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Published: December 31st 2006
Christmas in Bolivia was a fun event. In Bolivia Christmas is mostly celebrated on Christmas Eve. We were invited to a Christmas Eve dinner at our friend, Danielle´s families house... and we assumed dinner would be around 8pm. But turns out that its traditional to eat Christmas Eve dinner after 12am! We didn´t quite make it to present opening time... It was great to be celebrating Christmas with a family (as well as Scotty & Lisa) and by Christmas day it felt like Christmas was over! But we had another big meal at Scotty & Lisa´s with a group of friends. It was fun times.
And now we´re in Chile! Chile is a little different to Bolivia. You know you´re in Chile when you go to a public bathroom and there´s a light that works, toilet paper, soap AND a way to dry your hands. It´s not too often that you get all of these factors occuring at once in your average public toilet in Bolivia! Some other differences include: more road signage, they follow the road rules, dress differently, supply 3 choices of petrol and have differently styled houses. They also talk a LOT faster than Bolivians... all we
catch is a slur of Spanish words, which causes a blank look and the reply ´como?´ (huh?).
And they have sea!! We have realised how much we miss the ocean! There was so, so, so mcuh desert to drive through on the way down the coast - interesting at first, but very depressing by the 2nd day. But being at the coast again was awesome. We had a few swims and camped on the beach.
Our drive down the Chilian coast was eventful, to say the least... events to remember would include the jeep stopping/dying at midnight outside a military base 24km out of Antofogasta (much to the military´s disapproval), the car stopping again in the middle of the desert, the car stopping again on a busy road in La Serena, and the car stopping again on two highways in Santiago, the flat tyre on the highway in Santiago. Lesson learned: leave car behind when travelling to Santiago. Thankfully, the Chilians have been very friendly and helpful... they have towed our jeep, tried to fix our jeep, made contributions to paying our gas (when we ran out of money), given us directions and helped us out with useful
information. We finally got to bed at 4am last night after all our car troubles on driving into Santiago and in two hours we pick up my parents! We´re are going to catch the bus to the airport.
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Ryan (La Perro) Pellett
non-member comment
Yo my Bolivian Siblings
Happy baby Jesus Day and New Year. I'm glad you got to see the ocean and have a play. Its just been the typical Kiwi summer up here. New Years with the gang and lots of swimming, boarding, fun. How are you finding Chile?? and Santiago? I hope it puts out more of a welcome to you guys then it did me. Good luck with the car and the parents!! WOW. have lots of fun and adventures in the south guys. Lots of love and al the best. La Perro.