Lucho is my name in Chilean. My colleagues at work gave me the nickname on my first day, it was a casual joke as a means to adapt me to the country but the name stuck and I've grown so used to the name that I now introduce myself as so. "Hola, soy Lucho!"
I find it appropriate that I have different name here, given that my lifestyle is so different here .
I am El Lucho.
There are two people who know me under my real name, my secret identity: Astrid, who knew me before I had my nickname, and William, the Dutchman who feels like my connection to Europe and henceforth, home. On a side note, the poor kid got 500 euros stolen from him by his roommate a week ago. It's a shocking story that offers a great deal of reflection on trust.
To continue in the theme of being typically Chilean, I went to the most Chilean bar on Wednesday with Diego and Joaquin, the Office youngsters (despite being 4 years older than I am). La Piojera! What is la Piojera? I'm not sure whether I'm aloud to tell you for whenever I would ask people they would simply tell me where it is, and always avoid my inquiries about WHAT it is. It is hard to describe why it is so great, but I do know that it all somehow revolves around the drink they serve there - and only serve there -, the Terre-Motto (earthquake in Spanish). The Terre-Motto is a delicious mixed drink that is served with a large ball of ice cream floating on its top, nonetheless it is widely unadvised to have more than the two I had. For the people that have only one, there is more than enough space to leave your artistic mark on the walls; between the many other drawings, carvings and random objects.
My stay here is approaching its end here though, and El Lucho will no longer be, henceforth my writing stops here, for El Lucho is needed!
Friday, 14 August 2015
Tuesday, 4 August 2015
Photos- From Santiago to Valparaiso
A photo journey through central Chile
Santiago - Downtown
The Smog of Santiago from the top of Manquehue mountain
The Edge of the Andes, surrounding Santiago
The other Side of Manquehue Mountain. Endless mountains
RENCA LA LLEVA! The outskirts of Santaigo, on our way to Valparaiso
Just arrived in Valparaiso, the beautiful sky
Beginning to see some colors...
Valparaiso Graffiti
Valparaiso, the public canvas
A spikey tree:)
The coolest street in the world
A flower bath/flowerpot in the middle of the street
Still the coolest street in the world
Hippies...
A slide for easy transport around the city
The little elvator
Inside the little elevator
That's all for now :)
Sunday, 2 August 2015
Valparaiso
To my greatest joy, I went to Valapraiso this weekend.
With Astrid driving, and me in the front seat, it took us two hours to get to the seaside city: Valparaiso. Our group was composed of a 21 year dutchman named William, two Peruvian girls whose names I embarrassingly don't remember, Astrid, and I. On the journey to get there, I got to see the side of Chile (and Santiago) that was out of the bubble that I lived in. The "beautiful hilly landscape" that I expected to see was covered in rubbish and advertisements, massive, ugly billboards have been placed on the hill sides amidst the garbage bags and what little brown grass there was left. Nonetheless, Renca, a shanty-town suburb of Santiago, has a huge Hollywood-like sign on the hill it flanks, with written "RENCA LA LLEVA" -Chilean slang for "Renca rocks!"- all due to the mayor's one-time sudden inspiration for spending the city funds. All this is to say that I have left my bubble, and that Chile seems to try really hard to hide this side, which surely has more truth to it than the modern Santiago I have been living in.
Valparaiso was again, a whole other world. I don't think I have ever seen a city with more charm and colors than Valparaiso. Its innumerable amount of alleys winding up the hillsides, amazing Graffiti and charming coffeeshops reminded me of Lisbon but more Latin, and with even smaller roads. To go up the hillside we also used the small, creaking, wooden elevators that are distributed disorderly along the city's "ceros".
Astrid and the Peruvians left on Saturday evening, leaving me alone with William, the "play-date" Astrid assigned me over the basis that he is European and my age. William is a very nice Dutchman who taught me a lot about my camera but who is also very frustratingly passive most of the time. At night, together with William - who refused to drink any alcohol despite my encouragements to maybe get some activity out of him - we chanced upon a musical gathering of people from the Andes.I never thought there could be so much rhythm coming from a pan-flute and we both had a wonderful night. As we were watching the dancers, I thought to myself that I had finally found the Latin America I was looking for. To top off the greatness of our short stay in Valparaiso, the hostel forgot to make us pay! We tried to pay, but there was no one there, they really gave us no other choice but to enjoy a free breakfast and just leave.
In short, I fell in Love with that city.
With Astrid driving, and me in the front seat, it took us two hours to get to the seaside city: Valparaiso. Our group was composed of a 21 year dutchman named William, two Peruvian girls whose names I embarrassingly don't remember, Astrid, and I. On the journey to get there, I got to see the side of Chile (and Santiago) that was out of the bubble that I lived in. The "beautiful hilly landscape" that I expected to see was covered in rubbish and advertisements, massive, ugly billboards have been placed on the hill sides amidst the garbage bags and what little brown grass there was left. Nonetheless, Renca, a shanty-town suburb of Santiago, has a huge Hollywood-like sign on the hill it flanks, with written "RENCA LA LLEVA" -Chilean slang for "Renca rocks!"- all due to the mayor's one-time sudden inspiration for spending the city funds. All this is to say that I have left my bubble, and that Chile seems to try really hard to hide this side, which surely has more truth to it than the modern Santiago I have been living in.
Valparaiso was again, a whole other world. I don't think I have ever seen a city with more charm and colors than Valparaiso. Its innumerable amount of alleys winding up the hillsides, amazing Graffiti and charming coffeeshops reminded me of Lisbon but more Latin, and with even smaller roads. To go up the hillside we also used the small, creaking, wooden elevators that are distributed disorderly along the city's "ceros".
Astrid and the Peruvians left on Saturday evening, leaving me alone with William, the "play-date" Astrid assigned me over the basis that he is European and my age. William is a very nice Dutchman who taught me a lot about my camera but who is also very frustratingly passive most of the time. At night, together with William - who refused to drink any alcohol despite my encouragements to maybe get some activity out of him - we chanced upon a musical gathering of people from the Andes.I never thought there could be so much rhythm coming from a pan-flute and we both had a wonderful night. As we were watching the dancers, I thought to myself that I had finally found the Latin America I was looking for. To top off the greatness of our short stay in Valparaiso, the hostel forgot to make us pay! We tried to pay, but there was no one there, they really gave us no other choice but to enjoy a free breakfast and just leave.
In short, I fell in Love with that city.
Sunday, 5 July 2015
It's raining!
I am currently sitting on the couch of my new apartment, listening to Billie Holiday, Bonga, and other appeasing classics, recovering from an amount of piscola that i cannot recall. Piscola is a combination of Pisco(the local alcohol) and coca-cola. It is a common Chilean drink, known specifically for its efficiency in getting you very drunk, very fast. As you may already know - you probably don't actually - Chile won the Copa America last night, beating Argentina in penalty kicks and achieving the first Chilean victory in History. Rolando, and his Chilean friends were overwhelmed with joy, they watched the match events over and over again, drinking piscola, and shouting from the balcony "Vamos Chile!" and "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!" to passersby who answered with the same chants. I joined in the enthusiasm as much as I could, Rolando gave me a Chile T-shirt to wear ,I now know half the words of the traditional Chilean Football chant, and of course, I drank piscola.
It's raining for the first in 4 months today, as if even the weather is celebrating the victory. Somehow the rain is a perfect weather for this Sunday, it suits the emptiness of this hungover city.
Tomorrow I start working again, get back into the rhythm, I expect that they will give me work this week, because last week, all I did was invent my own work and try to look productive.
I'll finish on that note as I need to go back to doing nothing.
It's raining for the first in 4 months today, as if even the weather is celebrating the victory. Somehow the rain is a perfect weather for this Sunday, it suits the emptiness of this hungover city.
Tomorrow I start working again, get back into the rhythm, I expect that they will give me work this week, because last week, all I did was invent my own work and try to look productive.
I'll finish on that note as I need to go back to doing nothing.
Wednesday, 1 July 2015
Another Bee in the Beehive
Chile won against Peru, and is going to the final, but that is not what I want to write about today.
Tuesday was my first day at work, CRU Consulting : the firm that knows everything single detail on the mining industry, especially Copper (Cu); given that Chile is the largest manufacturer of Copper in the world.
To get to the business district from my small hostel in the city center, one has to take the metro...
I got off my first crammed train at Baquedano station and needed to make a transfer for line 1. I got up the stairs and the entrance to the next line was blocked by two security guards holding two barriers together (like those you see at cinema lines for example). I saw that everyone seemed to be flocking towards the barriers so I figured that that must be the right direction nonetheless. I then realized that, for some reason, everyone seemed to be taking a stance as if he had instead fired a shot in the air after counting down from 3, everybody started running towards the platform, a swarm of suits and briefcases rushing for the next metro. Once I arrived at the platform, I saw why people were running, a crowd big enough to full up two whole trains was standing on the platform, waiting calmly and patiently until a train arrives and everybody begins the frenzy of pushing and shoving to reach the inside of the train. My technique was to just sink in the crowd and let the movement created by the pushers, slowly direct me towards the train, I don't know precisely by what mechanism I finally ended up in a metro, but I managed, alive. My face stuck against the window, my button-up shirt sticking out neatly over my cotton jumper, I was just another hen in the chicken farm...
Tuesday was my first day at work, CRU Consulting : the firm that knows everything single detail on the mining industry, especially Copper (Cu); given that Chile is the largest manufacturer of Copper in the world.
To get to the business district from my small hostel in the city center, one has to take the metro...
I got off my first crammed train at Baquedano station and needed to make a transfer for line 1. I got up the stairs and the entrance to the next line was blocked by two security guards holding two barriers together (like those you see at cinema lines for example). I saw that everyone seemed to be flocking towards the barriers so I figured that that must be the right direction nonetheless. I then realized that, for some reason, everyone seemed to be taking a stance as if he had instead fired a shot in the air after counting down from 3, everybody started running towards the platform, a swarm of suits and briefcases rushing for the next metro. Once I arrived at the platform, I saw why people were running, a crowd big enough to full up two whole trains was standing on the platform, waiting calmly and patiently until a train arrives and everybody begins the frenzy of pushing and shoving to reach the inside of the train. My technique was to just sink in the crowd and let the movement created by the pushers, slowly direct me towards the train, I don't know precisely by what mechanism I finally ended up in a metro, but I managed, alive. My face stuck against the window, my button-up shirt sticking out neatly over my cotton jumper, I was just another hen in the chicken farm...
Sunday, 28 June 2015
Copa America
My first day in the city turned out to be a lot more fun than expected. Some of you may not know that the Copa America (of Football) is currently at a stage of quarter finals. I have a Colombian roommate - well, sadly she left last night at 3 am - who saw my boredom and invited me to watch the match that was that night : Colombia vs. Argentina. At the Bar, we joined a Zapata-inspired writer from Mexico and a charming Chilena (I'm hoping to see more of Anakaren in the future). Sadly, Columbia lost; but Brasil got kicked out by Panama yesterday and tomorrow Chile is playing Peru in its home-country, a night I'm looking forward to.
My Canon S110 has become my favorite companion for exploring the city, here is her point of view:
My Canon S110 has become my favorite companion for exploring the city, here is her point of view:
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