good things happen when you put out your thumb...

and by good things, i mean you might have the BEST DAY EVER!!!!! well maybe not ever, but at least a really good one!

so the day started off pretty lame. we decided to go to a mirador(lookout point/scenic area) called los flamencos(the flamingos) in hopes of finding some flamingos! but then when we finally got there, it was lame and there were just a bunch of stupid black necked swans...just kidding they are cool i guess, but they are not pink and do not stand on one leg! so we were a little annoyed and we were walking on the highway a little north of Castro hoping to flag down a bus into Dalcahue and go over to a little island for the afternoon, then come back to Castro and head over to the other side of Chiloé to Cucao on the edge of the national park for the next few days. but there were no bises and we were tired of spending money and it just felt like the perfect time to try to hitch hike again, our last experience turned out fine and it just felt right.
so i stuck out my thumb.
and the very first car pulled over!
and then , God gave us the gift of Marco, Fransisco, and Esteban, all wrapped up in a boxy little SUV.
Marco is 29, and sat in the back seat with us and acted very much like a nice older brother, explaining things and asking questions. Fransisco, the driver, is 24 and has a raspy husky voice and almost incomprehensible Spanish, but is very sweet. And Esteban is the youngest of the trio at 23, with a nice dark beard, kind eyes and nimble fingers for guitar picking.
So we rode into Dalcahue, a small toen just north of CAstro, looked around the artesan market at the same bottles of liquor and beautiful sweaters and hippie pants, and decided that we might as well just continue on all together accrss the bay to the little rural island wioth some name that sounds like every other name in Chiloé with an awkward combination of "ch" and "qu" and "v" and one vowel. anyway, we boarded the fairy and proceeded to spend the afternoon driving with the windows down, soaking in the first sunny day we´ve seen since we arrived in Chiloè almost a week ago, stopping in every little town and mirador, conversing in easily flowing Spanish, actually understanding what was going on! it was beautiful! it turns out that the guys are all from Valparaíso, the city where we will be studying and two of them actually still live and study there! They grew up together doing Scouts(yes like boy scouts in the states, but cooler because its in Chile) and now they are all still good friends!
on our way back into Castro, Catie and I simultaneously decided that we would rather stay in Casrto another night and go kayaking with the guys rather than catch a late bus over to Cucao and try to find alojamiento(lodging...also one of my new favorite Spanish words). We told the guys that we accpeted the invitation to join them for kayaking and they offered to take us to their hospedaje which was cheaper than the one we had been staying in, with a LOVELY señora and breakfast! we, of course, accepted this gift for Dad and continued on the quaint little house on a tiny side street to change clothes for kayaking. then we met up with Marcelo, another scout frind, who is in the Navy a the little base by the water. all six of us got into three double kayaks and paddled around the green blue bay for a while, enjoying the late evening sun and cool water. it felt so good to work and be a little tired after our long stint of not doing anything since we arrived in Chiloé. then we returned to the hospedaje to freshen up and piled back into Fransisco´s ever-convenient coche to find some dinner. We eneded up in "el trauco" named after a character in Chilote folklore who is like a leprechan with an insatiable sexual appetite....i did not make this up. talk to the chiloeans! it´s their folklore! anyway, catie and i ordered a curanto to share. curanto is like a signature dish in Chiloé where they cook all types of meat and shellfish in a hole in the ground and there is even a traditional song about it that seems to be constantly floating in the air and getting stuck in people´s heads, including mine. anyway, the oysters or mollusks or whatever were more like aliens to me, so needless to day, i only ate a few. from dinner we went up to the other side of the bay to a look out point to view Castro by night and look at the stars a little and descended the insanely bumpy road back into Castro to shoot some pool. the guys discovered quickly that i have almost no skill at anything that requires coordination and that i have almost no competitive spirit. Catie, of course played quite well and did not make a total fool of herself. haha! anyway, we went back to the house, had a cup of nescafe, and finally convinced esteban to play his guitar even though a string was broken. he played sweetly and sang a song about crying and dying or something that damien rice would sing. and then we taught him to two-step in the kitchen(heck yes!) as well as tango and swing.
all in all, it was a freaking lovely day!
and now we have to catch a bus and i dont have time to tell you what i learned, but the next post will just have extra!
love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ciao!