Six Days in Santiago, Chile

My flight to South America is out of San Jose, Costa Rica and arrives eight hours later in Santiago, Chile after a quick stop through the airport in Lima. All of a sudden my travels feel like an adventure again. Left behind are the American familiarities always present in Costa Rica- our 51st state ? Starting this new phase of my adventure, I feel a bit alone, like no one knows who I am or anything about me, and I like it. I look forward to getting lost and seeing which way things take me in South America. But, of course, the first stop is a familiar one in Santiago.

I am staying with Jane Hong. Jane and I, besides being connected through my sister, have also shared parts of both high school and college together- so she knows me pretty well. She also knows the city after 6 months there and has an amazingly comfortable couch, so I was perfectly content for my six day sleepover.

I explored some of the local city neighborhoods-barrios- during the day while Jane was at work. One day I tracked down the famous Casa Roja hostel that had been started in a an old run down mansion. I snuck in to read my book by the swimming pool hidden in the spacious open air quadrangle behind the house.

I spent that gorgeous afternoon finishing War and Peace, which I had been working at assiduously throughout Costa Rica. At first I had struggled to find the connection between early 19th century tsarist Russia and traveling in tropical surf hostels, but eventually Tolstoy’s universal relevance won me over. By the end, I felt no other book could have possibly been more relevant to my current time and place. Tolstoy gets to the heart of what we seek in life and explores our often unarticulated conceptions of happiness, purpose, duty, and hope.

Jane and I had a great time during our week. We ate out every night and had a great time bonding over delicious, though certainly American priced, food. We also had two nights out one the town. The first, we were joined by my former Princeton OA compatriot Alisha ‘the wizared . Though we went to a dance club in search of 80s music, we ended up primarily finding extremely strong Piscolas, local grape liquor mixed with coke, that had us staggering for a cab well before the dance floor hit its groove. The second night Jane and I flew solo to a jazz club and made up for lost time listening to covers of Bary White, Elvis, and that song from Ghost. We were the butt end of many of the crooners jokes which somehow made us popular with the local Chilean crowed and led to late night dancing and a generally good time.

Santiago seemed a very modern city. The are of Los Condes where Jane lived is the financial center and is dotted with skyscrapers and bankers in suits walking in between. It really seemed not to much unlike NYC. Since I am just getting my feet wet on the South American experience, Santiago made a good place to start



View of the pool in hostel Casa Rojo

Looking down a main street in Los Condes

A chilean BMX biker in a bark in Barrio Brasil

Out on the porch with the Wizard at Janes

Jane and me out at the bars


Dinner at a Chilean Italian place, I of course was wearing my one outfit which I purchased there to augment the wordrobe of boardshorts and t-shirts i had brought from Costa Rica

Puerto Viejo and Goodbye Central America

I took the bus north with my buddy Ryan from Bocas del Toro, Panama back across the border to Puerto Viejo on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast. We left on January 8th giving us roughly a week before my flight to Chile out of San Jose on the 14th.

Ryan and I stayed at the Cabinas Tesoros right on Cocles Beach where we scored our own private dorm room for just 9 bucks a night. It was a sweet set up because it was only a 2 minute walk to the beach break which we planned to be surfing every day. We got good surf for our first two days in Puerto Viejo but as the waves died out the partying, live music, and late night reggae bar scene quickly moved in to take its place. Joining us on this Caribbean party bender were: my old traveling buddy Tim from Holland (see Nicoya Peninsula entry) who I re-bumped into at Rocking J's hostel, his buddy Lawrence, and two fellow traveling Americans- Vicky and Liz from Vermont. We got great weather for our 5 days which kept everyone in great spirits after having endured the Caribbean rain the past few weeks in Bocas.

The beach break at Cocles in Puerto Viejo

My final two days in Central America were spent in San Jose at the Tranquillo hostel. Here we linked up with our friend Jason from Bocas and continued the theme of lazy days and late nights. We watched the NFL playoffs and gambled at the infamous Del Rey Casino, drank cocktails poolside at the Mariott- thanks Jason's grandparents- and even spent one night attempting to penetrate the San Jose dance club scene. At the advice of our buddy Kenny, a Norwegian surfer, we were told to blow air out of our lips with a 'ssssssssing' sound to attract the local chicas. Needless to say we were lucky to escape with our lives.

It was a great time with a great group and a memory filled way to end my 3 month journey through Central America. The next stop is Chile to visit Jane for a week then on to language school in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina for a month.



Ryan, Lawrence, Tim, and I in a pool grudge match at Rocking Js


Tim and I reminiscing about our previous travels


This picture only cost me 3,000 colones

Kenny, Liz, Ryan, Vicky, Me, and Jason all enjoying the Mariott

Aqua Lounge Bocas del Toro

I rang in the start of my solo travels and the first week of 2008 in Bocas del Toro, Panama. Added to the week I spent there with my sister, my stay was 17 days.

The Bocas Archipelago has five main islands, but I spent the majority of my time on Isla Colon, which has the biggest town, and on Carineros, which is where my hostel and the surf break were. While Carineros is very small and has limited food options, you can take a water taxi to Colon and be in town in under a minute. Two Brazilians and I swam across one morning to provide some entertainment- i.e. something to gamble on- and won 30 dollars by making it in under 4 minutes.

The hostel on Carineros was called Aqua Lounge. It is one of those amazing yet simple ideas dreamed of by young people everywhere that usually go to die when explained to ones lawyer and insurance agent. Luckily things are not so in Panama. Aqua Lounge is a genius combination bar and hostel right on the water, that sleeps 22 people, and sells dollar beers and shots right next to an eight foot diving board going off the roof into the Caribbean. There are hammocks, a BBq, a deck for partying and porch for hammocks, and even a huge water trampoline for laying out. Everyone parties to Spanish Reggae music and slips and slides around the crowded dance floor/deck during the day. I mostly surfed, but it was amusing to come back to the hostel and find 60 Panamanian revelers grinding on your front porch.

There was a core group of foreigners who weathered the Panama City invasion over New Years, and we did our own fair share of partying and often ended up mixing it up Reggae style with the locals.

I hit the waves with most often with two buddies; Ryan, a San Diego State grad, and Guillerme, a Brazilian surf event organizer. You always took a boat to surf so it was much more fun and economical to head out with a friend. We surfed a reef point break that generated quick, sometimes barreling lefts. It was not the easiest wave, my feet got cut on the reef, but it forced me to work on getting down the line faster on my backside.

Some highlights from the 10 days at Aqua Lounge

10. Playing poker and blackjack with a pack of Portuguese gamblers who reminded me of gypsies
9. Watching Jason, the lounges longest staying guest, try to take a live kitten to bed with him after his completion of the 23 bar challenge
8. Ripping gainers off the roof diving board into the Caribbean
7. Grilling fresh fish on the BBq speared by our Brazilian friends
6. Racing the Brazilians in the much gambled on inter-island swim
5. New Years Eve: shooting vodka at the lounge, watching the fireworks in town from the bar, and promising to speak only in Spanish all night
4. Roberto who folds your boxers and makes your bed; not bad for a hostel
3. Jumping off the top deck of the party boat and swimming home after realizing we were the only partygoers on it
2. Tanya, the Iguana bartender, who looks like a Victoria Secrets model but take waves like Kelly Slater
1. Aqua Lounge’s free breakfast of pancakes, bread, butter, cheese, coffee, sugar, jam, milk, and chocolate sauce.

My home for ten days

The dorms, my bunk is the top left

Aqua Lounge owner Christian and bar tenders Andrea and Fabio

The Brazilian spear fishermen enjoy their feast . . .

. . . and the gypys Portuguese scavenge the leftovers

Party on the deck

Our new years party crew

Bocas seemed like a great place to be young; like camp

Ryan, Guillerme, and I watching surf videos



Guillerme and I about to jump in for some surf; luckily the water is warmer than the rain

Surfing my backside on a characteristic left