Christmas in Chile
I spent Christmas eve in the Santiago airport. I missed my flight from Lima earlier that day and after being put on a much later flight, finally arrived at midnight. I was due to get to Valparaiso (another hour and a half west of Santiago) to visit family friends, but apparently no buses run on Christmas Eve (go figure). So I sat in a restaurant in the airport, wrote emails, skyped Cooper (thanks for saving me from boredom), edited photos, blogged, and generally passed 7 hours till the sun rose (I’ve had my fair share of partying and late night studying but I have never done an “all-nighter”).
Finally, after 42 hours of travel (ironically the bus from Arequipa to Santiago is 30 hours), one near missed bus, a missed flight, a night in the Santiago airport, another bus ride, and a handful of cab rides later I arrived at my destination.
Now, I love a good tenuous family or friend connection. I love to meet friends of friends- old babysitters- grandma’s old house mates daughter who are visiting Melbourne. I once took in a guy who went to university with a friend from boarding school, who added me on facebook but whom I’d never actually had a conversation with, and we had a blast. So when it was my turn to be that connection I took it.
First tenuous connection were friends of Dad’s when he worked for the Asia Foundation when he was my age. I only remember meeting them once, when I was 14 in their lovely LA home. And here I was, at the doorstep of their holiday apartment in Valparaiso, Chile. True to my memories of them they took me in with open arms. Julie has to be one of the sweetest women I know, with three wonderful kids my age who welcomed me into their Christmas morning celebrations and traditions (which I was gloriously crashing).
They even had a stocking for me (candy and new undies!). It was so warming to be part of such a functional, normal, happy family at Christmas. We then spent the day wandering the streets of Valparaiso, which is a truly phenomenal town. Its a port city covered in street art, with beautiful hills that dictate the crazy streets peaks and troughs. The sun was shining, the view sparkling and I was in the best company. Hand on heart, that is the best Christmas since I was a child, and I spent it with a family I haven’t seen since I was a child (I’d actually go as far to say that it was the loveliest Christmas I’ve ever had).
Paul, Julie, Cassidy, Sean and Megan, thank you for making it so special. I’m sure it just felt like a normal Christmas to you, but to me it restored a respect for family love and helped me find my Christmas joy.
Early the next morning the Brady Bunch set off down south, leaving me to be collected by tenuous connection number two.
When my father was growing up in central California my grandparents had a number of exchange students live with them from France, Spain and Chile. Rafael, all those years ago, was one of those students, and now lives in Santiago, Chile with his lovely wife, Loreta.
I met Rafael once when he was in Melbourne for business years ago. We went out to lunch. And yet despite our tenuous connection he too took me in with open arms. He and Loreta came and picked me up, took me to a lovely lunch and drove the scenic way to their beautiful beach house in Cachagua where we spent the last couple of days lying on the beach, eating good food and sharing stories. It was so lovely to spend time with them and get to know them, reminding me that friendships form ignorant of age and culture.
So as I start the next leg of my journey (Santiago, Lima, Madrid, and finally London) I look on my 4 days in Chile and smile. Thank you to everyone who made it so special; from the kind taxi driver who let me use his phone when I got really confused with directions, to the tenuous family connections that gave me a home away from home on my big trip.
I’ll be sure to return the favour to another tenuous connection down the road...
0 comments:
Post a Comment