Cha-cha-cha-changesss in Chile
Just today Erik and I were talking about how since we left last Friday, the days seemed to have slowed down. Like, way down. Each minute is savored, each hour moves by fluidly and the days seem to go on and on. I had read somewhere that days/years feel so long for kids because they are constantly intaking and learning and that essentially slows down time for them. Eh, I just don't think they have any concept of time (those lucky ducks). Regardless, the past few days we've been feeling childlike in that sense - that everything is a wonder and an awe worth intaking.
This week has been a perfectly curated collection on Chilean memories, thanks to our kind and generous host, Mauricio.
On Sunday, with Erik and Mauricio randomly matching, we went to M's aunt's 82nd birthday. With tios, tias, madres, primos y primas and all sorts of other people in the family. No one spoke English and my google translate could not keep up with the lightspeed pace in which Chileans speak. However, Mauricio found out he has an incredible talent of translating! The second half of the evening made a lot more sense to me! We laughed, sang, hugged and smooched a lot of cheeks. It was the warmest and fuzziest I've felt in a while, despite all 20 of the people being complete strangers and not being able to converse with anyone. If I can take one feeling with me from our Chile experience, it would be that. One lesson to take home: treat friends, family and new friends with so much warmth they gravitate towards you <3
Monday we had a typical tourist day - did a walking tour and met up with Mauricio where he took us to Vina del Mar so we could enjoy some completos (footlong hot dogs with tomato, avocado (palta) and, yes, that on top is a generous serving of mayo).
We continued our trip north to the sand dunes of Concon. At the edge of these cities and with new high rise apartments bordering the edges, was a giant desert. With the most gorgeous sand dunes and from what I've heard - also the most beautiful sunsets in Chile.
This is when Erik's pre-trip sickness decided to finally get me. I had a sore throat all day but now I was completely out of it. We cut our evening short so I could get to bed and rest up.
I woke up the next day feeling great, which would have been devastating if I had not because we were planning to go to the only sparkling winery in the area!! If you know me, well, you know I'm made up of at least 10% of bubbly wine. We went on a tour and even Mauricio (who works in the tourism industry) learned something! The winery was absolutely beautiful and we strolled around with our bubbles in hand like we weren't actually completely broke and traveling around the world with no income for 4 months. Life was perfect!
We've been resting up more than we would be on vacation. Both due to the jetlag but also due to me getting sick but for the first time in all my adventuring I'm not feeling guilty for wasting time that we could be exploring. Our mindset has completely changed on this trip, the long slow travel is suiting us and we're feeling so completely relaxed. Many people said our itinerary sounded exhausting and wondered if we built any relaxation time in, it has been nothing but relaxing so far.
Valpo is charming - Erik had warned me about the stray dogs. But since he was here they started to build neighborhood dog houses so the sleepy, stray dogs have a home of their own. The graffiti is a beautiful expression of the struggles and the fight the people of the area have had do for their rights and changes they want to see for their country. As a friend once said, "When will the US realize blank buildings are ugly?" I couldn't agree more. I'm obsessed and this city has charmed me as much as it did Erik back in 2006.
