Maria’s Casa
May 17th, 2009
View the trip so farWe arrived at the bus terminal in La Serena. Tom wanted to do some camping and over breakfast I found a hostel who’s description mentioned that if one asked nicely they may let you camp out on their lawn. Tom decided to follow me along to check it out, especially since it was only a few blocks from the bus terminal.
As soon as we walked in we felt right at home, even though at this point we had yet to meet Maria. One of her sons showed us around. They didn’t have room for camping at the moment but the price was just right that Tom decided to stay and share a room, plus there was free WiFi, a luxury that we had not had for a while. So after being on a night bus we putzed around the net for a few hours before heading out to wander around town. The town was pretty nice but there was not much going on, especially it being the off season. We found a place to have lunch. I had a Churazco Gigante, it wasn’t that big, and Tom had a Churazco Normal and a Completo, which is a hot dog in a giant bun with tomatoes, palta (avacado), ketchup, and mayo. Pretty tasty…sometimes.
We wondered around some more for a little bit, and went back to the hostel, where we finally got to meet Maria. Maria, has to be the nicest women in the world. She will go completly out of her way to help you out. We asked about getting clothe washed and she told us that she would do it for us, but that she doesn’t have a dryer and that our clothe may not dry in the current weather, so she told us where to go and get a great deal. So we did that and also stopped at the Jumbo, which for those that live in Oregon is basically the Chilean version of Fred Meyer. We bought food for dinner and headed back to the hostel. It seemed like everyone there that night had the same idea. We had to wait for the kitchen, but it was great to hang out with the other guests and eat our dinner’s together. We all felt so much at home there. After dinner a few of us shared a few bottles of wine with one of Maria’s sons until the wee hours. We discussed varying topics from local affairs, to music, to politics, and philosophy. It was a lot of fun.
Tom and I had an agreement that whoever made the meal the other one would do the dishes, so the next morning after I made breakfast I nudged Tom to go do the dishes because I noticed Maria starting to clean and I didn’t want her to clean our dishes. Sure enough when Tom went in to do the dishes she basically kicked him out of the kitchen, telling him to get lost. He refused and she elbowed him out. It was hysterical.
We left that afternoon for Piso Elqui.
