The Vagrant Gypsy Life

A friend (Rodolfo) in Santiago invited me to his friend’s (Martin) house in Tongoy, which is a small town with a couple of nice beaches on the coast, south of Coquimbo and La Serena. Martin’s parents are retired; they had spent a couple of years doing postgrad studies in the US years ago and spoke English, but it so transpired that we spent most of the time (trying to) converse in Spanish. Tongoy is their summer house; they spend most of their time in their home in Santiago.

Martin had invited Rodolfo and his partner Maria, Carlos and his family (Angelica and a 2 year old baby). Carlos, Martin and Rod have known each other for twenty years and work in the same University – Universidad de Chile. It was quite surreal to be hanging out and shooting the breeze with so many postdocs/ professors. It never ceases to amaze me that I have friends who are professors in various universities!

Martin’s mom welcomed me with a kiss on the cheek, saying that a visit like this deserved more than the customary cheek to cheek kiss! I felt extremely welcome and had a wonderful stay.

It was a lovely home stay; quite refreshing to be away from the tourist circuit and gorge on home-cooked meals. The food was excellent. It was so nice to have home-cooked meals that I ate a lot; I even learned some recipes.

Day 152 Sat 29/1 Valparaiso/ Tongoy

Started the day with a bus ride from Valparaiso to Santiago, which took two hours and then to Tongoy, which took another hous. The stretch from Stgo to Tongoy was definitely more picturesque, with parts of the drive along the coast.

I met all the folks, chatted with them and went to the fair. There was some traditional music and dance (cueca?) at the plaza.

Day 153 Sun 30/1 Tongoy

Even for a jobless vagabond, this had to be an extremely lazy day: breakfast, beach, chat with Martin’s mom, play with the baby, lunch, rest, beach (earthquake), play with the baby & chat with everyone, dinner, chat, sleep.

The only thing I did that resulted in any activity was play paddle ball on the beach. I am quite ashamed that I slept through an earthquake. The others felt the movement and I slept through it. Some of the folks on the beach ran away from the beach, fearing a tsunami. Chile has a lot of volcanic actvity and they are constantly under the threat of earthquakes. Left the beach when it was too cold and headed home for a nice dinner, and bed.

Day 154 Mon 31/1 Tongoy

Monday followed the pattern of the previous day. The only difference was that we did some shopping at the bi-weekly food market. The evening was extremely windy and it meant that we spent the evening indoors. Carlos, Angelica and the baby had left to La Serena in the evening.

Tags: Travel

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