Santiago: City of Jugglers

After a few glorious days spent relaxing at the beach and exploring some coastline, we splurged on a luxury overnight bus and woke up in Santiago. We immediately set off to find a place to stay and checked out some recommendations that we got from a hostel webpage and our tattered Lonely Planet guide to South America. They were nicer than many hotels I´ve stayed at, more like a backpackers club house, than a truly no-frills place to stay. 3 had pool tables and one had a pool. With a swim-up bar. They were all a little out of our price-range, though they assured us they were the cheapest places to stay in town. Soon enough though, we found that to be entirely untrue. There was a small, quaint alley near one of them, with a cobbled street and buildings of a classic European style of architecture, clothes drying and hanging plants from several balconies, and a neon sign that read ¨Hotel Saturno.¨ We decided to check it out and I think I fell in love the moment I saw that their lobby was illuminated with a black light. Sexy. Dead sexy. There was smooth love songs piping in, and incense burning, and the short, stout, and gregarious man that runs the place offered us a price we couldn´t refuse. We ended up paying half what we would have at the cheapest hostel and we got our own room with a private bath and balcony. And what a room it was. Carpet on the walls (though none on the floor), plenty of mirrors, and three light switches. One was for the regular light, one for the mood light, and the third turned on the speaker that played the same music we heard in the lobby. Sexy, sexy, sexy! It was all Sam and Lebn could do to keep their hands off of each other. Heehee
We dropped our things and immediately hit the streets to find the jugglers. Folks we´d met along the road had been telling us over and over again that the best jugglers in South America could be found in Santiago, and that they all generally meet at Parque Forestal on Sundays. Coincidentally, it was Sunday, and we soon found out that folks were not exaggerating. Before our evening there was through we´d probably seen over 50 incredible jugglers (6 and 7 club, devil stick, hat tricks, etc.) and the atmosphere was like that of a giant block party. There was music, and drinks, and crowds of non-jugglers hanging-out and perusing the many vendors, Chilean hipster kids selling used clothes. It was strange. All you could by was used clothes, juggling props, and food. And judging from the smell in the air, plenty of marijuana. It was like the best juggling convention I´ve ever been to (no, 2nd best after Lopez), and it happens every Sunday. It was a great introduction to the city. We taught some clowns we´d seen do a show the Round-a-bout and they taught us too many things to remember. They found out that we were interested in going to a town on the coast called Valparaiso, and they invited us to stay at a circus friendly joint they knew of and were heading to the next day. We´d made plans to spend the day doing some touristy things with a native of the city, a friend of ours named Max, that we met in El Bolson, so we said we´d meet them there the day after.
The day with Max was great as Santiago is a wonderful, beautiful city. And its so nice to see a city with a local that shares your interests and sensibilities. As much as I like discovering a city through exploration, its great to be taken to all the best spots that a local has spent their lifetime discovering, without all the trial and error. We saw an old Spanish fort, the mint where they make most South American money, a beautiful cathedral, and lots of sprawling markets with cheap everything. We ended the day climbing a mountain with a big Virgin Mary statue at its apex to get a view of the city and the sunrise. Pictures of these things should be coming soon. The next day we caught a bus to Valparaiso, where I now sit, and it has proven to be my favorite experience on the trip thusfar, but as I long to get back to it, I´m going to have to relate it later. Ooooo... a cliffhanger...