I wanted to post a few photos of Isla Negra where Pablo Neruda's main home was. I'll just write a few quick tidbits too. I leave Chile in the morning and I have had a great time here. I will be back for a quick night in march in order to fly to Lima, but this is pretty much it. I look forward to the day that I can come back and do some more exploration of the south of the country; Chilean Patagonia. It is beautiful there.
There is a perception amongst North Americans, and presumably people from the other continents too, that the people of South America are all one homogenous mass of people, all sharing the same cultures, histories and ideas. That a Mexican and an Argentinian are interchangable in a story or joke. This is, of course, ridiculous, but it is indeed a widespread misconception. I have been really interested in the multitude of differences I have observed in between the countries that I have stayed in, and Chile, has been an interesting observation in that area. Seperated from Argentina by only the Andes, (I know they are big) it is amazing how different they are from their neighbors. Chileans don't tend to pronounce the letters 'd' and 's' in many words. There are times when the word demands it, but normally they don't. Entonces, is pronounced without the 's', confirmado is pronounced confirmao. It almost sounds portugese at times. They have a shit-ton of slang and those words are funny to hear and fun to put into action. 'Cachai' means, 'ya get it?' or 'ya heard me?'-as they say in New Orleans. Instead of como está?, they say como estai?...which means the same but sounds Italian. A cute girl is a mina, a handsome young man is a lolo, a girlfriend is a polola and an ugly face is a cara de poto. (literally face of ass.) Nice. In all of South America, one's age and size play frequently into what they are called. For instance, gordito or gordita means little fattie, which sounds harsh to us, but here it doesn't tend to have a mean connotation. (It can) It is more a term of endearment. Weight is an issue here, and certainly self image is too, but it isn't as touchy a thing to talk about as it is in the US. I am often called flaco or flaquito due to my accidental diet as a traveller. (Thin guy.) I also get called joven a lot. Or chico. Those are words that describe a young man, joven is literally 'young man'. These are words for people who are in between young and old. Lolo/lola and mino/mina are for the younger ones, and then you get into viejo and hombre mayor on the other end. As I mentioned before, the young ones remind me a lot of the American youth. More off the leash than in Argentina. I know I am not one to give much fashion commentary, but the haircuts that the young dudes have here are atrocious!! Many have straight black hair and slick it forward on the top and then spike it straight up at the back. These people are refered to as 'Pokemons'. No joke. Usually they have a long shoot of hair running down the back too, in memory of the lamentably rejuvenated 'rat tail'. Remember that fuckin' thing? Why in the duece would you want that? On that note, you actually see a lot of straight up 'rat tails' too. I figure that somehow it is a 'geek chic' sorta thing but it really does look bad and I am glad that we don't do this at home. (I really should not be talking though, I currently am sporting a look similar to Don Mattingly in the eighties...minus the mustache of course, but yeah, sorta like an 80's ball player. Oof.)
Youth crime is a phenomenon here. You can watch these little bastards at work at the parks and bus stations. A lot of times these folks are called 'flaites'. They are the equivalent of our wannbe white boy rappers. Here, rap is popular, but Reggaeton is HUGE!!! So these guys wear the bling in the style of the reggaeton artists. I was waiting for my bus the other day and I watched a loosely affiliated group of five little punk ass bitches scoping for victims. They are good too. Having been gotten once myself, I pay a lot closer attention now and I wanna let them steal a backpack full of skin-eating bacteria or something just to get them back. Ha ha! That's mean, and I am joking. I know that a big part of crime in South America is necesity, but these guys don't need to do it, it's just something that makes them 'men'. (In all the world it seems that one of the most dangerous things, currently and historically, is young men trying to act like 'men'. All the most horrible genocides who were orchestrated by old and smart/twisted men, were carried out on the day to day by impressionable young men trying to make their presence known as 'men'. Gangs in all parts are filled with boys in this stage. Armies, bands of thieves, juvenile detention centers etc. This concept is unrelated, but that's never stopped me before!! Ha ha! I'm stopping.)
Chileans love hotdogs. They have entire restaurants devoted to the sole production of them. They don't really eat much pasta, and the meat tends to be imported. They have a wonderful heartland full of produce, and that is all great. I will greatly miss the 'nectars' here. Passionfruit, strawberry, peach, apricot and kiwi being among my faves. A brand called Watts. I have been known to drink a liter and a half of peach nectar in one day! Take that! Ha heh! The beer is average, the coca cola is the same as anywhere else. I did hear it called something funny here though, "The black milk of capitalism", and "The dark milk of imperialism". Good ones. One guy was explaining to me that we know not to drink black water from birth. A baby will not drink bitter black water, he spits it out. But we have been conditioned through marketing to like it and crave it...it has made us its consumer. In the form of Coke. Make what you will of that, but it tells you a little about the mentality.
On the subject of corporate world domination or globalization or whatever you want to call it. I have a confession to make. I got to the point where I couldn't face another hotdot restaurant and the other choices looked gloomy so I caved in and bought a Whopper!! Yep, I did. I did it, and I except whatever stones shall be thrown later on. My future presidential candidacy will be in ruins. But here is the good part. I walked in there and there were a bunch of elderly people from Middle America in line ahead of me. I don't know where, but somewhere like Nebraska or Kansas. They were on an organized tour, enjoying Chile. The thing is, I am not sure that they knew where they were! I am sure that they knew. But I am not sure that anyone told them that here in Chile, the people speak a funny little language called "spanish". Maybe you've heard of it? I don't know. I had. But then again, I'm a young guy, and a "goddamn liberal"!! We "goddamn liberals" know that other countries have other languages! Ain't it strange. Something about God's children and the Tower of Babel. I thought those bible beaters would remember that story, seeing as it clearly is the reason that the world has different langauges and some real big problems communicating with each other. Well, obviously this "goddamn liberal" must have missed the George Bush bullshit spewing session(read: speech) where he issued the law stating that: "the world, from this moment forth, will only speak english." The language of God and the Baby Jesus. (What did God and the Baby Jesus speak before somebody came up with English? Conspiracy theories abound!) I must have had my head turned or something. Or maybe I was confused in that moment 'cause here I was, tryin' ta speak a funny little language called "spanish". My bad. Anyway, (I had to unload a little bit because these people were without shame!) these tall, lurky old men were yelling directly into the sweet faces of the young spanish speaking (!!!) counter-help in accented and colloquialism-ridden Midwest American english. It was incredible. I won't go into what they were saying, but they were so rude and impatient, I ended up wanting to bury my face in my hands to weep from embarrassment. I ended up doing a little bit of translating that made things go faster, but their order was a 'special order' in addition to being so poorly spoken, that it still took forever. I felt a little better when I asked this old guy, "hey, you do realize that in Chile they speak spanish right?" And no joking around here, he looked me in the eye and said, "Aw, they can all understand ya anyway, it's jist sometimes they don't want you to know." Wow. I could really dig into a thing like that. But you can probably imagine what I would say, so I'm not gonna. Plus, I do have respect for my elders, but come on!!! This is why they fucking hate us everywhere in the world! This is that imperialism thing we keep hearing about and pretending to deny. This is why they have paintings of the Statue of Liberty holding an armful of nuclear bombs on a normal old sidewalk on any old street in any city outside of America. But anyway, after unburying myself from my cultural verguenza, I had a whopper and it wasn't really that good. I mean, less good than average. I'm not sure what I expected. I did get a good blast of state dependent memory of many a road trip, swinging through the drive through and then getting back on the highway. That, and some entertainment from the people from my own country who still think we are in Iraq to fight for the freedom of the American Homeland. Ha ha! It's quite a world this world.
So yeah, this was again supposed to be short, but given that I don't have much opportunity to speak any english, I guess I have an easier time writing a lot in The Only Language In The World!!! Just havin' fun. Don't get all mad. So to sum up, I will miss these Chileans and their funny omittance of letters. I will miss the nectar and God knows I'll miss the wafers. It is a cool country, and I look forward to making it back someday. Chau!
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