The Old woMan and The Sea

Is there really a better way to start this? My grandma rolls with the best of them. She was seated on the ground at this point because she had already fallen out of her chair. It was hillarious. Grandpa was still asleep in the truck . We had planned on eating on the beach, but it was too cold for them.

This was during lunch of a long day of seeing the coast. It was my parents, aunt and uncle, David (a guy from my group who lives with my aunt and uncle), and obviosly my grandparents.

The earlier ailment of my knee has moved north to my ass. David and I spent all day riding in the back of our truck as we jumped from spot to spot. The highway wasn´t bad, but Santiago is full of both potholes and speed bumps! Luckily, we at least had pillows, a blanket and a camper shell.



So we went out because it was September 18th, or Independence Day. The 19th is too, but the 18th seems to be the main party day. We went to Isla Negra, where famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (he won the Nobel Prize in 1971) had one of about 4 houses in Chile. We didn´t actually make it to the house, but I hear it´s nice!

The weather was pretty nasty overall, but it was wonderful to make it to the beach. The waves were crazy, and we didn´t see many "safe" beaches. Most seemed to have rocks strewn closeby, which always seems to be the case with the Pacific.

Horse rides are available on most beaches, and this colt happened to be running after some other horses. How precious. And there were a few idiots in the ocean fishing. That doesn´t seem like a big deal to anyone in the northern hemisphere, but it´s still winter here. And they didn´t have any special clothing.


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Back to horses. On Friday I went to Club Hipico, which is Santaigo´s race track. It was a blast. I joined several friends and we played futbolito (soccer with a smaller ball) as we waited for each race. One of my friends won several thousand pesos, so a few bucks. It was my first track experience, and I hope that I can make it a regular thing.

Then on Saturday I went to a fonda with my parents and two of their friends. A fonda is just a large party where they drink a lot of Chicha (a maltish sort of wine/drink), perform the natinoal dance the Cueca, and have tons of asado (barbecue). It was interesting, but I´m glad I didn´t go to the main one, called La Yein Fonda (which sounds like the Jane Fonda). There were pictures of her everywhere as advertisements. But that one apparently gets pretty dangerous, especially for foreigners with all of the intoxicated Chileans.
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Also at some point last week I went to both the Pre-Colombian Art Museum and the National History Museum. They were both great. Probably the most interesting parts were seeing what´s left of Salvador Allende´s glasses - the left half, and the large stuffed dog of a former president. Only half of Allende´s glasses still exist because he died during the coupe. One of the most accepted stories is that he committed suicide in La Moneda (the national palace) before the opposition forces could kill him. Another idea is that he was simply shot when the opposition got to him. Regardless, only half of his glasses survived his demise.
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On a lighter note, I think this sign and I were separated at birth!