The Chile, ahem, Chilly Carribean, Caldera & Bahia Inglesa, Chile

Residencial Yanina on the principal street towards the plaza, entering Caldera from the highway. 6,000 x person

Now that we´re on new turf, there´s lots of people watching to do. All the Ecuadorian investigation we´ve done over the past 2 years has to be put aside. New places, new faces. We´re serious about this :) It´s been quite a noteworthy culture shock.

First, we´d like to note that life does not start here at 8 or 9am. From what we´ve seen, life starts a little later in the day, maybe because the sun doesn´t rise until about 7:30am. Who wants to wake up at 7am in the dark? Well, if the sun rises so late, for sure it sets late. We´re talking still light at 9:30pm folks. It´s pretty nuts.

While observing real, live, European looking Chileans in action, we´ve noticed lots of things. Nope, we´re definitely not in Ecuador, Peru or Bolivia anymore. No more indigenous people and not too much dark skin (I imagine we´ll see more as we go more south.) No more pedestrian targets (We swear in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia drivers earn money if they run you down) and no more restaurant dishes that consist of a piece of chicken and 3 portions of carbs (rice, potatoes and pasta... no, not your side options, they´re all on your plate.)

We relaxed on our first real beach since Mancora and took in the sights and sounds. Lots of reggaeton and religious parades (How to play Chilean religious music: two groups of people playing one note recorders, alternate "toots" between each group. Group 1 "toot," Group 2 "toot," Group 1 "toot", Group 2 "toot", etc. Same note, different group. Continue like this forever while slightly lifting first your right leg, then your left with each "toot.")

It seems the "Emo" look has just arrived and is in full swing here in Chile. Possible hair-do options: Shaved on the top, loooong on the outside. Maybe you´d like a reversed bowl cut? Or the always popular mullet (which isn´t as scary as the 80´s in the states.)
A coffee and hot dog smothered in avocado and mayo for breakfast is a popular breakfast choice.

People are no longer rolling in the sand for the natural speckled sunscreen look, sunscreen is neatly applied to all body parts (they are European looking, so sun burns are more common.) And beach towels! We hadn´t seen people lying on beach towels on the sand in years! (We never visit a beach without our RI beach sheet, which many have commented that we stole off our hostal bed. But no, it´s actually straight from the Scarborough shore.)

The Chilean accent is a tough one, it´s fast, slurred together and makes us feel like gigantic idiots (the ol´ 30 second processing delay.) Enough observations... we could be here all day. But they are fun... :)

Our daily routine in Caldera was pretty basic and beachy. Eat yummy seafood, walk around a little bit and relax on the beach. They say Caldera´s beach, Bahia Inglesa, is Chile´s own piece of the Caribbean. It was very beautiful, when the sun was out... but much chillier than the Caribbean.

Being that everything is much more expensive here, we decided to get working. We had a day of street performances during our stay. Everything went fine until I threw my cane into the crowd accidentally (it slipped due to sunscreen slime, hahaha) and some lady who enjoyed letting her dog bark and bark and bark at a close range at Lori and her drum playing. I would have hit her with my cane, but it was in the crowd... :P Otherwise, we were pleasantly surprised with our $60 earnings!

We took our can, heavy with coins (and possibly qualified as a weapon), ordered two yummy shrimp, scallop and cheese empanadas and planned our departure to La Serena :)