Nights in Antofagasta

So manage to go out about once every week (usually with the other volunteers here in Antofagasta). Some of these experiences have been pretty ordinary and others have been rather interesting.

My first time out was probably the most exciting because I got lost on my way back to my house. I didn't know the city or my neighborhood very well and since much of Antofagasta looks rather similar to my eyes (one story house with walls and little stores with signs of “hay pan”) when the bus started going up to the top of the hill Antofagasta rests and we hadn't gone to the top of the hill going into the downtown area, I assumed I missed my stop and got off. My plan was to walk down the hill to the coast, get my bearings and then walk back up the hill to my host family's house. I had spent sometime already walking along the beach and thought I could tell where I was when I got there. Unfortunately, when I reached the beach that didn't prove to be the case, but because I had to have passed my stop I started walking back towards downtown figuring I'd recognize a landmark soon enough. It turns out though that my assumptions were all wrong and that the bus actually hadn't passed my house; the buses don't take the exact same routes going north as they do going south. It all ended up working out though. After walking 30 minutes in the wrong direction, I ran into a young couple in an old beat up van parked on the beach eating Chinese food and asked them how to get to my house. After they told me it was a long ways away, I managed to convince them to give me a ride in exchange for some cash. It took them maybe 10 minutes to drive me home, with van motor revving loudly the whole time (particular when we went up the hill).

My next time out, another volunteer and I went to a schloperia, which is basically a dive bar that typically only men go to. They almost solely serve cheap beer (Cristal, Escudo, Brahmia are the big beer brands here … much of Antofagasta income is from mining so the town and the schloperias have a blue collar feel to them). While we were talking, a Chilean man came up to our table and told us he'd buy us a round if he could join our table and talk English with us. We said sure and conversed for awhile. He then bought us another round and we continued talking. On the back from the bathroom (they had a trough just like at UMD) a different man comes up to me and speaks to me in broken English and asks if our table needed more beer. I said no definitely not because we had already drunken too much (a beer here is basically a liter) but he either did not understand or didn't listen because soon enough another round appeared at our table. After mostly finishing that, our new friends asked us if we wanted to find some girls at a discotheque but both me and the other volunteer were tired so we headed home instead.

This past weekend, the volunteers and I went to a nice small discotheque on the third floor of the Antofagasta Mall. Because of the connections of one the schools' secretaries, we didn't have to pay the cover which would have been 15 dollars! The place was very nice and it had an excellent view of Antofagasta (because at 3 stories up it was one of the tallest buildings in town. The city really looked like a carpet of lights spread out along the hill. This time I managed to stay up until 6am which is the time when parties in Chile typically end. I don't know how people here do it … as is my style I took a nap before heading out, however my host mom regularly comes back to the house at 6 am without needing a nap beforehand.

This upcoming weekend I am supposed to attend a Chilean asado (bbq) with my host mom. Details next week.