late night person, and I usually prefer to go to bed by like 10 or 11. Yeah last night I didn't actually get home until 5:30 in the morning!!! We all went out because it was the people from my summer program, it was their last night in Chile. They are all leaving on flights out of Santiago today to go back home to reality.

The nights activities:

1. 5:00 pm - took an hour long nap to prepare for the evening. Because everyone gives me crap here for "dying" by like midnight. :) And I had a feeling tonight was going to crazy from the beginning.
2. 8:00pm - was persuaded by Marcello and Erin to drink as much caffeinated tea as I could so I did not die and be falling asleep on our night of "carrete y copete" (party and drink). I must admit though, I am beginning to miss my dirt tea with fresh orange slices!
3. 9:00/9:15pm - left the house to take the metro, go pick up our friend Kayla, and go to a club in Valparaíso. It was funny because this was Marcello's first adventure on the metro in Viña and Valpo, he was like a little kid. Haha. Oh and another note, leaving the house this early to go out is almost unheard of here! The real partying doesn't even begin until like after midnight, more like 1am. But Marcello went along with our plan, but had to remind us every chance he got of how "muy temprano" (very early) it was to go out.
4. 9:45pm/10:oopm - arrived at the salsa club in Valparaíso. It is called Axe Habana, which I have already told you all the little story about what Ache/Axe means. This place is so awesome, its like I traveled directly to Cuba immediately when I walk in.

- Here I tried a drink called an "Amareto sour" - and it was SO good.

- We did the little salsa dance lessons

- Then I danced for a while, extremely bad I might add, but I'm trying and thats all

that matters right :)

- I sat with the group on dancing breaks and we shared our last moments together

5. 12:30/1:00am - we left the salsa club and walked down the street to a hole in the wall,

undeground club. It was called Epicentro. We only went there because it was free and

our money was dwindling for the night. And clubs become kind of expensive to get in

here after midnight. We sipped on drinks, chatted, danced some more, and sang to

American/U.S. music. It was so much fun. Then the rest of our friends came a little

laterand we repeated it all over again. :) We met a real nice group of chilenos while

we were there. And as we were all sitting there having a good time, I looked over to the entrance of the bar, and there was a guy on the floor with a crowd of people around him. Marcello went and checked it out, and I guess he was just covered in blood. Probably he was just extremely intoxicated and he fell down the stairs while trying to enter the bar/club. I sat there are watched for a while, and the boys we were with of course noticed how worried/interested I was. And so I decided to casually go over and check it out. Yeah it was pretty bad. By then most of the blood was all wiped up, but yeah still blood. He was completely unconscious, and his eyes were open. And especially with the darkness and weird lighting in the place, it was way freaky looking. I just hope that we is going to be okay. We waited for like 15 min and there was still not ambulance arriving, so Marcello called the ambulance just to make sure. Yeah I'm guessing it took about a half hour for them to arrive. Marcello explained to me that there is public and private ambulances here in Chile. Public doesn't seem to give a damn where as private, which is quite expensive, seems to carry about business the same as all ambulances do in the states.

6. 4:00am - The boys we were hanging out with tried to convince us to go to the beach and hang out more. But Marcello and Erin were completely exhausted, and I was too, just didn't know it until we left and were in the colectivo riding home. It was pretty funny though, my friend Kayla was so drunk and we had to make sure she got home. We walked her to her house, and it was out of our way, but we still did it. Marcello is a gentleman and there is no way he would have let her walk home on her own. But she was the stereotypical drunk, she was actually hiccuping! It was hilarious to me...maybe because I was delirious from lack of sleep, I don't know but it was very very funny.

7. 5:30 am - We arrived home to the house. We had a bit of breakfast and then went off to bed.

It was quite an interesting night. Next time though, I told Erin if we are going to stay out that late, then I want to go to the beach and watch the sunrise. I mean if you are going to be up all night, por qué no! (why not). :)

So needless to say, today has been a very relaxing day. I slept the majority of the morning/early afternoon. Then Erin and I went and said goodbye to our ISA friends that were leaving today. And that was a total bummer, but I am excited to meet the new group on Monday. It will just be different this time, because this group had their 4 days in Santiago to bond and get to know one another. But who knows, it should be interesting anyways. Also, this afternoon we went for coffee/tea/hot chocolate in a town right next to Viña del Mar thats called, Reñaca with our family. It was a really nice place. We walked the beach, then went for our coffee/tea/hot chocolate and then perused the mall and meandered out way home. Oh, and I had a drink called a "submarino." It was SO good. It's hot chocolate. But this place we went to is known for their yummy chocolate. So this drink, they bring out in a glass extremely hot milk and then on the plate next to that a big stick of solid chocolate. You get to mix and make your own hot chocolate with amazing chocolate. So good and can't wait to try another one. :) We had some great conversation there too. I found out that mi hermana (my sister) Constanza has the same taste in movies as me, because we both love foreign films and spanish films. She loves the same director as me, Pedro Almodovar. And I recommend that you all seek out and watch a movie made by him, they are all wonderful! :)

Tomorrow I am going hiking. We are taking a lunch and spending the day hiking. It should be a blast, I am way excited! I will bring my camera to show you all wonderful pictures of the day. Because this post will be without pictures since I didn't take my camera last night. But if I get photos from my friend Kayla, I will be sure to post a few on here. Thats only if I don't look absolutely ridiculous in all of them. :)

Buenas noches mi famila y amigos!