The holidays

Hola,
Back on line after a little running around up and down the southern part of Chile.

Spent Xmas in Chiloe, ended up bumping into the ´international´ friends I had made in Puerto Varas while at the xmas concert. (BTW, a soccer match just ended that pm and all the fans were celebrating in the streets...felt like a riot...people chanting, cars honking, kids hanging out car windows waving the team´s flag, drunk men jumping up and down and eventually breaking the fence into the park to take over the small outdoor stage... flares and drums... the whole 9 yards...the pics on the paper the next day were quite impressive.... all that while i was waiting to go to the xmas concert, keeping my distance from all these fanatics...such bad timing though... you can imagine ´silent night´ with drum beats and honking in the background... quite special!).

Dinner was fun as everyone cooked something from their country...german potato salad with pickles, italian meatballs, stir fry veggies from me (not very french but needed green stuff) and some chocolates (milk, but had to do for the occasion!)...the guy running the hostal treated us to the Chilean version of eggnog which resembles bailey´s but with pisco, no comment. Missed home of course.

I was lucky with the weather in Chiloe as it´s famous for all the rain it gets. I got to visit some of the small islands along the coast, quite spectacular views. Tons of salmon factories all around. Chileans advised me not to eat any as it´s stuffed with hormones...oh no! so much for my yummy lunch from 2 days ago!

Headed back to Puerto Varas to go on a horse trip of a life time. See separate entry for that. I´m continuing on with the holiday theme....with New Year´s.

Took the night bus from Puerto Varas up to Santiago and down to Pichilemu (no connections as bus drops people off on the highway...not sure how you´re expected to get to the bus station 2km away and find another bus to the coast, at 4am!!)...so 19hrs later, on Dec 31st, I got to Pichilemu, a little surf town with huge black sand beaches (see pic). I ended up getting adopted by the host family at the residential where i was staying. I was the only tourist there...i think it was a place geared towards locals traveling to the beach. The owner had her whole family over for a big dinner, so when they saw me eating alone they invited me to their table. Conversation was limited as I couldn´t understand what the older people were saying but a younger girl in her 20´s helped me out. So many uncles and aunts, i never figured out how they were all connected. We all walked over to the beach to watch the fireworks together. They shared their fake champagne with me (which included froth made of beat white egg...just great for digestion!) and red wine mixed with coke (i passed, thank you!). So sweet of them. They were parading me to all their friends and neighbors as the ´french girl´... i felt like a alien. People do stare at my blue eyes...something quite rare over here. Anyways, at midnight, they all started crying and hugging each other and me. Very touching. By 2am we made it back to the hostal...happy to go to bed after such a long day...a sweet long day.

Spent the next 2 days perfecting my tan. Had the beach to myself in the morning, quite a treat as it gets packed in the pm. Fun to watch the surfers, pros and beginners alike, and the whole folklore of the beach. One sad note is the lack of concept of what trash cans are for. And that´s true not only here at the beach but all over. People here tend to throw everything on the street, out the bus window, on the beach... you can imagine how dirty the beach was after a full day of families hanging out. Plus, people here (sorry, don´t want to sound like i´m making generalizations, but these are facts) snack a lot....i mean A LOT...all day long...kids are constantly eating chips or popsicles...adults too eat icecream all the time...and they love to drink fruit juices and chemical (ie: Fanta type) drinks... obesity will definitively be an issue in a few years! Meanwhile, it´s the trash all over that´s pretty disgusting.

Anyways, on a positive note... the tanning went well... I headed up to Santiago, got my new passport with the scariest pic ever (just need black lines in the background and it would be the perfect mug shot)...and met up with Jonathan, my younger brother, who will be traveling with me for the next 3 weeks as we go explore Patagonia.