Paola Ramos, Salsa Teacher

im starting to think that dancing and language are one in the same.
dancing is like the language of your body whilst spoken language is that of your mind.
certainly both are just as important for getting to know south america and south american people. knowing the language is crucial to breaking away from the tourist loop and meeting some south americans. but if you do get to know some south american people sooner or later you will find them dragging you out on the dance floor where you will either sink or swim.

Paola Ramos is the salsa teacher who taught me some lessons in Lima Peru.
she just contacted me to let me know that her new blog is now up and running.

So if anyone out there is thinking of going to Peru. no doubt you will pass through Lima,
and i strongly recommend doing a few lessons so you can start enjoy Latin America properly!

here is Paola` s blog
Dance with Pao


and heres some really good salsa...
Willie Colon - Talento de TV

Typically Chilean

daniela pours a pint in "st patricks day bar" in santiago chile.

something you have to love about the chilean people its their love of other cultures. there is an irish "themed" bar just down the road from my hostel with some good looking leprechauns.....





"la piojera", Santiago, Chile

depite what you can learn about a country from guidebooks and internet and so on, theres nothing quite like having a local person show you around.
daniela , invited myself and some of the guys to a bar/restaurant that serves typical chilean food. the place was called "la piojera", which apparently comes from the word "piojo" which (though literally means head lice! is also a chilean slang word for drunk. so, i guess "la piojera" is something equivalent to a name like "the drunk tank, or the watering hole" or something to that effect.
from the outside its appearance doesnt give much away. i would never have noticed it otherwise.
the place had a great atmosphere, there were two guitarrists playing chilean cueca music and other south american songs. sometimes some drunk locals would make a request and sing along to the song.

most interesting wast the drink that everyone was drinking.

"terremoto" (earthquake)

this drink consists of a type of fruity white wine
and some pineapple flavoured icecream sitting on top. im told this is a kind of icecream that is made with water and not milk.
its quite a nice drink! especially when the icecream starts to combine with the wine forming a kind of alcoholic milkshake.
take my word for it though, this drink is strong.


tom (ireland), unknown typical chilean customer of this pub, Kevin (ireland)
as we were taking some fotos outside the bar, this small fellow walked out just in time to have a picture taken.

here is some cueca music (ctrl & left click to open in new window)

then daniela decided to show us another chilean phenomenon ...

"cafe con piernas" (coffee with legs).
This is a typically chilean phenomenon, basically its a cafe with loud music and waitresses wearing next to nothing, serving cofee.open during business hours only. they are found in shopping centres , main streets..all over the place.i did mention these cafes before in the blog, but this particular cafe had a bit more character.
i wonder how such a business would go down back home? i guess the owner would either become a millionaire or be sent to the gallows.

i have to say i quite enjoyed being the only one who spoke spanish & english in this place, meaning that everyone had to come to me when they wanted to say something. i decided to surprise kevin by asking a waitress if she would like to dance with him since its his last night in south america. it was funny to see kevins suprise as this leather-booted woman takes a liking to him out of the blue.


daniela me had done a project on cafes con piernas when she was in college, she visited many places and interviewed the waitreses. from her research she found that in fact the main reason customers went there was for someone to talk to! well...i can affirm that it was as good a place as any to practise my spanish.

heres the kind of music you might hear in a cafe con piernas. and you say you dont like reggaeton:?
la vecinita tiene antojo




then we headed back to the hostel bar for the usual party thing. its always somebodys last night. theres a table tennis table in the back yard of the hostel, since there are only two bats, doubles must be played with frying pans. creating a new game "pan pong"

pan pong


Talita (brazil), Myself, Daniela (chile)



tom (ireland), colin (australia), paddy (ireland), Kevin (ireland)

paddy in the picture above, decided to shave off one half of his beard as a party piece for his last night in santiago. the funny thing though is he packed the razor in the bottom of his rucksack and didnt have time to get it before heading to the airport at 7am this morning. so he had to go with half a beard.


silly money
as i mentioned before , chilean money is in the thousands.
you will hear one thousand being referred to as 1 "luca".
and one million being referred to as 1 "palo"
1000 pesos is basically 1.32 euro give or take.
meaning that 1 peso is worth about 1/8 of a cent. but interestingly they still make the 1 peso coins.

though chilean money does seem ridiculous at first, you soon get used to it and realise its quite a strong currency.

now heres what i call a weak currency.......

a friend showed me a one hundred billion dollar bill! he had aquired during a trip to zimbabwe in africa. apparently its worthless.

thaughts from a swimming pool

i am in a hostel in santiago called "la casa roja". it is a really excellently designed. its one of those super hostels that provides you with everything you need, a swimming pool, all night bar, internet and so on..

everythin you need in fact to never have to actually go out and meet any local people. and the truth is that most travellers are indeed perfectly happy that way.

this hostel does have a charm though, i too have been stuck here for a few days catching up on sun tan which i feel is quite justified given my "daz-white" skin.

i have met many good people here. from such places as england, australia, canada,israel, brazil and last but not least ..ireland.

just like lima, cuzco and la paz there are certainly no shortage of irish here.

i teamed up with a group of Irish lads who knew eachother from buenos aires and we went out to nightclubs for a few nights. i didnt want them to miss the action in santiago but it was hard for me to motivate them come out early because they are used to doing things a little different in buenos aires. apparently the nightclubs just get going at 2.30am over there and the party virtually never stops. i must verify that when i get there... it certainly makes the 1am to 5am time frame in chile seem quite conservative.

james(mayo), ross (antrim), paddy (dublin), tom (mayo) dan (dublin). and little Natalia from Brazil in the middle.

being in a large group, deciding where to go was an exercise in diplomacy. someone didnt like techno music, another few didnt like drum and bass, there was no way anyone was going to chance their arm at salsa and all of them were unanimous about avoiding reggaeton at all costs. personally i think avoiding reggaeton in south america is like trying to avoid rice in china. but how and ever we did find one style of music that kept everyone happy.

80`s music

and we discovered that santiago really is a place with a niche for everyone, we went out to some seriously eighties nightclubs for a couple of nights in a row. one nightclub known as "blondie" was notably full of drag queens and such. its not uncommon for groups of travellers in their quest to avoid latino music, to unwittingly end up in a gay club. so it is worth noting (if your interested) that, terrifying as it may be for us gringos to dance to latino music , you can be reassured that its quite hetrosexual for the most part. everyone had a really good few nights though. and i was reminded just what a hurricane it is to party with a few irish again.

on the sunday the main group of people in the hostel decided to stay around the pool for drinks while brazilian natalia, irish tom and myself decided to go out. this time i excercised my 33% vote to get them to come along to a salsa club.

Marcela from Chile gives Tom his first introduction to salsa.

heres some colombian salsa that they played in the club that night

(ctrl & left click to open in new window)

Guayacan - Oiga mire vea

.

latinos have their own 80's music too

click the link to check it out.

(ctrl & left click to open in new window)

Chayanne - Fiesta en America

Valparaiso: merengue, cuba libres and graffiti.

i woke up this afternoon feeling rather chewed up and spat out after one too many cuba libres (rum & coke) last night in the nightclub. though it was 15.30 in the afternoon i was able to have some breakfast which jorge (the guy who runs the hostel) had left out. i have come to think of hostel "horizonte" more like jorges apartment than a hostel. himself and maria have been excellent hosts. they broaght me and the others out to the bars and clubs every night. sometimes i think it must be the ultimate job to run a hostel, getting to meet people and go out all of the time. though it does require energy and a love of dancing. the chileans have no shortage of that.

maria, jorge and anna

i want to embrace the dancing thing with the same fearlesness as i have done with the language but as with language learning the first hurdle of forming a simple sequence is the hardest part.
the club we went to played song after song of chilean music to which the crowd seemed to know all of the words. just on hearing the first note of the song, everybody in the club would scream with joy whilst me and anyone non chilean would just look around to try to wait for a sign of what kind of music was about to play. interestingly many songs have a special dance routine, sometimes the dancelfoor wold form a kind of dance unit where everbody would step to one side, then to the front , then to the other side and so on.. similar to line dancing i suppose. i have to confess to standing on the sideline on occasion and sipping a cuba libre during some of those songs, waiting for the next merengue or salsa tune so i could go out and try to work on my novice steps. sigh! it will come together sometime.



merengue dancing. this involves lots of twists and turns like salsa, however the footsteps are (one,two,one two) like walking. its both funny and very beautiful to look at. merengue music is kind of like salsa but with a fast techno beat.

this video i found demonstrates it pretty well
(ctrl & left click to open in new window)
merengue dance


amd heres an example of the music
(ctrl & left click to open in new window)
merengue mix



group dance routine to some song



everyone going nuts to some chilean ska music at around 5am.
.
.
.
in my hungover state i finally summoned up the common sense to leave the hostel and take a final walk around valparaiso. i felt the intense heat of the sun as soon as i opened the door. sunny weather makes a hangover a little easier i think. i took a stroll around and photographed some more of the incredible graffiti and other sights around the town before hopping on a bus at 22.15 back to santiago.

one of many street performances for the february festival in valparaiso.

Valparaiso: more fotos

Valparaiso : new day a new town

"To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the pleasantest sensations in the world." - Freya Stark

just two hours from santiago lies a town with its own special character. i decided to pay a visit.


Song about Valparaiso
palmena pizzaro - valparaiso, joya del pacifico (jewel of the pacific)

this says: "turn off the TV, Live your life"

lots of street dogs around , i think they have a good life here.

play on words : "i love valpo" or "i love val, po".

"po" is a chilean slang word, po, which they say all the time, po.

samba, bossanova band plays in a bar in valparaiso.

drum & bass in club "subterraneo" in providencia, santiago