Dieciséis

City, thy name is Serenity.

 "Tis healthy to be sick sometimes."
--Henry David Thoreau

I awoke Thursday morning, the 16th of September in La Serena and remembered that it was my Father's birthday.  It wouldn't be until later that evening that I would be in Coquimbo and have the chance to use the internet to call him (even though I only ended up being able to leave a voice mail) and long before then a few interesting developments would take place.  I had slept little, for when Alex and I returned to his house the night before we discovered his two youngest host sisters, Nadia and Isis, sitting around the kitchen table with a group of friends talking and drinking wine.  I took the opportunity to meet the two of the five sisters present and in doing so betrayed myself as a gringo.  Immediately, one of the people at the table began speaking to me in English.  He was very excited, and would not leave me alone.  He kept thanking me for speaking English to him, even though I was doing my best to ignore him and speak in Spanish with Alex's sisters (who are 17 and 20 respectively) because Isis spoke no English.  Nadia clearly understood a good deal, but was not able to converse.  As such, I found it very rude and annoying for that stranger to keep badgering me into English.  I write stranger for we found out the next morning that the girls didn't even know who he was.

The next morning, Alex and I were up before the girls when his host-mom, who I had met the night before, came into the kitchen and chatted with us for a while.  The day then progressed with us leaving for Coquimbo to meet back up with Peter and Ryan for our planned trip a little ways farther south to visit the town of Tongoy.  We all squeezed onto a little shuttle bus that took us down the coast amidst the company of school children who apparently bus to Coquimbo to find better education opportunities then the tiny fishing village they call home can afford them.  This is interesting, given the fact that there are two schools in Tongoy,  both of which are staffed with volunteers.  One of the volunteers, Ryan Ahern or "Otro Ryan", I hadn't seen since Santiago, and thus I was looking forward to surprising him with my presence.  We found him asleep in the the house he shares with the other Tongoy volunteer, named Matt, he having spent the early afternoon at a school-sponsored asado.  He was indeed surprised to see us, and once roused, took us to a good seafood restaurant located on one of Tongoy's two sweeping beaches.  We enjoyed our food, but Ryan (Morrison) likely took ill from it, as we would discover later that evening.   After eating, Otro Ryan and Matt took us on a tour of the town and beaches, which didn't last long given the tiny nature of the locality.  However, despite the small size, I really fell in love with the place, especially after Otro Ryan told us how he spent most afternoons sea kayaking with his kids.  We watched the sun set just beyond the natural harbour and then caught the last bus back to Coquimbo with Matt and Otro Ryan planning to meet us there later since they had a friend with a car who could drive them.

Tongoy Sunset

We made it back to Peter's house and I used Google talk to phone my parents (because Google talk allows you to call the States for free.)  It was past their bedtime, I reckon, because I got the voicemail and was obliged to leave a message with Ryan, Peter, and Alex all singing "Happy Birthday" in English and then Spanish in the background.  Around that time, Ryan began to complain about not feeling well, but we told him to quite whining and suck it up because Stacey was coming over soon and we had her birthday to celebrate.  The other guys had, earlier that day, bought a bunch of stupid party favors to include a clown/princess type hat that Stacey was to be required to wear the entire night (this, as you might imagine, did not transpire.)  It was a nice gesture however, and right as Stacey got to the house and we began singing "Happy Birthday" again, Ryan chimed in with a chorus of vomiting.   Somebody said "hospital", and before you knew it Ryan was being carted off by Peter and his host parents to have an IV hooked up to him and....well, that's it.  The experience undoubtedly lessened the enjoyment of the remainder of his Fiestas Patrias, but thankfully he recovered quickly and nothing more serious then a prolonged bout of vomiting beset him.  The lasting result of Ryan's poisoning was to give every Chilean we would encounter over the next two weeks something to talk about other than the weather. 

The next day would be Peter's birthday and the official beginning of the Fiestas wherein there would be mucho asado, my visit to the Pampilla, all followed by a trip out to the country for an amazing time with Alex's family.  These things, and many more, are yet to be elaborated upon.  However, as time has moved quicker then my ability to chronicle the aforementioned events, the next few chapters may not come in order.  Vamos a ver.