....Oceantiago?

Chile had a Dia Feriado the third Thursday in May aka long weekend for us! On Thursday basically everything was shut down to commemorate the day the Chile won the war against Peru (which left Bolivia landlocked and without access to water and has been the source of problems between the countries ever since, but...). The President, Michelle Bachelet, made a speech about boring political stuff, and made some remarks about education reform (a hot topic here) and all while this was happening I was in a charter bus traveling to the ocean. A whole protest happened and we missed it.

With our unearned vacation days, we decided to take advantage of the opportunity to see more of Chile. Just buying the bus tickets was an adventure as we tried to swim upstream in the Friday evening rush hour commotion of the Tobalaba Metro Station.We found two different bus companies: one was poorly lit, jam packed and looked like it would take years to get a ticket, but a popular service, the other was bright, clean, and basically empty. We went to the empty one. The tickets didn't cost any more, and the women who were vaguely dressed like flight attendants were quite amiable and super helpful.

A week after our big purchase, we beat the sun and got on an early bus to Viña del Mar...barely. The metro station decided to take a bit of a vacation and not open until 8:00am, two hours later than normal. This wouldn't have been a problem if our bus didn't leave the station at 8:45 and most of us lived about 40 minutes away without accounting for the time it takes to transfer trains, walk through the station, etc...Thankfully we didn't have to leave anybody behind, although we seriously considered it when two people accidentally missed their transfer train. 

Viña del Mar is a cute little beach town. Our weekend shelter was on the 10th floor of an apartment building right on the beach (yes, with a view). We woke up to salty ocean air, early bird wakeboarders, and runners and zumba enthusiasts of all shapes and sizes. In a country where obesity is a bigger problem than in the US (shocking, right), it was nice to see a community that was taking physical activity seriously. We spent a good chunk of time that weekend walking up and down the beach, people watching, window-less shopping, and trying to forget about our lack of wifi.

One night we went to a discoteca, Xtreme (so cliche) where the DJ played a bunch of early 2000's R&B and reggaeton hits...just for us. It was funny at first, but we quickly grew annoyed with all of the English lyrics. Seriously, I  did not go all the way to Chile to listen to Sean Paul and Lumidee sing about their teenage romances. Once the locals packed in out went the english songs and in came what we were looking for. It was pretty fun, mostly because the people felt the need to comment on how they knew we weren't from there not because of our obvious complexion differences, but because we could dance and Chilean girls are rhythmically challenged. But there was this one older woman who was showing us up, busting out what were sure to have been the latest moves from her beach zumba class.

It was a nice long weekend. I can finally say I have been in the Pacific Ocean! 

Poll: The club wasn't the only place where we heard American pop & RnB classics. Guess what song was playing at McDonalds:

A. Gettin Jiggy with It - Will Smith
B Thriller - Michael Jackson
C. Yeah - Usher
D. All of the above
E. None of the above, McDonald's doesn't play music.

Answer in the comment section!