chile

LA LLEGADA
My flight got in early to the airport in Santiago and Marcela got there a little late. The two of us being the fast-moving people we are, we both started searching for each other in opposite directions. She went up and down the airport scrutinizing every tall gringo she could find and I went up and down the airport scrutinizing every short chilena I could find. I eventually came up with a plan: walk to the Holiday Inn across the street and use their internet (the airport used to have an internet cafe but it is now gone) and look up her phone number. As I was doing this, I saw her from the distance. This is where we ran towards each other in slow motion with some kind of 80s ballad playing in the background.

DE LA RAJA, WEÓN
That night I had my first Chilean once in nearly 3 years. ¡Espectacular po! We watched Chayanne rock the Viña concert on TV and crashed at her friend Carlos´s house. The next day I went with her to her job as a medical technician in the prestigious University of Chile Hospital´s lab. Marcy has requested half-days at work for this whole week so that we can hang out. We ate some huge completos (I almost wrote panchos, now that I`m argentino...) and a bunch of empanadas de queso, then walked around Santiago´s big Recoleta cemetary, looking at the graves of former presidents, war heroes, rich people, poets... Salvador Allende´s grave was one of my favorites. Very humanistic in design, with loads and loads of fresh flowers people had put there that day. We spent the afternoon sleeping in the sun at her rooftop pool (did I mention she has a sweet apartment?) then hung out with some of her friends from Valdivia. I remembered them all. Everybody looks really good - I think time has been good to all of us.

(Also I dropped off Francisco´s iPod to him. Fue exitosa la entrega.)

Today I slept in late, tidied up the apartment a little (Marcy´s joke of the day was that she has an American domestic servant), started a little sewing that I have to do (fixing my favorite jeans, my defunct Peruvian backpack, putting little flags on my big backpack...), and purchased tickets to the Dream Theater concert this Saturday (METAL PESADO YEAH!!). In the afternoon we flew around town on her motorcycle (fue bakán po gueón, te juro) and I bought bus tickets back to Buenos Aires for next week. Then we had a power siesta after eating a pizza between the two of us. Tonight we went out with her amazingly funny friends Gabi and Asunción and then danced down the street singing reggaeton songs. All the big hits from Honduras recently arrived here for South American summer.

Our Santiago itinerary: Tomorrow Cajón del Maipo, ice cream, and going out at night. Friday night is a big big dance party. Saturday is heavy metal arena rock with Dreamtheater. Sunday we´re going to work out still. Monday I catch a 20-hour bus back to my Buenos Aires querida.