La Piojera

La Piojera is a bar in Santiago, whose name literally translate to a flea's nest. Apparently, the name was coined by a former Chilean president Arturo Alessandri in 1922 during his first visit, in which he asked, "What is this place, a fea house?" Well, La Piojera is as Santiago as it gets.

You will run into people singing with guitars and/or random percussion instruments. The night we went, a group of people were singing and dancing using an old pan as percussion.



Table full of empty teremotos cups



Terremoto ("earthquake") is first made by putting a scoop of pinepple ice cream in a cup, then filling the glass with pipeño (fermented white wine). The ice cream floats to the top is finished off with a black liquor on top.



salut!

Futbol Celebraciones

On October 10th, Chile played against Colombia and it was quite an important because if they won it, Chile would be in for the world cup. Needless to say, they won the game and are going to the World Cup 2010! We watched the game at our apartment and then celebrated with the Chileans right outside our apartament at Plaza Italia.

celebrating a goal with the people outside our window


Carabineros are ready for the mob.



When we went outside after the game, this was the scene



Celebrating with my gringo friend Phil. So funny how people took pictures of us.



Our crew of gringos and Chileans.



Either the Chileans really enjoyed celebrating with the gringo or they huddled around him solely to steal something from his pockets, because a friend of ours was pick-pocketed the next game.




So much energy in the air... and so much confetti!




If they could climb it, they did. That man is on top of a Plaza Italia sign.





We spent the rest of the night at our building's patio






Plaza Italia at around 9pm




A montage of that night.

San Pedro de Atacama

We took our first major Chile trip a couple of months ago in the northern part of Chile; the Atacama desert.

The Atacama Desert is a virtually rainless plateau in South America, covering a 600-mile strip of land on the Pacific coast of South America, west of the Andes mountains. The Atacama desert is, according to NASA, National Geographic and many other publications, the driest desert in the world. The rain shadow on the leeward side of the Chilean Coast Range and the Andes keep this over 20 million-year-old desert 50 times drier than California's Death Valley. (Wikipedia)

I have never been to a desert and was therefore looking forward to experiencing a very different and unfamiliar landscape. We spent three days in San Pedro and one day in Antofagasta- a mining city of north Chile.

on our way into San Pedro



San Pedro is a quaint little town in the dessert filled with hostels, tour companies, artisan shops, and over-priced restaurants ($8 USD for a vodka tonic!!)



View from our hostel. That is the vulcano, El Tatio



Sand boaardddiiiingg!



We had to hike our way up on the dune and it was quite exhausting, but totally worth the view










Valley de la Luna. "This valley is famous for its resemblance to the surface of the moon, owing to its different stratification and the salt formations that are caused by natural environmental factors."





Amphitheater- The actions of wind and water upon this geographical formations have created a sequence of peaks, similar in outline to the bellows of an accordion.



Amazing desert sunset.



We woke up at 3am in the morning to see the sunset at El Tatio Geysers.







natural hot spring

I love these bushes. They are called paja brava.

We saw some vicuñas on our way back. "...one of two wild South American camelids, along with the guanaco, which live in the high alpine areas of the Andes. It is a relative of the llama, and is now believed to be the wild ancestor of domesticated alpacas..."



un rio valle





I simply cannot get enough of the Andes.



llamas, obvio po.



the travel group at Laguna Piedra



We went into this freezing salt lake. "Laguna Piedra" debido a la gran concentración de sal en el agua, cualquier cuerpo que se introduzca en sus aguas flotará ineitablemente.



driving into nowhere...



Laguna Cejar, where we watched another amazing sunset.





Atacama Desert's mars-like terrain





"As the sun advances, the lagoons 'Cejar' and 'Piedra' change colors showing a turkish green radiance in its waters. A natural spectacle of great scenic beauty."







a beautiful puesta del sol



five hour bus ride back to Antofagasta



Antofagasta is a mining city in the north. They mostly mine copper









La Portada de Antofagasta.

This is a geomorphological and geological feature of sedimentary rocks and fossil remains that has been eroded by the wind and the sea for thousands of years. These agents have given shape to caverns and cliffs and have carved the great arch of La Portada with perfect detail. ( WelcomeChile.com)

my dried-out reptile-like skin by the end of the trip.