We made plans to head to La Serena, a bit further south from Taltal. However, the morning of our departure we woke up to rain, which was surprising as Taltal is in the desert. It seemed innocuous at first, but as it continued it became clear that the town was not built for rain. The streets quickly had small rivers running down towards the ocean, and shortly after that the hostel we had called home for three weeks was flooding. Water came in under the front door at first, and then it started to leak in through the roof. Ramon and his partner Kathy came over and we spent a few hours waterproofing the upstairs rooms and cleaning up the water that had already invaded the hostel.
Floods were reported on the highways to the south and in some cities as well, and so Kim and I decided not to board our bus for La Serena and to wait in Taltal until things cleared up a bit. Ramon was gracious enough to let us stay - thank you so much again Ramon! We spent the next two rain free days drying out some of our stuff that had been soaked, and hiking around Taltal. We climbed a decent sized hill behind the town and had a spectacular view of Taltal and the bay on a crisp, clear day.
Ultimately we made our way to La Serena and it was quickly obvious that it was a vacation destination for Chileans. A beautiful beach with good waves and dance clubs scattered along the waterfront. We arrived at the same time that winter vacation began, so the city was quite full. In fact, we were thinking about staying beyond the one day we had booked before arriving, but our hostel told us they had no open beds.
Hector, the teacher at EFTG in Taltal, sent us a text message asking where we were. The conversation went something like this:
Hector: Hey, where are you guys?
Us: We're in La Serena!
Hector: Ok, hold on one minute.
...
Hector: I have a former student who lives there, he says you can stay with him. Give him a call 555-1234.
Kim and I kinda looked at each other, trying to decide if we wanted to give his friend a call or not. After a few minutes of not deciding anything, we got another message.
Hector: Did you call him? He said you didn't call him yet. Call him!
So we called his friend, Jonhy, and after chatting for a few minutes he told us that we could stay with him and his family and he would pick us up from our hostel the next day at 5pm.
Jonhy picked us up as he said and we had a short drive to La Serena's neighboring city, Coquimbo. We expected to stay a night or so with him as his family, but after showing us our room, Jonhy proceeded to explain our itinerary for the next week. He told us that the next day we could do a walking tour of Coquimbo with his niece, Mariajesus, and the day after that we would go out to the clubs, and the day after that there would be an asado at their home, and the day after that we would go visit the Elqui Valley. Slightly overwhelmed, we decided to go with the flow and stick around with his family in Coquimbo.
They were incredibly welcoming. We were brought along to family activities, including a birthday party and driving to see some of the other beaches in the area with his parents, sister and brother-in-law. I made pancakes one morning for the family, and they returned the favor with an asado. If we haven't made this clear in previous posts, BBQ's in the states are often times hamburgers and hot dogs (delicious, don't get me wrong), but an asado in South America is so much more. They grill chorizos (sausages), chicken, pork ribs and steak - usually way more meat than can be eaten. The unspoken challenge is to be able to eat as much as your host offers you, which of course is a game the host always wins.
Although at first we were apprehensive about invading their home and space, at the behest of Hector no less, we are so glad we stayed with Jonhy and his family. We had just left the wonderfully welcoming town of Taltal and we fell right back into the same situation in Coquimbo. Of course we thanked the family profusely before we got on a bus heading for Santiago. We also sent Hector a quick message saying thank you for connecting us with Jonhy and his family and that everything went well. Another barrage of messages ensued:
Hector: I'm glad, Jonhy is great! Where are you going now?
Us: Santiago.
Hector: Oh I have a former student there too!! In fact you know him, Luis! You can stay with him too!
Luis was a student at EFTG in Taltal during his break from university. He had left Taltal shortly before we did to head back to Santiago and get ready for the upcoming semester. Hector sent us a phone number for Luis and we met up with him at the bus terminal in Santiago. Luis had a couple weeks free before starting up classes again, and since he lived on his own, he was happy to have some people who he was acquainted with staying with him.
Kim spent the first couple days getting over a nasty cold she had come down with at the end of our time in Coquimbo. The first night, Luis and I took the metro to meet up with a friend of his for a drink. We got back to his apartment rather late, and as we were hungry, I decided we could throw together some grilled cheese sandwiches. This was a new culinary delight for Luis, and being a bachelor, he was in love. We spent close to a week with Luis sleeping in late, watching bad action movies on TV, and sharing typical foods from our respective countries - aside from the grilled cheese, we made pancakes and homemade macaroni and cheese, and Luis took us to a place to eat Pollo a la Pobre (grilled chicken topped with a fried egg and onion all served atop fries). It was a simple and beautiful week in Santiago.
For some time we had been in touch with Robbie, the host from our last trip to South America almost three years ago. He lives in San Rafael, Argentina, which is three hours south of Mendoza, and we had made plans to go and visit him as we had such an incredible time there the first time around. With this in mind, we headed off to Mendoza, and this time Hector did not have a former student there who we could stay with, so a hostel it was.
When we arrived, we contacted Robbie again only to find out that he had encountered some health issues upon returning from a trip to New York City, and was stuck in Santiago (to which we thought, "Damn, we could have visited him there!"). But having come all the way to Mendoza with plans to visit Robbie, we decided to wait in the area until Robbie was able to return with his health. We had visited Mendoza on our previous trip in Argentina, and it is almost as beautiful in the winter as in the summer.
Not wanting to spend a week in a hostel, we found a wine bar in Maipu - just outside of Mendoza, that was accepting short term volunteers. Mario, our host was wonderful, and he spoke very little English, so we were able to practice our Spanish. The work was pretty simple - Kim would help make empanadas for the wine bar in the mornings with Mario and I would go to a local bike rental shop to help English speaking customers and also try and get them to go to the wine bar for a tasting. As it was low season, my only complaint about the work was that it was slow. However, I imagine if we had been there during the summer, my only complaint would have been how busy it was.
A few days into this, Kim caught a pretty bad stomach flu, and her temperature ran at 101 for a few days. At one point she was feeling really awful and I was feeling fine, so she said, "Why do I always have to be sick? I wish you would get sick too!" Well I did. And way worse than her. Which is why I'm still reminding her how rude it is to wish your illness on other people. Unfortunately we didn't get a chance to do any bike tours of the vineyards in the area due to being so ill. However, Mario was very accommodating during the whole ordeal and we were very grateful for his help.
With both of us feeling mostly better, and Robbie having arrived home without further complications, we traveled to San Rafael to reunite with him. We stayed at the farm house for a little less than a week and for the most part we were with another couple from the United States. It was their first time doing a work exchange, and to be honest, they seemed a little overwhelmed by the experience. They were, however, lovely people and we enjoyed sharing the farm work and meals with them. On the final day of our stay on the farm, Robbie threw together an asado for us just as he had done the last time we were with him. When we first met him, he put some thyroid gland on the grill for us to try. Not to be outdone, this time we tried cow intestines. Kim was really turned off by the greasy/fatty texture of the meat, but I thought intestines were tasty.
From San Rafael we went back to Mendoza for one night before heading on to Cordoba. The hostel we stayed in previously was a nice enough place so we decided to return. Unfortunately, there were a small group of people at the hostel who were incredibly inconsiderate. Kim and I went to bed a little bit before midnight, and there was another gentleman also in the room asleep at this point. Outside of our room there was a group of people drinking and talking loudly, despite several requests from the front desk that they quiet down. They ultimately called it a night at 3 am, at which point two of the partiers came crashing into our room - turned the lights on, banged around looking for their clothes and what not, loudly talking with each other, and just generally being rude.
This left us with very, very little sleep and an all day bus to Cordoba. Our original plan was to stay for a week or so in Cordoba, find a nice private room in a hostel, and try and take a few more Spanish classes before heading onto Brasil. We arrived at 9 pm or so, took a cab to our hostel, and were informed that they had no record of our reservation. Kim was able to pull up the email conversation that had taken place between her and the owner, but it really didn't matter as someone else was in the room we booked. Thankfully the guy behind the desk was honest and told us that the hostel was pretty much a party every night (the last thing we wanted at this point), but that he knew another hostel a few blocks away. We arrived there and settled in for the night.
This last string of events was the straw that broke our backs. Looking back on the events leading up to that first night in Cordoba it's amazing we didn't both have a breakdown. We had both been sick in Maipu with Mario, and then we slept at a farm with a rooster waking us up at 4:00 am every morning. Then we were pushed to the limit by the disrespectful jackassholes we had to share a room with in Mendoza. To arrive expecting a quiet room, but finding that the hostel screwed up and we had to go searching for another place was almost too much.
We spent one night in the hostel that was recommended. It was alright, and to be honest I was so tired that I probably slept better that night than I have in many other hostels. However, we were still really bitter and angry about the whole thing the next morning, so we said, "screw it," and went and stayed three nights at a nice little boutique hotel called Azur Real. Those three nights did wonders for our morale and energy. We spent time in several art museums, at a park with some beautiful weather, and exploring the pedestrian only streets. We ended up greatly enjoying our time in Cordoba, despite the rocky start.
Our final destination in Spanish speaking South America was Puerto Iguazu, right next to the Iguazu Falls. We arrived from an overnight bus in town and headed straight to the falls. We spent about 5 hours exploring the many trails and catwalks built on the Argentinian side of the falls (as opposed to the Brazilian side, which we'll get to). Some of the trails take you right to the edge of some of the falls, both from above and from below.
We were lucky we decided to go see the falls on our first day because our second and final day there was a torrential downpour most of the morning and early afternoon.
The next morning we took a bus from Puerto Iguazu across the border to the Brazilian vantage point of the falls (Rio Iguazu forms a border between the two countries - in fact at one point you can be standing in Argentina and see Brazil and Paraguay). When asked the question, which side is better than the other, most sites or authors offering an answer give the cop out of "they are different, but equal." Well I disagree. The Brazilian side is way cooler. You have panoramic views of the falls at almost every point. And then they have a catwalk that takes you out over the edge of a waterfall while another waterfall a short distance away blasts everyone who ventures out with a wall of mist. It was spectacular.
After spending the afternoon viewing the falls from the other side, we took an overnight bus to Florianopolis. Floripa, as it is called, is a city on an island in southern Brazil, but is famous for its many beautiful beaches. We had arranged to stay in an apartment for about a week through Airbnb, and our hosts were great. Although Floripa is famed for its beaches, we are in Brazil in winter, and unfortunately we had mostly overcast and rainy weather. The one sunny day we had, we did get out and see the lake in the middle of the island. Other than that, we took advantage of the weather by cooking for ourselves, which is something we've missed while traveling. Kim also spent a lot of time grinding out her applications for grad school and was able to submit them during our time there. It was relaxing despite not being on a beach.
From Florianopolis we went to Sao Paulo, again choosing Airbnb to find a place in an apartment. Our hostess, Lilo, was a lady from Colombia who has been living in Brazil for about 5 years. We only spent the weekend in Sao Paulo, but we were able to explore Sao Paulo's versions of Central Park - Parque Ipirapuera, and Times Square - Avenida Paulista. Lilo also had a small gathering of her friends, many of whom were also Colombian, the first night we were there. They made traditional Colombian food (i.e. fried empanadas), and Kim and I were reminded of how much we loved Colombia.
A short bus ride from Sao Paulo landed us in another beach town called Boissucanga. We arrived here on the 31st of August in order to help teach English. We spent our first two days getting acquainted with the town, the beach, and how classes are run (which is very differently than in Taltal). The English school, Centro Liceu, is a family run business and they are wonderful. We are excited about the next 2 weeks here before we head off to Rio to end our trip in style.
As we near the end of this trip, we've both talked about our mixed emotions. On one hand, we are tired of the traveling routine - pack everything up, get to the bus station, arrive in a new town, find your hostel, unpack your stuff, repeat. However, we both know how much we are going to miss traveling and getting to know different cultures and peoples and being able to share our culture. We are happy we have one final work exchange position, wish us the best of luck with the weather, and we look forward to coming home and seeing our friends and family.
