El Campo

Since we had already spent three days by the coast, for our last full day here we decided to head inland to the more rural hillside. We took the same metro system, only in the opposite direction. We stayed on until the very last stop, which took about 45 minutes. It was great to finally see the countryside along the way, and the fact that we were doing it on a train was even cooler. We ended up in Limache, and were expecting to take a bus straight over to Olmue. However, an old woman noticed that the three of us looked a little out of place and struck up a conversation. She was very nice and welcoming and invited us to have lunch at her home after a few minutes. Honestly, we weren´t really sure what to say right away because we barely knew her. I´m telling you all this right now, if there had been any warning signs at all that there was something fishy going on we wouldn´t have said yes. But, it seemed like the potential for a truly unique experience and we were a group of three with a really tall guy so I felt like I was covered. Plus, I noticed that everything in the town felt a little more community oriented so it felt less odd to be to be invited over. This is not meant to be a suspenseful story at all so I will get to the point right now. She was a very generous lady who had a lot of energy for her age. She told us about her 38 grandchildren and 15 siblings, how "expensive" things were in Chile, and how we should be careful about who we talk to when we are traveling. She had nothing but good things to say about Valdivia when we told her that we were studying there and told us about a few other places we should visit in southern Chile.We had a great big lunch of salad, pork, rice, bread, cake, and cofee, and were there for 2 hours mostly listening while she talked. As we left she gave us a clock as a parting gift after we gave her a jar of locally made jam we had bought. It was one of those priceless moments that I´m glad happened once during my life. Don´t worry Mom, I do not plan on getting invited over to strangers´ houses on a regular basis. I am back in my hotel safe and sound, feeling lucky that everything went amazingly well and assured that there are still plenty of kind hearted people out in the world. 

In addition to the unexpected lunch, the setting was beautiful. Looming grassy hills surround the town in all directions, and the mostly single story modest houses create an unobstructed view. I start to get giddy when I think about all the uploading I will be doing on Sunday. I think I have something like 300 photos and almost all of them are keepers. The blog entries look so boring without a visual, but that will not be for long!