Valparaiso, Latin American Law Program, Day 6

New Year's Eve!!

We slept in for the first time this whole trip.  We spent most of the day running errands.  We also got to know the other people in the hostel.  Lots of backpackers, and a regional tourist types.  Met some new friends from California backpacking for four months.  I don't think I could hack it backpacking.

Christian kept trying to help us organize transit to the party.  Ultimately, we decided to forego the party in favor of partying in the streets with locals.  The metro wasn't going to be running, and all the streets were to be cold.

After a challenging trip to the farmacia to get claritin, or something like it, we went to a restaurant called El Gordo (translated, "the fat man") for lunch.  The title was well earned.  More slop.  I already forgot the name of the dish we ordered.  But it was basically the biggest sandwich ever made.  There were three avocados worth of guacamole, at least.

After lunch we split into gendered tasks.  The boys went to buy bus tickets back to Santiago, and the girls went to the mercado to get provisions for dinner that evening.  We took the finicular to the top of El Peral on the way.  The finiculars are like big elevators, really cool.

After we ate at the hostel, we got NYE underway.  We kept walking uphill looking for a better place to watch the fireworks, but eventually settled on the cliff of El Peral with a bunch of other Chileans.  Our cups made out of plastic bottles were unacceptable to these nice Chilean women that gave us their extra cups.

At the stroke of midnight, everyone started spraying champagne, and throwing confeti.  My hair was covered with champagne the next day.  The fireworks show was one of the coolest things I have ever seen. It was a twenty-five minute show stretching 40 kilometers of the coast.

We drank champagne, learned the Chilean chant equivalent of "U-S-A". I spent most of the night chanting "Che-che-che, lay-lay lay, Viva Chile!".  Someone started a rendition of "proud to be an american".

We stopped back by the hostel on the way down to the plaza, and there was a party going on over there. It was bumping with the whole family.


Apparently, Chileans put ice cream in their wine.  We jammed out, celebrated the new year, and Kipp and I taught them how to two-step after our salsa-ing fell apart.

We eventually headed down to the plaza to celebrate with two million Chileans. There was singing, and dancing, and a concert of some kind.  We drank pisco sour out of the bottle and champagne all night.

It was an absolutely wild night.  The Chileans were really friendly (thanks mainly to Rebecca's translation skills).  We were offered motorcycle rides, more champagne, and kissed a million or so Chileans on the cheek.  Great way to ring in 2011.