Un Año en 8 Minutos

This one is for the folks that always tell me that they've fallen way behind on my blog because of  crazy schedules.  Don't worry, I get it.  For anyone that wants to know what I've been up to for the past year but doesn't have time to click through hundreds of pictures or read through dozens of blog posts, this one is for you.  As I mentioned in a previous post (that you may or may not have had time to read), a picture is worth a thousand words (stop me if you've heard that one before).  That means that by watching this video, you'll essentially be 299,000 reading words in 8 minutes.  That's 37,375 words a minute.  That's impressive.  I'd brag about that if I were you.

Anyways, If you hadn't heard, I just wrapped up my first year in Chile.  It's been a crazy one.  I worked hard, I played hard (ok, pretty much all of my pictures are of the later... but I swear, I fit working hard in there too somehow) and, overall, it was a pretty frickin' amazing year.  Don´t believe me?  See for youself.  

The Simpsons Phenomenon

In the first edition of 5 Things You Didn't Know About Chile, you may recall that I tossed out the (somewhat bold) statement that "In Chile, The Simpsons are bigger than Jesus."  Now, just to show that that's not something I take lightly, I have compiled pictures of a few of the Simpson-themed things I've come across during my time here... 

Cookies

 

Buses

Towels

 Posters

 Foam hats

 Binders

 Notebooks

 

More Notebooks

 Sippy Cups

Murals

 Mugs

Handmade Mugs

 T-Shirts

 Pillows

 Cologne and Shampoo/Shower Gel Sets

 Puppets

 

Bars

and the best of all...

Actual Duff Beer!

(Today Colo-Colo won, Concha Su Madre!!)

Still not convinced?  Here are some other places the Simpsons have been showing up lately...

 Hiding behind the dog chow at the local mini mart...

 In some street art by the beach...

 
In more street art...on the way to Agro

 In comcast ads...

 In the academy...

In the doctor's office...

 

 On T-shirts...

 In Bingo Games...

 On backpacks...

 In plush form...

 

On floats...

  

In weird costumes...

And my new personal favorite, in the flesh!  Here we have Homero next to a street preacher in Bellavista which really feels like it was created specifically in response to my comment about The Simpsons being bigger than Jesus in Chile.  You'll have to watch the clip to see whose in the lead now...

Jo Jo Jo

Although Jeff and I had a hell of a time getting down to Central Chile (more on that later), we finally made it and we had a lovely Christmas in the Viña/Valpo area.  We stayed at a B&B called  Casa Kultour in Valparaíso for X-mas eve and X-mas night which ended up being a great choice.  The owner was super friendly and helpful and our little room was perfect.  How could we not have been happy in a place called cerro alegre (happy hill)?

On Christmas day, we woke up around 10 for a nice breakfast at the hostel and made a few Christmas phone calls.  Thanks to the time difference, that meant a 6 am wake-up call for my dad (oops).  My nephews lucked out though, since they'd been up since 5 waiting for him to get his lazy butt out of bed so they could open presents.  I got to watch them run around like crazy and unwrap some of their gifts via skype which was rad. Yay for Christmas spirit and way too much sugar.

Jeff and I headed out around noon and spent the majority of the day walking all around and exploring the two neighboring cities.  We had wonderful, sunny weather all day and then, when we started to head back to the hostel, it got super windy.  We made it back to our room just before it started to rain and crawled under the covers with a couple of mugs of cola de mono and some mint chocolate Christmas cookies.  After about nine months in Iquique, we were thankful for the rain and it was especially nice to have some wintery weather on Christmas (even though it's summer here).

We got nice and cozy and watched Love Actually (my favorite Christmas movie).  Jeff was reluctant because it's kind of a chick flick but he actually ended up liking it too (sorry for outing you on the internet).  We passed out pretty early from a combination of the cocktails and a full day of walking around in the sun. 

I knew it would be strange spending my first Christmas away from family but it turned out to be a really good one.  Although I was definitely still a little homesick and my low-key day was a far cry from the madness of a Briscoe Christmas, I am super grateful that Jeff and I got to spend our first Christmas together here in Chile. 

Arte de la Calle

 

 

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I hope you liked my 6,000 word introduction.  Now on to the main essay (14,000 words) on some of the strange, beautiful and interesting street art I've found across Chile.  

Enjoy :)

 

1. Iquique 2. Valpo 3. Arica 4. Valpo 5. Santiago 6. Valpo 7. Iquique 8. Iquique 9. Iquique 10. Iquique (obviously)
 11. Iquique again 12. Iquique... 13. Arica 14. Yup, Iquique again 15. Santiago 16. Santiago 17. Santiago 18. Santiago 19. Iquique 20. Santiago