Wow...it has been a long time since our last blog. Sorry everyone! Time is just flying by it seems. Our last week has been a bit more relaxed than the frantic overnight bussing we were doing before, however. That said, we are currently waiting by the bus terminal for an overnight bus to Mendoza, Argentina, which leaves at 10:00pm, crosses the border sometime around 2 or 3am and arrives in Mendoza at 4:30am. (We are also in a delimma of whether or not to return to Santiago now instead of going to Mendoza, or return after Mendoza, as there is a Men´s Field Hockey Qualifying Tournament for the Beijing Olympics starting today. India plays England on the 6th, which would be the best match up.)

Anyways, we are already rambling. We left Calama for La Serena a week ago yesterday - the last time we blogged. The bus ride lasted 17 hours, and we arrived in La Serena early Saturday afternoon. After wandering the streets for a couple hours looking for a hostel, we encountered a restaurant owner who spoke English and had relatives in Canada. He stopped serving his customers, phoned his friends and escorted us around town, just to help us find accommodation. Eventually, after 7 or 8 hostels which were either full or too expensive, we found a low end place for 15 dollars a night - a steal in Chile. In Peru, 15 dollars would have gotten us the deluxe suite with jacuzzi! After settling in, we went to phone Roy and Margaret, contacts from a strange night in Canada.

To quickly backtrack a little.... In December, we were driving down Broadway in Vancouver to go to MEC to find Maya a pair of shoes for our trip. A couple of blocks from our destination, we passed a stalled car in the middle of the road. After parking, Braden ran back to see if the car needed a hand. At the car, Braden found Molly Sinke, a wonderful elderly woman who had just got out of surgery at the hospital, and her friend Joyce (from Saltspring) who was driving Molly home. We helped push their car to the side of the road, called ICBC, and then drove Molly home while Joyce waited with the car. On the drive, Molly told us that she had sons in Chile and would mail us their information in thanks for the favor. We later told this story to Maya´s parents, and from the details, it was revealed that Maya´s mother Jill had worked with Molly for many years with the Red Cross. We thought this was a very strange coincidence.

After settling into the hostel, we set out to call Roy and Marg. We reached them, and they told us that they had a bed for us to sleep in. (It turned out that they are in the process of moving and had gotten rid of all their furniture, but a friend had offered to bring over his spare bed for us.) Back to the hostel to try to get our money back. After 15 minutes of negotiation in a Spanish English mix, and a very offended and angry host, we got our money back, collected our bags, and set off to meet Roy.

We spent three nights with Roy and Marg. The first night we shared with them and a couple from Australia (from whom we got the bed). Unfortunately, the truth came out that Maya was a vegetarian as Marg´s meat lasanga was coming out of the oven. (This meant that Marg wouldn´t cook the crab and prawns she had bought as well.) Roy presented Braden with some imported European beer, which after 2 months of stuff not much better than Canadian was a real treat. For desert we had fresh berries with ice cream. (jealous yet?) Amazing. After dinner, we talked about our lives back in Canada, and it was revealed that Roy´s best friend is no other than Braden´s uncle, Brian Carson. Shocked, we called Brian just to confirm that there were not two Brian Carson´s living in Robert´s Creek on the Sunshine Coast.

The next morning we spent on the beach. Braden and Roy surfed while Maya and Marg tanned. Braden´s second time surfing was much better than his first, and he didn´t want to get out of the water when it was time to leave. Maya got sunburned on the right side of her body. In the afternoon, Roy and Marg took us out to the valley in the mountains behind La Serena to have dinner with friends of theirs (we think it is called the Elqui Valley). Again an amazing dinner. They barbequed vegetables and meat, and offered us many glasses of a type of red wine only available in Chile. It is called Carmenere and is only available here because the grape plague in Europe wiped it entirely out there. Interestingly, no one knew that it had been replanted in Chile until about 10 years ago, when a wine taster realized that a wine he was sampling was not a merlot but a Carmenere. Quick side note on the barbeque. Instead of cooking with propane or charcoal like we would back home, in Chile everyone lights big fires, waits for the coals to form and then shovels them under the grill. The grill is usually on a pulley system as to move it up and down in accordence to the heat of the coals, and the need to put in more coals without dirtying the food. Second quick side note resulting from dinner. Roy and Marg´s friends were telling us about when they bought their house and the problems with buying/renting in Chile. When you move out of a house in Chile, you take everything. Everything. This includes: light fixtures, fridge, stove, washer, dryer, windows, doors, toilets, sinks... anything that can be sold. Therefore, when you buy a house, you have to be there continuously after you sign the papers to try to limit what is removed.

The next day we spent seeing some of the sights of La Serena and Coquimbo. We started off in Coquimbo, which is a small port town just south of La Serena. This place is full of character. Old colourful buildings line the streets and the port is crammed with vendors on the sidwalks and rickety row boats in the water. After exploring Coquimbo we headed back into La Serena on the bus to pick up a few things for Roy and Margaret. We found ourselves in two huge South American chain stores: Jumbo and Easy. Jumbo is like Superstore or Cosco, and Easy is similar to Canadian Tire or Home Depot. In both stores one can always find young attractive girls in skimpy outfits, advertising products. For example, in one aisle in Jumbo they stand around and hold cereal boxes (as if you can´t see them on the shelf). No booth, no talking, just skimpy outfits and a box of cereal. And this happens all over the store: lightbulbs, spatulas, garbage cans. You name it, they hold it. We estimate each store has about 10 or 15 of these girls. Roy later told us that girls dream of having such a job.

Wednesday was our last day in La Serena. After helping Marg clean a little (she hardly let us do anything to help her) we went for "onces" (a snack at 11:00) at a local panaderia (bread shop) and headed to the bus station. There were very few tickets left to Santiago, so we had to go with the Salon Cama seats....too bad!! We were sad to leave Roy and Marg - they we so kind to us. Not only did they have us at their house in the middle of a move, but they cooked us vegetarian food, showed us around La Serena, booked our bus tickets, gave us sleeping bags and a tarp, and gave Maya a jar of peanut butter! They truly are amazing people and we are hoping to get together with them when they return to Canada in July.

We are off now to catch our bus to Mendoza. Will continue this blog tomorrow. Hope everyone is well. Thinking of you all lots,

xoxoxoxoxoxox

Maya and Braden