Auferstanden aus Ruinen…

eh, wrong text, wrong time - but that’s how I feel … Happy New Year, everyone… gentlemen… good morning…

I had been told about New Year’s in Valparaíso more or less since meeting R, therefore, I thought, it can only be disappointing due to high expectations. It wasn’t.

First of all, a good build-up: Valparaíso’s fireworks are totally famous, everyone said misty-eyed. Chileans (!) around me were planning (!) furiously where to be when, with whom, how to get there …. Which made sense as the city steadily swelled to a triple of the original 500.000 (that’s 500.000 if you count the entire area but guess where all those New Years guests were hanging out). Accordingly the traffic was supposed to be deathly (admittedly this probably does not need much). It was, too, with public places being jammed up by cars and everyone hoarding for the next world war. I gave up on buying myself yogurt when I saw the lines reaching till the back of the supermarket.

Second part of the build-up was privat nature – constant fighting between R and myself right down to the moment when his Santiago friends came and everything dissolved into a night of enamored bliss.

The fireworks were absolutely amazing! I have seen some great fireworks in my life, but these clearly made the top five, with lights bombarding the sky all along the bay from Cón Cón, Riñaca, over Viña to the South end of Valparaíso, Playa Ancha. There was a giant, yellow, full or almost full moon hanging over it all which turned orange in the afterglow – amazing! The crowd was one of the best I have ever experienced – everybody was going absolutely and truly crazy up on the crammed paseo Yugoslavio – even before anything had started - people threw confetti all around and popped the corks way before 12 – interestingly, no-one here bothered counting, so for about two minutes and two minutes after 12, everybody went wild (while I was blankly looking at my watch), until the fireworks started shortly after 12. Those pyrotecs want to toast too, I imagine.

Then we all – the Santiagonian friends Alex, Victor and Danielle (that’s how it sounds not sure how it’s written), R and myself – together with EVERYONE ELSE descended on the streets of the flat area. People, sometimes costumed, were drinking and dancing in the streets. the police lets everyone have it with drinking this day (everything else would have been suicidal). It’s safe because people don’t buy their own firecrackers, and I love this. After some time of here and there, randomly hugging people, and finding an abandoned pink platform shoe (also tooth paste and a mirror) which inspired the single guys to go play Cinderella, we went to a party. It was an interesting set-up of gays and people who said “No, I’m not against gays, only - he is so gay, isn’t he? It’s just .. gay, you know? Is that one gay too?” Eventually, after I had left, the remains of our group were thrown out for overdoing it with their tolerance. From what I understood, the final offending phrase was “So, why do you like dicks?” Bonding on the toilet, the drunken guys made confessions regarding similar areas, unfortunately, I only understood half of that. A guy asked R permission to dance with me: Whatever you like, this is weird. I had been told that the party here goes until 8, and while I had been settling for 4am, I am proud to report that, with a little bit of help, I made it till 7am.

Then, at dawn or madruga, R and I were walking home : the streets were still packed and littered with garbage; in one area, whitish fog was in the air, biting your eyes – apparently here the police had put its foot down.

The friendly and alcohol-prone friends came home later and continued partying yesterday – but I was so out, I slept through it, after going through the ritual of a) mariscal (marisco soup), b) terremote (literally: earthquake, it’s made of cheap white wine and pineapple ice cream. And yes, that sounds like it tastes.)

To summarize:

Clearly, everything Christmas is not, New Year’s is. I did not make any resolutions (but one of them must be to quit, again, soon). Phone connection was down until 3 (I apologize if anybody was trying to reach me). Happy 2010 everyone!