You may have heard about a 6.2 magnitude quake that rocked Chile last weekend. But, rest assured, I am fine and dandy as we spent the weekend in the north and the quake was centered in the remote south.
We spent the weekend in La Serena, a peaceful (yes, and serene) coastal town most famous for its antique lighthouse that doesn't work. We kept asking our tour guide why it doesn't work, but all she would say in response, with a wry smile was, "no funciona" (it doesn't work).
The excursion was our Bing Trip, the legendary weekened that each Stanford overseas student gets to spend with all expenses paid. We took a 45-minute flight to Santiago on Friday, and spent much of Saturday bussing around the Valle de Elki. While the Valle had magnificent sourroundings (pics will be uploaded soon), Gabriella Mistral's house and museum paled in comparison to Neruda's (I'm not cultured enough to make the same comparison about her poetry). And the grand finale of the day, a trip up to one of Chile's many observatories (the atmosphere is thinner here, I guess) was spoiled by cloudcover. But-lo and behold-the skies cleared up on our trip back to La Serena and we pulled our two buses over on the side of the highway and spent 15 minutes soaking in one of the most magestic starry skies I've seen.
The other highlight came the next day. BC and I decided to skip the all-day, $36, bus-riddled penguin excursion to stay in La Serena and chill out. We spent much of the late morning exploring the city and its markets, streets and Japanese Garden. But we hit pay dirt when we decided to check out a bar and watch soccer. The bar was packed, and everyone in attendance was decked out in full. For some reason they all were rooting for Santiago-based Universidad de Chile--La U, for short--and they sang and chanted the entire game. We bought pitchers of cheap beer (to fit in, of course) and tried to learn some of the chants. It was a blast. Next step: go to an actual game in Santiago. Wish me luck.
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