Valparaíso!

Holy buckets, I went somewhere else! I spent Saturday night and some hours on either end in Valparaíso (too short). I caught a ride there with the rest of the UW group and we had a great walk around, including a trip up one of the ascensores to get up one of the many hills. It was about a hundred years old. We had a massive lunch and the group went home, but Anna, Lucy and I remained.

We watched the Chile-Venezuela futbol game at a bar downtown, where the fans were rowdy and the screen was big. During the match there was a lot of shouting, pounding on tables, swearing, songs, and drink-spilling. It was awesome. The not awesome part was the resulting 2-2 tie.

The next day involved some serious walking. We went up and down a few hills to get to La Sebastiana, my second of three Pablo Neruda dwellings. I really loved this one. It felt more home-like, and less like a museum, with fewer collections and more comfy looking chairs. I wanted so badly to spend a rainy afternoon sitting in his chair, which he named "the cloud," and staring at the city. I might even write poetry if I had to.

It should be noted that Lucy, Nigel, Anna and I made some delicious pies on the Friday before we went to Valpo. I bought some pumpkin and winged a the recipe, neglexting the egg component and adding all the cloves we ground up. It was a spicy pie. The apple pie was a HUGE success, and I say huge partly because of the gigantic pie tin we used to make it. Unfortunately the avocado/sweetened condensed milk pie just didn't work out.

Today is gorgeous, sunny and warm. I went on a jog around the big hill by my house (it has an observatory on the top) and I'm sitting in the backyard soaking up some UV. Check out my most recent photo set here, or use that cool flickr thing on the right side of the blog, to see some pies, some Valpo, and Chile's creepiest advertising campaign.