Check'em out!... Revisalas :)

We put new pictures in the Salvador, Brazil doozie! Check'em out, they're great!

Pusimos fotos nuevas en la entrada para Salvador, Brazil! Revisalas, son geniales!
If you want to translate this blog from english to whatever language go to http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=es#
and you can easily translate this page. I mean, it´s not perfect, but it´s pretty good!

Si deseas traducir nuestro blog de inglés a cualquier lenguaje, vaya no mas a http://translate.google.com/translate_t?hl=es# y puedes facilmente traducir la pagina de web. No es perfecto pero es muy bueno!

25.2.09

A little rant... Temuco, Chile

Hostal 525 Zentero 525 5,500 pesos per person

The Lakes Region is just south of the middle of Chile. There must be 10 National Parks, all stock full of lagoons, volcanos, forests, stuff to make your jaw drop. Everyone, and we mean every Chilean, tells us, "Wait till you get to the South of Chile, there the landscapes are spectacular." We were really pumped to be leaving the city life and entering a National Park filled paradise.

To comfortably visit Chile, or at least The Lakes Region, you should really have one or all of these things:
-a budget of $40+ a day
-a week per destination
-a car
-a tent

We have... none of these things, making Chile a little more difficult and frustrating than the other countries we´ve been in. We haven´t really done anything special, eaten anything special or seen anything special here in Chile (I mean, I´m exaggerating a little... but only a little.) Still, we blow through our budget like nothing. We continue with our Chilean diet (waking up late, so our 1.5 meals gets us through the day) to no avail.

This has left us a little resentful. In The Lakes Region there are magnificent places to see. Temuco is a city near a few of them. The real biggie being Parque Nacional Conguillo which boasts impressive lakes, a volcano and amazing old, huge trees. Let´s go check it out we say!

Not so fast... Our excitement is squashed as we find out there´s no public transportation to the park, and we have no car. Without it you have to walk 10km just to the entrance, making a day trip impossible. There are no hostals in the park and we have no tent. No this, no that... blah blah blah... How can you promote tourism of national parks and have no way to get there, nowhere to stay and no way to get out.

A car, a tent or more than $40 would be very handy right about now. How many times have we said this while visiting Chile?

Being that we have none of these things... we opt for the park´s cheaper, easier to access, less famous, neighbor Reserva Malalcahuello. Visiting this park was relaxing and without a doubt an escape from the city. We saw a volcano, tons of little woodland lizards, huge araucaria trees, a cute mouse and best of all, took an undisturbed nap in the sun. We definately had peace of mind. It was a very enjoyable experience. But the fact that it´s superstar neighbor seemed so close but so far away, haunted us.

We´re sure Chile is a beautiful place to visit, without a doubt it´s amazing! We´ll have to come back when we´re rich and famous. For now, we´re scraping by on Arabic street performances.

In our lastest performance, we invited our always present, Number 1 Fan to come and do a little number with us. Yup, you guessed it, our token drunk man. Since the crowd seemed more interested in his stumbling dance moves, I called him over to share the stage. It was a real crowd pleaser :) and all good fun until, when giving us his 20 peso tip, he drooled in Lori´s drum case (we use it for the coins.)

Show´s over folks! Off to Frutillar!

22.2.09

:) Santiago, Chile

Terra Extremus Vicuna Mackenna 38, 1 minute from the Baquedano subway stop 7000 pesos x person

Santiago greeted us with an exhausting 3 hour hostal search in suffocating heat. Great, just great. We suffered silently with our behemoth backpacks as we were told time and time again "No room." We were ready to scream. Actually, I think melt would be a better word. Apparently there was a 10,000 person HerbaLife convention in the city (ask Lori about her existing views on HerbaLife) so we went door to door with no luck.

Pooped and dripping in sweat, we stopped to eat and stretch out our breaking backs. We wolfed down our food and when we paused from our food coma, we noticed musicians at our neighboring table. We started chatting. They were dorks alright, good ol´ orchestra boys. A french horn player, a trumpet player and the first chair violin player, all in the Symphonic Orchestra of Chile. They were just coming back from a week long tour in another Chilean city. They seemed nice, harmless and best of all - music geeks just like us.

We told them our sad story about hostals and asked if they knew of any places around. At that point we would have taken anything. They thought for a second and then one said "I mean, I have an extra room in my house. You guys are welcome to stay..." A few moments of silent conversation between Lori and I (thanks to Lori´s new sign language knowledge, we have the basic signs down pat) we decided to take our new band buddies up on their offer. Band Camp 2009 here we come!

With our new friends Hector, Italo, Wiston, Rodrigo and Cristian (are there no girls in the orchestra?) we lugged our body bags to Wiston´s house outside of the city. His house was like a nerd fraternity. We sat around cooking, watching "Amazing Mozart" videos on YouTube (internet in a house!! wow!!), taking dips in his backyard pool and of course, doing what we do best - playing music and dancing. Our new friends set the Chilean cool standard!

One day sort of rolled into the next with a midnight BBQ followed by a day of performances. We tried to hop around from one show to another... live cumbia, jazz (Cristian is a famous Jazz musician, who knew...), accordions, guitars... as we repeated many times, we were with the coolest nerds in Chile :)

Finally, 3 nights later, we decided to mature and move into a real hostal. (What do dead people and guests have in common? They both stink after a few days.) We thanked Wiston for his hospitality and got our own place (which turned out to be awesome and brand spanking new - so new that we celebrated their 1 month anniversary during our stay there.) The owners, Rodrigo and Alex, and other travelers at this hostal were also stellar.


During our last few days in Santiago, we visited the other 2 houses of Pablo Neruda. "Isla Negra" was right on the beach and the other "La Chascona" was about 5 blocks from our hostal. Both of which were beautiful with Pablo´s spirit but neither of the two outshone the house we visited in Valparaiso. Now, we´re Pablo Neruda experts - just try us!

The last noteable event of Santiago happened while taking the subway to the bus station to head off to Temuco. In our half full subway car, Lori suddenly yelled "Tomaste algo, amigo?!" (Did you take something, buddy!?) in a very angry voice. Now tomar is a funny word in spanish because it can mean to take and to drink. I didn´t realize she found this grimey man´s hand in her pocketbook. I thought she was cracking down on the drunks in Santiago. Maybe she had secretly turned vigilante of the Santiago drunks. Watchwoman Lori, cleaning up the streets one drunk at a time.

But no, he was actually robbing her. Thankfully, he was unsuccessful and didn´t take or drink anything. She got everyone on the subway car all riled up. It was great (and funny now in retrospect). Gringa power!

Anyways, on a brighter note, the people we met in Santiago really made this regular hustle and bustle, big time city, stand out above the rest. Our hostal friends and orchestra friends were by far the best things that had happened to us in Chile :)

18.2.09

Jewels of the Pacific Viña del Mar and Valpariso, Chile

Hostal with no name 147 Batuco 5,500 pesos a night if you stay more than 3 nights. It´s a fantastic home environment because you´re literally in their house

Viña and Valpo (the Chilean slang... yeah, we´re cool :) have reputations of being colorful and exciting, they definitely lived up to their name. We didn´t even leave the bus station and the fun began.

In the bus terminal we met Antonio and Diego, our first Chilean friends. They proved to be different than anyone else we´d met and they were cool... for one day :) They turned out to be pretty uninterested in... us and kinda everything. But they were friendly enough. They were very serious guys - our jokes weren´t funny and it seemed they stopped listening to our stories after a minute or two. Nothing seemed to make our serious friends crack a smile (except for a foto or two.) They did want to do a show with us, which we agreed to after eating a Chorillana (a typical Chilean dish of meat and french fries.)

From there we took our hard earned lucas (Chilean pesos) and tore up all of the 4 gigantic dance floors at the biggest night club we´d ever seen, funnily named "The Egg."

Still uninterested and smileless (though we did have fun) we said bye to our first Chilean friends.

The next day, we stumbled upon an art festival in the park and a dance show in the theatre. The conversation at the entrance of the Viña Theatre went something like this: "So, what´s happening here today?" "Looks like a Ballet company." "What time does it start?" "Says 8pm." "What time is it now?" "7:55pm" "I mean, we wanna go?" "Sounds good..."

We were wowed by impecable coal mine dances, flawless traditional dances from various South American countries and live music played to perfection. It was an unexpected, jaw-dropping surprise!

A few days later we bought tickets for a bellydance show that was also in the Viña Theatre. Unfortunately, our mouths dropped open because it was so... bad. It was an unexpected, sad disappointment. In fact, Lori went to take a picture of a dancer and I thought "I really do not want to remember this for the rest of my life." The one part of the show we did enjoy was the crazy old lady who, in her I´ve-been-smoking-for-40-years voice (she´s in the background of the photo), introduced each dancer with veils, swords and crazy hats. She was definitely the highlight :)

Another big highlight was Pablo Neruda´s breathtaking house in Valpo. Pablo is a famous Chilean poet and a hero of Lori and me. His house left us inspired with a whimsical energy you can´t find just anywhere. His boat-like house was decorated to a T with an unobstructed panoramic view of the entire city and ocean. With his collection of colored glass bottles, furniture from every corner of the world, rock murals and 3 wives, it´s easy to see where his magical inspiration came from. It was something we won´t soon forget.

We said bye to Viña and Valpo, we were off to Chile´s capital, Santiago.







***La Serena

After leaving La Serena an anonymous source informed us that our "Arab friend", Samir, is not exactly who he says he is. He actually isn't at all who he says he is. If you want to hear the whole ridiculous story, you'll have to ask me about it when you see me. =)

14.2.09

La Serena Chile: "And You Sang to Me..."

DAY 2

After our quick trip to Pisco Elqui we were back in La Serena, ready for our 40 minutes of fame. Thanks to our Arab friend, Samir, we had mics, speakers and the best spot in the plaza.

The show went well. We had the biggest audience we'd ever had and walked away with 21 lucas (21,000 pesos chilenos), much better than the 4,000 we'd made two nights before.

The night didn't end there though. We went with Samir to a discoteca where he wowed the ladies by singing an Arabic song and we did one last performance. There was a little time left to get some of our own dancing in. We were just so happy to be out of the land of cumbia and back in a place where reggaeton rules the dance floor.

The next day we just took some time to explore La Serena and do some more people watching. La Serena is truly a city full of art. Everywhere we walked there was a young violinist, a folkloric group, a mime gathering a crowd big enough to stop traffic, or our favorite "the tunas".

Tunas are groups of usually men, who play various string instruments, sing romantic music and wear tights with short pants. This particular day there happened to be an International South America Tuna Convention. As we were crossing through the plaza, we were approached by a group of young lads who didn't want our money, they just wanted to sing to us. Laura and I felt famous again for a minute while a group of 7 nerdy, but handsome guys (yes, wearing tights) sung just to us in the middle of the plaza.

We then decided to check out the local beach. It was a typical Chilean beach; really cold water, lots of people playing paddle ball and a sun hot enough to give me a strange pocketbook burn line.

At night we thanked Samir for all his help, said good-bye and hopped on a bus headed for Viña del Mar.

I think I might melt Pisco Elqui, Chile

Hostal with no name Calle Centenario, at the top left corner of the plaza principal 7,000 pesos and a nice man who really knows how to cook

We visited Pisco Elqui (about 2 hours from La Serena) for all of 24 hours. This small town sits in Elqui Valley and is known for it´s green vineyards and papaya groves. During the nauseating trip there (does anyone know how to drive not like a wacko in this continent??!) we passed a bright blue lake and miles of green... everything in this dry, brown valley. It really was stunning.

But... the 9000 degree punch in the face as we got off the bus, was not so stunning. We decided immediately we wouldn´t be staying long. The heat was so stifling, we honestly couldn´t move until sundown. We parked ourselves at a local restaurant, listened to live harp music (WTF?) and drank/ate our mote con huesillos.

One lap around the plaza, a walk long enough to be told "There´s only private property around here." and a quick inquiry at the Mistral vineyard ($10 a tour. They make the Chilean liquor, Pisco) we stayed the night but decided we didn´t have enough money for this town. The next day, just as the morning sun started microwaving this small town, we hopped on a bus and enjoyed the equally breathtaking bus ride back to La Serena :)

If you don´t have alot of money or tolerance for oven-like heat, make Pisco Elqui a day trip.

La Serena, Chile: Every Day is a Circus Act

Hostal Alameda: Aguirre y Los Carrera 6ooo pesos chilenos (a really sweet, old lady is the owner)

DAY 1

Within our 1st hour in La Serena our suspicions about Chile proved to be true; a hot dog and a coffee is a perfectly acceptable breakfast and the mullet is all the rage here. Believe it or not, Chileans actually make it look pretty cool and stylish.

La Serena was in fact very serene. We spent our first day catching up on Internet stuff and exploring the city just enough to meet Samir, an Arab from Tunisia, who sells all things belly dance related. He convinced us to do a show in the plaza at night, but we refused his offer of microphones and speakers.

We later found out that we would be competing with about 10 other acts that regularly perform in the plaza ranging from ranchero singers, fully costumed jazz dancers, several clowns, robotic man, the spinning, dancing backwards-playing drum quartet, all bigger and louder than little ol' us.

We managed to gather a small crowd, but we weren't making enough noise to get the attention we needed. When Samir (the first Arab we've come across in our travels so far) came over during our show to see us, I got so nervous that I stopped playing. I was embarrassed, but not as embarrassed as Laura had been after the cane throwing incident during our performance in Bahía Inglesa.

We did of course have our usual #1 fan, the harmless drunk man. After an hour, we took our $7.50 and called it a night. It wasn't over though. We were already devising a plan to give those other groups a run for their money. We'd be back.

1.2.09

The Chile, ahem, Chilly Carribean, Caldera & Bahia Inglesa, Chile

Residencial Yanina on the principal street towards the plaza, entering Caldera from the highway. 6,000 x person

Now that we´re on new turf, there´s lots of people watching to do. All the Ecuadorian investigation we´ve done over the past 2 years has to be put aside. New places, new faces. We´re serious about this :) It´s been quite a noteworthy culture shock.

First, we´d like to note that life does not start here at 8 or 9am. From what we´ve seen, life starts a little later in the day, maybe because the sun doesn´t rise until about 7:30am. Who wants to wake up at 7am in the dark? Well, if the sun rises so late, for sure it sets late. We´re talking still light at 9:30pm folks. It´s pretty nuts.

While observing real, live, European looking Chileans in action, we´ve noticed lots of things. Nope, we´re definitely not in Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia anymore. No more indigenous people and not too much dark skin (I imagine we´ll see more as we go more south.) No more pedestrian targets (We swear in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia drivers earn money if they run you down) and no more restaurant dishes that consist of a piece of chicken and 3 portions of carbs (rice, potatoes and pasta... no, not your side options, they´re all on your plate.)

We relaxed on our first real beach since Mancora and took in the sights and sounds. Lots of reggaeton and religious parades (How to play Chilean religious music: two groups of people playing one note recorders, alternate "toots" between each group. Group 1 "toot," Group 2 "toot," Group 1 "toot", Group 2 "toot", etc. Same note, different group. Continue like this forever while slightly lifting first your right leg, then your left with each "toot.")

It seems the "Emo" look has just arrived and is in full swing here in Chile. Possible hair-do options: Shaved on the top, loooong on the outside. Maybe you´d like a reversed bowl cut? Or the always popular mullet (which isn´t as scary as the 80´s in the states.)
A coffee and hot dog smothered in avocado and mayo for breakfast is a popular breakfast choice.

People are no longer rolling in the sand for the natural speckled sunscreen look, sunscreen is neatly applied to all body parts (they are European looking, so sun burns are more common.) And beach towels! We hadn´t seen people lying on beach towels on the sand in years! (We never visit a beach without our RI beach sheet, which many have commented that we stole off our hostal bed. But no, it´s actually straight from the Scarborough shore.)

The Chilean accent is a tough one, it´s fast, slurred together and makes us feel like gigantic idiots (the ol´ 30 second processing delay.) Enough observations... we could be here all day. But they are fun... :)

Our daily routine in Caldera was pretty basic and beachy. Eat yummy seafood, walk around a little bit and relax on the beach. They say Caldera´s beach, Bahia Inglesa, is Chile´s own piece of the Caribbean. It was very beautiful, when the sun was out... but much chillier than the Caribbean.

Being that everything is much more expensive here, we decided to get working. We had a day of street performances during our stay. Everything went fine until I threw my cane into the crowd accidentally (it slipped due to sunscreen slime, hahaha) and some lady who enjoyed letting her dog bark and bark and bark at a close range at Lori and her drum playing. I would have hit her with my cane, but it was in the crowd... :P Otherwise, we were pleasantly surprised with our $60 earnings!

We took our can, heavy with coins (and possibly qualified as a weapon), ordered two yummy shrimp, scallop and cheese empanadas and planned our departure to La Serena :)