Driving Me Crazy
So I had always heard people use the word campo and translated it in my mind a bit differently than it actually is. It refers to any place in a rural part of Chile, and nothing more. The campo that I went to this past weekend happens to be right next to a vineyard (apparently owned by the Church that uses the grapes to make the pisco that people get drunk off of). We ate grapes. A lot. Thanks be to God.On Friday, we had an asado (BBQ). Saturday we drove FOREVER on a bumpy dirt road to go see a plastic dinosaur. I am not joking. Apparently, some bones were discovered in this area of Chile a long time ago and they built a figure that replicates what they think it looked like. But there were no bones on display, no musuem, nothing. Just a big plastic dinosaur in the middle of nowhere. Not even the name of the type of dinosaur.
Oh yeah, there was also a big rock. It was a little more impressive because it was a cave dwelling from 4000 BC. There were some faint pictures painted on the roof/wall and due to its concave shape, it is possible to have a conversation with someone in a normal tone of voice when you are 200 meters apart. That was better than the dinosaur.
Afterwards we drove another hour to La Serena and Coquimbo and had lunch (at 5 pm) on the beach. That night, we drove back to Ovalle and went to a club that is on top of the grocery store in the town. We danced until about 4 and then (more driving- this time it was my turn because I was the designated driver) went to a small river that was near. Finally we ended up at home and in bed about 5:30ish. Long day.
Sunday we got a late start and drove about an hour to Park Nacional Fray Jorge, where I had already been before. It was still beautfiul. This time, the weather was a lot different and we were given a beautiful view of the ocean from the lookout in the forest. It was actually a really good view from where our car was parked too because we were able to see the extremes of Chile- the snow-capped Andes on one side and the Pacific Ocean on the other.
Then we drove home. Five more hours. I can`t remember the last time that I spent that amount of time inside a car. But I had a really good time. The company was quite international- two Chileans (brother and sister whose house we went to), two other Californians, a French couple, a German couple, a Mexican, and a Grecian. And me. And two other Chileans, Jorge and Michael, whose families live down the street from Victor, made an appearance or two. We had some good times.
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