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Published: April 13th 2006
Papito Burgeño
Dad, his Papito, and the papito´s sister.Justin here - Well, so much for putting pictures on this travel blog. We have a lot of really cool ones, and we finally bought a cord to connect the camera to the computer... but when we finally plugged it all in, a message came up saying that we had to change the setup of the computer to connect the camera to the USB port, and on a computer that´s completely in Spanish... I have no idea how to do that. So unless my resident ghost steps in to help, magically fixing the computer, I guess we´ll have to do without pictures. Oh well.
Today was pretty fun. We spent it all in Antofagasta - we were trying to go to Viña del Mar tonight, but it didn´t work out, and so we stayed here in Anto... which turned out to be perfect. We woke up about 10 or 10:30 and took a taxi to the mission office, trying to find some information about Dad´s old papito ("little father"), and after a long search through telephone and by asking several missionaries, we finally found an address for Papito Burgeño. When we went there, however, a lady across the street told
us that the papito wasn´t home, he was visiting his sister for lunch, and she didn´t know where that was. Dad wrote a note on the back of a picture of him and papito and gave it to her in case he stopped by later on, and then we hopped back in the taxi and went to another address. The family we thought was there still lived there, and we visited with them for a while, looking at pictures and stuff.
After a little while there we went to another house and found that they too still lived there, a mom and her son. We showed them a picture with her and my dad in their house. The same tapestry in the picture was hanging on the back wall, exactly where it had been twenty years ago. We spent some time with them talking (or, rather, my dad talked to them and I tried to pay attention and follow the conversation, hoping they wouldn´t ask me anything I didn´t understand), and took a photo in front of that tapestry. Sometime around then we got a surprising call from Papito Burgeño, who told us he could meet us later on at about 5 o´clock.
It was then we remembered we had to go to the TurBus station at exactly 3 (for reasons Dad can explain), so we quickly called the taxi and sped to the station. Luckily, we got there in time, and even bought a drink and some strawberry/chocolate ice cream before we went back to the hotel to recuperate and plan.
We were trying to arrange things so we could see Papito and then take a plane in the evening to Viña, where we could stay tonight, but after much deliberation we decided that too many things could go wrong if we packed our schedule that tight, so we chose to stay in Antofagasta and leave for Viña tomorrow at 10:50 am - our original flight plan. This worked out great. It gave us a lot of time to do whatever we wanted, and time was one thing we really needed.
We went to visit a few houses. Two of them were unoccupied (at least by the people we were looking for), which was pretty much as we expected, but in the third house we saw we found some people Dad knew. We gave them a photo and talked with them for a few minutes, then headed over to Papito´s house.
That was a lot of fun. He was with one of his twelve siblings (sheesh!) - a sister of 86 years - and was waiting outside when we came. Papito himself was about 84 or so, but still quick-witted and relatively limber. We went inside and filmed and talked and showed them pictures and had some Cokes (you would have liked it, Curtis). We stayed there for a couple hours, and then Papito (whose first name, we found out for the first time, is Francisco) helped us call a taxi. We said our goodbyes and went to a negocio to buy a USB cord for the camera. Kind of a waste of time, getting that useless cord... but oh well. Next we came here to the hotel, rested up a bit watching tv, then walked to McDonald´s for some dinner. We hadn´t eaten anything all day, and some juicy hamburgers sounded pretty good. And good they were, although we had to walk almost a mile to get them, then back again, but it was nice, on a boardwalk along the ocean. Sand, surf and salt air.. We ate in our room and then came down here to write some stuff, and even though we promised ourselves we´d be done by 10:30, it´s now 11 and Dad hasn´t said anything lately - he might be sleeping in the chair next to computer here in the lobby.
But anyway... today wasn´t too busy or anything, but we got a lot done and hopefully will get a chance to rest up some tonight. For now, I´m signing off. Adios, mis queridos.
zzzzzzzzzzzz huh?
Hola,
2 quick additions:
(1) Papito´s house. It was quite the adventure finding it. 4 missionaries, 2 bishops, an institute teacher and a neighbor and we finally got there. He´s an awesome guy, attested by the fact that over 60 missionaries have lived at his house and every one of them loved the guy. He has a photo album filled with wedding announcements, graduation notices, etc. Through it all, he remembered everything about my short two months there. I mentioned how the sister missionaries came over to play a joke, and he finished the story with a smile, adding how they had come and short-sheet our beds, mess with our stuff and sew the button-holes shut on our shirts. He´d felt guilty letting them in, so while they were busy he stuck a week-old hotdog I had in his fridge into the bottom of their backpacks, where it sat for another week, festering in a wet, dark corner until it metamorphed into a new and frightening creature: stinky and full of wet goo. Ha. pretty good one. Nobody messed with Papito´s missionaries.
His sister was incredible as well. She was 99% blind. 100% actually. I had never met her, and after I greeted Papito with a hug, she paused a minute, then said "what, no greeting for an old woman?" I liked her spunk and we were fast-friends immediately. As we talked, it was cute to watch the brother-sister banter they had, back and forth. As we prepared to go, she asked if she could leave us with a song. Sure, we said. Boy, what a beautiful voice. A sweet, melodic cancion about her mother. Glad I got it on the video camera.
(2) The trip to TurBus.
Okay, here´s the way it went down. Before I came down here, Petrea gave me some wallet photos to show, of the kids and family, with the warning that they cannot be lost, since some are one-of-a-kind. No prob, says I. They were a big hit, everywhere I went (with such a cute couple of girls, how can they miss?). Anyway, We got to Monica´s house last night and, much to her amusement, I searched every bag we had, at least three times. No photos. Hmmm... how about the left pocket? Nope. The right? nada. How about the left? Still nothing.... and so on, checking each one over and over. Only thing I could figure was that when we jammed from Calama, I´d sent Justin up to pack the last of our stuff. We never checked the drawer. Well, we´re at a hotel in Anto of the same chain, so I had them call over this morning to see whats up. Yes, they have the photos. They suggested mailing them to Santiago, for when we return there. No dice - too risky. So I talked to the guy. Asked if any way to courier them over here (125 miles across the desert). No such thing exists.
What about Tur Bus, I asked.
What about it? he asked back.
Well, ummmm.... I paused, then plunged in (hey, my life was at stake). Would you mind terribly taking my stuff, leaving your post at the hotel, walking 5 blocks to Tur Bus, convince a driver to bring them here, then get someone here to deliver them to the hotel, all within the next 4 hours?
I talked yesterday about the service and hospitality? - well, here it was, live and in action. He did leave it to me, though, to get to the local bus station exactly at 3 to catch the driver as they made a 10 minute stop here on the way to Santiago. I had told him I would pay for the passenger fare, if necessary, and whatever other fee required. Not only did it go smoothly, but Carlos called me to check if the package had made it, as did the staff at the local desk, who were in on the mission to get the photos and save my life. I asked the driver what I owed, thinking maybe there´d be a hefty charge on top of the 3500 pesos for the passage. He said not to worry about it, no passage fee. I asked if he´d accept a couple mil pesos (2000, about $3.50) he smiled and thanked me.
Mission Accomplished.
Goodnight
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Kathy
non-member comment
scary
Good thing that is Justin's ghost and not Mark's. those pictures could have been gone forever. Glad that you two are having such a good time. Enjoy the day. Mom/Grandma