Completos and Musical Families

This is my randomness post.

I saw this family several days ago when walking to the mall. They were singing and playing and it was really cute!

I found some incredible coffee at a little shop called La Tentación.

Here is a street market. We saw it after a long day at the Botanical Gardens and we were hungry so the fruit looked especially delicious.

We ate at a place called El Guatón. And the food was incredible. I ordered a Completo, which is a hot dog with guacamole and an ungodly amount of mayonnaise. I could only eat half of it.

This beauty was sleeping adorably beside the sidewalk but when I walked over to take a picture, he woke up with a start and stared into the camera lens with a confused and disoriented look. Adorable. I want to keep it.

People here have cute old cars. It makes me happy.

I also really like the colours and architecture of the city.

 

The Beauty of Viña

The university gave us “gringos” a tour of the city. I took a lot of photos because it is beautiful here and I like photographing beautifulness. I also met a lot of the other U.S. students and they all seem quite nice. I’m looking forward to making more friends from all over the world these next four months.

The mist over the ocean hides the city line and the sun on the water sparkles like fluid glass. It’s so breathtakingly beautiful that no picture could ever capture it. But I did my best.

  As the day wore on, the sky grew clearer and the water turned deep aqua-blue.

 

The pelicans look like creepy statues.

  

A group of six or seven dogs followed our group around the city. I think that their herding instincts kicked in because they “protected” us from the other pedestrians and the cars! It was really cute.

 

This dog (in the picture below) is so pretty. I named her Annabelle because it’s the second name that I thought of. The first was Maria but that reminded me too much of the sound of music. Annabelle followed us everywhere! She barked at the “bad guys” (meaning people who weren’t part of our group. She knew somehow!) and also tried to hunt the birds haha! I really wanted to keep her but Dad said no. Sadness.

The weird structure in the other picture is an outdoors music stage! It’s huge and really awesome.

 

 

 

After we toured the city I had lunch with my host family. Paty has a dog named Ron and he turned fourteen yesterday so she threw him a legit birthday party! She invited all of her friends and we ate grilled chicken, rice, corn, and salad. There was wine too and the guests kept calling for a toast for little Ron! It was hilarious. Then they brought out a cake and sang happy birthday and then THEN they had presents for that tiny dog. He received three bottles of shampoo, a bowl with his face on it, and so much dog food. I didn’t get any pictures of the party but I captured this view from the balcony shortly before the party started.

That evening, Tristan and I ventured down to the coast to get pictures of the sunset. We ran into a festival of some sort! I’m not sure what it was for but the streets were lined with cars and people and dogs and horse-drawn carts. The air was filled with bubbles and the smell of cotton candy and cigarettes.

There were two mimes playing with the traffic. They would stop a car, then wave it on then jump in front of it and act outraged. One stopped a lady who was crossing the street and gave her a big bear hug. At one point, one mime tried to climb into a car with the driver and the other jumped onto the hood while the driver accelerated the car. The crowd was roaring with laughter!

There was also a living statue. He’s a soldier with shades haha.

 

I got this silhouette photo of some students smoking next to a couple taking a selfie. So great!

 

This is the sunset over the ocean. The clouds are pinker in real life. I need to get a better camera to be able to begin to capture the beauty of Chile.

The Chilean Sunset

These unedited photos where taken from my balcony. It is beautiful and keeps getting better. My little camera cannot do the view justice. 

First Impressions of Viña del Mar

Chile is beautiful. I flew in yesterday morning and my first view of the country was from the airplane window. I saw the mountains. They are so huge and majestic!  I wish I had a picture but I didn’t think of it at the time.

We landed in Santiago and took a bus to Viña del Mar. Our host families picked us up and my host mom’s name is Patti and she’s really nice. She doesn’t speak any English so that is definitely challenging. Her house is small but cute and she has a tiny dog named Ron. She is an excellent cook too! And the view from her balcony is breathtaking.

We explored the city and this is the beach. There are ships offshore that seem to be as big as the skyscraper buildings in the city!

The street art is incredible! It’s so colourful and detailed that instead of degrading the city it only makes it better and more interesting. People also sculpt with the sand!

 

 

The beach is lined with vendors who sell handmade jewelry, clothes, and various trinkets. This little puppy is just about the cutest little thing I’ve ever seen! The other picture is of my host mom, Pattie, and her friend, Maritza. They’re so fashionable! So is everyone else in this city.

 

Here is a beautiful photo of the ocean.

These are summer vacation homes that overlook the beach in the picture above this one. So cool! They have roof gardens and look like giant steps.

There also are dogs everywhere! This one walked up to us.  It was so happy and friendly and I wanted to pet it so badly but the street dogs don’t have people so they are dirty and flee-ridden. “Es peligroso” and sad too. I want to keep one and clean it and call it George.

This one has a little jacket on! Someone loves him 🙂 There are also horse-drawn carts everywhere.

 

This rock has seals on it. And pelicans. what.

I managed to get this excellent photo of a seal with the waves crashing against the rocks behind it.

The flowers are vibrant and beautiful!

 

  

 

Chile is incredible! I can’t believe I’m here. The language barrier is really challenging and I think I might be slightly crazy for deciding to do this but I know it’s going to be an amazing experience.

!Viva Chile!