The 25th in Los Angeles (Chile)
I took the passenger train from Santiago yesterday and was heading to Temuco but changed plans about an hour into the trip. I wasn´t aware that the train passed by Los Angeles, but when I heard a few Italian travellers mention that they were heading that way- I knew I had to go there.My friend Natalia´s mom is originally from Los Angeles, a city of about 150,000 people 6 hours south of Santiago. She called her mom and had her nephew waiting for me when I arrived.
I spent the evening meeting her family and relaxing. We ate dinner at about 10.30 and arrived to church just as mass was ending. We still went inside because I wanted to check out the church. There were people waiting in a big line to kiss the plastic baby Jesus. Interesting tradition.
Christmas in general down here is a bit different- definitely less commercialized, although the Viejo Pascuero (Santa Clause) is an image well known by all. The family exchanges gifts at midnight- usually just one or two and then the kids go out with their friends and hang out till whenever. Natalia´s cousin and I went and had a beer at the local pub and turned in around 3.
I woke up today at noon and we went to the fire station where the firefighters were just arriving from the poorer neighborhoods were they were giving out gifts to the kids. One of the commanders at the station is a family member here and he introduced me to an Italian traveller (different one than I had met on the train) who is travelling the circuit that Che Guevara travelled on motorbike.
I vaguely remembered from the movie Diarios de Motocicleta that Che and his partner´s bike broke down here and they actually slept in the firestation for a few days. Interesting because if you are a faithful reader of my blog (Mom, Sean, and a few others) you will remember that seeing that movie is what inspired me to keep this journal (diario).
Anyways, right now I´m going to eat lunch with the family and then its off to Salto de Laja, the biggest waterfall in Chile. Not sure when I´m leaving the Los Angeles worlds apart from the one in CA yet...
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