Picture, if you will, me wandering around Santiago aimlessly after school, humming some nonsense in my head.
In fact, better yet, just imagine my grinning-gringa face superimposed on this Russian dude’s fair visage:
Yep, that’s pretty much how I roll.
Anyway, so there I was, being special and taking in the sites of Providencia, the neighborhood in which I live and go to school, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. A bird? No. A plane? No. A delicious empanada? Unfortunately no. A Chilean’s fist? Thankfully no.
Nope, what I saw was a dude swinging from a tree on a couple of purple pieces of fabric:
Seriously, I’m no stranger to street performers: I’ve seen mimes in Moscow, breakdancers in Berlin, new-wave hipsters with keytars in New York and wack winos in Washington, but never ever have I seen this kind of legitimate circus skill on the streets. Thank you, Santiago!
If I was smarter I would’ve snagged a few seconds of video, but, well, you should know who you’re dealing with by now. (If you’ve forgotten, I invite you again to watch the YouTube video I posted above.)
Instead, I just stood there, gringa mouth all agape, and stared at this man in the sky. Meanwhile most Chileans went about their usual business. “How do they not find this entertaining?” I asked myself. But then it hit me — this kind of Cirque de Soleil sh*t must happen so frequently that no one loses a stride over it! Well, except for me. And because of that, this amateur aerial acrobat has unknowingly earned three grinning gringas.
.
.
I’d have given his performance a rating of four GG’s had he been wearing a glittery unitard. Too bad. But even without a flashy costume, I still deemed this performance worthy of all the change in my pocket — a grand total of 300 pesos (about $1). I trust he’ll spend it wisely. Hopefully, on a glittery unitard.
By the way, the title of the song in the video is “I’m really glad, in fact, when I finally return home.” Catchy.
Some of them are pretty good. I’m even impressed and that means I’ll reach into my wallet to give them money and all. Sometimes I want to give them money just to see them come down safely and take it from me like with no broken neck.
I’ve also seen some jugglers. But yea, I know what you mean. Safety didn’t seem to cross this guy’s mind. However, he was polite. When he saw me drop the change in his shoe he made sure to say, “Gracias.” Now if only the lady behind the counter at Castaรฑo would catch on to politeness…
This is one of the things my best girl Karina does, as well. ๐ The fabric is made of silk, and yes, it is certainly way more common down there than up here. My first night in Valpo, she took me to a theatrical-cirque like party/performance in an “ex-jail”. It was three levels of jail cells but the center of the room went all the way to the top, like they were very, very secure balconies, in a way. ๐ We watched a man throwing a fire-lit spool off of a rope attached to two sticks – I’m pretty sure its called “diabolo”, but I’m too lazy to search out my info right now. We also saw a man dancing on corrugated tin, somehow managing to move this giant sheet across the floor as he went. It was, by far, the most surreal experience I’ve yet had – and I’ve done my fair share of drugs, and was sober during this party. This took the cake. It was SO MUCH FUN. I got to swing fire out in the courtyard later, with Karina. The ex-jail is at the top of one of the mountain-sides, so we could see down to the ocean under the moon. Fantastic.
Weird, are circus acts. like, common hobbies in Chile? If so, I’m impressed…
That’s right near my house! I’ve never seen him before. I need to walk by there more often I guess.
Also, just in case you’ve been thinking that everything here in Chile is ridiculously expensive, $300 pesos is more like 50 cents. ๐
I too hope he buys a sparkly unitard. That would be…amazing.
He has purple hair, so he’s pretty hard to miss. Oh, and he’ll probably be swinging from a tree…
Yeah, math. Not my strongest subject…
Sparkly unitards, on the other hand — I’m kind of an expert…
Hey, I hear you were in Valpo recently. I was out of town otherwise I would’ve loved to participate in whatever shenanigans….
anyway, wanna try it? next time you’re in town i can make my boyfriend give you some lessons or something, he’s super good (haha, with and without bias i’d say that). they say hacer/practicar/trepar en “tela” (acrobacias aereas en tela)
neat photo!
abby- sparkly unitards …yes!
Yes! You must be the friend of Sara’s! I’m sure you’ve read her blog about our trip. We already have return tickets from Valpo, which means we have to go again!
And now with the promise that I can learn a circus skill? Totally there!
Music: http://www.vyhod.ru/mp3/2goda/don_pedro.mp3
Lyrics: http://www.vyhod.ru/alb_2go.shtml#2go6
Seems appropriate…
OMG. A language I understand! This reminds me, I have to go study now…
I’m surprised that LiLu didn’t find that video before you.
I think I got a corner on the Russian nonsense ๐