New house and past exploits from your favorite bad blogger.

So, here is the irony in blogging about your life abroad. When you have time to blog, you aren't doing anything that interesting, but you decide to tell people about it anyway, and everyone thinks that your life is fantastic and exotic but its really not. Its just a routine like everyone else's, only somewhere else. When you don't have time to blog, thats when you are really getting your hands dirty... but none of your blog readers ever know this. They just think you are still sitting on the same beach by yourself and have now upgraded your anti-socialism to include even the avoidance of e-mails and internet rants.


I've been keeping busy. Details listed below.

First order of business: NEW HOUSE!

I moved to Cerro Alegre in Valparaiso last week. The section of the city where I am now living has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. Its picturesque beauty can't really be described so I won't bother trying. I'll just include these photos taken from my bedroom window.



The view in the other direction is of the sea. This picture was taken in vaguely the same neighborhood.... it think. I took it awhile ago.



This is the front of my house. We live on the second floor.



And this is my bedroom window. (My bedroom is currently too messy to be included in its entirety.)

We also provide house and home for one of the few actual spawns of the devil in known existence, a flea covered cat named Piscola. (A Piscola is actually a popular and potent cocktail consisting of pisco and coke.) Like all devilish things, she is adorable while sleeping. This picture was taken on my back porch, which falls under Piscola's domain and is her route into my room via my window.




Second order of Business: ZAPALLAR!

Zapallar is a little beach town a bit up the coast from Cachagua where a lot of disgustingly rich people have summer homes. Look at the pictures are you will see why. Basically, its the most beautiful place on earth. There is also a really great little seafood restaurant hanging out into the ocean which is well worth the drive all on its own.

The restaurant (see the little umbrellas?):



People whoes gots bad taste and moneys:



Third order of business: CEMENTERIO DE PLAYA ANCHA!

Playa Ancha is a neighborhood (basically its own city) attached to the side of Valparaiso. There you will find some great views of the sea, a completely unknown and underutilized walkway along the coast, and a fantastically strange cemetery. Part of this cemetery is really nice with all those typical big blocky concrete or marble things that Catholics like to stash their bodies in. The really interesting part, for me at least, are the little rolling hills of strange handcrafted graves. Creativity runs wild here and I actually found it quite touching to stroll through the not quite straight rows and uneven grounds of these one of a kind graves. Some examples are pictured below.

Iconic Catholic things:



Handcrafted weirdness:






You can just feel the love here, you can feel the loss, knowing that at each of these small plots a grieving family member has cobbled together by hand with what resources were available to pay what tribute they could to their dead. I know that the rich folks grieve too, but to me, this style of grave really leaves a more lasting impression.

And, doesn't it all look like its from a Dr. Seuss book? That was my first thought. I couldn't help but picturing Thing 1 and Thing 2, or the Lorax, or some other fantastical thing growing stale just below the surface of adult reality.

And check out these DEATH CONDOS! Alright. They aren't really called death condos (and certainly not in all caps and italics... I just thought it was fitting.





And whats up with the tree that with all those baby toys and varying other plastic crap stuck in its trunk? I don't know.



Forth order of business: THE THREAT OF BEING DEPORTED AND A WEEKEND TRIP TO BUENOS AIRES!

Coming soon..... I can't do too much blogging in one day... I'm out of practice.


Besos,
Allie

ps- Does it worry anyone out there that there are more pictures of graves than actual live people on my blog? Its starting to worry me... and unfortunately the trend will continue with the highly anticipated Buenos Aires update....