Some fotos

A couple of fotos from our trip to Valpo/Viña a couple of weekends ago (I know, I know... sorry for the delay :) ).  Like usual, I have borrowed some pictures from friends; the source is (always) credited at the bottom of the photo.

First, we visited one of Pablo Neruda's houses in Isla Negra (he has three: one in Valpo, Santiago, and Isla Negra).  Gorgeous! The man had good taste in property.  He built his house with the idea of making it a boat on land; it was really a cool thing to see.  I'm definitely ready to move in.

                                                                                                     

                                                                                                          ©Kaitlin King

 Right on the sea.  Gorgeous.

Later, we headed over to Viña, where our hotels were, and had dinner in Valpo.  Some somewhat blurry photos of Valparaíso:

 

at night...

...and during the day:

Valparaíso has flat parts (the picture above), but something like 98% of the population lives on the cerros (hills).  The houses are literally one on top of the other, connected by a bunch of really narrow, sketchy pathways/staircases:

...imagine being faced with this guy on the way back from the bar, yeah?

Here you can kind of see the one-house-on-top-of-the-other thing.

While in Valpo, we saw a performance by a local musician named Pascuala Ilabaca (click the link to go to her Myspace page).  Really cool.  She played the accordion and sang for us (her own songs and covers of more traditional pieces).  If you click here, you can watch her (awesome) version of Chilean folklore legend Violeta Parra's "Puerto Montt está temblando" (the video is not too great, but it's the only one I could find).  The lyrics describe Parra's experience with an earthquake in May of 1960; pretty fitting given our little "experience" at the beginning of the semester, yeah?

Anyways, after some time in Valparaíso, we visited a vineyard on our way home:

Me and my friend Matt, mid-wine-tasting:

Finally, we paid a visit to the sanctuary of Chile's first saint: Teresa de Los Andes.  It was a beautiful sight to see:

Anyways, that's about it for right now.  This week in school is going to be pretty stressful, but afterward I should have some time to relax.  This weekend we're set to go build houses in the south (FINALLY), so I should have some good stories to bring back from there.  Until then, hope everything is going well with you all; ¡que les vaya bien! ♥