whatcha been doin in valdivia?

The other night I went to a concert of a Santiago group called Pánico. I don't know if it was simply because i hadn't been to a live show in a long time, but I thought they were pretty good.

Last night I went to the Kunstmann Bierfest. After failing to get to the Cherry Fest in Los Antiguos, and the bierfest in Llanquihue, I thought I was cursed to never arrive at a festival. But I made it. I got there kind of early and amde friends with a couple of guys from Santiago. We chatted and drank beer until about 2 Am. The festival was pretty much what you'd expect of a Germanish beer festival in many ways. There was beer, pork products, traditional dances, German oompah and polka music, the birdy dance. There were also some competitions like log-sawing and beer drinking. One fella finished a liter of beer in 7 seconds. But later in the evening the place suddenly turned latin as another band took the stage and played cumbia, reggeton, salsa, merengue. But it was funny too when the singer just finished singing a German song and then said,"Eso!"(kind of like saying "oh yeah") I was reminded that we were still in Chile.

I also had a chance to to repay some long-standing backpackers karmic debt. A million years ago Sean, Pete, Brian and I arrived in Nurnberg, Germany a bit late at night. Not knowing where to stay, we stopped for a beer before looking for a park to sleep in. At the bar we were befriended by a strange group of people who invited us to stay in their apartment for the night, plus made us breakfast in the morning. A really good memory of someone doing a favor for me when I was traveling. Last night I met, outside the beer hall, two ladies from Wales who arrived in Valdivia late at night and decided to hang out outside the beer fest, not wanting to pay the cover. They had no idea where to stay so I told them that if they were still hanging out when I got done in the festival they could come to my humble bedbug-infested cabaña. So I got the floor, and they had the first good night of sleep in awhile. This morning when we got up, they invited me to join them on a short bus trip out to the beach for some seafood. We had a tasty lunch (see food section below). They took off south and I chilled on the beach most of the afternoon

I plan to hang around Valdivia for a few more days and then continue northward. Although it may sound like I have really action-packed days, I don't tend to write about the boring times, reading books, waiting in line buying groceries, sitting around watching Chilean news, trying to study but not being able to concentrate, walking and walking around town, looking at the map yet again. The fact is that traveling alone is, most of the time, mind-numbingly boring. It makes me appreciate the company of my friends, my family, my colleagues, my Lulu. Even the company of random British girls whose accent in English is as hard for me to understand as it is in Spanish are welcome company.

food: This here is fried salmon. I just wanted to stop nd have a little bite to eat, but then I was brought this massive, delicious piece of fish, breaded with a little basil i think. That little dish in the top right is a substance called pebere. It's kind of like mexican salsa, or pico de gallo with less emphasis on tomato, often with parsley or cilantro.

This is the Paila de mariscos I had on the coast today. I'm usually not too adventurous when it come to seafood. I just didn't grow up with it in the midwest. But with the Pulmay experience under my belt, and with the menu assistence of the welsh girls, I leveled up and ordered this seafood soup. It was mostly bivalves, but with one crab claw and a little fish piece. I'm not crazy about the consistency of clams, or mussels, or whatever they were, but I'm getting used to it. The taste is growing on me. And the broth was amazing.