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| El apagón! |
Life in Chile has been as exciting as ever within the past
week! In one of my daily conversations
with the chatty guard at my apartment last weekend, I was informed that an out
of control NASA climate satellite was en route to fall from its orbit and
plummet into Chile at any given time.
He assured me that it was only the size of a city bus, and with any luck
the atmospherical pressure would break it up into 6 pieces. Being hit by a
satellite a 6
th of the size of a city bus couldn’t do too much
harm..right? Later that night, this fun news was accompanied by a country-wide
blackout that affected over 10 million people. All lights, internet, and most cell phone connection were
completely out. It really
frightened many people who associated the blackout with the big earthquake of
2010, in which there was no power or water for 3 days. Luckily, my host-mom and
her group of friends that were over playing bingo didn’t let it affect their
fun. Their solution was to fill
the house with candles and pop open another bottle of wine. After 2 and half hours, the lights were
welcomed back on with a big round of applause. However, the fun didn’t stop
there. On Monday, everyone and
their brother was talking about how the alignment of the planets on Tuesday was
going to cause a huge earthquake.
The reasoning behind it was semi-complicated (my host mom read me
multiple news articles on it and had the TV on all night) so I’ll spare you the
superstitious details. Luckily,
the only notable thing that ended up happening to me on Tuesday was being
followed and harassed by a clown with a fake gun while walking down the street
(freaky, but I’d take that over an earthquake any day). And, the NASA satellite crashed somewhere in the waters of the Pacific, close call! :)
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| Part of Neruda's house |
On Wednesday our group took a trip to Algarrobo, a beautiful
little beach town about an hour away. A little further down the road was
another house of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. While I don’t have a huge interest in or connection to
Neruda, I must admit that I loved touring his house—it was hands down the
quirkiest thing I have ever seen. It was huge and expansive, built on the rocks
of the Pacific’s shore, each room having a different theme including bug collections,
ships in bottles, masks, a paper mache horse, Hindu carvings, and sea creatures
(he even has a narwhal tusk!). It
was a great trip. While I love
living in Viña, it is always fun to explore other areas as well. In fact, I am leaving on Wednesday for
a 5-day trip to my sister city, Montevideo, Uruguay! I am so eager to finally explore this city that I have heard
so much about growing up
:)
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