Lions, Tigers, Bears, OH MY!

Well, sorry to disapoint you. No tigers. No bears.

Today, we did something peculiar yet exciting. We got another private tour for another good price (my sister didnt have to pay because she is a student). Where were we? A cemetery! Yay!

So you are probably seeing an Ohioan cemetery in your mind. Well you have no clue what i am talking about then. In Chile, it is not headstones in rows. It is rows though. Of mausoleums. Walking through the General Cemetery of Santiago feels like walking down a city street. Until you see the lions. Many of the mausoleums were built overseas. Therefore, they have very ecclectic styles. There was an Egyptian and a Mayan one. There were also Roman and Spanish ones, which had stone lions guarding the doors.

Other than the many historical figures burried there, I saw two unique graves. At both graves people would pray and leave notes to the deceased. The first was a special site at which people wish for love (the guide said it was very important that I went to this one, haha.) Burried within the mausoleum was a young woman. Apparently during life she was astoundingly beautiful. She was engaged and had already bought everything for a successful life with her future husband, and was happy as could be. On the day of her wedding, as the priest was pronouncing the couple man and wife, she had a heart attack. Right there, At the alter. Her body was embalmed for preservation and there used to be a window so that visitors could observe her beauty. Then some idiot broke the glass so they could put their note closest to her in hopes it would be answered soonest. Too bad they didn´t just complete my entry title by installing guard Tigers and attack bears. I figure it would be pretty oficial if all the bears had police uniforms and smokey the bear hats. No one would dare to start a forest fire in that mausoleum...

521

OK. Before I make any sense, i need to put something out tin the open. I am a camera addict. I take way too many pictures. Want to know how many I have? 521. Yes, five hundred and fifty freaking one picture.
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Ok, so yesterday my family and I were traveling through the metro (subway) and bus system to return to our hotel. As we come upon a bustop and people board, I noticed some are standing as I, the lazy tourist, occupy a seat. I figured I could make an international gesture of friendship by sacrificing my precious seat. After a minute or so of careful planning, i turn to a chilean man and try my best to ask him in spanish if he wants my seat. When he expresses his confusion as to what I am attempting to convey, I revert to english and soon after mentally punch myself for my American stupidity of expecting everyone to know english. In desperation, I waved my hands towards the seat, but he refused my offer despite my heartfelt attempts at courtesy. Later my sister told me that after my embarassing adventure, the middleaged man picked out my sister and mother as my fellow tourist companions and began to talk with them. He apparently complained (jokingly, they tell me) that he is not yet old enough to be offered seats on the bus by teenagers. Oops...

¡Friend deal!

I am about to leave so I need to make this a quickie. Yesterday was split between two activities: shopping and dinner. For shopping we went to an artesan market and bought some cool nicknacks. For myself I bought a leather belt with the national flower of Chile empressed upon the lenth of the belt, along with a watchband made by the same man. The real eventful part was the license plate shopping. My mother decided she needed a license plate. And not just any license plate. She needed a recent one that reads ¨Chile¨ across the bottom. Well we found one. It was for sale by one of the best salesman i have run across outside of China. This man used his mastery of english to tell us all about how hard it is to find one of these license plates that is on every single car in Chile, but how he would give us an amazing price of about 44 american dollars. But he did not stop there. He gave us a discount! HE TOOK A FULL TWO DOLLARS OFF THE PRICE! Well needless to say, Molly and I convinced our mom that it was not necessary. But man-oh-man-oh-man. If I did not have experience with Chinese vendors offering me there ¨friend deals¨, I probably would have jumped on that sale as soon as I heard his offer.

On the walls of ex-Cárcel

So there has obviously been a HUGE lapse in this blog. Oh well, you can deal with it. So since the first post, a lot has happened. I suffered a 13 hour planeflight to China. I enjoyed an amazing week in China with some AMAZING people I met there (Nelson, Blake, Taylor, etc.). I endred a return flight of another 13 hours. I crammed in some great friend time back in hte states for two days. And then (drum roll please), another extensively long international flight- an exciting 9 hours to Santiago, Chile.

Once arriving in Chile, we followed my sister around her home city, Valparaiso. It is a beautiful city with a unique character. Upon arriving in this paradise, I realized its my fourth UNESCO cultural heritage site in under a month. Great Wall, Forbidden City, Terra Cotta Army, and now: Valparaiso. Valpo, as many locals call it, is unique for many reasons. Its historical significance is that it was the first city established in Chile. If I am correct, it was set up by two groups of conquistadors (one by land, one by sea) who met along the coast near the tallest mountain, one of the magnificent Andes . Its houses also astound the fresh tourist such as myself. Not only are they painted in a bright rainbow of colors, many of which would never be found in the U.S., but they have unique structural design. Throughout the city, there are many different hills which the houses are built on. But instead of removing chunks of the hills to build houses, the houses are shaped to fit to the natural shape of the hills, often looking as though they were precariously balanced there.

Another favorite Valpo attraction I admire are the Ascensors. These are little elevator-esque boxes that move you up steep hills so that you need not take the long walk required to access your final destination. You can just walk up and ride one of these magical contraptions for a mere 250 chilean pesos, which evens out to around 50 cents.

The first thing I did today was go to the ex-cárcel cultural park. What is a cultural park? Its an old prison thats no longer in use! Although it sits upon extremely caluable land, it has not been demolished due to its history. While in operation, many things happened within the prison that today would violate numerous human rights laws. The common feeling is that if the prison were demolished, you would be demolishing the memory of all the people who suffered through their daily lives there. Don't get me wrong, it is much more than a run down prison. It is a center of the most fanastic local art. No not art, I speak of the art of the people- Graffiti. I must have around 200 pictures of the most astounding public artwork i have ever seen. It was just there. On the walls of ex-Cárcel.

After our art tour, we went for a brief boatride in the bay. We found a man who offered us a family tour for the standard price of 10.000 pesos ($20). We asked him which boat it would be, and does he point at a small tour boat which is usually crammed with around 15 people so that it looks like a raft from Cuba thats about to sink? No. He points to the largest boat moored in the tour boat corner of the harbour. This boat did not have rotting wooden benches, it had rows oh plastic tour seats. This boat should have taken out around fifty people. This boat took a family of three.

5 days til take-off

Hey guys, it is Monday. I leave for China on Saturday. I made this Blog so that I can share all my summer globe-trotting experiences with you while it is all happening and fresh in my mind. Still, feel free to message me on facebook or email me at Joelo1769@aol.com