Los Mechónes -- Chilean rite-of-passage

For a few weeks now I've young people like these guys walking around the streets of Santiago.  They're covered in what looks to be dirt or ash, with gross, clumpy hair, torn clothing, and bare feet.  They go from person to person in the city with their hands outstretched looking for money.  At first I thought they were just homeless people working way too hard for a few hundred pesos, but last week I found out that this is actually a semi-organized "initiation" activity that takes place in the universities of Santiago and around Chile.

At the beginning of the school year every March, the upperclassmen of the local universities confiscate the school supplies of the freshmen students, requiring them to beg in the streets to make enough money to recuperate their belongings.  The fee for each "mechón" (meaning "tuft of hair") is usually 5-7,000 pesos ($10-$15USD).  As part of tradition, the freshmen cover themselves in disgusting liquids, usually ordinary kitchen condiments (although I've heard of mechónes using body parts of dead animals), and hit the streets to beg for the cash to regain control of their school packback and clothing items.

Rumor is that with the money from all this work all the students get together for a large party to kick of the new school year.

Other rumored initiation activities include the kissing of a slaughtered pig and drinking alcohol along with raw seafood.  Sadly, in the last few years there have been a handful of violent outbursts that have resulted in the hospitalization of a number of students.

I found these guys on a sunny afternoon walking down Alameda, a main street in Santiago centro.  The smell was STRONG, I could barely stand there long enough for the photo.

Guys covered in ketchup, flour, mustard and vinegar.  Horrendous smell. 

The Repair Shops of Santiago

One of the benefits of Santiago is the number of repair places, for your clothes, your shoes, your electronics, etc.  Handiwork seems to still be valued here, and it's a great thing to pay a few pesos to get a favorite clothing item back in useful condition.

I recently had piled up a small stack of clothing that needed a repair -- jeans with a hole in the crotch (don't ask), dress pants (that I had just bought) with a 3-inch tear at the back, and a button-up shirt with multiple seams falling apart.  I made my way to my tried-and-true repair shop (that I used before for a few items), Josephine's Taller de Costura in Providencia.  The cheerful lady said she could get the repair done in less than a week for 9,000 pesos (USD$19).  The next Thursday I picked up my garments, all repaired with care, and snapped a very proud photo of Josephine (and least I think she's Josephine....I'll ask next time).

After I picked up my clothes I grabbed lunch at the little diner next door.  I enjoyed a tasty meal of a quiche-like thing (with vegetables), a salad, rice, a drink and watermelon for dessert.

I had another problem with my dress belt -- one of the two screws that attached it to the leather belt had gone missing.  I took it to a shoe/leather repair shop (that also makes keys), and the guy quickly put a rivet in the buckle to make it as good as new again.  An awesome deal for about USD$2.

Josephine's Taller de Costura (Sewing Workshop), my go-to place for clothing repairs.

One of the ladies of the packed workshop. (Could it be Josephine?  I don't know, will have to ask next time.)

$4 lunch next door to Josephine's.

Key and shoe repairshop, a location for a belt repair.

The inside of the shop, taken from the perspective of the shoe-vice tool.

A Run on Cerro San Cristóbal (St. Christopher Hill)

For exercise I'm fortunate to have access to Cerro San Cristóbal, a hill that rises about 1,000 feet from the rest of Santiago.  Running the 4 blocks to the hill takes me past Pablo Neruda's home, now a museum, and up past the National Zoo.  The smells can be strong and there is usually a bit of activity from visitors and cyclists on the paved paths on the hill.

The climb to the top is fairly steep, and the views of the city are impressive.  Round trip for the path I take (which goes about 2/3 of the way up) takes about 45 minutes.  Running near sunset is best, with nice views of the shadows on the surrounding hills.

Stretching out in front of my building.

Past Pablo Neruda's old home, now a museum.  This is an outdoor ampitheatre just outside the museum.  During events it becomes a water sculpture, with water being released from the top level and running down in-between the seats.

The main entrance to the park. 

Past the Zoo on the hill.  The animal smells here are quite strong!

Many biciclists frequent the roads on the hill.  A hard workout going up and a thrill to fly back down.

A view of the city.  The tower there being built will be the tallest in South America when it opens in the next year.

Past the palm trees in this very tranquil area.

View from the back of the hill.  I love how the shadows appear on the angular parts of the hills in the evening.

Street art on the way back home.

Trip to Mendoza, Argentina's Wine Country

Julia and I set out in late February for a trip to Mendoza, the center of wine country in west Argentina, about 120 miles northeast from Santiago.  The trip takes about 7 hours by bus, including a one to two-hour stop at the customs office at the border, deep within the mountains.

Our trip started out at 10 pm on Friday night in the bus station in Santiago.  We rolled out shortly after, making our way toward the mountains.  The clear, starry sky could be seen from the bus windown in-between light segments of sleep.  At about 2 am the bus slowed after the steepest climb of the trip -- nearly 30 back-and-forth switchbacks that brought us up to the Chile-Argentina customs office.  After standing in line in the chilly air, getting our passports stamped and processed we made our way back to the bus which finally took us to Mendoza by about 5 am.

Julia and I slept on the uncomfortable bus station benches until the station coffee shop opened and we could get some authentic café con leche and medialunas (pastries).  We then made our way to Hostal Lao, whose #1 rating (in South America) wasn't hard to believe -- we were greeted courteously and found the place to be clean and stylish.

I had contacted a fellow Ohio State Alum who had given us some advice for Mendoza -- namely, to take a bike tour of the wineries and to attend the evening wine festival in the center of town.  Taking Leti's advice, Julia and I finally were able to grab a bus for the 45-minute bus ride to the south of town where we connected with Bicicletas Baccus (Baccus meaning the God of the Grape Harvest), picked up our two-wheeled rides, and cruised the lazy, rocky streets to two wineries.  At the first, Nieto Senetiner, we experienced the typical tour and wine tasting.  At the second we just had a simple lunch and glass of wine.  Personally the experience was fun (riding bikes, seeing the city), but the specific wine tour I could take or leave (IMO -- once you've seen one of 'em, you've seen 'em all).

In the evening Julia and I shared a 1 kilogram steak at the stylish Florentino Café Bistro in Mendoza, then made our way to the wine festival where we met up with Leti (and thanked her for all her good advice), cruised the booths, and drank a few glasses of the area wines.

The trip was capped off with the busride back through the mountains on Sunday afternoon.  The views are breathtaking and the switchbacks were relentless (about 30 hair-pin turns in total). 

A wait in the wine cellar signing paperwork for our rental bikes.

Cruising the tree-lined streets in south Mendoza.

Our first winery.

Rows of grapes next to one of the winery buildings.

Streets of Mendoza.  Large trees run down just about every street.

Saturday night wine festival.

Hostal Lao backyard.

Back to Chile over the Andes.

Rolling past deserted ski lodges and tiny villages.

My Commute

A quick peek at my morning "commute."  It takes me about 15 minutes to make it to the city center, where most of my classes are held.  It's a real joy to be able to get to work on bike -- I really like making my way through the city streets, past the people going to work, the vendors selling newspapers and drinks, and the sleeping dogs.

Today my first class started at 8:30 am.  It was a very rare day in Santiago because of the all the cloudcover.

Down a flight of stairs, hit the buzzer and go through the front gate.

Get ready to shove off from the building.

Down the street, making my way toward the center of town.

Past the University of Chile School of Law building.

Over the Mapocho River toward Plaza Italia, one of the main hubs of Santiago.

Take a right, cross the street and enter Parque Forestal.

A few minutes on the gravel through the park.

Back onto the road.  The buildings are getting a little bit bigger now.

Past the Bellas Artes metro stop.  This spot is very important to me as this was where I got my start in Santiago in early September 2010.

Weaving back onto the sidewalk to beat the traffic.  Notice that the sidewalk has been "watered," a very common practice in Chile (not sure why).

Making my way through the Plaza de Armas, the tradicional, old center of town.

Some of the buildings in the Plaza de Armas.

Location of my first class of the day, in the Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores, directly across from La Moneda.

La Moneda, the President's palace.

Past the giant Chilean Flag in front of La Moneda.

Down the sidewalk on Alameda (officially Avenida Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins).

Past an old church.

Past 38 Londres, infamously known as a place of torture and cruelty during the first years of the dictatorial regime in the 70's.  

Intersection of Londres and Paris streets -- very European.

Arrive at the office, door is on the left.

The Coast for a Day -- El Quisco, Isla Nega and the Home of Pablo Neruda

A daytrip to the coast to visit Pablo Neruda's house and do some exploring started with an 8:45 am bus in Santiago.  Julia and I arrived in El Quisco around 10:30, a small, dull beach town about 2.5 miles north of Isla Negra (and Neruda's house). After a breakfast of turkey and cheese sandwiches on the beach started our way south along the rocky coast toward Isla Negra. The path included scrambling over large boulders and through marshy fields of flowers and brush, talking to some locals about how to get to Isla Negra, relaxing on a large rock to take in the sight of the powerful waves, and walking about a mile along the main, paved road until we arrived at the signs pointing to Neruda's house.  In between we stopped at a restaurant on the road to fulfill my desire for a steak and share a liter of beer.

Neruda's house (and the accompanying museum/gift shop) has a less-than-stellar review in the guidebook.  Visitors must take a tour to see the house, at a cost of 3,500 pesos (USD$7) for the English tour and 3,000 pesos for the Spanish tour.  We took the Spanish tour, which was led by our guide with a theatrical voice and presentation of the elements of the home.  The house was filled with trinkets and ship memorabilia, namely sculptures of women and other objects that were at one time affixed to the bows of ships.  There were also large collections of other unique objects, masks from Africa, musical instruments, a large bug collection (with some GIGANTIC bugs), shells and a life-size wooden horse for which Neruda threw a house-warming party.  The doors and hallways were very small (like a ship) and the views of the ocean and coast from the large windows were breathtaking (especially from the second-floor bedroom).

Overall it was a worthwhile trip, and the experience at Neruda's home far surpassed the lame review in our guidebook.

View from the bus, traveling east from Santiago.

Long walk along the rocky coast, very large waves here.

Artsy bus stop, made partly of glass bottles.

Helloooooo.

Path down to Pablo's house.

Neruda's house.  We weren't permitted to take photos inside.

The house, built like a ship with small doors and tight hallways, had an amazing view of the rocky coast and powerful waves.

Front of Neruda's house.

Fitting meal:  empanada with mushrooms, chicken and cheese. 

Cruising back to the bus station.