I already told you about the street dogs, but one thing that strikes me about them is that they never bother anyone, no one bothers them and they rarely bark. They lay around on the ground, sometimes even really close to outdoor cafes and no one does anything. I was eating my lunch outside one day next to a dog and it didn´t even beg for food. That is more well behaved than some of my friends pets! And these dogs aren´t skinny. Who feeds them? It also strikes me as odd, that there are people who owns dogs as pets, so why don´t these dogs have homes? And, remember when you were a kid and you found a stray animal and you asked your mom if you could keep it? Do the kids do that here? Some of these stray dogs are so cute.
Its fortunate that this city and Buenos Aires as well, do not have a culture of sueing (sp?). Lawyers could get rich here. The solution for a large hole in the ground is to stick a long sharp stick out of it to call your attention to it. If you happen to be really clumsy or just not paying attention, not only will you fall into a hole, but you will impale yourself.
I went to the house of Pablo Neruda in Valparaiso today. The other day I read about his life (in Spanish of course). He is a beloved poet and was a staunch communist. He won the Nobel prize for literature. I found that a little odd considering that that Chinese guy Won a Nobel prize and he was anti communist. Hmmm. Anyway, The house has an amazing view of Valparaiso, which is quite an amazing and breath taking city. He was a bit quirky and one of his famous sayings is this: "the child who does not play is not a child, but the man who does not play has lost the child that lives in him and will miss him". Sorry for the political commentary here, don´t mean to ruffle anyones feathers, but I just have to say, I find it odd that this man, who has three very nice houses and collects extremely expensive oddities was communist. Am I wrong, or would that not be possible for him were communism a reality in his time? Hmmmmm.
I realized (well actually someone pointed out to me) that this city is known as "the garden city" which explains why almost every single street is tree lined. It really is so pretty here. Yesterday I went to the beach with my new housemate, Danielle from Wisconsin. There wasn´t a cloud in the sky. Everyone was on the beach with their colored umbrellas. For being so busy, it was still incredibly beautiful and relaxing. I miss Denver, but man is it going to be hard to go back in the middle of winter. sigh.
Besos
wow!
ReplyDelete