Favorite Mistakes
On Saturday we woke up in the town of Osorno ready to drive several hours to the island of Chiloe. Unfortunately someone on the trip (We´ll just say that his initials are SJ) left the dome light on in the car all night. The car wouldn’t start and we tried pushing it down a hill to start it but that didn´t work either. We asked everyone we could see if they had cables and finally found some. Then I paid a taxi driver four dollars to let us borrow his car. Eventually we got the thing running and a few hours later we found ourselves in the town of Castro in the direct center of Chiloe. However, after we filled up on gas the car would not start again. We jumped it once more and drove a few blocks just to have the car die once more, this time in the middle of the street. The look on the locals´ faces was priceless as five gringos are pushing a Toyota Yaris down the street trying to find a parking spot. We just left the car there and went to find a hostel where we could stay for the night.
I assumed that it wasn´t entirely our fault because the car would not charge up and kept failing even after leaving the dome light on. What´s more is that the car had four spare tires on it and the steering was completely out of wack as the car waved back and forth when faster than 120 km per hour. Unfortunately, Alamo would not send us another car and told us to take it to a mechanic and pay for repairs, or go 4 hours to Puerto Montt to get a new car. We did neither and had fun in Castro that night. The next day we hopped on a bus and went to a town of Dalcahue where there was an artisan fair. From there we rode another bus to the town of Achao on an offshore island. On the bus is where things took an unexpected turn.
We asked to girls in front of us how much the bus was. They told us and we replied by asking where we should go in Achao. They said that there wasn´t much going on but that we should come with them to their house where we could stay the night and explore their ocean front field. We assumed that they lived down the street but after a fairy, two buses, and two motor boats, we arrived at their home on the island of Alao. We were told that around 50 people lived on the island. Cristina and her husband Felipe were staying in the house for a year while Felipe worked at the salmon farms. Cristina´s cousin Joselyn was staying for the week. We were nervous at first about not knowing what we were getting ourselves into but it worked out great. They immediately fed us and gave us plenty of beer while we all talked and laughed until our stomachs hurt around a tiny wooden table late into the night. The next day we had breakfast and lunch before leaving the island by a tiny boat once more. If the car would not have been such a lemon we would never had experienced a thing so great. We all exchanged numbers and now have new friends we would otherwise never know.
