Our first few days in Viña/Valpo

21 to 23 December, 2008

On our first full day in Viña (and our last day before Steph and Carrie arrived), we jogged along the beautiful sunny beach and went to Valpo in search of cocadas de manjar, a delectably fattening candy that we wanted to buy for Steph and Carrie. Unfortunately, our favorite candy store was out of them, so we returned to Viña, wandered along the water, and ate fajitas while discussing a new change in plans: Going to Ecuador or Mexico after Patagonia for a month or two of Spanish classes for Jay. The fajitas definitely tilted the scales for Mexico.

The next morning, we got up and went to the bus station to go to Santiago to meet Steph and Carrie. Although their flight was originally scheduled to arrive at 12:30, they were delayed due to weather and other problems with connecting flights (I'm not positive, but I'm pretty sure Carrie's crazy flight scheduling had something to do with it). They got inat 14:15 and we greeted them with cookies and cocadas (though not as good as the ones from Confiteria Rapanui). We'd spent our waiting time eating over-priced salad and then standing in the waiting area behind a woman dressed strikingly similarly to a pop (or possibly porn) star who kept walking back and forth in front of the waiting group, distracting most of the men and (I presume) putting some of the older people in danger of cardiac arrest.

We took Steph and Carrie back to Viña and went to Carrie's house, where we were greeted by her amazing family (Pedro, Silvia, Carola, Natalia and Loreto), their pets (Roberto, Lautaro (?), and a couple other dogs), and their most recent host student, Ingrid (plus boyfriend). We spent the afternoon and evening there, had onces (tea/snack that replaces dinner, as lunches in Chile are the main meal), and Jay got to practice his Spanish. As Carrie and Steph started to crash, we made plans to meet up the next day and Pedro gave us a ride back to our hostel.

The next day we met Steph and Carrie at the beach, had lunch with Carrie's family, bought wine for Carrie's parents as a Christmas gift, and returned to their house for onces, pisco sours, and piña coladas before going out with Loreto to dance. We made plans to spend Christmas Eve with Carrie's family the next day.