lobos. nuff said.

After a night of hail-ridden storms, I awoke to yet another rainy day in Valdivia. Last night, Valentina went through some more commonly used Chilenismos with me. Chilenismos are words that are strictly Chilean and are one of the reasons that Chilean Spanish can very challenging to understand. I literally have an entire dictionary devoted to words and phrases of Chilean origin. Some of them are more comical like “que onda microonda” which literally translates to “what’s up microwave”, while others are a result of the evolution of the regional language, such as the use of “po” after a word, from what I gather it stems from a shortening of the word “por” but has become so widely used that it is almost a word filler, in the way that we use “like”, but more for emphasis, “Si po…No po…etc”. I think that my favorite phrase is “se me fue” which literally translates to “it left me” but means “I forgot”. Also, words can mean very different things, for example “novio” typically means “boyfriend” but in Chile, novio means fiancé and “pololo” is boyfriend! WHAT? Yeah. Welcome to my world. 

Today marked another downtown expedition where we picked up a phone for Erin and some school supplies. We then decided to venture through the fish market, but MOST importantly we found the lobos. Naturally, when I woke up this morning, Rodolfo had a story for me, and this time is was about the lobos. He told me that the original sea lion was named Pancho and that he swam into the river from the ocean one day and up to the fish market. After being fed many fish heads, he found himself to be very content to live as a permanent resident of the Valdivia River, and he even brought some friends with him! And so lives the grossly overweight sea lion colony of the Valdivian fish market. Living the life. So we walked down to see them and let me tell you, it was lobo love at first sight! These guys are SO ugly and fat that you can’t help but adore them. They smell, they roar, and all I want to do is dive in for a loving lobo hug! Katherine offered me 20,000 pesos if I jumped on the dock with them…and although I may have seriously entertained the offer for a brief second, I suddenly pictured an obstacle course full of aggressive, albeit fat and slow, lobos and how effectively I could dive over them, tuck and roll style…aka not very effectively. They. Are. Big. And upon seeing them, all kinds of up close and personal, I was thrilled. Kid in a candy shop? Maybe. Kid at a lobo dock? Ohhh yes. 

After our downtown adventure I had a delicious lunch of baked salmon and potatoes with a glass of sweet vino blanco (although I must say that I am a fan of the Chilean vino con tinta- red wine). After lunch, Rodolfo told me of a fruiting shrub in their yard that produces a small berry, that is much like a guava in taste, but in the shape of a blueberry and color of a cranberry! In short, it’s fantastic. La murta is used to make a type of preserved dessert and also a very sweet liquor- both of which, naturally, are handmade in my household! So I tried this berry today which is only in season during April, in both the dessert and liquor form, and both forms were surprisingly sweet (Rodolfo is always saying “a probar…solo a probar” which means to try it, just to try it aka his response everytime I say no thank you…and everytime I end up with a glass of wine or something in front of me...it's a sad life I lead)

After lunch I got to introduce Momma Cox, Willis, Brandi, and Sophers to Rodolfo- and I think both parties were rather entertained. I then met up with the girls, took Fritz for a short walk, and we had plans of navigating our way downtown to the cine. We ended up running a little late and we ended up watching a movie at my house…MegaMind. Yes. I know. I have a thing for Disney/pixar animation or whatever…I’m well aware. After dropping Vale off at the discotheque (with her curfew of 3am…what? I guess that’s normal?) I had a conversation with Marisol about the fact that my mom trusts me to do the right thing and that I think it’s good that she trusts Vale to be out- but she immediately told me that its not a matter of trust, it’s a matter of safety and that in most places she wouldn’t feel alright with letting her child out that late on a Friday night, but that Valdivia is a very safe place and she is comfortable with Vale being out that late. Hope you take solace in that MOMMA!!

On the way to the disco (we have to cross the bridge on the way into town) I said something silly like “Hola lobitos”, given my newfound fascination with the sea lions. So to humor me, on the way home Marisol and I decided to find out where the lobos sleep! Something she had actually never done before, so we drove until we found them- a “monton de lobos” (mountain of sea lions) or so Marisol said. There was probably a good 15 to 20 lobos all piled up on one dock! Quite the sight! This obviously presented an opportunity for me to test out my very shaky sense of humor in Spanish, so in an effort to make fun of Rodolfo (who is all about his Chilean pride. Ex: we drove past Vale’s school the other day which is right next to the hospital and he immediately said “now this hospital is the largest public hospital in the entire sur de Chile!” ), which I did rather successfully, I said to Marisol “aahhh este monton de lobos es lo mas grande del sur de Chile!” which translates to “ahh this mountain of sealions is the biggest in southern Chile! Yep, got some laughs off that one. 

Note to self: lobos are ugly but cute, stinky but funny, and loud…but not as loud as Feliscita! Just kidding!!

That’s it for now, I’m headed to town tomorrow with the girls to take on the fish market Feliscita style- can’t wait! 

 

Wolfpack...pack o lobos? reppin' it either way :)