Colo Colo

Day 13: I hope to fill in stories from the missing days, but I figure it's better to pick up now. This morning, I said goodbye to my friends who I happened to run into yesterday at my new hostel. They were only there last night, but it made a world of difference. I'd been feeling really alone and it was great to have friends again, even if for less than 24 hours.

However, after saying goodbye, I went back to bed. I didn't sleep well at all last night because the hostel is made of particle board and thumb tacks, so anytime anyone walked on the second floor, our room shook. And the door opens on its own unless you pile stuff in front of it. Plus, a loud party, including some sort of jumping activity and peeing out the window onto the corrugated metal roof, was going on downstairs or next door or upstairs, we couldn't quite tell.

When I woke up (again), I decided that the natural reserve 8 km from town would be a nice day excursion. I decided to walk to the park, thinking it had to be less than 2 hours. That's more activity than I've had in a while, but I'm feeling so much better and my muscles are threatening to atrophy if I don't get them moving. Only, after the road ended after 15 minutes of walking, it wasn't clear which way to turn. Fortunately, a gas station attendant knew where I wanted to go and pointed me in the right direction.

Once I got out of town, there was a road sign that said "Rural" which was not really necessary, considering that the road became gravel and there were no more houses, shops, or any other signs of life. I struggled against the wind more than the incline. I'd lost track of time when I pickup truck stopped and the guy asked me if I wanted a ride. I gladly accepted. Unfortunately, he turned off about 5 minutes later, so I started walking again. Then, another who-knows-how-long later, a huge truck slowed down and the guy used universal-sign language to ask if I wanted a ride. I climbed in. Literally. There were 3 steps to get to the cab.

He was confused why a young woman was walking along this road alone. I explained about being in Chile for a year, being on vacation, saying goodbye to my friends this moring, being bored as a result. He thought I was very brave -- for what, he didn't specify -- and, after a moment's thought, maybe "too brave". He let me off at the sign for the nature preserve and went to find the load of gravel he was after.

Only I never found the nature reserve. There were two arrows on the sign, which was at a fork in the road. I picked one and started walking. The wind, which I've been remiss in not mentioning, was brutally strong. I've never experienced such strong wind. At one point, it literally blew me off the road. It reminded me of the reporters in the middle of hurricane season who are being pelted by the wind. I tried to take some photos, but as best I can tell, none of them do justice.

Despite my yeoman's efforts against the wind, I didn't manage to find anything interesting or beautiful. I went an alternate road, past the gravel pit (maybe that's the "mine" that the guide book referred to??), and eventually back to the sign. Along the way, a whole stream of cars, dirt bikes, and mud-caked jeeps passed by. I still wonder what in the world they were up to. I almost followed them, but didn't.

I headed up the other direction, which, as indicated by the sign, should have led to an overlook. I only made it up a short ways before the wind started to pick up small bits of gravel from the road and shoot them at me. It hurt. A lot. I started walking backward so I wouldn't get hit in the face, which worked for a bit. But I still wasn't seeing anything that looked promising, so I conceded defeat to the mountain and headed back down. To my surprise, a car stopped and the elderly couple invited me to climb in back for a ride into town. I've never successfully hitchhiked in my life, and today I did it 3 times without even trying!

Back at the hostel, I took a nice hot shower (though the bathroom was a bit sketchy) and got all the knots out of my hair. I was WAY past the windblown look. I also made bus reservations for my 12-hour trip to Ushuaia, Argentina, my next stop. I'm leaving Wednesday, December 26. I think Christmas will be really boring, but hopefully there will at least be other bored people around the hostel.

Tomorrow, I hope to go to the duty-free shopping zone and buy myself some presents. I want a pair of hiking boots and a fleece jacket. I might also buy a traveler's sleeping bag. After seeing my friends' photos from Torres del Paine, I'm really sad that I missed out on it. I don't want to miss out on anything else for lack of basic gear! I was going to buy a warm jacket, too, but my friend gave me her puffy down one. Sweet! And I seriously wouldn't have survived that gravel road gauntlet today without it.

Ummm ... right, the title of this post.

As I was walking back to the hostel from a failed attempt to book a kayaking trip on a Sunday (silly me), I heard cheering erupt from a bar. Moments later, people started pouring into the streets with flags, t-shirts, umbrellas, and all sorts of other stuff. It turns out that one of Chile's most popular professional soccer team had won. Honking ensued from all passing vehicles, many of which had huge flags hanging out their windows. The people amassed in the plaza, where the blocked the main road through town. There was shouting, chanting, singing, flares, rockets, jumping, dancing, toilet paper, huge drums, and other revelry.

The police were standing by, but didn't intervene. It seems that the whole town supports this team because no one seemed to mind that traffic was blocked. Either that, or the ones who would mind knew to stay home. If someone had walked through the crowd with another team's t-shirt on, they might have ended up in a body cast. It was so wild.

Long after everyone should have been hoarse, the party continued. I was wondering how it would end. I figured it would slowly dissipate until the last fanatics finally straggled home. Boy, was I wrong. First the guys with the drums and fire extinguishers (for the smoke effect), started walking away. I was surprised that they would leave when there was still a crowd. Only then the crowd followed them! They took the party on the road, marching against traffic down the main thoroughfare. It was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like that. What's even stranger is that I bet this happens every time the team wins. I can imagine something like that after a World Series win, but after every game?