CARRETES, PISCO, AND THE JOYS OF 2½ HOURS OF SLEEP

One of the main social things that youngsters like me in Santiago do is go out to carretear, or “party”. Even our orientation staff recommends this as a way to meet people and enjoy ourselves. The thing about the carretes is that nothing actually gets started until about 12, which actually makes sense if you’re eating dinner at 9-10, which is what happens around here. And man, Chileans are serious about their parties. You go, and you don’t get home until dawn. Even middle-aged people, like my host parents stay out late; last night they didn’t get in until 3 in the morning.

So, because we wanted to “experience the culture” 9 of us from the program went out to carretear. We went to this area called Bellavista which is like the bohemian district of Santiago. It’s divided into the good area and the bad area. The street Pio Nono is full of stray dogs and trashy looking bars and a whole bunch of sketchy people on the street. However, you walk through a gate to the Patio Bellavista and you’re in this adorable patio full of bars and clubs and restaurants. The transformation is enormous.

First, we went to a bar in the “good part” of Bellavista, and our waiter Diego (who said I have the most beautiful eyes) brought us chicas pisco sour and beer for the boys. Pisco is the traditional Chilean alcohol, made from grapes, I believe. Pisco sour is just filled with sugar and pisco and sourness, and really it was wayyy to rich for me. However, if you’re ever in Chile, you have to try the pisco, because everyone drinks it. I prefer piscola, which ends up being a lot of like a rum and coke, but with pisco instead of rum.

After playing a rousing game of never have I ever (I know, seriously that’s what we did), we adjourned to the trashy section of Bellavista, which probably wasn’t a good idea but we were looking for something a little less expensive. And we found it: 1 liter of beer in a gigantor bottle for 1500 pesos or $3USD. By the time we left, some people were really trashed, and it was 5 in the morning. Oh and PS, they were playing 90s US pop music along with music videos at the second place we went.

Apparently this is a pretty standard weekend night for the kids around here, and the only way they can survive it is because of the siesta, the most marvelous creation in the world. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t sleep much at night; you can just sleep in the afternoon.