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Other entries in Valparaíso

auspicious welcome

remember the earthquake deirdre and I had in Iquitos, 2 days into my year of travel? well, my first night in valparaiso, at 3am, I feel another tremor. thats 2 earthquakes in my life, ever. both in south america, both at significant moments.

valparaiso is significant because for the first time in all the cities I've traveled - not just on this trip - this is one I could actually see myself living in someday. the culture is fantastic - the cultural festival is full of music, dance art, hippies and more punks. everyone is in black. I already wrote about the grafitti. galleries everywhere.

and the city itself is like a collage in architecture. the hillsides are so steep buildings are stacked one on the other. walk up a hill and youre looking down on a 3 story building. there are no contractors here, if you have a hammer, drywall and some corrugated metal (preferably rusted), you can add an addition to your house, probably on foundation cracked by an earthquake. its crazy but beautiful!

Im hanging out with a guy I met through Elia. Misael works in santiago, but lives in one of the collage houses with an amazing view of all of downtown through 2 magic windows. I have also met up with Patricio, whos in the chilean navy and took me and a friend to eat at the navy officers club. I felt really underdressed :)

otherwise Ive been wandering the city looking for art (shocker), miradors, garbage for collages, fish, and great food. today I found a cheap place to eat near a fish market. once I set into my meat soup (yum!), I realized it was mostly men drinking beer. an old guy reminded me to hang on to my purse, another guy said "I love you" (clearly the only words in english he knew) on his way to the bathroom. it really wasnt that bad, but I raced through my soup and headed out.

I bought 2 books today - one with illustrations of plants, the other of physiology, but both in spanish, for my art, but they weigh so much!! so stupid.

tonight we head out to watch free bands as part of the festival. tomorrow I change hostels - from 60,000 pesos (511 pesos to the dollar) for 3 nights to 25,000. still expensive for backpacking, but I feel a lot better about staying here now.

ps - I uploaded a TON of photos - finally had a great, free connection. dig back a bit and check them out.

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