GU Abroad: House Parties and Castle Discotecas in Chile

House Parties and Castle Discotecas in Chile

Two weeks ago on our second three-day weekend of the semester, I traveled to Chile with two friends to stay at one of their aunt’s homes. The weekend was so refreshing as we lived the high-class life in Chile that included a stay at a beach apartment, a house party (our first since we have been abroad!), and a castle that had been converted into a discoteca.

The excitement of venturing to a new land started in the most unlikely of places: the Buenos Aires airport. Upon arriving late and sprinting through the airport in order to not miss my flight, I learned that my flight was not on time as the departure boards stated; strangely, it was neither delayed nor cancelled. While all of the other flights were delayed or cancelled due to bad weather, my flight to Santiago simply said “see agent”. In typical Argentine fashion, however, there was no agent to see…for three hours. As I stared at the departures board, my frustration reached its boiling point and I muttered under my breath: “you’ve got to be kidding me, what the #$%*”. The girl next to me then asked, “are you American?!” With that, the airport adventure began.

I met three girls from NYU and a boy from Franklin and Marshall who were also studying abroad in Buenos Aires for the semester and going to check out Chile for the weekend. The terminal was so crowded that we had to resort to the Duty Free shop to have some space. We made quick friends with an employee who graciously provided us with some free samples of the newest alcoholic beverages Duty Free had to offer. With that, we had a little mini-fiesta in the airport, totally casual – best flight delay ever. A few hours later it was finally announced that our flight was boarding. The flight, however, was not so enjoyable. The only thing I can compare it to is purgatory – yes, it was that miserable. The young woman next to me clenched my hand so hard for two full hours that my hand was purple. She said vamos a morir (we are going to die) easily over one hundred times as our plane struggled through some very aggressive turbulence. Not going to lie, as one who is not scared of planes and completely disregards turbulence, I pictured us nose-diving into the Andes on a few particularly discomforting jostles through the clouds. Alas, circa 3:30 am, we finally landed safely in Santiago.

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I spent one day in Santiago – a clean, organized, developed city that is a bit lacking in the cultural department, but nonetheless very nice – where we were fed like princesas and got some yanqui (yankee) tastes of home like Caesar salad and Arizona iced tea. The next afternoon, we had one last fresh, gourmet meal at the first home of our generous hosts and then it was off to their beach abode in Viña del Mar with their daughter and her three friends.

Our first night in Viña, our Chilean amigas took us to a house party before going to the discoteca. We had not been to a house party since we left the States, so it was a bit nostalgic, but in the best way. The Chileans taught us yanquis how to play their version of a drinking game – te repudio! (I reject you) – which, as you can imagine from the title, was a hilarious game. The discoteca was a transformed castle on a cliff right above the Pacific. The full moon reflected in the ocean right behind us as we danced to reggaeton and headache-inducing electro- the nauseating music preferred by young Chileans. We got home at the standard hour of 6am.

The next day, we explored Valparaíso, a larger city about fifteen minutes up the coast from Viña. Valpo- as Valparaíso is often nicknamed – is a bohemian city perched in the mountainsides overlooking the Pacific. It reminded me of a smaller, South American version of San Francisco. We took a ferrocarril (gondola) from the center of the city up to the top of the city, where we walked down and were awe-struck by the street art that decorated the city walls. The views were amazing and the city itself made me have a slight case of study abroad jealously. The one girl from Georgetown who is studying abroad there made an off-the-beaten-path choice, but it was an excellent call on her part. It’s an amazing small city that I wish I could have spent more time in, and that I think more Hoyas should look into when considering study abroad programs in South America. If you ever find yourself in Chile, head for Valpo and Viña rather than Santiago if you are crunched for time. While a lot of people in my program have been unimpressed with Argentina’s rival Chile, I loved it and cannot wait to go back.