Castro

Here I am sitting in a hostel in the little town of Castro, Chiloe Region, Chile. Chiloe is a large island (in comparison to the other Islands in Chile´s archipelago) just south of Puerto Montt. It has been a rather interesting trip...

First, it started with having to purchase a bus ticket. I was online trying to find schedules and rates, but not having much luck. People kept telling me I would have to travel to Santiago to purchase my ticket, which just didn´t make sense, seeing how Santiago was a three hour bus trip north of Santa Cruz and I wanted to travel south. Also, naturally, it is good to buy your tickets in advance, but how a person would do that during the week was beyond me, if they were expected to travel to Santiago. Well, it turned out that I could buy my ticket in San Fernando, which is about a half hour from Santa Cruz. They don´t take reservations.

Well, the woman who runs the casino at school, this not being the gambling type of casino...it is like the canteen, snack shop, caught wind of my conversation with my host mom about buying this ticket and she said she would make a phone call. Her brother, or some relative, drives buses and would be in Santiago to by me a ticket. I thought, wow, that was easy. She says some dicho (saying) to me...which I cannot remember, but was something to the effect of if you don´t cry we won´t see your tears...meaning we can´t help you if we don´t know you are having problems.

Alright, so this was Friday. Friday night, the woman from the Canteen calls to say that her brother was unable to get a ticket. They were sold out? So, after some phone calls to other bus companies and the bus station in San Fernando (all made by my host mom) she found three tickets remaining on the bus to Puerto Montt for Sunday night. Great! But, again, no reservations could be made. She said, we will get up early and drive to San Fernando, since it was already 9;30pm when we were calling. Then, she thinks...my brother! So, her brother, who lives in San Fernando, went to the bus station and purchased my ticket. 13,500 pesos, which is about $27 US. Not bad. It wasn´t a salon cama (sleeper seat, something like a bed) but it was the last ticket on the bus...so I really cannot complain. We had a family reunion on Saturday night, so her brother would bring the ticket then.

The family reunion was something else. It was all the cousins getting together, drinking, eating, dancing, signing. Immediatly, I was referred to as the Gringa cousin.I couldn´t help but laugh to myself as the jokes that I didn´t understand were being passed around...I started wonder, gee, I wonder what my family looks like to a foreigner who only understands about half of what is being said, if I could even say I understood half. By the end of the night I was frustrated and feeling defeated...I thought I had been doing better at understanding and speaking, but when the family showed up, I felt like I had turned into a moron. I decided to turn in early, as they were planning on staying up until 4:30...which they did. I turned in at 3;00 am.

The next morning, they were asking me what I thought about their family. I said, you all seem very nice, happy, and...unique. They joked and said the next family reunion would be in the US. ha ha...nice people.

An interesting side note on the importance of being able to get together for them....during the first three years of Pinochet, it was forbidden to have any sort of gathering after dark, since he feared groups of people conspiring against him. My host mom said it was a very bad time...we couldn´t even get together as a family. I need to learn more about the history of Chile and of South America....along with the US involvement...the US helped Pinochet get into power. Pinochet provided refuge for Nazi SS soldiers, one of which was just in the paper last week. THe most wanted man from the holocaust...Dr. Death...The Butcher...and they believe he is here in Chile or in Argentina. There is a bank account in Germany with about $1 us dollars waiting to be claimed by someone in the family, but I assume no one does this to protect his identity. He would be 94 years old. It was a very interesting article which I was quite proud to have read, understood, and discussed...

ANYWAY...after the family left, Ana´s brother gave me a ride to the bus station. Before we left, the family all gave me hugs telling me to be careful and have fun...and to make sure I called to check in when I arrived in Puerto Montt so they new I had met up with the others and everything was ok. It is true what they told us about our host families...they will take you in as one of their own.

The bus ride was over night. It left San Fernando at 9:30pm and arrived in Puerto Montt at 8:30 am Monday morning. On the way there, they played Rocky (I have no idea what number). It was all dubbed over in Spanish and Rocky without Sly Stalone´s voice just isn´t the same. I opted to listen to music. After the movie, they make sure you have a blanket and pillow and they close all the curtains. It was a long bus ride and I don´t think I slept alot, but I wasn´t tired when we arrived, so I must have slept some. Before we arrived, they collected our blankets and pillows, served us, what I now believe, was heated coca-cola, and played 80´s music videos. I cannot believe how cheesy 80´s video´s really were. AND; that they still play them here. I had someone say to me...I love Cindy Lauper, do you like Cindy Lauper...thinking to myself...yeah, back in 1988 I liked Cindy Lauper...

Ok...so after I arrived, I went up to the restuarant for a cup of instant coffee while I was waiting for the others who were on another bus from Santiago, scheduled to arrive a half hour after me....we met up and decided to just keep going to Chiloe, then come back to Puerto Montt on the way back...get this bus stuff out of the way!

The bus ride to Castro was 3 hours and it included a 20 minute ferry ride, which was fun...we say some seals. Someone had recommended a hostel here in Castro and it has proven to be very nice.
http://www.chiloeweb.cl/hostales/hcordillera/hcordillera.htm The woman who runs it is great, even if she flat out told me my Spanish wasn´t good. That actually hurt a bit, seeing how I had just been through a family reunion where I couldn´t follow jokes and I seemed to have lost my words. But, slowly, I am letting go and just getting back up on the horse to being patient with myself and communication...

The island is a nice little island. One of the main ¨postcard photos¨of Castro are the houses on stilts. They are really cool, very interesting. We were scheduled to go to a national park yesterday, but with the missing wallet of one person and the arrival of another person we decided to postpone it until today. Now, due to a late night of drinking, we still didn´t make it. I thought to go on my own, since I am obviously up, but I felt guilty going.

We had started out the night at a pub where they had pool tables (long pool tables with very narrow pockets...which was very frustrating). There were a few German guys that were traveling and they joined us for beer. When it got to be 1am, part of the group wanted to go dancing. So, while the others went dancing, two of us turned in...me and another guy. They had my phone number to call so I could let them in when they got home...we didn´t want to wake up the family twice to let us in, drunk gringos.

So, when they called me at 5:00am, I went downstairs, opened the door, and they were holding up the one girl...I thought, oh man, am I ever happy I stayed in...she looks at me and says...I am not drunk. She had been drugged at the discoteca.

So, as I have been sitting here watching the rain, thinking about Castro, Chile, I am not to impressed with it. People have been rude....like when I stopped to ask this woman who was walking in my direction for directions to the fish market....you would have thought I had asked her to eat monkey brains... Another woman at the bus station could care less about giving me information about tickets... There is just a very cold feeling about this area. I am voting we move on from here...we will see how the others feel about it when we get up. Hopefully the the one girl in our group will feel better today. I have only known of one person to be drugged at a bar and she told me it was terrible...all the sudden you are acting drunk when you are not drunk...you lose control......it was a good thing they went out as a group.

Oh my, before I forget, the dog at this house is the greatest dog ever! She looks like a little lamb...a poodle without the ugly poodle hair cut (sorry if you have a poodle and/or like the poodle hairdo...but they are so much more adorable with hair all over). I still don´t know its name...I just call her the Oveja, which is sheep in spanish.

Cheers!
jami