Bellavista

Sunday was spent lounging around and recovering from our Salsa dancing and piscos the night before. A small group of the girls went back to the Bellavista neighborhood to the outdoor markets and shops. I bought some handmade silver and copper lapisazuli jewelry from a woman in the outdoor market. She was extremely nice and explained how lapisazuli, a bright blue stone, is only found in Chile and Afghanistan. She was also patient with my pre-k level of Spanish. Most of the vendors that I have encountered only speak a little bit of English, but are patient enough to help me finish sentences!

Monday we had our first lecture at FLASCO, which is a political science research center for Latin America. Anny went over the entire political history of Chile in 2 hours. We will have time to fill in the blanks over the next few weeks! Fun facts: Chile does not have a large indigneous population, besides the Machope people, who were a small tribe, but fiesty enough to ward off the Incans from building roads in southern Chile. Another fun fact: Chileans are still divided over the Pinochet dictatorship, which began after the military coup in 1973 and lasted for 18 years.

We went back to Bellavista for lunch. Traveling with 26 people is quite tedious and slow, but eventually we found a place willing to house all of us and fix food for the vegetarians in the group. The place was called "Dublin" and we sat there drinking our fantas and diet cokes, eating pizza and stir fry, listening to an accordian, and speaking English and Spanish. Talk about globalization.

p.s. the weather is is very indecisive and drastic. The mornings are freezing! like 40 degrees F. the afternoons are pleasantly warm, especially in the sun- i'd say around 65 degrees F. The nights are once again freezing. Haven't gotten any rain yet! ((knock on wood))