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.