So we finally got to share our hooked up paradise with some other gringo friends for a few days. Our friend Ariana was visiting Chile and Argentina with some of her colleagues from Outward Bound for a mountaineering course and paid us a visit! We spent 3 days drinking wine and bbq-ing with the 5-person Outward Bound possé. The highlight was definetely the scavenger hunt we all made for Sam´s bday. It might have even been more fun for all of us watching her tromp through the resort trying to figure out our silly clues.
It was hard to re-adjust to the quiet life after they all left. But there wasn't much time to mope since we left hot on their heels to visit the famous Valparaiso. It´s famous for it´s bohemian and artsy culture as well as it´s physical layout. The city is built on a steep incline that runs into a busy port and is filled with steep-as-hell stairs leading to winding alleys and neighborhoods... and all of it decorated with amazing murals and graffiti.
At the bottom of one of these said stairs, we had our first run-in with bad (and perhaps inevitable) luck and were robbed! Some twerp stumbled in between us and yanked off with all his strength Gigi´s "man purse," throwing her to the ground. Micah saw perpetrator #1 coming which gave her time to register what was happening. As the twerp tried to run off she yelled "Nooooooo!" and grabbed him by the shirt. She was reaching for the bag but all she could manage was a big tear in #1´s shirt. Fortunately, Micah´s continual repetition of her war cry, "Nooooo!" snapped Gigi out of her sprawl on the sidewalk and she ran to put #1´s head in a lock, which did nothing to get the bag back but seemed important at the time. She pulled his hair as Micah tore his shirt and yelled her cry. We were so close to showing this twerp what tough gringas are made out of...alas... not tough enough. Twerp had a friend, perpetrator #2, who eventually came back to help his friend. #1 passed off the bag as #2 ran for the steep stairs. We let go, realizing our defeat and watched #1 follow #2. But no! Gigi followed them up the 100 steps of stairs making sure that they would have to work hard to win our valuables. And let me tell you, by the 50th stair all 4 of us were barely walking in between our huffs. At the top of the stairs they ducked into one of the many alleys and vanished. Blasted! We were left with piercing lungs, scrapes and bruises and no camera amongst other stuff!
(Dr. Jones, if you are reading zees, ve are not fooled by yer tactics! Ze secret plans you seek ver not stored in ze cameraz micro chip! HAHAHA!)
After the incident several people came to our help and were so kind. We filed a police report so, hopefully, our insurance will cover the stuff in the bag. We are, of course, the saddest about our camera but, fortunately, no money nor important documents were taken. We were mistrustful of everyone in the streets for the next couple of days and talked alot about compassion and classism. It´s hard to bounce right back without harboring resentment. Every young boy with brown hair we walked past was a potential robber. And that practically means every boy in the street. We reminded ourselves of all the positive experiences we´ve had and how those have mostly shaped our trip, not the bad ones! And 14 year old boys aren´t to be assumed criminals! It was hard to do in reality... so we decided to go back to our apt where there weren´t many people and recover without the expense of insulting innocent young boys in the streets.
Otherwise we had an awesome time in Valpo exploring the streets, finding the murals and meeting some friends of Gigi´s sister who were great hosts. We went to this community center called "Ex-Carcel" that is located in an old prison! There are workshops, studios, a free circus and who knows what else. It was crazy to be in such a rad place surrounded by huge cement walls and metal bars. We had an interesting conversation with a man there that was selling jewelry. He asked us why we elected Bush as president which lead us into a conversation about politics and US activism. At the end of our conversation he told us we had homework to do back home. It was awesome. We told him about the new community center in Greensboro called the HIVE and he gave us a poster of the Ex-Carcel as a gift to the HIVE.
Which, we are wondering how the HIVE is going and what kind of thriving community there will be when we get back to the boro..?
Oh! and the past 24 hours have been super exciting (but totally safe) with another earthquake and her aftershocks! Check out this footage from our neighborhood grocery store:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNEWQ8iT1uI
