meet the artists

After a morning of crazy kids at St. Luceo Theresa de los Andes and an afternoon of bandaid-vendors, micros, and homework I headed to Católica´s medical services to regain my hearing. As I searched for the right building, I walked past twice, entering a semi-shady door that was made safer in my mind by the presence of a guy in a PUCV jacket who was cleaning the patio. Up a tight three-story spiraling staircase, I found myself in the office, wishing I had looked up medical words previous to my visit, like "appointment," "prescription," "dizzy," things I should probably know how to communicate. I got by ok anyway, and the doctor thankfully gave me a prescription for 10 days worth of antibiotics. He looked in my ear and said "you have sand!" Fantastic, it´s still packed in there.

I use any excuse to spend my free time exploring Valparaíso, so looking for a pharmacy was just as good as any, though of course they are everywhere and I had no real need to explore at all. My wanderings took me past a small mall called Tres Palacios. This was noteworthy for two reasons: the walkway extended in a coninuous ramp in a fairly tight spiral all the way to the top, and it was lined with mirrors. There were mirror panels all over the place, anywhere there was wall space. The back stairwell was lined entirely with small rectangular mirrors. It was an odd place, one which I have never seen before despite passing it all the time.

Onward to Ascensor Espiritú Santo, in Cerro Bellavista. I sought only to pass through here to visit new places in other cerros, but I was detoured by the museo Cielo Abierto once again, the open museum in the streets. Past the mosaic benches and murals, I came out of the museum onto calle Héctor Calvo Jofré. Here I encountered two artists working on mosaics, on lamp posts. There names were Alex and Gonzalo, locals of cerros Alegre and Bellavista. They were exceptionally friendly, which led me into two hours of conversation. Real people, a more real Valparaíso for me. After a while Gonzalo motioned me over to the entrance to one of the museo streets, and I followed back to the mosaic benches. Alex's work. More mosaic benches, his work. I had just met some of the finest street artists in the city!! He showed me one that he made, with a background of the same colored tiles and several colorful ones in the middle. He pointed to the houses to the right. Those colorful tiles were the houses, and the ascensor was Espiritú Santo. These guys are my heroes. How honored I am to have met them! Another fantastic chance encounter. I will be back to see their progress on the mosaic lamp posts.

From there I explored in Cerro Yungay and made my way back home for some quick skyping (both with the US and within Chile), and then met up with Rodrigo, my long lost friend from Dani's birthday party who I do not see nearly often enough. We made plans to explore Cerro Castillo en Viña, walked on the beach until our legs ached (which took all of about 10 minutes,) and then I finally got my Sibaritico experience. This is Viña's famous completo eatery. Completos remember are hot dogs served traditionally with avocado, tomato, and mayonnaise, among other delicacies such as sauerkraut, ketchup, ají, and who knows what else. This place is well know not for its glamour (you can't even eat inside, there are no seats,) but for its massive completos. Mine was no kidding about 4 inches high (sigh, ok, 10cm) and included about a cup and a half of condiments (sigh, 236ml, if that is what they even use) and two hot dogs. My intake of cholesterol has easily quadrupled in my time here, due in part to the 5 completos I have eaten since my arrival. When they make the completo, they put a slab of mayonnaise and a slab of palta, easily half a cup of each, probably more. It was fabulous. By the time I met up with my conversation group in cafe Baúl I was ready to fall over from ear pain and fatigue.

In conclusion, today was packed as full as my ears: 4 hours at the school, entertaining micros, hw/chatting with Jun and Nelson in the PIIE office, the doctor, walking around Valpo, meeting street artists, lunch (5pm), walking with Rodrigo, and meeting my conversation group at midnight. By the midnight meeting in café Baúl, I was so tired/unable to hear anything/nauseous that I barely made it to a micro to get home.