Vina del Mar, Chile

Vina del Mar was many things that I expected, it was a beautiful town located on the other side of the bay from Valparaiso on the Pacific Coast with many high-rises and quiet, but urban, beaches. For me it was a relief to visit the ocean again, it is calming to be near the water. I spent my days walking up and down the man pedestrian shopping street, and chilling out on the beach a couple of hours each day.

One difference was immediate however, and evidenced itself immediately upon my afternoon arrival, I stuck out in Chile, and in a much more conspicuous way than in Argentina. Reactions to me, when walking down the street, or sitting on the beach, were both positive and negative, but were m ore intense in both ways. At least five times I had people stare at me continuously, even after I was looking back at them, and one man started talking to me when he though I was Brazilian, but became disinterested after I told him I was not. And, as happens frequently since I've been outside Brazil, I was asked persistently by people passing by at night if I had any drugs on me that I'd be willing to sell.

Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of positive reactions as well, of equal intensity. Countless times people passing by would smile and give me a thumbs-up or a peace sign, and more than one group of jovial young people tried to wave me over to join them when I was walking on the beach. I never took them up on the invitations because I was just generally wary of the attention I was getting in general. Most strangely, though, at least 3 times I was walking along a well-trafficked street when someone in a car would honk, smile, and flash a thumbs-up to me while driving past in their car.

I've described all of this to illustrate the intensity of reactions I've received without so much as an introduction or conversation. I have had good, and very normal, interactions with store clerks, hotel workers, and waiters thus far, and I have already met quite a few chill Chileans on my travels thus far. Nevertheless, the intensity of my presence in Vina del Mar made me uncomfortable, and I regret that it was a relief to leave. (Just to be clear, there are quite a few states in the U.S. that I could name off that I don't feel comfortable being in as well...)

I am on my way to Santiago, which I expect will be just as metropolitan as every other large South American city I've been to thus far, and I've heard that it may be the most Americanized. Already I've heard more American pop music blaring out of car windows and stores than any other place I've been to so far.