Mi Vida es Chilena...¿Cachai?: Hello Spring, Hello Allergies

Well spring has finally arrived, and my nose is not too pleased. But who can complain when the view looks like this:

Yep! This is where I'm living! Still pinching myself.

I haven't been traveling since my trip to the south. Just staying close to home and getting back into the swing of things. This is my last relaxing weekend before October really takes off with trips.

On Friday, I went to the BANFF Mountain Film Festival with some friends.

On the way, we saw a crowd of people on the street watching performance art at the entrance to the Metro. Just a normal day in Santiago.

These people are even wearing normal clothes...

The festival began in Banff, Canada and is an annual presentation of documentaries and short films involving mountain sports and the environment - skiing, biking, kayaking, soloing... you name it, we saw it. (Here is a preview for the super intense documentary we saw about a guy kayaking from Australia to New Zealand: "Lost Kayak at Sea")

The festival was sponsored by the North Face and it attracted all of the English-speaking people from Santiago. It was weird to hear so many people speaking English...

Yesterday, after being inspired by the films, we went on a 15-mile bike ride around all of Santiago.
Utter chaos. Stick 25 people on bikes and have them ride through the city? Yeah.. not the best idea when some aren't completely comfortable. But riding around the city made me realize how well I actually know my city. I also found tons of new places that I want to explore.