¿Sientes la magía?

So I finally made my mother happy and spent a weekend traveling with other gringos. Unfortunately it makes for a less exciting blog entry. Still, I had a great time. I met up with Victor, my friend from wes who just arrived to study in Valdivia, and Aeron, the other gringa living in Osorno. We went to Chiloe-- an island a few hours south of Osorno. There has been a lot of build up for Chiloe. Chileans LOVE Chiloe. But when you ask why, you undoubtedly always get the same answer-- its full of magic. We accordingly spent the whole weekend searching for such magic. I didn`t see any miracles, but it is a very lovely place. Its famous for its old churches, cute shingled houses, seafood, and beautiful countryside. We spent a lot of time on buses and ferries, just watching it all go by. Luckily there was beautiful weather the entire weekend. It was great to have people to discuss all the craziness of chile with, and review grammer tenses together. It was strange to finally be stared at like a gringa, because of my ostentacious laughter surrounded by english conversation. Pero vale la pena de estar con amigos.

We met a typical array of strange travelers from all corners of the earth. On Saturday night we stayed a hostal by the beach all the way in the south of the island run by a crazy Canadian man named Carl. After we finally escaped his history and politics lesson ("Im an important man in this town" he told us), we immidately met the other two travelers staying next door. There was Mark, the middle-aged man from London. And Victor, an 18 year old from France. They had both been dumped by a girlfriend and best friend respectively, and accidently got stuck traveling alone. Not surprisingly, they were happy for some company. We collaborated on ingredients and made ourselves a delicious meal of-- yup you guessed it-- Rice and Chili. It was vegetarian and delicious. We all talked in Spanish (though none of us native spanish speakers) because Victor could not for the life of him understand my tipsy, excited, giggle-filled english. We talked about learning languages, the frustrating life of vegetarians in chile, and shared other traveling stories. It was good to be with other wanderers for a while, but I´m glad to be back in Osorno with the family.