Chilean beaches!

I love Chilean beaches, but I think Simon is right when he says that the waters of the Chilean coast are too cold, specially the ones you find on the central shore and the ones on the South of Chile. But still, I think it is my favorite place to go in the Summer. Personally, I prefer the beaches in Puerto Varas ( located on the Lakes Region-Chilean X Region ), beaches there are quite cold and those are fresh water ones. Specifically, I go to the small beaches that are in Ensenada. This is a small place just 47 kilometers away from the city of Puerto Varas, placed in full nature and on the riverside of Lake Llanquihue. The beach banks of Lake Llanquihue have a spectacular view towards the Osorno, Puntiagudo and Calbuco volcanoes. I usually visit a beach that is very close to the Route that goes to Petrohue. I don't know if it is an official and suitable place for swimming, but I usually swim there. I like to be there because the view is spectacular, the peace and silence of the place are surprising, and you don't see more than four families and at a good distance away from you. When I go there, I am able to relax enjoying the warm wind and the sound of the small waves. Near the place there are some tourist attractions to visit just at a walking distance. Green Lagoon is a beautiful place to visit ( It's a very deep lagoon with an intense green emerald colour, with volcanic lava edges and leafy foliage vegetation paths ). On the way to this place you can find a wonderful and rich flora and fauna, you can even see wolves. You can get to that place by bus or by car. You can take a bus in down town Puerto Varas, or if you go by car, just leave Route 5 in Puerto Varas and go towards Ensenada on Route 225.

Skating is the activity I like to do outdoors. I like this activity first because it is a lot of fun and energetic, second because it helps to lose weight, because it makes you burn a lot of calories, third because it exercises the body balance, fourth because it gives tonicity and firmness on your legs, and for last, as all sports or outdoor activities, it strengthen the lungs and heart.
I started to do this activity when I was about twelve years of age. I remember that on Christmas I got my first skates as a gift...... and that night I spent most of the time on the floor. I fell at least five times but I didn't give up, I skated all morning and since then I was skating all day and night. I was a little chubby ( well.. still ) and I remember that I lost quite a lot of weight. Well, I was so motivated that I didn't even feel like eating. It was really a lot of fun because I got together with some other friends to go skating, and for a while we even went skating to the skating rink at Parque Ohiggins. Now I would like to skate more often, but I have a lot of things to do. I also would like to have the chance to do ice skating.

The song of my childhood...

There are many songs that bring me beautiful memories, specially of my childhood. There is a special one that I like very much. The theme is called " Chorando se foi ", interpreted by the Brazilian group " Kaoma ", this was a version in the lambada rhythm of the song " Llorando se fue ", of the group Los Kjarkas from Bolivia. Ulises Hermosa, the real author of the song, sued on 1989, in front of different international authorities, the group Kaoma because " Charando se foi " was a version that didn't have it's real author's authorization.

The lambada became famous in the whole world ( even in Japan people dance it until these days ! ) thanks to this Brazilian version, that caused a lot of controversy because of it's sensual way of dancing inspired on the movement of the waves. This song became very popular on the year 1989, when I was just four years old and it was played for many years on the discos.

Back then my mother had a battery radio, and she used to listen to " Pudahuel " radio station while my brother and I played. They played this song a few times a day, and I remember that with my alley neighbors we danced this happy song at the rhythm of lambada, inspired on the video clip of the song. On the video you can see two kids dancing, Washington " Chico " Oliveira and Roberta de Brito, who formed the duet CHICO Y ROBERTA, who appeared on different TV programs dancing together.

Twenty years later you can hear on the radio two new versions of this theme, one of Jennifer Lopez together with Pitbull, under the title ' on the floor ' , and also another from the Puerto Rican singer Don Omar that transformed the Bolivian original version of the same song, creating the theme " Taboo ".

Rumblefish!

Two best friends met few years after finishing school. They were very different but always helped each other. Steve was mature, liked reading, was cautious and worried about things. Now was studying to become a teacher. Rusty instead loved fighting (what his brother had told him to stop doing). He also was at a reformatory for a few years because his memory was screwed up and couldn't remember things unless somebody said something to him. He didn't know why he wasn't glad to see Steve, until he saw him staring at a scar he got on a fight...that made Rusty remembered all about it. To change subject Steve invited him for dinner to talk and remember good old days, something Rusty didn't want to do plus didn't remember much about either. Steve mentioned who he thought he was when first saw him, and that got him very mad because knew he was talking about his brother nicknamed Motorcycle Boy because used to steal or borrow cycles and leave without telling the owners. Rusty remembered everything...hanging out at Benny's, fighting with gang, Biff wanting to kill him, etc. He loved fighting andwasn't scared of it, he was just scared of being alone. The day of the fight his friends reminded him about how that could end and about what his brother had said about gang, that made him very upset because his brother had been gone for two weeks and didn't know if he was ever going to be back. In that moment he just wanted to think about the fight that was sure was going to win. When he and his friends arrived at the empty lot his best friend was not there, but Biff and gang were there waiting for him. When they started fighting Biff got a knife, something Rusty didn't have and when asked for one to equal things up he just got a bike chain that was enough to put Biff down and make him loosen the knife. He was bleeding and swollen. Suddenly the Motorcycle Boy was back and everybody was quiet. He thought he had "signed a treaty" and they were going to stop with that crap, at that moment Biff did slide Rusty's side with the knife. Rusty's brother stopped the fight and they knew what he had said about being over with gang fighting. Steve was next to his best friend like he said was going to be. Then they went back home, and on the way Rusty asked his brother where he had been, California he said, but actually never went past the bridge where he used to go because would have been homesick. At home he helped his brother with the deep cut. He was different, had no expression, said strange things, saw things different, maybe because of concussions he had in motorcycle wrecks. It was hard to understand him. He looked older and since young could get all he wanted, Rusty thought it would be the same for him in life but it wasn't. They just looked alike but when you looked at Rusty you knew what he was thinking about, and looking at his brother you would never know. Rusty loved his brother and even if he wasn't his brother he just wanted to be like him.

One on one!

I think I have had many "one on one" in my life, I would love to have one with a person that I dislike because it would be more interesting and productive, like for example to have one with my boss, but I can't give vent to my private life and his, so I will choose a public or famous figure, I am not going to choose a politician because wouldn't deserve it, nor a model from the " Farandula " because I wouldn't have any thing to say..... well, then I will have a " one on one " with Amy Winehouse. Amy was a great artist, she revolutionized the soul on the XXI century with her beautiful and loud voice and different tones that she used in her songs. The songs were filled of emotion besides expressing the mood changes of the singer. Not only the words in her songs impressed me, but also the deep interpretation of each one of them.

We all knew her problems with the justice, her drug and alcohol addiction, and her medical complications product of self destructive behavior. We also know that a few months ago she was found dead in her apartment when she was only 27 years old, after suffering a shock caused by an overdose of alcohol after a period of abstinence. I would like to understand how a so talented person can do so much harm to her self, having so much recognition around the world and a whole life ahead.
If I would really have her in front of me now, I would like to ask her what she thinks about the foundation that carries her name, and about what her mother thinks " My daughter would have been proud of the foundation and would have supported it " after she her self in some occasions asked to her daughter's fans not to go to her concerts. I also would like to ask her if there is any thing that she did that she regrets. Finally, I would like to ask her to sing the song " Back to Black " for me.

An unforgettable trip ...

I think there is no person that doesn't like to travel. There is a trip I did not so long ago with my boyfriend that I think we will never forget about.  We did not travel to an extraordinary place, and also it was not too far. The place we went to is called Molina and it is located in the Maule region (VII region). We traveled by bus from Santiago to Molina at 9:00 pm, and that night we stayed at my boyfriend's grandparents house. The next day we had planed to visit all the touristic places in the area: "El Velo de la Novia" ( The Bride's Veil ), "Las Siete Tazas" ( The seven Cups ) and "El Parque Ingles" ( The English Park ). That day we got up early in the morning and we went to the bus terminal but there were no buses going to those places that day. We were very sad but my boyfriend is optimistic, he calmed me down and said to me “we will get there somehow". Then asking people in the area they told us that there was a bus that would take us close to our destination, just at a very short distance. While we were waiting my boyfriend told me "can you imagine that now somebody comes in a car and gives us a ride, offers some beer and invites us to a barbecue". I said to him "dreaming man". Soon came the bus we were waiting for and just left us on the road under the full sun. We started walking and we decided to hitchhike...a red one cabin pick-up truck in fairly bad conditions stopped and took us. We got in on the very back, out in the open air. There, there was another young couple and in front was the driver and his fiancée together with another couple. The first stop was in a boarding-house where there was a swimming pool. We swam surrounded by a spectacular landscape. Any of the crew members knew each other. We covered about a hundred kilometers by car and we were able to see all the places we had planed to visit. We all drank some beer, toured different places and laughed a lot. The only bad thing was that we got completely grey because of the dust on part of the road. At the end of the day we were totally dirty, messy and tired but happy and pleased.

I enjoyed it a lot because I am an organized person that needs to plan every thing, but with this trip I realized that sometimes we just have to relax a little and enjoy the unexpected...

I love Santiago City!

I could talk about many really nice places located here in Santiago. However, I will talk about a place that is not so nice, but is very special for me, " La Piojera ". This is an old and well known bar from Chinatown, very near Mapocho station in the commune of Santiago. It is located in Aillavilu street  almost opposite of the " Mercado Central ". It is a famous " Picá " in Chile and it represents the typical gastronomy of the country, and is also a symbol of the " guachaca " culture. The " Piojera " term was used to refer yourself to any place that was notably unhealthy and many years ago this place was associated to alcoholism, tabacco, etc. It doesn't mean that now people don't drink alcohol ( it would be a big lie, you can just go by that area at about 10:00 o'clock at night  and notice the condition in what visitors get out of the bar ), but now this bar is also linked with the traditions of the Santiago working class people and at the same time with the republican and cultural history of the Chilean nation.

I always wanted to go to that place, until I finally got the opportunity to go with some friends of mine. On these last months I have been there in different occasions with my boyfriend. We met exactly in another place of that same area, but this one represents the " huachaca " culture, it's called " Las Tejas ". That kind of popular urban culture really keeps us close together. I love to visit that kind of places because of the gastronomy ( such as chorrillanas, perniles, among others ) and alcoholic beverages like the " terremoto " that is my favorite drink. I love this place because it is very friendly and inviting, I always end up meeting new people, and it is so fabulous that in just one place you can bring together poets, musicians, workers, students from different universities, professionals, office workers, politicians, and even people of the ostentation.