Only here, above the smog, we can see all of Santiago.
It's a beautiful, sunny day as always and we're standing on top of Manquehue to the north of the city, it's noise is muted to a faint hush, like wind over a cliff edge which there was too.
The city is as if a body of water, a flat pool filling the void between the surrounding mountains, with a few islands poking out, and it fills one-hundred-and-eighty degrees of our vision.
We turn around and the other view is of absolutely nothing man-made, desolate green and yellow mountains as far as the eye can see, with Aconcagua's white peak looming menacingly in the distance behind. O'car pours a mate and we sit quietly for a bit - what can you say to this spectacle of contrast?
After some exploring and a snack we head down - it's loose gravel, totally different to the way up, and the only way to survive is to run, which we all do with gusto.
"You know what today needs?" shouts Kata over the noises of skidding gravel and panting.
"What?" I reply, not thinking much of it.
"A pool, an asado, some beers and a melon con vino."
This girl might actually be a genius. If she started a cult I would join, no questions asked.
"That can all happen at my apartment" Cami replies from in front, as if turning water into wine.
"And ice cream, we should have ice cream" Kata adds like a cherry on top.
Well, it turns out nothing can get you down a hill quicker than this concept, and before we knew it we were off the mountain and walking through the winding streets of the rich north side, passing houses with five-car-garages, C.C.T.V., security guards and radar gates. We get to the bus stop, where the nannies and maids of the rich are waiting for buses to their undoubtably less plush houses.
It was late when O'car and I get back to his place and we'd have to rush to make our perfect day happen. After a five minute shower each we were blasting down Avenida Irarrazaval while the sun dipped over the buildings ahead of us. We're dodging cars and hopping between pedestrian lights - men on a mission.
Dana had come over too and we shared the tasks between us ridiculously well:
O'car, the fastest, took his bike for beers and missing supplies.
Cami made some epic humitos (?) and other accompaniments.
Dana made the best melon con vino I've tasted to this day (and showed me the newspaper and bottle of wine trick for lighting coals without firelighters).
Kata, who doesn't eat meat, made the salad and readied everything.
I drank beer and fired the meat.
We couldn't have made a better team and in no time we were sat enjoying an uncannily vagina-shaped cut of beef O'car had "subconciously" sliced...
Before I knew it Cami is behind the breakfast bar serving cocktails and we're dancing in the living room. It turns out you can make a pretty good party with only 5 people. They just have to be the right people. Somewhere down the line a cocktail is invented, and named in my honour - the "Eddie con limon". It's ingredients are suitably obscure and it's taste is appropriately unique. Thanks Cami.
I drank them until there was no more...
Eventually I went to sleep in the top bunk of the unusually high bunk beds in Cami's flat, above Kata who was on the bottom.
PAIN.
CONFUSION.
FEAR.
MORE PAIN.
I woke up as my head cracked against a wall. Then the small of my back hit something small and hard and broke it. Then my hip connected with the floor with a final solid thud.
"WAS!" Screamed Kata as she sat up in bed to see me against the wall on the other side of the room.
"Eddie, what are you doing?"
"I don't know!" I said, still confused and scared as I assumed the foetal position.
Luckily Kata knew exactly what to do, and she promptly took a photo of me on her mobile phone. Wait, that doesn't help does it...
Cami burst in: "What's going on?"
No comments:
Post a Comment