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Lazy Sunday

4 December 2005 (Sunday) – La Serena, Chile

At 8am, I tried calling Claudio. No reply. I had breakfast and tried again at 9am. No reply. I headed to the toilet and cleaned myself up a little and tried again at 9:30am. Phew, this time, he picked up the phone. It turned out he had not read my email from last night, so that was why he did not pay attention to his phone. But when he heard I was already in La Serena, he said he would be at the terminal in 20 minutes’ time. Heee… my hero.

Claudio came with his little nephew Gustavo to pick me up and he drove me to his house first. He lives with several housemates but there was an extra room available in the courtyard. Excellent. I had a shower and he drove us to his parents’ house in Coquimbo (a nearby town) for Sunday lunch. I am so damn lucky. Free home-cooked food!

After meeting his parents for a while, Claudio took me for a spin around the fish market and the port. Wow, the weather here in La Serena was absolutely gorgeous. The sky was pristine blue with little clouds. But he told me I was lucky, because it was rather cloudy yesterday.

The fish market was really nice and fishy. I really wanted to try one of the cups of raw seafood in lime juice, called ‘mariscal’. Yes, finally, I am able to eat seafood here! How I missed seafood!! Yum yum! Enough of greasy chicken and fatty pork!! I treated myself to a ‘mariscal’. Superb!

Back at home, I played with Gustavo a little and we proceeded for lunch – more fish and vegetables. After chatting with his mother for a while about the education system in Singapore (she works for the education system of Chile), we decided to head to the beach.

Claudio and his family, Claudio is the 2nd from right

It was so damn windy here!!! We even had difficulty walking along the beach, against the wind. We found a spot and lay down. Gosh, sand was flying everywhere. I realised that lying down, it was not that cold, so I stripped into my bikini to bask under the sun. Yes, having not seen the beach for a LONG time, I was really determined to enjoy it. But what a sight it must be, for Claudio remained enclosed inside his wind protection jacket, shivering in the cold.

Soon, we realised we were just eating sand. Sand got into every single thing – hair, mouth, clothes, towel, eyes, nose. We finally gave up this foolish stunt and returned to the car.

We did not understand why we were both already hungry when it appeared we had just had lunch. Guess, we were just spending a very lazy Sunday now. So, off we went to the supermarket to buy some bread and stuff for once (pronounced On-Say). Here in Chile, they do not normally have a heavy dinner during summer. They just have some bread and tea, called once.

As we drove back from Coquimbo to La Serena along the Av. del Mar, I wondered why everyone was driving so slowly, and nobody seemed to be fed up with one another. This was because people who took this avenue, take it to enjoy the view of the beach and the crashing waves. If you are in a hurry, there is the Pan-American highway just a short distance off. Indeed, the beach was long and lovely, and the apartments along this avenue looked modern and posh. I could not believe that just 2 days ago, I was at 4,800m above sea level. Now, I am flat out here at the beach, with finally, no more gassy rumblings in my tummy. Yes, I so belong to sea level.

Beach of La Serena

Wow… When I entered the supermarket, I was stunned! I was looking around with a wide wide grin and a twinkling gleam in my eyes, like a child released into a toy store, absolutely thrilled. Why? Because I had not stepped into a supermarket like this for a damn long time! Sure, there had been some small supermarkets in Bolivia, but gosh, the variety of goods here were infinite. I was browsing at the shelves and freezers in delight. I had been craving for Lay’s potota chips for the longest time and these did not exist in Bolivia. But yes, they so exist now in Chile. Gracias!!

As Claudio had absolutely no money on him, I was happy to pay for the ham, gherkins, bread and chips we bought. We had a nice evening chatting about lots of things as we munched away.

Later, Alejandra who only managed to read my email today and realised I was now staying with Claudio, came to look for us. The Hospitality Club community here in La Serena seemed to know one another. We headed over to her house late at night and had tea, chatting about the strange vocabularies of the Chileans. She showed me her display table and happened to comment that these little stones were given to her by her Lithuanian guests. I had received a Lithuanian couple in my house before I left for this trip and they had also given me little stones. We checked and realised it was the same couple! Unbelievable, what a coincidence! Haha… Gosh, really great to be in touch with these Hospitality Club members and get the chance meet these genuinely nice, interesting, intelligent and fantastically friendly people! La Serena became so alive for me!



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