Valparaiso: Redeemed

(In Vina del Mar right before the gypsy harassment!)

I apologize for being rather negative in the last post.  Vina del Mar was not going well- too overcast, dirty, and boring.  Turns out we were staying in one of the rather seedy parts of town- thus the excess of car alarms, street noise, and slime.  When we left this afternoon we drove the coastal rode, which reminded me in short form of the Pacific Coast Highway.  We made a stop and here are the photos....

We arrived back in the city around six and it was coooold.  The temperatures have dropped on us, yikes!  We went to the grocery and are making dinner now.  Because the swine flu hit our law school Diego Portales we have been removed to the hotel conference room.  My word, it was protests that removed us from Universidad de Santiago, hopefully nothing else occurs!  However, this means we don't need to take a forty minute metro ride in the morning = more sleep!

I thought I had so much more to say.  Maybe I'm too concentrated on our food :) ciao!

Hola from a grimey little seaside town

I am in the Best Western of all places, in the little business center that smells of smoke and bleh. I am in Vina del Mar, translating to vineyard by the sea, but the beauty of the name is lost in the falseness of the claim. Okay, we ARE on the ocean and we walked the boardwalk yesterday. I do love the sea so it was pretty enough, but we were confronted by gypsy women who were extremely unnerving and rather frightening. Imagine the tone of voice of the most evil witch from a fairy tale, saying: ahhh que lindas chicas, mmhmm, mira la bufanda... que ricas, somos gypsys. And then theyre all pressing in around you, hands reaching out. You can be left standing only in your underwear before you know what even happened if you aren´t careful. But we were careful and we carried on. The stray dogs littered the beach and the many tall apartment buildings fronting the beach are covered in gray sludge grime. I think part of my disappointment with this town is that my expectations were much higher. However, Christin and I are going to try to do more of a pampering day- sometimes the student travel lifestyle calls for a little indulgence to break the tiring cycle of wearing dirty clothes and living from your suitcase.

Yesterday we were in Valparaiso and that was much nicer, its very close to here- a sister town. We went to imporant presidential places and I will discuss more later and post photos.

xox