Valparaíso

I can´t believe it´s been almost two weeks since I last wrote. The year here is flying by. Next week is the beginning of midterms! I honestly don´t know where the time goes, especially when some days feel about 40 hours long. But here´s the low-down on what I´ve been up to:

This weekend, I went to Valparaíso, an amazing city on the coast of Chile. In the old days, it was a very important port, but then someone went and built the Panama Canal. As you would expect, the boat travel along Chile´s coast dropped dramatically. But the city still has all the seedy charm of a city previously peopled by "sailors and theives", as one Chilean told me. (As always, take the translation as an approximation.) The view from the port is of brightly-colored houses with corregated-metal roofs clinging to impossibly-steep hills. There are elevator cars that run up the sides for $0.20 or $1.00. The latter has spurred calls by locals to boycot, as that dollar adds up quickly for non-tourists.

It was wonderful to see the ocean! A giant sea lion bobbing on a big buoy in the Pacific Ocean was a pleasantly familiar sight. And the fresh sea breeze refreshed my mind, body, and spirit. Santiago is lacking in all things natural, aside from the Andes, which are very impressive when not entirely obscured by smog. It´s also lacking in personality, and Valpo -- it´s nickname -- has it in spades. It was an awesome overnight get away.

However, the overnight part was interrupted by an earthquake. No kidding! I awoke to everything shaking for what felt like minutes. The hostel manager told us the next morning that it lasted about 20 seconds. But, regardless. I whispered to my loft mate:

Me: Was that an earthquake??
Her: Yeah, I think so.
Me: Wow. (long pause) So, if there´s another one, we probably shouldn´t be in the loft.
Her: Do you want to get up?
Me: Nope.

And I immediately went back to sleep. The bed in the hostel was remarkably more comfortable than the one at my host stay house and I wasn´t about to let the possibility of a natural disaster interfere with my full enjoyment of it.