tour guide

The past couple of days have been wonderful. Friday I woke up late, talked to Cori for an hour or so on IM, went down to COPA to meet Valeria. I'd told her I would go apartment shopping with her, so we talked for a bit in the office while she got the place ready for the weekend, and then left and started walking around the neighborhood, getting flyers and phone numbers and so on. I really like her a lot, we had fun and she ended up deciding on an apartment! It was really funny, the woman who showed it to us thought we were together (Valeria looks younger than 28 and I look older than 19, so it was understandable) and started talking about "when you have kids..." and things like that. High humor. She went to fill out paperwork and I walked downtown. Laura called around 6:30, just before Valeria and I parted ways, and we arranged to meet at 8 at metro Santa Lucia, downtown. I went to the Biblioteca Nacional, which is very pretty but was mostly closed when I got there. This week maybe I'll go back during the day and explore a little more. Then I wandered around downtown for a while, looked vaguely for a pair of jeans (my only other pair has a big hole in the crotch) and an mp3 player/radio, ran into Valeria again right outside Almacenes Paris (a big department store chain here) purely by coincidence, and turned my aimless window shopping into "I need some jeans, so I'm going to buy a pair." We went into Paris and I found a pair for like 18 bucks. Good purchase, I'm wearing them right now and like them. Vale and I parted ways again and I went to meet Laura and them. Sushi sushi sushi (so good) and then we met up with a couple of their other friends and Izaak(!), who was really good friends with Laura back in the day but hadn't seen her in years, outside the restaurant. He hung out with us for a bit but had to go catch a bus to Pucon, so we taxied on over to the jazz club.

It was pricier than I thought it would be (5000 cover, a little less than 10 bucks), so four of Laura's crowd went to HBH instead, but Laura and Katherine and Nora and I went in and ordered some drinks. Tim, Vale and Vickie came too, and then Valentín Trujillo himself came out and played a 1.5-hour set, with his 13-year-old grandson Pedro Amat Trujillo singing for about an hour of it. They were both incredible. It was a great show. And then Durham, who was there with her parents, came over to tell us that her parents had picked up our tab! Yay! We rejoined the other half of the Viña kids and went to a bar on Plaza Ñuñoa for a while. Then home.

Today I woke up, chilled for a couple of hours, ate lunch with the family, then met up with Laura and them again in Patio Bellavista, where they had ordered lunch. They ate, I got a Sprite and then I saw Durham and her parents (Candy and Weir--such great names). I went over to talk to them, and realized that I needed sunblock. The kids finished eating, paid and we walked down Pio Nono to Cerro San Cristobal (I bought and put on some SPF-30 on the way). It was a glorious day, 80, dry, cloudless, with a light breeze...mmmmm. There was a bit of a line at the funicular that goes up San Cristobal, but it moved along and we were at the top in no time. The view was spectacular, because on top of the great weather, the smog was very thin today. Really nice. We went down and then to Emporio la Rosa, the great ice cream place that's near COPA. It was jammed. Laura and I both got lúcuma milkshakes and everyone enjoyed themselves. And, of course, we ran into Durham and her parents again. The Viña kids all wanted to take naps, so they went back to their hostel and I came back here and now I'm going to go eat dinner. Still unsure what I'm doing tonight...could go to Barrio Brasil with Laura and them or to HBH with Vale and Tim. Decisions, decisions. Such a difficult life I lead. I'm feeling very nice right now. I've had a great talk with one of my best friends who I don't talk to enough, gone apartment shopping, eaten sushi, gone to a great jazz show, gone to the top of San Cristobal and walked around on a gorgeous day and hung out with a friend who I hadn't seen in ages. All pretty much stress-free. Wonderful. Okay, time to find out what the fridge has in store for me. Peace OUTSIDE!