Chile

Chile is unmistakeably the West of South America. As we crossed the border we couldnt believe our eyes, or even our ears - their spanish sound more like norwegian people trying to speak spanish, rather than latinoes. it took a while to get used too.

I was not going to go to Chile. Chile is nothing special, just expensive as hell, every one sais. All the natural beauties - you get them in Argentina for half price, the rest is just malls, cars and Coca-Cola...
I went to Chile. just crossed the border with Peru, 20 minutes inland, nothing serious. it looks like Peru more than anything else anyway - Arica, the first chilean town on the north, was conquered from Peru about 100 years ago. I was not going to go, I only went because i knew Emilio, and i wanted to visit him. I told you about Emilio - we met on the tour in the salt plains, and he gave me a lesson on anti-establishment and indigenous cultures.
I came with Stella, my friend from Chicago. the first night, shocked by the outrageous prices (which inherent outrageousness was enhanced by the fact that all the numbers are really high - a lunch costs 1700 pesos - and also by the fact that all exchange rates look like 1:135 or 100:14 so we couldnt convert it in our heads to any familiar currency - bolivianos, pesos argentinos, soles peruanos, shekels, dollars... how much the hell are 1700 pesos¿¡) so that first night we ended up eating a muffin for dinner and sharing a bed. the second night we stayed with Emilio - we got our separate room and a bed each; washing machine, fully equipped kitchen, TV, DVD player, a real living room with couches and a bunch of Emilio´s friends who all had their own keys and would pop up at any time of the day, sometimes staying over on the couch, sometimes playing the guitar till 4 a.m. spicing it up with Chilean wine - one of the best wines in the world - and funky chilean slang, that Stella and I took as a mission to decipher. a real house, a real life, real people. It turned out to be one the most amazing weeks of my trip! Emilio was a real doll. On Saturday he took us to a communist party get together. We were sitted at the table fed chicken wings and made to play domino games. Then everyone danced the Cueca. In the end they sang the Internacional - the workers´ hymn. There we met Marcos. Marcos was for justice in the world and worked as a psychologist in program helping street kids. With Stella being a digital arts graduate, and me, whatever graduate i am, he asked us to help him fix the program´s webpage. In the office we met yet more communists, were fed an amazing sea-food soup, and found out that Silvio Rodrigues is going to perform in Santiago (explanation will follow). Than we met Juan Tomas. A surfer in the morning, a children psychologist in the afternoon, and a pot-head at night. He looked all the above but a shrink - with his chocolate tan, no-sleeves teeshirt, tatoed shoulders and a really strong, beautiful chilean accent - you can probably already understand where it was heading...
he went to snorkel for sea creatures for us and we made a killer dinner, in his granny´s house. he lives with his granny and aunty, and some brothers, and cousines, and hell knows whom else. he has a 4 year old son, drives a skateboard, has his ways with women and shakes his hips like a proper latino. we had a lot of fun together. we went to watch the sea lions and pelicans in the port, jumped on a trampoline on the beach, drank beer and danced salsa, watched a movie cuddled on Emilio´s couch and had a joint on his. it was good while it lasted - 4 whole days. and then i had to go. i tried to make him come with me to the carnival, and he said he´s going to kidnap me so that i stay with him and dont go anywhere. but i left, and he didn´t come, and i havent heard from him ever since...

but i got enchanted by Chile - so unexpectedly. trying so hard all these months in Bolivia to absorb this totally different culture, to find the beauty and the truth of it - i found Chilean outward westernism so soothing, so calming. it came right on time. i´ve decided - i´m going to Santiago, i´m going to see the concert of Silvio Rodriguez. Silvio makes me shiver when he plays the guitar, he is the man who was one of the reasons for me coming to this continent, and its going to be the best present for my birthday!

So i´m leaving Bolivia tomorrow. it´s been intense, deep and life changing. i might even be back after i get a deep breath of western consumism diluted in air polution and spiced with false values. but not until i do some proper shoe-shopping!

some observations on Chile ...

Men at work - it was unbelievable but suddenly we saw men work everywhere! selling in the market, cleaning, waiting tables. men holding babies, walking children. between Bolivia and Chile crosses the border of the matriarchial sosciety and the skirt rule. interesting enough Chile has a female president...

Fashion is back - no more bad hair, bad jeans, bad shoes. there´s capital in the country and the capital is spent wisely - people follow the Vogue and dont make compromises. there are colors, there´s creativity and boldness, fashion is alive!

The Sea - Chile is a narrow and long land strip between the Pacific and the Andies. And its proud that with all that beach she has she landlocked Bolivia in the war of the Pacific taking it´s only little peace of land connecting it to the water ways. Now Chile has even more. What all that means, besides bolivians hating chileans and overthrowing the presedent that wanted to sell bolivian gas to chile, is that there´s loaaaads of amazing, cheep seafood! creatures i´ve never even seen before, taste like heaven!

The City - it´s green! yes, actual trees on the sidewalks! got so tired of gray dirty cities with narrow sidewalks where you have to step off on the road if you want to overtake another pedestrian. and something else - it´s safe! feels surreal to be walking after midnight in a south american city without trying to commit suicide.

Chilean mall is a phenomenon (and i say that coming from “Rishon-ir hakenyonim” – my hometown has the most malls in israel) – it’s ubiquitos and enormous in its size. The supermarkets are endless rows of everything. The funny thing is that the variety is not even that big – there’s just a lot of same things, but a hell of a lot! I think that malls of similar size i have last time seen in Houston, Texas, and they should not be alowed out of Texas! 2 litre coca-cola bottles, super-big family packs of chips and frozen hot-dogs are evel! But chileans seem to be in love with their middle-class comodities even more than texans. If you dont put every single fruit in a separate plastic beg you simply cant buy it! To see all this here puts things a bit in perspective...

Comfort zone – I’ve been looking for the authentic, the different, the exotic ever since i came to this continent. I’ve stayed in Bolivia for about 3 months trying to absorb the culture shock, trying to understand, trying to like it... And now I’m in Chile, as western and familiar as it gets, and it feels oh so good! I find my very victorian neighbourhood with little, Paris style cafes enchanting. I find chileans who dress european-smart with their haircuts as cutting edge as their cars more interesting than bolivians with their golden teeth, ponchos and sandals. And it creates a discord, an incongruity, a cultural clash in my head. And I cant resolve it. I dont have an answer...


The People - I had luck, I probably met the most amazing people in whole of Chile!