La Jac Goes to South America.: Las vacaciones.

Oh boy. I did a lot.

So, first order of business: the Fiestas Patrias, which I will translate as “homeland parties.” It’s not really celebrating independence day but more like the day when Chile really started getting the ball rolling towards independence. It’s kind of a big deal around here and this year is the 200^th anniversary. The stores are filled with red, white and blue. There are cueca performances galore. I went to one at my sister’s school, and those dancers were good. Then there are these things called “ramadas.” The closest thing I can equate them to is the county fair: sketchy carnival games, delicious deep-fried things for sale (empanadas, sopaipillas…), carnival rides, music, more cueca performances and cute booths selling their hand-crafted wares. At the ramadas (and everywhere else in town) you’ll also find “fondas,” which are festive little temporary venues that have your standard Fiestas Patrias food, drink and dance.

The whole month of September is kind of a party, but the 18^th(Dieciocho) is “the big day.” I think it’s like Thanksgiving for us; it’s a big deal and there’s lots of traditional food, lots of hanging out and lots of laughing. I was staying with my host family in a cabaña on a lake near Pucón (a ski town a few hours from Valdivia) with some of their friends. It was mellow and perfect, with lots and lots of eating and minimal doing. Cool town, too; I saw some volcanoes and lakes and stuff.

I had the week off from school so from Pucón I took a bus to Santiago (12 hours, yo) where I met up with friends and caught another bus to Viña del Mar, where a few of us rented an apartment. Our days were unscheduled and wonderful. I spent my mornings in trendy coffeeshops drinking hot chocolate and reading magazines in Spanish… so posh. One day we went to the dunes: big city on one side, giant ocean on the other. I tried a little sandboarding and I’m still finding sand in strange places. We spent some time on the beach and the purse of a friend got stolen (now I feel like I’m truly traveling). My friend Anna went out to play bingo with me one night. It’s not the same here, by the way, and also it's kind of chaotic in a different language but now I can check South American bingo off the ol’ bucket list. We all made dinner together every night (6 people in a baby apartment = cozy) and watched the sunset on the city from 19 stories up.

Valparaíso is the exciting port town next door, and I took a micro (bus) over there a few days to just wander around. It is super artsy, and a really fun place to take pictures. It’s made up of a million hills which are filled with all these curious, bright-colored houses. There are tons of funiculars you can ride to get up to different neighborhoods. There is also TONS of sincerely incredible street art. I went to one of Pablo Neruda’s houses. I also found this crazy flea market thing. I stumbled across a giant art project in progress—they’re covering a park in tile mosaic hearts—and I spent a couple hours making my contribution. Honestly, I was 100% content to just walk around the city and look without a destination, which is pretty good news because I was usually really lost.

I made friends with a couple shop owners, also some guy name Esteban, and a few local dogs and cats. A few times while I was talking to people I was mistaken for a native speaker. That would last for all of 3 sentences, but the surprise on their faces when I made my first grave grammatical error was about the most rewarding thing I have ever experienced. I still am so lost so often, but things are getting better and I can actually tell.

Guys, I fell in love on this trip. We had met in Valdivia, but after spending time together on this trip I just stopped fighting it and realized we are perfect for each other. :-) So sweet! They’re called berlins, and they’re these big, deep-fried doughnut things dusted with powdered sugar and filled with manjar. Manjar = this extremely popular dulce de leche/caramelly business. (One might ask, “what ISN’T filled with manjar here?”) We’ll just say that on our trip I had “more than one” berlin. A day.

Now I’m back to business here in Valdivia. It turned into spring while I was gone. There are flowers all over the place! I experienced my first earthquake. This is kind of anti-climactic, but I just thought my chair was moving. Also the Mapuche hunger strike is approaching 80 days. The other day I was downtown and looked up to find an enormous Mapuche flag being hung from the bridge. The Mapuche (“people of the land”) are an indigenous group of folks here in Chile, and to make a very long story very short, as I understand it they’re trying to bring attention to the way the Chilean government is criminalizing their efforts (which I believe, to be fair, has included burning down houses and cars) to reclaim ancestral land. These things are always complicated, no? So that’s going on. Never a dull moment. In conclusion, I imagine you’re all dying to know about the popcorn balls. In short, we had to improvise a lot but Vale and I were victorious and now my family knows of popcorn balls. El fin.

Peace out.
JacLyn