Picture this: a paid-for field trip to the ocean, and sand dunes you didn’t even know existed until the night before, followed by a weekend of partying and exploring the coastal region of Chile. I can’t think of a better second weekend in the country to get to know everyone better, to experience the art and culture as well as the insane night life.
Our bus ride was about 2 hours, the perfect length to listen to the new 1975 song and take a nap before waking up to watch our entry to the Valparaíso area. A lot of us got our own seats which was nice, we could still talk but didn’t have to figure out where to shove our bags we’d brought for for the weekend.
The first place we stopped were the Dunas de Concon, an unreal mass of rolling dunes that were a pain to get up but provided the most amazing view of the Pacific. I’m a huge fan of the ocean these days and anytime I get the chance to see it from a higher position, away from the crowds of a beach, I’m happy. We all explored and got pictures there before rolling or sliding our way back down to Jorge and Paulina, our program directors, who were waiting for us below.
After hanging out at the Viña del Mar pier and eating churros, we all split up for lunch and multiple groups of us ended up at this tex-mex branded place with sangria and some of the best tacos ever. Then, we headed up a funicular, basically an elevator angled a little bit to get us to the top of the city, and walked over to an art museum overlooking the harbour with the coast full of colourful buildings on either side.
We spent tons of time looking at the art in the museum before we went to see the ‘real’ art, in my opinion, of Valpo- the street art that didn’t seem to stop for blocks on end. Everywhere we looked there was a mural fading into another or a whole wall of different small works or a post full of stickers and collage-style art. It was after exploring this area for hours that we took the bus back to the Viña area so those of us staying for the weekend could get to our AirBnB’s.
All the girls that were staying were in this hostel with group rooms more akin to a hotel. Since there were 15 of us we all split up but had rooms of just USAC people. In my room, we were getting showered and chilling out before we had to get ready when some other girls came in and said they were going to an empanada place that was going to close soon so we had to leave that second. We did, and I had my first official empanada in Chile- worth the wait, I’d say.
A quick stop at the grocery store a block from our place and we had some alcohol and snacks and were ready to take on Valpo for the night. My friend Henry from Semester at Sea was staying there for a few weeks to teach surfing so he brought some friends and they all went out with us too, because what better place for a SAS reunion than another foreign country?
A few drinking games and another trip to to grocery store later, it was finally time to leave. We didn’t end up at any good places in Viña, and not for lack of trying, but we did finally all manage to get to this club in Valpo that had a rooftop and was exactly what we’d been looking for (shoutout to Henry and his friends for knowing what was up.) All it took was an odd uber ride where we stopped and got gas for 20 minutes and then thought we saw our driver in the club later.
I crashed at Henry’s because we were already in Valpo near his temporary apartment and he had the coolest view of the ocean and all the buildings lit up on the hills around his place, it was unreal. The view in the morning was equally insane with the mix-and-matched coloured buildings showing how numerous they really were and the water of the ocean already shining in the morning sun.
I got back in time to meet up with everyone and get ready for a beach day. We found another, bigger, grocery store to make our lunch because at noon, most places were not open to serve food yet. My friend Kendall and I found some bread, avocado, tomato and cheese for sandwiches. Add in some plastic silverware (that I’ve been washing and reusing) and we had a little picnic on the beach.
The water was absolutely frigid, surprisingly, I guess because of how far south we really are here. That didn’t stop us from jumping in head first, though it did feel more like an accomplishment than usual.
After the beach we headed back to the hostel but not before more empanadas were bought. This time when everyone came to our room in the evening to see if we wanted food, all four of us were knocked out and ended up having to find our own place later on. That wasn’t the worst thing though because we found an amazing pizza place a few doors down from the hostel, when in Chile right?
My friend Kaila secured us free entry to this club after messaging with the owner, but we ended up just drinking screwdrivers and watching spongebob at the hostel and gave the tickets to some of our other friends. Eventually, most of us realized we weren’t going out again and ended up in the biggest of our rooms talking about stuff from home.
It was really cool getting to know people better on both sides of things, from everyone going out together to sitting on a bed and the floor hearing about who everyone is and getting a better sense of people’s personalities.
In the morning we all just hung out in the common patio area until we had to walk the 30 minutes to the bus station. On the way we found pastries and coffee and more-wait for it- empanadas for breakfast.
The bus ride was a good one, other than my insane fear of driving off the side of a mountain, because of seats that had more leg room than I even knew existed and views that made it even better.
I’d say that the timing couldn’t have been more perfect, it’s odd all living with families or in apartments and not being in a single building or space close together so we all needed this as a chance to really kick off the program. We got lucky with some of the coolest people and I can’t wait for more adventures this spring.
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