Dinner with locals and National Park Vicente Pèrez Rosales

Hitchhiking out of Santiago was not easy! The cars were to fast and therefore nobody stopped. I was walking and walking along the highway trying to catch a ride, while burning up in the sun. From 11am to 6pm and still no luck.
I reached a gasstation where I decided that I would go on for one more hour. If nobody would pick me up, I would take a bus to not waste any more time. The first car driving out of the gas station stopped and picked me up. It was a man who offered to drive me to Rancagua which is only some 50km outside Santiago. I thought that I might as well get a bit further. He introduced himself as Cristian. After talking for a bit, he asked me if I ate lunch or dinner, to which I had to admit that I only ate a piece of bread and a banana. He then invited me to his house to eat lunch/dinner. I didn´t find any reason to say no to this offer!
I arrived to the house where I was met by his wife Jessica, his 21 year old daughter Sole and his 15 year old son Brandoun. They were all a bit surprised to see me, but extremly friendly! Very relaxed in the livingroom, we talked and talked. They asked many questions and I told them about my travel and about Denmark which they loved! We had great Churrascos (typical burger in Chile) for dinner and afterwards we enjoyed a coffee. They gave me a towel to shower, clean socks (I ran out of clean socks) and a shirt to remember them. I took a shower and afterwards they drove me to the busstation. They did offer me to stay the night, but I wanted to arrive in the morning to Valdivia and decided to take the bus. My earphones were broken, but Brandoun was fast to find some old earphones that I could have! They asked me to come back and visit them in a weekend so we could go to their other house which had a pool!
An amazing family that made it worth the wait on the highway. Thanks Cristian, Jessica, Sole and Brandoun!

After visiting Valdivia, I continued to Puerto Varas. I had to check in to a hostel since I didn´t have any luck with couchsurfing. The following morning after my arrival, I decided to hitchhike to the national park Vicente Pèrez Rosales. A few rides took me to the entrance of the park where I had a coffee, some cashew nuts and then entered the park. Normally when I go on tours/hikes on my own, I am badly prepared. I never bring enough or any food and I always run out of water way to early. This time I was prepared! Food and water for all day - turned out not to be necessary though.

I entered the park and walked to the waterfall first. Amazing! The waterfall leading into the river which had an incredible turquoise color. The scene with mountains, trees and a volcano in the background - I was stunned by the view.

Besides me, there was only two more people. Two young men from Chile, who were fast to come up to me and talk. Maure and Felipe, both in the early/mid twenties. Friends through many years who were now backpacking and camping through Chile for a few weeks. They were very friendly and after talking for 10-15 minutes, we decided to walk through the rest of the park together. When we got out of the park, we took a small break before going towards the lake 6km further up the road. I had some food in my bag, but they insisted to buy me an empanada since they were very different from place to place. We then started walking along the highway, next to the river and the forest. If a car passed, we put out a thumb and hoped for the best.

It didn`t take too long before a big red car stopped for us. A father with his two sons in the mid twenties. They drove us to the lake where they were going to camp for the day. It was the same water as we had just seen at the waterfall, with the amazing color and the beautiful scenery.
















We walked along the water for a while, away from all the tourists and ended up going into the water. It took a while to get under, but once we were in, it was amazing! I just didn´t want to get out again. Well that was until the father from the car passed us and yelled "when you finish swiming, you should come over and have some tea and food with us".
We dried up and went to their camp. Great chilean music, mate (tea) and a delicious chilean soup. We stayed for around an hour and talked. Interesting and very talcative family.

I hitchhiked back to Puerto Varas and went back to my hostel. Here I met Mike and Yushao from the states, a girl from Norway and a girl from Holland, I had met them all the night before. I told them about my day, how I didn´t need my food and had gotten everything for free. Just as I mention it, they invite me to eat dinner with them, since they had made way to much food. It was once again great food and there was plenty. The night ended in the hostel garden where Yushao and Mike, who both work as park rangers, lit a fire and we talked for a couple of hours in the cold plastic chairs, but with the heat from the fire.

Couchsurfing in Chile - What is couchsurfing?

After visiting Antofagasta, I continued further south. Hitchhiking and couchsurfing through La Serena, Valle del Elqui (a place you must visit when going to Chile), Viña del Mar, Valparaiso and finally Santiago.

I guess most people know what hitchhiking is. What about couchsurfing? I will try to explain what couchsurfing is, since I think it is a great community and a great way to travel!

I experienced that people have different ideas of what couchsurfing is. Some people use couchsurfing just to have free hospitality when traveling, some to get to know other cultures, practice languages and/or make friends from all around the globe and some even use it for dating, which I find odd though.

So here´s how it works. You make a profile with a description of yourself, your interests, the places you have traveled or want to go and the languages you speak. From here you can start to host people in your house or surf in someones house. You will see if you speak the same languages, have any common interests and if you think you would get along.
I joined couchsurfing in the summer of 2012 when I went hitchhiking in Europe. I thought it would be a great way to make my cheap journey even cheaper. I had heard about couchsurfing, but actually didn´t really know much about it. I thought it was all about living for free in different countries around the world. I very fast realized that there was much more to it.
My first host took me around her city, showed me some of her favorite places and we exchanged cultures. Yes! That is what it is about. Exchange cultures. We talked about our countries, travel experiences and also just about music, movies etc.

Couchsurfing to me is a way of getting to know different cultures and getting the best out of your visit in a city with a local to guide you. You always have a friend wherever you go. Sometimes it might just last for a few days and sometimes they will invite you to stay for longer if you want and are able to do so. I´ve had many different experiences, but no bad ones. Some people just opens their house to you, but don´t have any time to share with you. Others might take a day off work to hang out with you, show you town, meet up with their friends, do something typical for their culture etc.
After every couchsurfing experiences, you leave a reference for future hosts or surfers to read about your impression of this person and to mention if he/she was a good host/surfer.

Even if you stay in a hostel, you can use couchsurfing. There will often be events where you will meet other travelers or locals, go drink a beer, go to the beach, sightseeing or whatever you want. If there is no event, you make one yourself and hope someone will join you.
I could write a lot more about couchsurfing in general, but now I will get to one of my couchsurfing experiences here in Chile.

So I had written a few people in Santiago and one of them, Polo on 24, was able to host me. When I arrived to town I was met by Polo, his parents and his younger sister. Besides getting to know each other, they also took me through town in their car. They pointed out all the important buildings and sights along the way and explained me what they were. A lot better than a sightseeing bus!
We arrived to their house and I was surprised - it was huge! The house had 8 bedrooms and a pool in the garden. I had been used to sleeping on couches in living-rooms, but not anymore. Even though that this is not the importance of couchsurfing, it was not a bad surprise :)
I was introduced to Fausta, the housemaid from Peru and to his two other brothers, a younger and an older brother. After a delicious dinner, I finally got to shave my long beard! I had started to look like a bum.

When trying to hitchhike out of La Serena towards Viña del Mar, I walked along the cars that was waiting for a green light. I had my backpack on and my thumb sticking out. To me it was clear that I was trying to get a ride, but several people started digging into their pockets looking for some change to give me. When I told them that I was trying to get a ride, they were surprised and tried to get rid of me.

Anyway, I shaved and we went out. It was Saturday and Polo had just finished one of his last and most important exams for his engineering studies. A guy from his class had a small house with a huge garden in some suburb and he threw a party. We bought some pisco, which is what everybody drinks in Chile, picked up some of his friends and drove to the party. A great night, talking to different people all night and drinking pisco. Pretty much like a danish private party. People started of by talking and drinking. Then when everybody was drunk, people started dancing and suddenly doing a limbo competition. A party as I know it :)

The following day, Polo took me around the center of Santiago. Even though it was Sunday and everything was closed, I still really enjoyed it. He told me about the different places we went and after a good walk we found some food. A nice cafe was open and he said I had to try some typical food from Chile. So I got a pastel de choclo, he got a Salmon a lo pobre and we shared it over local beer. In the afternoon we went to the park with some of his friends and hung out for a few hours.

In the park with Polo, waiting for his friends to arrive

Monday was Polo`s birthday. He had some family and friends coming over in the evening and I was invited to join the table. Delicious food and great company. All of his friends were so open and easy to talk to. One of them had been to the famous Roskilde festival in Denmark and it was interesting to hear about his experiences. Wednesday morning I left Santiago.

The friends at the birthday party

The grill at the birthday

Singing for Polo

I had a great time in Santiago. Local guiding, meeting a lot of Polo`s friends and being a part of his every day life. The great thing was, that he didn´t really change his plans because of me, he just included me in them. I couldn´t imagine a better way to visit Santiago!
During my time in Santiago, I had some interesting talks about various subjects with both the family and also Fausta (who was practically also a part of the family). I told them about Denmark, the people, the culture, the climate, the welfare etc.

I will very shortly describe one of my other couchsurfing experiences. It was in Antofagasta where I was couchsurfing on Katia`s couch. She convinced me to stay until the weekend so she could throw me a party where I could meet her friends and try some typical Chilean stuff. The plan was to leave Friday morning, but her idea was much better.
Friday she invited over her closest friends, prepared piscola (pisco with cola), wine with melon (whitewine that you pour into a melon, drinking it with a straw and eating it with a spoon afterwards), sopaipillas with delicious salsa and choripan (both typical Chilean foods). During the night she even demonstrated the national dance of Chile named Cueca.
The following day, we went to her friends house who was a dj. We were 5 people dancing and drinking in the living-room at 1pm to live dj music on huge stereos. Afterwards we brought food, drinks and speakers to the beach, where we camped all day. Besides that we usually had some of her friends over or went out to meet someone or eat at the local marked.

 

The cueca!

 

Choripan, Vino con melon and Sopaipillas

Food at the market.

These are the kind of experiences I would not get in a hostel. I took part of every day life with people all over Chile with different social and educational backgrounds. All very interesting. I like staying in hostels as well, meeting people from all over the world and share stories. Everybody has a unique and interesting story in my opinion. But when traveling through South America, I don´t want to just look at the locals, I want to meet them. Couchsurfing is a great and easy way to do this!