Leisurely Chile

It seemed not so long ago when I was playing soccer on grassy fields on leisurely Sundays somewhere in Madison, Rochester, Toronto, or Ottawa. Just like these guys in a road-side park in Santiago, Chile. In reality, of course, it was at least 15 years ago when I last played soccer on real grass! Watching these guys brought back a lot of fond memories. And where are my soccer buddies now? I know for sure that at least 2 of them are dead.

Everywhere we went in Chile, un-inhibited young people enjoyed each other, seemingly oblivious of passers-by. At one point in Santa Lucia Park, we were coming down some narrow staircases, when we encountered a young couple wrapped tightly in each others arms at the bottom of the staircase. We couldn’t possibly backtrack, so we had to push past them. The fact that we had to squeeze pass them seemed to bother us more than them.

And the dogs were everywhere. This particular one didn’t seem to care that Mr. Jose Marti Perez, a national hero of Cuba, was looking down on it disapprovingly.

Chileans are not particularly rich. There is a lot of graffiti on walls. But the streets are clean, and I didn’t see many beggars. The Chileans are friendly, and they seem to know how to enjoy life.