Vamos a la Playa!

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That's right the beach! Well in this case it wasn't actually a beach but a fishing port. I had the pleasure of spending the day with my host mom in Talcahuano. Talcahuano is a beautiful little fishing town that is known for it's population of sea lions. The sea lions gather in the port at the base of boats waiting for the fishermen to through them the scraps. It seems like these sea lions are living the life, free food and easy hunting, I don't think there is anything better.


I spent the afternoon with my host mom as the wind played with our hair and we watched the boats. it was a relaxing and much needed weekend. My host mom told me the history of Talcahuano, it is just a fishing town so it is mainly filled with lower middleclass families that work as fishermen or in a factory. In 2010 an earthquake struck the BioBio region of Chile and severely damaged Talcahuano. As we drove through the city we could still see the ruins of old buildings that had collapsed during the quake, and there were more that what I could count. Also because of the port after the quake there was also a tsunami in Talcahuano that flooded the first 20 or so blocks of the city until the hillside of the city. The destruction that happened in the quake is still so apparent in Talcahuano, but the kindness of the locals was even more apparent. At the port everyone was calm just enjoying the day watching the sea lions play.


In Talcahuano I also ate my first completo and had mote con huesillos. So a completo is the world's best decked out hotdog. The one I had was a hotdog covered in pico, cilantro, mayo, and spicy garlic. My host mom had one that was with scrambled eggs and caramelized onions. Seriously though, no joke, the States has been making their hotdogs wrong. Mote con huesillos is a juice that has mote (barley) and huesillos (a dried peach) in it. Trying this for the first time was extremely weird. I see barley and I think soup, I do not think tea, and then there was just a whole dried peach dropped in as well. It was a little weird to get my brain around but Oh was it DELICOUS! I highly recommend it.

















T-minus 67 days

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