Festival de la Cerveza (Oktoberfest) y Quilpue

It's been a while since I've had a fatty post, mainly because I was busy with finals. But now I'M DONEEEEEEE. Finishing off with the easiest finals week of my LIFE. No joke. I was playing the entire weekend before I had to write a a paper, with our Gringo goodbye party for church (that's a whole other post) and various other things with hanging out with people as a "last-time-I'll-see-you" kind of thing. Sniff sniff.

But anyway, here are more posts that I've been meaning to post but didn't get around to. I went to Festival de la Cerveza in Malloco, which is about 4o minutes outside of Santiago. It's like an Oktoberfest and there are various vendors of artisan beers from all over Chile.But we found a mini zoo right by the festival! Animals? We've gotta go!

Guess what animal this is. It's like one of those children's books where you have to guess the object from a closeup picture.

It's an ostrich!

Birdbrain, hehe.

Goat! So white and precious and cute. Awww.
And below is the Stephanie Higa pictures collection. I saw so many varieties of chickens and poultry (er, what's the word for living poultry?) that I knew you'd love it!
This one had wild hair.

This had feathers that would look cute on a dress! I think it's a pheasant???

Or is this a pheasant? I dunno...

A little walkway to take us back to the festival.

Some sort of cerveza and choripan (Sausage and bread). The beer was OK, but I couldn't drink it all; it was too much for little 'ol me.

The bus ride back.

And the day after, my apartmentmate Sole invited me to her family's house in Quilpue (2 hours outside Santiago) to meet them for the weekend. Table all set up for a special Saturday lunch.

Yummy tuna, mayo, and heart of palm salad.

Me with Sole's brother, his partner, and their 3-year-old daughter Nicole.
Me and my apartmentmate Sole! She's 39 and quite a pal =) She's like an older sister and when she's bored, she just comes in my room to sit on my bed and chat. It's cool cuz my apartment has 3 generations of ladies--golden years (70--my host mom), middle age (39--Sole), and a lolita (21-meeee!)

Sole's brother Julio took us in his car to go around the beautiful Pacific coast. But what really irks me about Chilean beaches (picture above is Con Con...funny name.) is that they are FILTHY. It's dangerous for kids to play in the sand because there's broken beer bottle glass everywhere. You can't just lie down and dig your feet in the sand cuz you might get all cut up. ARRRRRG!! Why can't people be considerate of the beauty of nature and just throw their trash away in a trash can or hold onto it until they find a trash can?!?! Such low standards they have for preserving nature and beauty. I feel like it's a lack of self-respect for their country and a lack of teaching manners and a lack of educatin and enforcement on the part of society and government. And everyone suffers from ugly beaches!!!!!! >:O

Anyway, here is Sole and her poodle/dog daugher Puky. (pookie, not puke-y, haha)

Little Nicole got dirty sand in her eyes.

We drove more up and down the coast, stopping at beautiful vista points. Here is Bastian, the 6-year-old son of Sole's brother. It felt like I spent the weekend playing with kids, and I left realizing how much I really do like kids =) I thought I didn't, but being in Chile and spending time with children has taught me that I do in fact like them. They make things so much fun, and you can read them so easily unlike adults. It was so easy to get the kids to trust me and like me--candy! =) And they really do say the darndest things.

I love the Pacific Ocean. Pictures don't capture the beauty of the vistas.

Me, the kiddies, and the poodle's head.

Bastian pretending to be able to read a book about his latest fascination--dinosaurs. This is the day after, and when he left to go home, he wanted to know if he'd see me again. When I left, he called Sole later that week and wanted to talk to me on the phone. When I answered, he clammed up and didn't say a word. Awww, I have a little 6-year-old suitor!

They had an asado (barbecue) for me the next day! Sole's family was super sweet, accommodating and welcoming. Sole was right--the city of Quilpue itself doesn't have much interesting, but it's her family that I will remember :)