Greetings from Chile!!

I have been here about a week and a half and already so much has happened that this summary is inevitably going to leave out much of what I have done, felt, and observed. But first let me say that Chile is absolutely beautiful!! As we flew into Santiago the sun was just rising over the Andes, which spread out beneath the plane in a vast and incredible expanse of peaks, valleys, trees and snow. I have always loved the view from the flight westward into Seattle as the plane passes over the Cascades but I must say the flight over the Andes puts the Cascades to shame. I was already falling in love with this country as the sun spilled over the mountains and the plane landed in foggy, smoggy, chilly Santiago.

            The next three days passed quickly in orientation activities in Santiago and on the 1^st, we traveled to Valparaíso, my home for the next five months. My days since then have been filled with getting to know my host family, exploring the city, attending some classes, attempting to attend other classes to which no one showed up and I later found out don’t start until this upcoming week, and generally getting settled into my new life and my new city. And of course, speaking Spanish.

            I’m getting to know Valparaíso little by little, day by day. And happily, my chances of getting lost when I leave my house are diminishing daily. At first the city seemed vast and confusing, full of narrow, steep, twisty streets. To make things more confusing, the same street might change names three or four or more times as it passes through different sections of the city. Calle Pratt becomes Esmeralda, which then transforms into O’Higgins. Not content with three names, O’Higgins turns into Avenida Brasil before finally agreeing to stick with the name Yungay for the rest of it’s streetly life. It’s no wonder then that I would breathe a sigh of relief any time I managed to exit the micro bus at the right street and arrive to where I needed to be. But my host mom keeps telling me that as I get to know the city, it will become más y más chiquita, that is, smaller and smaller (Doesn’t the Spanish sound nicer, though?). And it’s true. Even after less than two weeks, the city feels manageable and the prospect of finding my way around to new places is exciting rather than daunting.

            Valparaíso is, to my eyes, a very beautiful and unique city. It is built around a bay and the flat downtown near the water quickly rises up in all directions in numerous cerros, or hill neighborhoods. Most of the buildings are old and beautiful. The houses are generally tall and narrow and very brightly painted. The effect of all the cerros and their red, yellow, green, pink, and blue houses spreading out and rising in all directions is quite arresting.

The city is known for having a system of ascensores or funiculares, open-air elevators that were originally built to ease the journey to the tops of the hill neighborhoods. Over 100 were built originally in the early 1900s, but now only about 10 remain in use, mainly as tourist attractions. On Sunday, I was just such a tourist and rode up in Ascensor Polanco with two friends from my program and our tour guide, my friend Dan’s host dad, Osvaldo. The view from the top was great, with the entire city spread out before us. Osvaldo was an excellent tour guide, telling us the history of each neighborhood we walked through and eagerly taking our picture at each stop.

Some pictures:

The view of Cerro Polanco from the top of Ascensor Polanco

The mountains that warm my little Pacific Northwest heart. The closest mountains are part of the Cordillera de la Costa and behind those you can see Cerro Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in the Andes

One last note before I say buenas noches. This blog is called “Colorín Colorado” because this is what my host dad has started to call me. The saying “y colorín colorado, este cuento se ha acabado…lo guardo en zapato rojo y mañana te cuento otro” is the ending to many Spanish fairy tales or children’s stories. It’s sort of the equivalent to our “and they all lived happily ever after” but with more whimsy and nonsense. My name with a Spanish pronunciation sounds a lot like colorín so my host dad has happily nicknamed me this and since this blog will be a way for me to share my Chilean stories with you all, I felt it was appropriate.

And now, este cuento se ha acabado. Come back, maybe not tomorrow, as the Spanish says, but soon, and I will tell you another.