Hey! Ho! Yo voy!

In late June we went to Chile! We spent 2 days in Santiago, the capital, a day in Colina (a little mountain town north of Santiago) and 3 days in Vina del Mar and Valparaiso on the coast. Santiago is huge! 7 million people, roaring traffic, bustling streets, hoards of goth teenagers stylishly ignoring you. On the first day, we wandered around the city, and discovered a Ramones poster in Spanish with the tag line "Hey! Ho! Yo voy!" which literally means "Hey! Ho! I go." Hmm... I guess "yo voy" sounds catchier than "vamonos"? Not that I remotely mastered enough Spanish to get by before I went. I really meant to- bought Rosetta Stone and everything, but work was so busy right before I left (the whole 16 hour a day startup crunch-mode business), I didn't find the time. So I did a lot of deciphering of street signs and menus. Pointing at things on menus and smiling politely worked out quite well. I discovered lots of interesting food. I think my favorite dish was pastel de choclo- a corn pie. Found a recipe for it after getting home and tried to make it myself, and it came out quite well (I used double the amount of corn specified in the recipe though). But navigation was quite difficult. I learned that when lost, go to hotels to ask directions- usually there's someone behind the desk who speaks your language. Asking, say, goth teenagers or nuns on the street does not work so well. Generally the people we approached seemed to be afraid of us strange english speaking gringos.

My favorite city was Valparaiso- a city of artists on the coast. The buildings are all painted with fantastic murals, and the streets are checkered with artisan shops. Wild friendly dogs roam the streets. We stumbled upon lots of interesting cafes and art galleries, and ate more than our fair share of empanadas (note to self: never order more than one empanada ever). Noticed that everywhere we went the sound of american 80s music filled the room. I swear I heard Madonna in elevators, hipster cafes, grocery stores, art galleries, and restaurants. The Chileans love 80s music. We went out dancing one night, and every single song played was American 80s music. Very few Chileans we met spoke fluent English, but all the kids in the club knew all the words to Like A Virgin. The seminal 80s music moment was when we were eating lunch at a cafe, served by a few tough-looking tattooed guys, and a Mariah Carey MTV special came on the tv. The tough waiter teared up, and sang along to every song.