You just never know...

Walking out of the hotel in the morning and heading towards the center of town, you just never know what you might find. Today was pretty unique. As I neared Temuco's main square in town I couldn't believe my ears. It sounded like I was hearing bagpipe music. Now that just can't be right. But it was. A young bagpiper was wailing away (actually doing a pretty good job to my un-bagpipe tuned ear) with traditional Scottish favorites. He wasn't wearing a kilt (I guess that might be asking too much) - but otherwise he seemed to know what he was doing. Here's a photo.

This might be a good time to list some of the oddities that one needs to get used to when traveling in Chile (or lots of other non-USA destinations)...

The buses are a hectic confusing adventure. While there are bus routes just like in Seattle - there are no timetables or schedules. Each bus is an independent entity and they get paid by the number of passengers they carry. So you'll see bus drivers racing from one stop to the next trying to get there before a competitor bus arrives. On the route between Viña del Mar and Concón up the coast there are scores of buses - never more than a 2 minute wait and always a hair raising ride.

Jobs are scarce and people will find all sorts of niches to try to make a living. The car parkers are on just about every block in Viña del Mar (I don't see them as often here in Temuco). I don't know if this is a licensed job given out by the city or if it's more of an impromptu, "buy a Car Parkers Coat and find an empty block" situation. They are always seen waving at approaching cars when they have an open parking spot for a car. When one stops and parallel parks, they helpfully make hand motions for the driver. They will also wash cars while people are away. When people leave they will sometimes try to hold up traffic for the car to exit (but this is seldom successful - drivers here are aggressive, bordering on the maniacal). The car parkers come in all ages and both sexes.

Another niche is the world of entertainment. At many stop lights jugglers will step in front of the stopped cars and show off their stuff. That's a guy job. Girls wave a couple flags in imitation of a drum majorette on a college marching band - strutting back and forth in front of the stopped traffic. Another popular entertainment is the traveling muscian on buses - they'll wait at bus stops until a friendly driver invites them onto his bus for free. Then they´ll play their guitar or flute or whatever they specialize in for a couple stops and collect tips. From the new stop they cross the street and work their way back to where they started. I also saw a man and woman clown team (dressed up in full clown regalia) working the buses yesterday - he stood at the back and she was in the front and they had a routine to entertain the passengers.

One of our favorite entertainments so far on the trip was here in Temuco in the town square where a mother, father and son had a musical act. The mother cranked the organ grinder while the father and son danced with a pair of drums on their backs that they hit with sticks. They also had a set of cymbols on the top of the drums with a cord that attached to one of their heels to activate the cymbols. Their routine included spinning around at a frantic pace while drumming and cymboling! YOW! The crowd was dizzy just watching. They seemed to be making some excellent tips (I know Paula and I boosted our usual tip by about 10x).

I doubt that the tips from any of these jobs really adds up to much - but here it doesn't take a lot to survive and it's apparently enough.

Another form of employment people follow is the selling of ice cream bars for less than a dollar along the streets. They have small styrofoam coolers with the ice cream. I've seen adult men who probably are heads of households hauling these little coolers around. We also had a avocado salesman at the gate to the apartment in Viña. 7 ripe avocados for 1000 pesos, equal to a bit less than $2. We bought a bag. And Paula bought a couple plastic bags full of humitas (similar to Mexican tamales) that from a salesman on the street - the large humitas were 500 each.

The sun. It's always north of us instead of south. That takes a bit of time to get used to. It also sets moving down and to the left instead of the down and to the right that us North of the Equator people are more used to. Plus there's the ozone hole that people here are very aware of. We've received warnings from several people to be careful with the sun (I'm writing this with a sunburn from yesterday's swim...) and the pharmacies have sunscreen in all of their displays (some up to 60 SPF!). With any luck George Bush will visit here and, denying that there are any environmental problems, will go sunscreenless...

This keyboard. The keyboards on all the computers are Spanish versions (¡surprise!) with keys like Ç and ¿ and ñ and ¡ that don't have places on the keyboards I'm used to. The - : ' ) (? and many other English puncuation keys are in unusual locations. But I'm adjusting.

That's enough for now. I'm a tourist again today - at least until 7pm when I have to be ready to go to the wedding tonight. I'll have to take a nap this afternoon because after the 8:00pm wedding is the reception dinner and dance that will very likely last until the sun rises tomorrow... Paula is visiting the family today (her brother Tite arrived last night and they haven't seen each other in several years) and I have the entire day on my own. I'm writing this from the internet shop near the market. I'll probably stop in the market for some lunch soon and then hang out either in the market or the town square. Tough decisions await...