When travelling, we like to spend some time with host families through an organisation called Servas. Google Servas, it is an organisation promoting the exchange of peace and friendship throughout the world.
When we arrived at the home of our host, it was like an Aladdin's cave inside. Not only was the house much larger on the inside, than it looked on the outside , each room was stacked full of interesting artefacts, antiques: fabrics, hats, toys, china, ornaments, bottles, jars, tins and more. Our host loved art, music and collecting things. She played Chilean music from her parents and grandparents time. It was like stepping into a magical world from the past.
Communicating with our host was interesting as she only spoke Spanish, Eva's Spanish is variable and John relies on Google translate which we discovered can't always be relied on as we had a couple of embarrassing Google translate errors which are not repeatable here!
On the first night of our visit, our host whisked us away on another roller coaster bus ride to the beach resort of Vina Del Mar. We spent the evening promenading along the pavements with others. In contrast to Valparaiso, Vina is more of a tourist resort for higher end tourists and even boasts a Las Vegas style casino. It is pleasant, but a bit non descript and does not have the character of Valpo.
The following evening, after dinner with our host, we were almost ready for bed, when she announced that her daughter, son in law, granddaughter and friends would be arriving. We managed to stay awake until most of the visitors went out for the night but sadly gave in and went to bed before the 4 year old granddaughter!
The next morning, our host's daughter and son in law kindly offered to drive us to Santiago as they were returning home there and it would save us time and the inconvenience of using buses and taxis. They said it was just 1 hour to Santiago so having departed at 11.30am, we assumed we would be there for 12.30.
We were surprised to discover that our journey would begin by driving in the opposite direction to allow their daughter to play on the beach - Yes back to Vina Del Mar again.
Then, much to our surprise and mainly due to our poor understanding of Spanish, we stopped again to visit a church and then lunch in the staff room of an outdoor cafe where a family member worked. We were beginning to wonder if we would get to Santiago.
At one point, we giggled at ourselves sitting in the back of the car together with the 4 year old little girl, watching cartoons in the backseat and repeating the Spanish words aimed at pre schoolers who are learning to speak. The family must have wondered if they'd made the right decision in offering to drive these crazy English people to the city.
It's fair to say that this was an amazing and unforgetable experience as for us this is the joy of travelling i.e.meeting new people, visiting unexpected places and doing things we wouldn't usually do.
We were humbled by the kindness of these people who not only drove us to the door of our hostel in Santiago but let us share a little bit of their lives and made us feel like part of their family.
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