I swear the alarm clock went off two hours earlier than it was meant to this morning. I shook my head from side to side in disbelief, kicking my feet up and down in the bed like a boy who didn´t want to go to school and rolled over with the duvet over my face. Laura somehow manged to slip out of our cozy furnace and dressed before the ice cold air froze her bits off.
With the thought of missing Mrs Carmen´s almighty breakfast I got up swiftly and headed downstairs to fill myself again. Before either of us had made it to the kitchen disaster struck. One woman who we have not met or spoken to ever before managed to crap our three months worth of wedding planning out of her arse and flush them into oblivion. Laura had received an email saying that with the recent cold weather the barn we had reserved no longer felt able to guarantee a successful day.The vicar had been booked, save the dates sent and and now we were back to square one. You can imagine our mood!
Breakfast followed with us both looking like children who had just had their favourite toy taken away and no amount of biscuits and cake was going to put a smile back on our faces. We packed our bags, grumbling to ourselves, and bid farewell to the lovely hosts of "Su Casa".
An hours worth of bus ride and some serious brainstorming later and we reached Castro. Within a few minutes of walking the highstreet we´d been spotted by a hostal owner named Sylvia who highly recommended her own place. We followed her and were presented with a nicely decorated though somewhat about to collapse from subsistence house, and agreed to stay the next two nights.
Our heads were a complete jumble so we thought a call home to our parents might inspire some new ideas. Although unable to resolve anything at this time- all the other places we had considered were now booked solid- it was nice to speak things through and get everything off our chests. Talking made us both feel calmer, that is, until we were told the cost- $30! Back in Valparaiso we had taken far longer to create a $5 bill and so relaxed this time. It was not a good day!
Whilst all of this was going on there was another painful annoyance- my eyes. For the last week or so my eyeballs have had serious issues dealing with daylight and now even a dim lamp was making me squint. Today I looked like I had been crying non stop for a month with my eyes so bloodshot you couldn´t see the white anymore. With the fear I might be turning into something from Resident Evil we checked the streets for a pharmacy. After some pretty good Spanish from Laura and a great deal of hand gestures I got myself a weeny $20 bottle of hopeful cure.
With my fingers fighting against my eyelids I managed the few drops and literally ten minutes after the stinging had stopped I was feeling half human again. Now all we need was an antidote for our wedding. With that going round and round in our minds we spent the rest of the drizzly day planning and conjuring magical solutions until we couldn´t keep our bodies awake any longer.
The plan the next morning was to catch a bus over to the national park, but outside it looked pretty foul with the wind and rain pounding down on our corrugated iron roof- it sounded like a typhoon outside. A few minutes later and something like an air raid siren went off, and even though no one seemed to panic we decided perhaps to spend our time in side today.
Our homestay host had offered us kitchen use to make coffee or whatever. As we had sugar and milk Laura politely asked if we might have one tea bag to share betwen our two cups. I had asked for one the night before and got a slight look that made me think I shouldn´t have, but didn´t mention it to Laura as I thought I was being paranoid. Laura got the same response and whilst she made the brew heard the owner mutter to another guest in spanish how she had said without breakfast. We didn´t ask for anymore and decided to go to a supermarket to repay her the two precious teabags.
After a short walk around Castro we returned and not only gave her tea back, we made her an extra cup too. When I went in the cupboard to get a mug I noticed that she had removed her full box and hidden it somewhere. We then went into the hall and used the computer (her main selling point to us- free internet, use when you like). Sylvia seemed in a bit of a huff about this too, making us feel even more uncomfortable. Worst of all was the fact that full rolls of toilet paper were here one minute and then gone the next- was she hiding them from us? This led to a rather vomit worthy situation as Laura has been experiencing an unfortunately squirty bum resulting in a constant path back and forth from the bathroom (tuna?!) Realising that the roll had been removed her only option was to use dirty tissue from the waster paper bin, followed by copious amounts of handwashing and antibacterial wash. Subsequent visits were accompanied by a wad of cotton wool, but we were starting to feel quite unwelcome and spent the night in our room.
It was still as cold the next day but there was a hint of blue in the sky and the rain stopped so we got ready for an afternoon away from the tight arsed witch. We had a super quick check on the net after coming up with a possible wedding solution the previous day, then got our boots on after a quick breakfast. When we left our room again we noticed that the computer had now been unplugged by Sylvia. We tutted to each other and headed for the station.
When we arrrived there was a bus just leaving with a sign "Al Parque". We asked if it was going to the national park to which the driver said "yes". Something felt wrong so we asked again, "Parque National de Chiloe?" and again "Si, si!" We got on, chuffed we didn´t have to wait long and sat down for the hour it should talke to get there. 5 minutes later the driver indicated the park to us- something that looked more like a building site. This clearly wasn´t it but we got out to see where he taken us instead. There was definately something going on in the "municiple" parque as the car park ahead ws almost full and as we walked further down the road a delicious smell of meat wafted past our noses- something that didn´t excite Laura but we both felt we had stumbled across something interesting. It looked like a mini festival with a stage set up and some top of the range speakers and instruments and all around were huts selling interesting jewellery, loads of wooly clothes, huge chunks of meat and homemade cakes awithpeople getting sloshed on beer- perfect! After walking around the stalls it semed we stumbled on a Sunday afternoon fete, until a woman began introducing people to the stage. A host of men in suits took to the platform and started to give speeches we could not understand, though the slow progression to angry and impassionate tones was somewhat reminisent of Hitler- this was a political rally! A few more people came to the stand and got themselves worked up about situations in Chile, and Laura remembered reading in the guide how politics in South America can be a little impassioned, sometimes leading to police using tear gas to disperse the crowds. Being surrounded by families and young children made us feel safe but we weren´t going to take any chances!
We had finally found a bus back to town after moving from one stop to another and then managed to board one to the actual National Park. It wasn´t long after stepping out that the fresh air had blown away our tense headaches and we continued through a wonderful colourful forest to a beach. The wind was so strong that it was causing storms across the whole stretch of coast and soon enough we had grains up our noses, in our ears and every mouth movement resulted in a crunch. We collapsed there and watched horses ride by the thunderous waves up ahead. It was all lovely but things were still playing around in our heads about the wedding so we were slightly lacking in motivation. We got up though, and trekked on uneven log paths carved through a moss covered wood hoping to spot some diverse wildlife. We didn´t, but we had fun creeping around like hunters anyway.
After a good leg workout we caught the last bus home which soon became full to the rafters with people crammed down the aisles and a couple of drunk men pouring wine over other passengers, much to everyone´s disproval. It seemed the merriness was catching, as back at the hostal Sylvia and some friends were tucking into an alcoholic beverage and it was the first time I´d seen her smile- she even offered me some. For a brief moment everything seemed great until Laura told me that our plans to bring the wedding date forward were not going to work (the barn lady had also given the wrong number regarding guests, so if we were to stick with her we would have to uninvite people) and there was now a fat sign on the computer with how much it costs per hour. It was a bit of a last straw for Laura who flopped down on the bed in tears. We both wanted to just go home for a couple of days and sort it all out, as well as be in a house that was comfortable and familiar. It would be so good to see our family and friends for a day or two, then come back with our heads clear and ready to enjoy ourselves again. Maybe a change of scenery would do us good as when we were to head to Pueto Montt the following day?
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