Pablorazzi

Today was one of those days that I truly realized where I was and how incredibly lucky I am to have this opportunity. After a very rushed morning due to me pressing off on my alarm rather than snooze (woops!) we successfully boarded our got to the bus terminal in Santiago and headed out for El Tabo, a beach town walking distance to Isla Negra.

After arriving in El Tabo, we walked towards Isla Negra and had several "Oh yeah, we're definitely in a foreign country" moments. It's funny because Santiago is really not very different from any big city in the US, but once you get out of the city it's a whole nother world! The beaches and coast here are GORGEOUS. They remind me a lot of Hawaii with the rocks, but also simply of California beaches. We wandered through Isla Negra and down on to a beach where we put our feet in the Pacific, thousands of miles from the ocean we have grown up with but yet the exact same. That astounds me, it's the same ocean! We hung out on the gorgeous beach for a while and then wandered back up to town to get some lunch.

We ended up eating at a restaurant called El Cielo that turned out to be incredible! I ordered Pollo Champiñon (Mushroom Chicken) and ate far more than necessary (quickly becoming a theme/problem). The waiters were so nice in the restaurant and it was an awesome experience.

Then, we made our way over to Pablo Neruda's house which has been turned into a museum for our tour. It was incredible! The house was huge, very very nice, and astoundingly well kept up. It is right on the cliffs of the ocean with incredible views from every room, and it was also incredible to think we were standing in the very rooms where he wrote some of his most inspired poetry (inspiration must have not been hard to come by with the incredible ocean just outside the window). Pablp Neruda and his third wife are also buried just outside the house. The house that is loosely modeled off a boat was overall an awesome and beautiful place to visit with incredible history and views.

After this is where some real adventuring began! One of the friends I was with has a pretty awesome host mom who has a nephew who lives in the tiny village of Isla Negra who we met up with after our tour. We met Rodrigo, his wife Isabel, and their 7 month old son Emilio and walked down to another very nice beach and sat for a bit before heading into town, buying ice cream/water, and returning to their house! We drove up a few dirt roads and eventually stopped at their very rustic but very large and nice house. We ended up hanging out with them for about 3 hours just talking and chilling in their yard! They were only a few years older than us, which made it so interesting to both get their perspectives on living in Chile and Isla Negra as well as just talk about everything from music to school to anything! It was so incredibly Chilean it was almost out of a book as we sat there drinking water while they both smoked cigarettes and drank Escudo Beer (Chilean beer). At one point Rodrigo even busted out his guitars and on of my friends played some songs with him, which was particularly entertaining when Rodrigo tried to sing Rage Against the Machine songs in English.

After parting from our new Chilean friends and profusely thanking them for having us, we headed towards town. However, on the way we came across on of the coolest houses ever and took a little tour inside! It was an entire house converted into a boat-like situation that was painted all sorts of crazy colors and was like a tree-house inside! A picture is all that could do it justice, it was SO COOL!



After this, the adventures just kept coming as we boarded a highly entertaining bus in Isla Negra in order to get to a neighboring town, El Quisco, where our bus was going to leave from. It was like a South American bus straight out of a movie, complete with lots of colors inside, crazy men, and crazy driving. Definitely an experience!

To conclude one of my best days in Chile yet, after returning to Santiago my host family fed me my first completo (like a hot dog but with more stuff on it like avocado and tomatoes and everything)! SO GOOD!

Today was an absolutely gorgeous, adventurous, perfect day! Now it's time to sleep and I don't have to set an alarm! Perfect ending to a perfect day!

Pictures! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2047966&id=1043790015&l=af52a1e6c0