Famous Chile

I've had a few run-ins with "famous" people in Chile during my very limited time there. The first was in 2007 when I was going to visit Seabass. I was sitting in the Atlanta airport waiting for the flight in a section away from other people. Two men and two younger women came and sat near me. One of the guys looked very gringo and spoke English with a NY accent. The other guy was wearing a Crocodile Dundee hat and spoke Spanish. I was rather perplexed by him. For some reason I had the feeling he was one of those people who was really rich but you wouldn't know it. The 2 men were talking in English and Spanish at the same time. I couldn't figure out if the girls were Crocodile Dundee's daughters or girlfriend or wife or what. I was there for about an hour so observed this for a while. When I got on the plane I passed by Dundee who was sitting in first class. I thought to myself that he must not be too bad off and maybe my hypothesis was right. When I arrived in Chile Teleton was going on. Seabass explained to me what Teleton was and we were watching it one day on TV. I happened to look up and Crocodile Dundee was on the screen and everyone was cheering loudly. I said "OMG- that is the guy from my plane!" It turned out it was Jose Luiz Nazar who donated 1,000 million pesos (Dr. Evil comes to mind as I type that).

On the same trip the night before I was leaving Seabass's brother invited us to the Snoop Dogg concert, I am a big fan, but we decided not to go since it was my last night. The next day Seabass dropped me off at the airport. This time was really difficult leaving. We had just gotten engaged a few days prior and didn't know when we would be seeing each other again as he still did not have a job in the US. I was really sad and was crying as we parted. The lady that took my passport even asked if I was ok. I got through security and was standing in the duty free shop trying to gather my composure when I look up and through the window see the largest black men walking by that I have ever seen in my life. I thought to myself "are there NFL players here?" but that didn't make any sense. A few seconds later I see Snoop Dogg walking by and realized that they were taking him to a special security line that exited right where I was standing. Seeing Snoop stopped my tears. One of his security guards was standing next to me and I asked if I could get my pic with Snoop. He said "maybe if you hurry- we need to get to our plane". Snoop came out and I asked if I could get my pic with him. He nodded his head (I wondered if he even heard me as he had earphones in). I went to get my camera, turned it on, AND IT DIED. Sadly, I had to let Snoop leave without a picture. I walked around the duty free shop for a few minutes and then left. On my way out I saw that Snoop had stopped to shop for sunglasses. I remembered that my phone had a camera so I asked the guy standing there (in my broken Spanish) if he would take my picture and he said he would. Snoop was finished shopping and I asked him again if I could get my pic with him. He nodded yes again. I had a HUGE red purse and a HUGE black bag hanging from my arm. Together they must have weighed 20 lbs. I went to turn to pose with Snoop and SMASHED him right in the gut with my 20 lb bags. He made an "UMPH, OHHH" sound and bent over holding his stomach and shaking his head. His security guards (all of them) were staring at me. I apologized all over myself and he was very cool. I should have busted out with one of his lines that I knew by heart "it's the capital S oh yes I'm fresh N double O-P D-O double G-Y D-O double G ya see!" in order to show him that I really was a fan and not just a stupid careless blonde gringa. Anyway, Snoop was cool fo shizzle and still allowed me to get a pic and for that he is forever my nizzle :)

This year I was in Miami during Teleton. Seabass had to leave our vacation in Miami to fly at the last minute to Chile because his grandmother passed away. There is a small Chilean restaurant in Miami and I read that if you went there on Saturday they were donating proceeds from the food to Teleton so I thought I would go. As I was sitting there watching Teleton on the TV a cute guy and his hot wife and beautiful child walked in (which I was glad hoping that it would take away some of the gringa stares I was getting). The guy walked over to the phone next to the cash register at the restaurant and started talking. Everyone from the kitchen came out and I noticed that the Spanish I was hearing on the phone came across the TV a few seconds later. I have no idea who the guy in the restaurant was but he was talking to Cristian De La Fuente about the money that was being raised in Miami :). I have no idea who he was but thought this was a cool coincidence.





Also on this same trip to Miami but the day before Seabass left, we were shopping at a huge outlet mall and walked into the GAP. Seabass and his mom looked over and noticed that a previous President of Chile and probably future President (Eduardo Frei) and his wife were in the checkout line buying a ton of stuff. Seabass didn't want to bother him but I insisted that he get his picture with him. We went up and talked to Eduardo and he was very nice. He even started talking to my 5 year old son and asked him "como estas? muy bien?" I said "ehhhh- bien :) " He tried to say more but my son turned away and said "WHATEVER!" (I'm not sure if the President heard him but I wanted to hide somewhere).






If you have had any brushes with fame, I'd love to hear- post it!