Learning Hebrew in Santiago

Fifty-two hours is a long time on a bus. Especially when they are serving mystery meat and playing movies with the volume ridiculously loud. Jenna and I were in a BIG hurry to get off the Pullman bus in Santiago. Our first impression of the city was how clean it is and how friendly the people are. We immediatley attached ourselves to the only Asian in sight. I assured Jenna for the first time on this trip that they are resourceful people. Saiji is a delightful Japaneese man who shared a cab with us to Barrio Brasil and boldly ran around the city block with map in hand to find our hostel. We got the last three beds at Casa Roja, clearly it was meant to be our home for the next five days.

Casa Roja is a very clean and well equipt hostel. There is a large kitchen, many bathrooms, free internet, and a great pool and outdoor bar out back. We were so glad we decided to follow Saiji! This hostel, the city of Santiago, and the people we met quickly became favorites from our trip.

Friday night we shared some beers with Saiji and Andy from Australia at the hostel and then at a few smokey bars. Saturday Jenna was violently ill (better to get this out of the way early in the trip) so I wandered around the city in search of drugs to cure her. She was feeling better that evening and we managed to meet her friend Barbara, who is from Santiago, for dinner. We went to Barrio Bellevista where we happened upon cool street theater "Un Niño Soldado" and strolled past bars with live music and street vendors selling jewelry.

Sunday was election day therefore the entire country closed down! We were left to wander empy streets and lie out by the very busy pool. This suited us just fine because that is where we met Tamir and Asaf who quickly became our BFF's. Since all the restaurants were closed we decided to make dinner a group effort in the hostel kitchen. Lucky for us the Israeli boys know their way around a kitchen. We were pushed to the side and amazed at their stir fry skills. Dinner is so much better when cooked by your new BFF's! We were sad to see them off after ice cream that very evening.

Monday we did some more sight seeing around the city and then we went back to the pool. To our delight we met two more domesticated Israeli men, Itzik and Liran, and we also met Jen from Castle Rock, Colorado! The five of us spent the evening into the wee hours of the morning drinking beer and speaking three languages at a neighborhood cafe.

Tuesday the boys accompanied Jenna and I to Pablo Neruda's house for a tour and then back to the pool, where they proposed to make us dinner. Our luck could not get any better. That evening Jenna and I met Barbara out for live Cuban salsa music and dancing.

Wednesday morning we said our goodbyes to Itzik and Liran and promised to practice our Hebrew for our visit to Israel. Shalom! Time for another bus ride to the next cities..... Valpariso and Viña Del Mar!