Back

We're back in Chile, bid our farewells to Peru and are back to the rolling cerros of Valparaiso. But not for long...I think the reality of the fact that our trip is already halfway over has set in, so we're frenentically traveling the continent, experiencing and drinking (literally) it all in, trying to make the most of this Southern springtime.
Last weekend, we crossed the Cordillera and ended up in Mendoza, Argentina. I had been told (by reliale sources) that all Argentinians are beautiful, but I was utterly unprepared for the jaw-dropping beauty of the people there. Imagine Gael Garcia Bernal, Gisele...then drop them down into more relateable models, and you have the image of Argentinians (at least in my experience). As well as being gorgeous, Argentinians are friendly and more boisterous than their Chilean neighbors, lounging and chatting animatedly in outdoor cafes under the umbrella of Mendoza's tree-lined calles. The food is amazing and ridiculously cheap, the shopping better than good and the entire atmosphere dripping with life and sensual beauty. I love Argentina. Already plans are in the making for a trip to Buenos Aires, the Argentina capital hugging the Atlantic, and possibly to Uruguay.
I'm in my friend Ti's house off Calle Valparaiso now, eating popcorn and half-watching Amores Perros. We're trying to pick out all the Mexican slang, and it reminds the girls of the way I talk, with my faux-Mexican accent. Better than a Chilean one, I figure, since words just sound better and fuller, somehow, in mexicano.
There are so many little idiosyncratic things about this place that I'm going to miss when I go back...the stray dogs, the agua con gas (carbonated mineral water that is the norm here), the jotes en las calles, the pisco, the sunset over Valpo, the crazy dude with bandaids on his face on the corner. All of the things, some ugly and some beautiful, that compose the urban landscape of Vina, and of my Chile. Sometimes, as much as I hate it, I remember how much I'll miss the omniscient "Siii po," the quintessential Chilean saying. How lucky we are to be part of our families, part of the cultura, part of life here. I'm going to miss it, even if I do find myself holed up in Mexico, like I've always dreamed I could be.
But the movie is calling me back, the sound of the streets and the eventual walk back home by the ocean, up Balmaceda. I'll pass Cafe Journal and the stray dogs, the lights and the smells. And it will be my Chile, if only for a little longer.