Quintay

Update on my sister Maite and her volleyball team: They won second place at the tournament, a team from Poland won first place. And also Maite won an award fro best in her position, which is striker or something like that. As you can tell I know nothing about volleyball... I'm sure this will change with all the games I am sure to see here in Chile.

Saturday (August 22, 2009) Pili, Marcelo, Erin and I took a little day-trip in the afternoon/early evening to a place called, Quintay (pronounced: keeeentie). It was an amazing day, just so warm and beautiful, no clouds in the sky at all, so we packed a little picnic and off we went. The trip was a little bit of a windy road through the forest, which was okay with me because there were trees all around us and it reminded me so much of the forests back in Idaho. But at one point as were driving we had to almost come to a screeching halt because in the middle of the road were huge branches from nearby trees. We all got out and moved them from the road because it was so dangerous and we didn't want any other cars to accidently hit them and cause a bad accident. But as we were moving them to the side of the road, Pili saw a couple kids up above the road on the hills hiding. They must have been the one's to put the branches there just waiting for something bad to happen, it was so awful and mean. The things some kids get joy out of is beyond me! But as we continued driving, we came a few more areas where it looked liked the same thing had occurred with the branches but that others had either moved out of the way or tried to drive over them (which was almost impossible). So when we came across some carabineros (chilean policeman) on the side of the road, we had to pull over and warn them about the branches and the kids in the hills watching. So hopefully they did something about it! It was funny though because as Pili was talking to the carabinero from the passenger car window, Erin was reaching over me to take a photo. I wasn't sure of what until afterwards, but she tried to get a photo of one of the carabinero's because he had his pants zipper down! Oh if only she had gotten the photo, it would have been priceless!

But after those little events we finally arrived in Quintay, an extremely small little town on the coast. It was so pretty because the whole drive we were surrounded by trees and forest, and then after many many curves out of nowhere appears the amazing ocean and this little tiny town. Such a beautiful view, indescribable. So while in Quintay we just walked around a bit, went into the Ballena plant (ballena means whale), a place where they used to kill whales and take them there to get everything from the animal, the oils, meat, skin, etc. Yeah the thought of it was a little disgusting to me, but still all part of the experience. And it makes sense because Pili told me that Quintay and that region is known for their amazing mariscos (shell fish), seafood. So below are some of the photos from that little walk, ocean and the whale pant museum.

This is right when we got out of the car and what I saw. I just thought Quintay was so quaint and beautiful.

Below: This is the only photo I took inside the Ballenera... because the rest was pretty much nothing. There were some graphic black and white photos of dead whales in different stages of tearing them apart and taking everything they could. So I am sparing you all, so nice of me I know. :)

Yeah I wasn't in the photo taking mood today, so this is the only one of me that I posed for. This is Erin, mi mamá chilena (Pili), and me.

Below: Poor timing here! Look how mad I look and I didn't even know a photo was being taken. Note to my mum: doesn't my face in this picture remind you of that picture of my in dad's truck. Where all of Nick's friends got to pose for a picture in the back, and all you can see is my little head from the inside window and I am so pissed! Haha, yeah apparently I still make that look. We all laughed pretty hard about this photo since I look like I am on the hunt to murder someone! Haha

Another lovely photo of me that Marcelo snuck in! Oh my gosh he is sneaky! And yes I look awful I know, I guess candids just don't work for me.

And by this point I was so done with photos I was hiding while Pili and Erin laughed at me. Marcelo loves to tease me with the camera!

Mother and son (Pili and Marcelo)...muy lindo (very cute)!

Look at the little pool the ocean made... yeah I want to come back and swim there!

Cool looking door that Marcelo pointed out to me. Very interesting architecture here. We found later on in downtown Quintay, a church made from an old wooden ship! Yeah pretty damn cool in my book! :)

Then after that little part of the trip, we hopped back in the car and went to another little beachy area in another part of Quintay. It was called, "La Playa Grande." Here we enjoyed the beach... but you had to cross a little river to get to the nice part of the beach. The combination of water and clumsiness prevented me from getting over, but I enjoyed the view from the other side. Here was enjoyed sandwiches, juice, and tea/coffee. It was very nice since we were eating as we watched the sun set. Muy increíble! (very incredible!).

Below is the pretty side of the beach that I didn't go to but I enjoyed from afar.

Just a pretty wave..yes always photos of the ocean!

So this was the little rock path to cross to get to the pretty side of the beach. Yeah it looks easy... but those rocks are slimy and slippery! Yeah water and my clumsiness are not a good mix... I almost fell in, so I turned back knowing if I went farther I for sure would get soaked!

This is how you had to get across. You needed sturdy sticks to help keep the balance.. but the sticks wouldn't even help a clumsy person like myself. But I sure did enjoy watching Erin and Marcelo make their way back and almost falling numerous times. I love Marcelo's face in this one, so surprised! And then Erin almost falling. The perfect entertainment. :)

I just had to post this photo, because I told them all to give serious faces. But Pili apparently didn't get that memo... or has another idea of what "serious" means. Or she was just shocked at me flashing them all like the crazy gypsy woman (from an older post). Kidding of course! But seriously, we all laughed hard over this one!

The Quintay trip was wonderful... just the perfect day. Since saturday though not much has been going on. Sunday, we had a family lunch, so Marcelo, Constanza and Sergio all joined us. Everyone was here accept Maite since she is still in Europe. I watched the majority of the family eat all kinds of shelled fish and other unknown meats to me while I, Marcelo and Constabza enjoyed pasta (we are the picky ones (mañosos). Haha it was pretty interesting though, but not an appetizing smell. Fishy smell all through lunch! But after our very long lunch, at least 2 hours since we sat around and talked, we started to plan our trips for the rest of my time here in Chile. So that was exciting, once everything is finalized I will let you all know where I will be going, unfortunately not too many big trips, but still very exciting.

But now it is back to school and classes. So now I need to get studying more... more hours of reading in Spanish! wish me luck!

Chao for now!

Britt