Wednesday, February 26

Today I woke up early and went for a run. After the run, I showered and got dressed, and waited around for a little while. Around 11, Tio Rodrigo and Tia Paula came over with our little cousins Flo, Josefa, and baby Pascale, who was born on the same day I came to Chile. They were going to stay a few days with us. We played around a while with Flo and Josefa, and then we ate lunch outside.

After lunch, my friend Thomas came over and we walked all the way to the center in the burning heat to fix our cell phones. My phone has been broken and not working for like a month and a half now and his has the exact same problem, so we went together to this little kiosk in the center where they fix phones. After we left our phones there (they said they would call us later once they figured out the problem), we went to get starbucks at the mall.

It was great catching up with Thomas after such a long time without seeing him. He has a reputation for being a crazy partier and he did not disappoint me with his stories. We got home and there was dinner waiting. We all ate tacos outside together, and then Thomas and I went to my room and talked for a while longer while he waited for his parents to come get him. After he left around 9, I Skyped with Kathryn. We talked for a while, and I felt like I was back in the US helping my friends with their problems and catching up on all the ANHS drama. After Kathryn and I finished, I went out to the living room to talk with the adults and help Tia Pau make baptism gifts for Pascale’s baptism. We all went to sleep around 2:30.

Tuesday, February 25

Today I woke up and went for a run. Then I showered, got ready, and worked on my blog for a while. There was still no internet in the house and it was incredibly frustrating. Nancy asked me to walk down to the Lider to pay the bill, and she gave me $80 and sent Monse and I on our way. We walked all the way down only to find that the bill was almost double the money she had given me, and we had to walk back. While Nancy went to the bank to take out more money, I helped Maxi and Sra Adela make humitas.

We had to take the corn off the cob and then mash it up into this mush using a special machine. Then we had to wrap the mush up with the corn husks and tie them with string before putting them in the oven to cook. After I finished, I walked back to the Lider to pay the internet bill. When I got back the internet way finally on. I responded to the millions of messages and birthday wishes waiting for me, and I invited Lila to come over to my house that night. After our family ate a late lunch of humitas together, Lila came over. The poor girl had gotten her wisdom teeth out like 4 days before, and her mouth was all swollen and she could barely talk. It was definitely a challenge communicating because I can barely understand regular Spanish let alone swollen mouth mumbled Spanish! We had fun convincing Monse that the reason Lila couldn’t talk was because she had tried to kiss a cow and the cow had bitten her tongue off.

Lila left around 10, and then I ate a quick dinner and watched TV with Monse. Then I Skyped with Ilana for the first time in a long time (it was the day in between our birthdays, so it was the perfect day to Skype). It was great to talk to her again. Her weirdness and laid back attitude are like contagious and I felt so much better and more carefree after listening to her hilarious stories. We talked until like 1 my time and then I went straight to sleep.

Monday, February 24

Today I turned 18!!! I woke up around 9 and went for a run. When I got back, there was a huge package waiting for me from my parents.

They sent me a new camera (mine is broken) and some more USA candy. Also, my uncle sent me some giant gumballs. I knew the package was coming because my uncle had sent me an email saying that he had sent it. Also in the email was a long letter about how much my family there in Chicago loves me and wants to become a bigger part of my life. We’re really not a close family, and that had been bothering me a little after seeing how many people love and miss Cristobal and thinking about how few probably miss me. It was really nice to get that letter and I’m excited to go back and start to form a closer relationship with my family. Then I showered, got dressed, and just kind of chilled in my room writing my blog. There was no internet in the house and I don’t have a cell phone, so I was basically prepared for a sucky birthday. Nobody could call me to say happy birthday, and I couldn’t make plans with anyone to do something. We ate lunch together, and then I went with Monse to the Jumbo to print out pictures and buy frames for my family as gifts for when I change host families.

After we got home, we shut ourselves in my room to put the pictures in the frames without anyone finding out what we were doing. Then, I was going to leave the room, but Monse asked me to stay with her there and watch TV on my bed. I knew something was up, but I played along anyway. After a while, Maxi came in and asked me to help him with something outside. I went out into the living room, and Cata was standing there with a gift in her hands and the table was set and there were balloons decorating the lamps.

It was a great birthday surprise. We sat in my room and talked for a while and it was so great to catch up with Cata. Then we went to eat dinner with my family. They made me tacos because I always tell them how much I miss Mexican food. After tacos, they brought out the cake and sang happy birthday. It was in that moment, when everyone was singing the birthday song in a different language, that I realized how amazing this experience was and how weird and sad and cool all at the same time it is to have your birthday in another country. After they sang, they told me to bite a little bit of the cake.  I know it is their tradition to smash the cake in the person’s face while they bite it, but I did it anyway, and Maxi smashed my face in the cake. I was so absolutely covered in cake that I couldn’t breathe through my nostrils because there was cake up there.

When we finished taking pictures and I came back from the bathroom, my family had their present for me to unwrap. It was a pencil case from Frutillar that said “with love from your Chilean family”, and a frame with 4 adorable photos from our trip to the south. It was really hilarious for Monse and me to discover the frame because we had bought the exact same one with some of the same pictures as a gift for the family.

We couldn’t stop laughing and we couldn’t tell anyone why. After dinner, Cata and I talked for a while longer in my room, and then around 10 she had to leave.  Maxi and I hung out for a while comparing the differences between US passports and Chilean passports and just making stupid jokes. Then I watched a little TV with Monse before thanking my whole family so much for a great birthday and going to sleep.

Sunday, February 23

Today we woke up late again, and we immediately had to pack up and get ready to go back to Talca. We ate a quick breakfast, said goodbye to everyone, and left for Talca. I spent the whole ride back to Talca listening to music. When we arrived at the house in Talca, it was a little uncomfortable because Nancy had left for the campo in the middle of a fight with her mom. Her mom didn’t want to come with us to the campo because she feels neglected by the family and like they never invite her or want her in their campo house, and Nancy said that she wouldn’t be limited by what her mom thinks and just left anyway. When we got back to the house, lunch was a little tense.

The sign says "spicy: it bites your mouth and then your ass"

After lunch, Nancy, Eric, and I went to the feria in the center of Talca to buy vegetables for the house in Rancagua. I got to try this cool fruit called a pepino that I’d never heard of before.

After we got home, we had to load up the car with everything we had brought from the south trip. There was so much stuff that we had to collapse the last row of seats in the minivan and ride all 3 kids in one row. The journey to Talca, although it was finally the last car ride for a while, felt really long. I listened to music and read Elegi Vivir the whole time. When we finally got home it was like 8 at night.

We unloaded the whole car and ordered everything in the house. Then I wrote for a little while in my blog, we ate a quick family dinner, and I went to sleep in my nice comfortable bed for the first time in way too long. The only sucky thing was the Eric had forgotten to pay the internet bill, so although I was finally home from a 3 week long vacation without internet, I still couldn’t open facebook or talk to my friends or even let them know I was home because there was no internet in the house and my cell phone has been broken for over a month.

Saturday, February 22

My whole family slept in the same room, and the room stayed dark the whole morning, so we didn’t end up getting out of bed until noon! I got up and dressed, and then chilled for a while with the kids I’d met last night. With Connie, we went outside to pick blackberries (a truck comes by in the afternoon to weigh and buy them, so it’s a good way to make a little money). Then Miguel Esteban invited me to go for a ride on his motorbike. We went pretty for a long ride to his grandmother’s house to get helmets. I met his aunt and grandmother and we talked for a while and they showed me the house. They were super sweet and welcoming and told me about the family and showed me pictures of all my cousins when they were babies. Then we put on the helmets and went speeding down the road and back to the house.

We arrived just in time for lunch. After lunch I talked to Cristobal for a little while over Skype, and then we all got ready to go to this natural pool nearby. I didn’t have a bathing suit or anything, so I just put on shorts and the shirt I had worn to bed the night before. Monse, Josefa, Flo, Fernanda, Octavio, Maxi, Miguel Esteban, Felipe, and Dani all went. We sat in the back of my uncle’s pickup truck and drove a way out in the desert on this barely-there dirt road to get to the lake. It was kind of gross getting into the lake because there was a bunch of moss and it was slippery and disgusting but once we got into the middle of the lake, it was deep and clear and great. We swam over to the other side and had a bunch of fun diving and cannonballing off the rocks into the deep water. We stayed for a few hours, and then rode home in the back of the truck getting our wet clothes covered in dirt. When we got home I ran to get the first shower. Then I ate dinner with the little girls and sat talking with Maxi and Maria Jesus for a long time. Eric and the little girls had brought out the projector and were watching Guerra Mundial Z against the wall of the house. I went and sat on the hood of the car and wrote 3 college scholarship essays in the notepad of my cell phone. I got them done because I had no other choice but the whole time I was just laughing at what a different life I am living now than last year. After I finished, I went to sit with the adults while they made empanadas. After we talked for a while, Miguel Esteban came over to the house to invite Jesus, Maxi and I to the birthday party that the other half of the family was at (it’s kind of awkward because the country house is divided into two sides and each side belongs to one half of the family and although they’re friends, they go to different parties and stuff). He drove us over to his grandma’s house, where we had came earlier, and we greeted all the family. The kids all went into this garage apart from the house where there was a pool table. We didn’t play, but we just sat around and talked. It was the coolest experience ever because I hadn’t seen any of these people since September when we went to that pub, and at that moment I had barely been able to understand anything. Now, instead of making such a huge effort to have fun, I could just relax, tell stories, and talk to them. It was really gratifying to see that my work here is paying off. We stayed over until like 2:30 and then another uncle who lived close to our house drove us home.

Friday, February 21

Today we woke up late in Talca and I went for a run. Then we basically just chilled out and relaxed the whole day, which usually makes me feel antsy and annoyed that I’m wasting time, but it was actually really nice after such a long and draining vacation. Maxi and I watched TV for a while, and then I watched a little bit of Harry Potter 8 with Monse (although after the trip I’d really had it up to here with movies). In the afternoon after lunch, I decided that I wanted something sweet. I introduced my family to cake in a mug.

Where you put all the cake ingredients in a mug and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes and you have your cake. They loved it and went crazy over how simple the recipe was. Then Nancy and Abelita decided to return the favor and teach me a recipe too. We made the cheese filling for cheese empanadas, and then I helped Abelita make and roll out the dough into flat circles for the empanadas. Then I decided I wanted to go for another run. As I was tying my shoes, Nancy came up to me and told me to pack a change of clothes into my backpack because we were leaving for the campo (where we went for September 18) to stay the night. It was 8 at night, but she decided we were leaving in 15 minutes and there could be no other questions asked. Nobody else wanted to go, everyone complained about the short notice, and Nancy knew that I needed to get home to Rancagua the next day to finish an important scholarship essay and turn it in. None of that mattered and we went anyway. That’s when I finally put my finger on what is weird about this family. The parents have a lack of respect for their kids. I know that they’re just kids or whatever, but even when  I was young my parents always listened to me, took my opinion into consideration, treated me like I mattered, and explained situations to me in advance instead of springing things on me and giving the only explanation of “because I said so and I’m your parent”. With their kids, sometimes we’ll be in the car and the kids will ask a question like “when are we stopping” or “turn up the volume” and the parents won’t even acknowledge that the question was asked. I just feel like it’s a lack of respect and consideration is all. This really made me realize how amazing the parents that  I have are, and I immediately asked Nancy to share internet with me so  I could send my mom a message telling her how much  I love her. Having that mutual respect with my parents is something I miss a lot. We got to the campo and I was in a pretty bad mood, but then all the people greeted me, and I decided to have fun anyway and make the best of it. There were new cousins there that I hadn’t met before—Felipe (13), Fernanda (16), and Connie (19). Miguel Esteban, Octavio, and Maria Jesus were also all there. I had fun hanging out with them and getting to know my other cousins. We talked for a while, I taught them how to play ERS, and Fernanda taught me how to do the waterfall braid. Then we went out to the kitchen with the adults and I showed everyone how to make s’mores.

They all loved them, and I felt really awesome to be able to share a part of my life in the US with the people here. We stayed up talking until like 3, and then we all went to sleep.

Thursday, February 20

Today we rolled out of bed around 10 and went to eat breakfast at this bread store and breakfast restaurant in town. Then we drove a little further to the center of Villarica, where we found a huge feria artesenal and a Mapuche cultural center.

While Nancy entertained herself shopping in the feria (the rest of us really couldn’t handle any more ferias at that point), we went to tour the Mapuche hut. Inside was a translation of some of their language and a bunch of their weapons and tools on display. There were people dressed in traditional clothing and jewelry (all silver) and booths set up all around the giant hut selling Mapuche artwork and remedies.

There was also a lot of woodwork, including giant statues of Mapuches. We even found the famous flores de madera, which are flowers made out of wood and painted to look real, which they really do. I thought it was just a normal patch of flowers until Eric told me to touch one. After we finished in the cultural center, we met up with Nancy in the feria, and Nancy, Monse, and I all had braids put in our hair decorated with little shells.

Then we piled back into the car and rove about 30 minutes to Pucon. I remembered that right at the beginning of my exchange my friend Pelao had sent me a gorgeous picture of a volcano while he was on vacation in Pucon.

When we got there, the first thing I did was take that same awesome picture that he had sent me. It was cool to think that the volcano had gone from something I could only dream of seeing in pictures to something tangible and right before my eyes. I felt really lucky to have such an awesome family to take my sightseeing all through the south.

Pucon was a really pretty and really touristy town. We stopped in an artisan chocolate shop to have snacks while we walked along main street toward the marina (there are lakes in basically every town in the south). After a nice long walk, we returned to the car and drove back to Villarica. On the way, we stopped at a garden so Nancy could buy 3 giant hortencia plants because apparently they don’t sell them in the north on Chile. We all yelled that we absolutely could not buy any more after that because the car was so full that the tires would deflate with any extra added weight. We then drove back to Villarica and had a late lunch in the same restaurant we had eaten in the night before (I actually had the exact same food too). Then we said goodbye to our vacation and drove the 6 hours back to Talca to our grandparents’ house. During the ride, I read a lot of my book Elegi Vivir, and then Maxi and I watched movies on his computer. We got to Talca at like 12:30 at night, greeted the tatas and had a quick once, and then I crashed into bed.

Wednesday, February 19

Today we got up early, ate breakfast, and spent about 2 hours packing everything up. We drove for a few hours up to Parque Nacional Puyehue, where there is a river with water flowing straight from under the volcano.

The water is as hot as a Jacuzzi in the pools around it, so a hotel built this manmade giant pool with water flowing directly from the river next to it for people to relax in.

We had to wait in line to get in, so while Nancy waited, the rest of us went down to walk by the river. There were a lot of people lying in the river relaxing in the hot water there too. They were all covered in mud from the river to relax their skin.

After a while, Nancy called to tell us she was in the front of the line and we went back and got into the pool immediately. We first had to go to the tiny bathroom to change into our bathing suits. Then we got into the pool and it was really impressively hot (also impressively filled with people and the water was impressively filled with hair and other disgustingly human filth). We sat around basking in the luxurious heat for about 10 minutes before it got uncomfortably hot. Then I stood up on one of the ledges to cool off for a while.

All in all we were in there for about half an hour before none of us could take the heat anymore and we got out. Then we went back to the tiny and crowded bathroom, and Monse and I showered together in our bathing suits in a shower without a door. I changed my clothes in the bathroom, and although it was a whole lot of trouble to change clothes and shower and everything just to go in a Jacuzzi for a few minutes, I did feel a lot better after getting clean. From there, we went to a museum nearby to look around at the typical plant and animal life of the national park and the volcanic activity there. After the museum, we piled back into the car and drove about 4 hours (I should really be measuring time in kid movies that we watch with Monse instead of hours so 3 movies) before arriving in Villarica at like 9:30. We hadn’t eaten lunch yet (we had bread and hard boiled eggs on the road), so we stopped at a restaurant in town and I had a “lunch” of grilled chicken and a nice big salad. It was our last night of the trip, and it was late and nobody had the energy to find a camping and pitch a tent, so we went to a little hospedaje down the street (it's like a house that rents out rooms to travelers and then everyone shares the same bathroom) and got a room. Monse, Nancy, and I put on our pajamas and laid down together in the queen bed (Maxi and Eric were in the bunk bed on the other side of the room) and used the internet from Nancy’s iphone (I don’t know if I’ve mentioned before that here you can “share” internet from a phone, meaning that it becomes a wifi hotspot for devices around it that know the wifi password) to watch a movie on the ipad. Recuerdame was really good, but I was also really tired and I fell asleep halfway through the movie.

Tuesday, February 18

We woke up this morning and I got ready to go for a run along the beach. I had my clothes on and everything when it started to rain. We had to run to put everything away, and then I went to take a shower. The showers were gross and there was mud on the floor and everything about the shower was just very difficult and messy and not fun, but I finally got it done. I ran from the showers to the car in the pouring rain. Then we drove like 100 meters over to a covered area overlooking the beach where we set up a table and had breakfast.

We finished, packed up all the stuff, and drove to Puerto Octay. It was raining, but I still wanted to see a little of the tiny town, so while Nancy and Eric were looking at cheese (what the town is famous for), Monse and I crossed the street and walked around the little plaza through the rain.

We then went back to Frutillar to see the city, and by the time we got there it had stopped raining and turned into a nice day. We went to a meat shop and bought meat to have a barbecue tonight. Then we went to a feria artesenal and walked around for a while. If you haven’t noticed yet, Nancy is an absolute fanatic for ferias atresenales, and although they all basically have the same trinkets and woolen clothes, I still really like looking at all the crafts and stuff. After the feria, we were all starving, but we wanted to save room for the barbecue in the night, so we ordered some French fries from a roadside stand and ate them all together (they put mayonnaise on their fries here). Then Monse, Maxi, and I went over to a playground nearby and took turns pushing each other on this giant swing.

Then we all walked over to the Teatro del Lago. It’s this giant building literally built over the lake made out of a bunch of different colors of wood. Frutillar is famous for the music festival that is held in the theater there.

After touring Frutillar, we went back to the camping to have our asado. We all went back behind the camping where there were trees to gather branches for fire wood. Monse also picked blackberries from the bushes. The whole family had fun making fun of Eric because he had so much trouble getting the fire started. When he finally did, they all cooked their meat and my chicken on the side.

After we ate dinner, Monse, Eric, and I played escoba for a while and then we all were ready for a dessert of s’mores. Later, Maxi and I took turns cutting up a big branch we found with an axe. We were worried that the splinters would scratch our eyes, so we put on the goggles that Monse had brought to go swimming in. We looked ridiculous, but at least we were protected. Using the axe would be a really good way to get all of my frustration out when I’m angry about something. After we got the fire burning really bright, Nancy, Maxi, and I sat around it and talked for a while. Then Maxi and I walked down to the beach, sat in the lifeguard tower overlooking the water, and listened to music for a while. We sang along and even though we’re both terrible singers and didn’t really know the lyrics (we sang songs in both Spanish and English), we had a great time. After a while it got so cold that we couldn’t take it anymore, and we went back to the tents to go to sleep.

Monday, February 17

Today we woke up late, ate breakfast, and moved out of the refugio. We made the hour drive to the Saltos de Petrohue, which is a giant, powerful waterfall and national park. The water was a beautiful turquoise blue and incredibly powerful rushing over the rocks.

There was an incredible number of people there touring, and probably more tourists speaking English than Spanish. We took pictures in front of the waterfall, and then spent a while walking through the forest and exploring. Then we drove further to Puerto Varas, where we parked the car and walked a while down the boardwalk, watching all the people having fun on the beach and enjoying the incredibly huge volcanoes in the background. We went to a nice pizzeria in the middle of town and had the yummiest lunch ever.

Then we walked through the city to a huge church and a virgin statue nearby where people leave plaques giving thanks to the virgin for helping them in some way.

Then we went to another feria artesenal and walked back along the boardwalk and through the city to the car.

Then we made the drive to Frutillar and looked for a camping nearby. We found a nice camping on the beach next to a lake.

We put everything together super fast, with Monse and me blowing up all the mattresses, and in an hour and a half we were eating dinner. During dinner, the tensions of traveling together all the time started to show, as Maxi and Monse begged their parents to return to the house early. They were tired of camping and traveling and wanted to go home to watch TV. I got really angry at them because I was having a fantastic time and I felt personally hurt that they were asking to cut short my only opportunity to see the south of Chile. I tried to make them understand how important this trip was for me, but they just wanted to go home, so we agreed to disagree and let the parents decide. After dinner, Eric took out the projector he uses for classes, hung up a white tablecloth along a bush nearby, and Monse and I watched El Rey Leon on the big screen while bundled up in blankets because it was freezing cold outside. Then I went to sleep around midnight.

Sunday, February 16

Today we woke up around 10 and packed up everything that we had unpacked after staying a week in Chiloe. Tia Julia cooked us giant sopaipillas for breakfast, which we ate with manjar. Then we said a huge thank you and goodbye to everyone and got on the road to Ancud, another city on the island of Chiloe. On the way there, we stopped at the other festival custombrista where we saw these giant cloves of garlic that Chiloe is famous for and also some oxen being driven without reigns or anything just with a stick that their owner was holding.

We ate a salmon lunch in a nice restaurant there, and then walked down the boardwalk along the ocean for a while.

Then we went to Fort San Antonio, another Spanish fort taken over by Chile. After that, we drove back to the ferry and crossed over onto mainland Chile.

We drove through Puerto Montt and then a long way to Puerto Varas. First we went to the Lider in town to buy chocolate and marshmallows because I wanted to make s’mores that night. Then we spent about 2 hours driving down the highway at night through the woods looking for a camp ground. We finally arrived at Camping Las Montanas at like 10 at night only to find that there were no more available spaces. They took pity on us and gave us the refugio building, which is like an empty log cabin with a chimney inside. I thought it was absolutely great until I looked up into the rafters and saw all the giant bugs. We decided to deal with the bugs, and while I inflated the mattresses, Nancy prepared dinner. After eating a light dinner, we broke out the graham crackers that my mom had sent me from the US (graham crackers don’t exist here) and I made my family their first s’mores ever. They loved them and wanted more and more. I was proud of introducing them to such a typical American tradition.

After we finished eating, we talked for a little while, and then went to sleep relatively early. I slept with the blanket over my head as protection against the bugs, but I actually slept really well and woke up without any new bug bites thank the lord.

Saturday, February 15

Today once again we all got up super late. I was fed up with waiting for the other kids and wasting time, so I went to the fiesta custombrista with the adults and Monse while the rest of them were still sleeping. We ate empanadas with centolla (type of crab) inside, which is a huge delicacy apparently. Then I really just wanted lettuce and vegetables because I had been eating nothing but meat and bread for the past few days. I asked for just a salad instead of meat with a side of lettuce at one of the food booths and they looked at me like I was crazy. After lunch, I accompanied Nancy to start working the Julia’s food stand. I put on the hairnet, took like 3 orders, and then Maxi, Oscar, and Javi came and invited me to hang out with them and so I left the food stand. We hung out for a while watching the dancing and talking. We went over to this really cool machine that utilizes water energy from the river to grind flour. Then we went over to this track nearby where they were doing free rollerblading. Maxi and I took skates and started trying while the rest chickened out and watched. Maxi was absolutely horrible and kept falling down, but I actually took to it. Two little girls came up and started skating next to me and giving me pointers and talking to me, and I slowly gained speed and confidence and ended up having a great time. I pride myself on always being able to try new things and not being embarrassed to look like an idiot doing them. Then Maxi, Monse, and I sat down at one of the tables and played escoba together. While we were sitting there playing and eating empanadas a little boy came over and I offered him an empanada. Then his dad and uncle came over and started talking to me. They were very obviously poor country people (sorry if that sounds mean I have no other way to describe it—one of them was missing teeth), and when I told them I was from the US, they sincerely told me they had no idea where that was and had never heard of it before. They were the first people in Chile that I’ve met who haven’t heard of the US. Later, Monse and I went to see a demonstration of sheep shearing. It was brutal the way they did it and the sheep ended up with a bunch of bleeding cuts from the sheers. 

We didn’t want to watch any more so we went to the track and ran races and flipped around on the bars nearby. I may not be the monkey bar champ I used to be but I still have some skills to do flips and things. Then came the fashion show where Javi and Pia were performing. It was a show of typical Chilote clothing, which is basically socks, skirts, dresses, hats, and jackets all made of different colored wool.

After briefly going to the house to change clothes (it quickly went from burning hot to freezing cold outside), we met up with more new people from Javi’s friend group and watched the dancing and talked until late in the night. I saw this traditional Chilote dance called Chamame that looked really fun and I asked Javi to teach it to me. She taught me the basics but it was actually a lot harder that it looked. The last song of the night was a Chamame, and this old drunk man came up to me and invited me up to the stage to dance with him. I tried to reject, but everyone was cheering me on, so we went up to dance together. I tried to do what Javi had taught me, but the drunk dude was dancing way to fast and running all around the stage and through the other couples and talking to me the whole time and I just couldn’t stop laughing at the ridiculousness of how we must have looked. Anyway, it was definitely a failure, but it was fun anyway and really hilarious for everyone else. After the song, the drunk dude escorted me off the stage and tried to kiss me, and Maxi had to step in and tell him to leave. After that, Nancy, Monse, and I walked home, ate some empanadas de manzana, and went to sleep around 3.

Friday, February 14

Today I woke up at like noon, but I was still the first one awake, so I watched TV for a while and waited for everyone else. Around 2, Javi, Oscar, Maxi, and I walked down to the beach to go kayaking. We probably splashed more water at each other than we actually kayaked, and by the time we finished I was absolutely soaking wet. I was wearing shorts that were way too big for me, and I ended up having to walk all the way home holding my shorts up with my hand so the weight of the water wouldn’t pull them completely off. We all quickly showered and then walked over to the fiesta custombrista, which was a bunch of kiosks selling typical Chilote food and a stage playing music and featuring dance groups. I tried typical food—empanadas de manzana, navegado, curanto en hoyo, harina molida, and chicha.

Then after lunch, some more of Javi’s friends showed up and we all decided to play cards together. I thought them all how to play ERS and we played for a long time (I won hahaha I can’t beat anyone in the US but here I actually have an advantage in ERS and I love it). One of Javi’s friends Pipe, showed up with his face all black from dirt, and when I asked him why he said it was because he’s a fireman and there was a fire in the morning. That’s another big difference in Chile—the fire department here is completely made up of volunteers. They are normal people with normal jobs who carry radios with them and when they hear a fire call they stop what they are doing (the job gives them special permission because they are fire fighters) and go to the fire if they are close enough. They don’t go to school to train, but they have workshops on the weekends where they learn the science of fighting fires, first aid, and everything else they need to be well prepared. Anyway, after a while we got bored and went back to the house for a while to watch animal planet. Then Javi, Maxi, and I walked along this gorgeous trail to the beach. The tide was super low and we could walk really far out.

The only thing that was kind of gross is that we went right at sunset and all of the mosquitoes were out. I think I have like 30 bites now. After we got back to the house, Maxi and I walked up to the fiesta again. We sat on the fence next to the soccer field all alone and had a really nice talk about our love lives. It felt nice being able to open up with Maxi and have him open up with me because although we try a lot harder in our relationship now, we still aren’t as close as we could be because we’re just really different people. Then Javi, Oscar, and their friends showed up and we walked around and hung out with them for a while. Nancy, who had been helping Julia with her food stand all day, came to introduce me to her friends from the food stand, which by that time was all drunk and just wanted to dedicate poems to me in broken English. Later, while we were all standing around watching the dancers, this super creepy old lady walked over to Maxi and kept asking him to dance and wouldn’t leave him alone. She even went so far as to kiss him on the cheek before we all got her to back off. I swear she looked like a witch! We went home from the fiesta around 3 in the morning, and it was a really nice time although it was a little uncomfortable hanging out with a bunch of Javi and Oscar’s friends whom we didn’t know.

Thursday, February 13

This morning I got up really early with Julia, her dad, Nancy, and Eric to take Julia’s truck to a nearby beach to gather clams.

We had to wear ugly clothes and big rubber boots to get muddy in. My boots sank into the mud almost covering my entire foot. We had to look though all the rocks to see where little spouts of water would shoot up and then dig there for clams. In about an hour we had like 2 buckets full and some nearby fishermen had given us 2 nets full of mussels. When we got home, there was still no one else awake, so Julia, Nancy, and I walked into the center of town to the feria. I bought a wool hat and also a warm wool headband that I absolutely fell in love with. Then we walked a little further down the main street until it started paralleling the river. We stopped at a natural juice stand and drank juice together.

Then we got home to cook the clams and mussels. We had a lunch of clam soup and rice, which just confirmed the belief I already had that I do not like shellfish of any type. It’s not the taste, but that chewy texture that is really gross. After lunch, Javi had to go to a fitting because she was going to model traditional Chilote clothing during the fiesta custombrista that the town was putting on the next two days. I went with her and met some of her friends. Then we all went down to drink some more natural juice. After we finished the juice, Javi, Pia, Oscar, Maxi, and I walked down to the beach to watch the sunset. We went to the part that was full of a kind of clay called laja. It looks like rocks, so it’s really fun to throw it and watch it explode into a million pieces when it hits something.

When we got back to the house, Nancy and Julia had baked 3 different types of pie—blueberry, key lime, and raspberry, and so we had dinner of just pie. Then the whole family stayed around talking until like 2 in the morning. They told me all of the legends surrounding Chiloe. Apparently there is a beast living there called the Trauco that mysteriously gets virgin girls present. Also, there is a phantom boat called the Caleuche that people see in the distance in the night. I don’t believe in any of that stuff but it’s still interesting to hear the stories.

Wednesday, February 12

Today we woke up really late after having stayed up until 5 the night before. I watched TV for a while and we talked and killed time until lunch. I was starting to feel a little antsy to do something and continue seeing sights. I felt like we were wasting precious vacation time while Nancy cooked with Julia and Eric took a nap. After lunch I got my wish and we went to another town in Chiloe called Dalcahue.

We went to a big feria, and Javi and I had a lot of fun together talking about boys and taking pictures near the boats in the harbor.

Then we went to Castro, the capital of Chiloe and to a giant feria. I was astounded by the number of things made out of wool that were being sold there. We went out to the dock when we got tired of the feria and watched the catamarans docking.

In the center of the plaza there was a gorgeous yellow and purple church (if you haven’t caught on yet, Chiloe is famous for its beautiful and historic churches).

We had to drive quickly back to Curaco de Velez because the tire in the van had been pierced and was quickly losing air and there were no mechanics open because it was 8 at night. We had to stop at like 3 different gas stations on the 30 minute ride to put more air in the tire. We got home, ate dinner, and sat around talking until like 2 in the morning.