El Yo Yo!

When we were checking out the list of hostels on the internet, where we could stay for the night in Valparaiso, El Yo Yo figured somewhere at the end. Without deciding on any of them we headed to Valparaiso and decided to check out the hostels once we were there.


Since El yo yo was at a walking distance from the bus station we decided to look it up first. After what seemed to be a really long hike and getting lost a couple of times in between we finally reached El Yo Yo. Painted with bright graffiti, quite characteristic of Valparaiso, the door seemed to be hidden somewhere on the wall. We walked in and were greeted by the now-settled-in-valparaiso Californian owner of the hostel. Since we were way too tired to check out any other place we decided to stay for the night in El Yo Yo. I think it was meant to be.

With 8 Chileans, 2 British, 1 Spanish, 1 Swiss, 1 German, 1 French and 2 Indians staying there, it was quite an inter cultural mix of people. A barbeque party was planned for the night and we signed up for the same as we had no plans for the night. I think the fact that rohan and I were the only 2 and we dint know much about the city and we wanted to have fun was what made us sign up. Honestly if we were a bigger group of friends traveling, we would have hung out by ourselves, not really socialized and had our own fun. It would have been good too but definitely never come close to what followed that night. I think it was our need that pushed us to socialize and have a great time! And wow, did we have a great time or what!!!

The barbeque was meant to start by 9. so after taking a good long walk around the city we headed back to the hostel to be there in time for the party. Initially Rohan and I kept to ourselves but soon figured that the night was gonna be quite a drab if we dint make friends soon! A ``HOLA`` was all it took to hit it off with a group of Chileans. And what followed can easily pass for one of the craziest nights I have had in quite sometime now!
The best thing about a youth hostel any ever in the world is that most people there speak English. So its easy to communicate. And even if some people don’t, well there are others who could translate! More and more people joined in until the whole (almost whole) hostel was one big group of people talking, eating, drinking, smoking! And we spoke about every other thing in the world. And we Indians enlightening the world about caste, cows, couples et all back in India! (oh what a cliché!!!!) As long as people are interested, most often they are, it always works! The exchange of information is so intense but you hardly even feel it…and mostly hardly even remember it the morning after! And for people looking for more, more than information can be exchanged…blame it on the booze!!!!

Anyways all of us sat around the dinner table eating the yummy barbeque- pork, chicken, beef, potatoes, salads, it was really tasty, drinking ron, smoking and talking. It was great. And I think I learnt quite a bit of Spanish too which unfortunately I don’t remember now!
So we sat at the dinner table till about 2 in the morning. It was the 18th of September. The Chilean National Day. And of course we were going to celebrate it. There was so much energy at the dinner table and we weren’t going let it go a waste by sleeping!
So we all decided to head to a discotheque near the port and dance the night away. The streets of Valparaiso seem as lively at 2 in the morning as they are at 9 in the night! So we were a bunch of 15 people, complete strangers 6 hours ago, now good friends, heading out to have more fun.

The disco was great. Too bad I don’t remember its name. But it was an old building overlooking the pacific jam packed with people and playing loud Spanish music. And boy! did we dance!!! It was crazy. And this is kinda funny…this one Chilean boy not from the hostel asked if he could dance with me… it was ok I thought… what a flirt he was!!! It was so funny! I just pretended not to understand him…play dumb…it helps!!! Of course my “Indian conscience” is right in its place no matter how drunk or not drunk I am and therefore keeps me from acting “funny”….which is great I think!!!! Anyways after “tactfully” avoiding him we continued to dance and dance and dance more. God, I swear I could not move a bone later! The disco decided to close by 5.30 in the morning. Had it remained open longer, we probably would have had to sleep on the streets as we would have been dead to walk back to the hostel! All of us pulled ourselves back to the hostel (which is on a hill)…got there by 6 in the morning…sat around in the lounge (ahem, some people were doing more than just sitting!!) and finally hit the bed by 6.30 in the morning…
What a night it was!!!

It might seem like no big deal… we had some good dinner and went out dancing. But the difference is the fact that all of us were strangers with the intension of having a good time together. It doesn’t matter where you are from, what you speak, what you do, or how old you are…. Nothing really matters as long as there is an intension and that night the intension was quite clear…all of us wanted to have a good time together. I cannot say if we will keep in touch in the future ( though email ids were exchanged) or if our paths ever cross again (that’s a very remote possibility) but that night we all were great friends and we had a great time together….something I will remember for a long time to come.

Chi Chi Chi Le Le Le...Viva Chile!!!!!

Finally its time that I made entries in my travel blog! I have been here in Chile for almost a week now and god it feels like ages! We arrived on the 10th of September leaving behind all the mess that we had to go through in order to organize out travel- visa, transit visa, permission, etc. etc.- and looking forward in anticipation and excitement our stay in Chile!
And now I realize that all the trouble we took is going to be totally worth it!

Well this trip is not going to be much of traveling unlike in china. Although I am going to be visiting atleast four places for sure. First of all, Santiago where we are right now and going to be till the 27th of September. And then the symposium starts, first at Vina Del Mar, then in Temuco and then in Pucon. All these places are supposed to be tourist havens excepting Temuco which is like a smaller version of Santiago.
Vina is a beach city and Pucon is a skiing resort! Wow! Am sure its gonna be awesome!

Well right now we are in Santiago which is the Capital city of Chile and the biggest and the most populated one too. Out of the 17 million odd people in chile 7 million of them live in Santiago. Phew! That’s a lot. Even though the city is really massive, most of its parts are well connected by the metros (which are excellent and a very efficient and convenient way of transportation) and the buses. So except for getting swindled miserably by the taxi driver from the airport to the city, most of the other internal travel in the city has been quite peaceful and uneventful! And cheap too! :)

The day we arrived here and 2 days after, the weather was unbearably cold. We were falling short of being adequately dressed even after 5 layers of clothing! (but of course it hasn’t been as bad as that one time in Brugge, Belgium when I thought I was going to die out of cold. Honest! I really thought I was going to die!) Anyways these days the weather is much better with the days being sunnier and brighter and hence a little warmer. Well the winter is almost coming to an end. Its officially over on the 21st of September!!! So the days are much Springy now…. :) The nights are still so cold but of course you are not much a victim when you are sleeping under 5 layers of blankets!

People here are really warm and friendly. The Chileans are known for their good spirits. Though most people don’t speak English, communication has never been much of a problem. Well we are now able to manage a little in Spanish…Spanglish! Actually, many of the words in Spanish are quite similar to those in English and comprehending them isn’t much of a hassle. People here are very hospitable too. Right now it seems like the entire nation is celebrating the national day which is on the 18th of September. These guys are one helluva patriotic people. And primarily, I guess, they only need a reason to party! We were already invited to two such parties and both of them were great! One was at the architectural university and the other at a church. The one at the church was called a fonda.
It was great, with all the music, dance, eating, drinking, everything!

So that’s about it from me right now. Will write in more in sometime as more eventful things unfold! Till then, adios!

PS: “We” refers to Rohan and me.

updates in the pipe line!

this has been overdue for really long, but unfortunately even this time i wont be able to update
1. Am a Freak (part 2)
2. My awesome coorg trip.
these 2 trips i have been wanting to write about but seems like lifes moved on much ahead since then and right now it would be more appropriate to write about my chile trip (still trippin ;)!!! )
ofcourse i am goin to write abt the above 2 things maybe a little later.
untill then its chi chi chi le le le! viva chile.....