Wow, what an amazing couple of days we've had! Iquique is LITERALLY one of the most amazing places ever, sea, sun, desert and mountains - it's got it all! Plus the people were so welcoming!
So, since we've last blogged we have been out on the town Chilean style, experienced Reggaton which is the music craze in Chile which basically involves inappropriate dancing and Pisco Sour and Margaritas!
Unfortunetly we had an early start the morning after but it was totally worth it. We visited 3 different units. They do out scouting and guiding very differently here - they meet all the scouts and guides, cubs and brownie etc. together and there is a lot of shouting and chants. Everything is very very lively with lots of running around songs and games. The first unit we visited involved a drive up the mountains behind Iquique to a small town at the top - we were welcomed like celebrities - like we have been the whole trip! We joined in their meeting and taught a few songs of our own. After an afternoon nap we went to another unit, this time in the centre of town - more shouting and running about! Finally we went to a party at one of the units with...you guessed it... more Reggaton! That evening the guiders took us out for "Onces" which is a late light meal - where we had the best sandwiches ever!
The next day was our first proper training for the Golondrinas which are the equivalent of Brownies. We met on the beach for more singing and running and then in the afternoon we moved to a nearby school to do our rotation of activities about the world and being a Golondrina. The girls and leaders really enjoyed it and we were showered with presents and photographed a lot - we were page 1 in the local newspaper! We also had a lovely show of traditional dancing.
In the evening we invited the leaders to come back to our appartment for pizza and we treasured and trashed with them. They treasured things like finding out that the activities don{t have to be go go go all the time, and that their association is too geared towards the boys and not the girls, they treasured the new link with Santiago - one of the aims of going up there - yey!!! And also the link with us and how friendly we were and that they were scared before that we would be stand-offish but we weren't! So overall a big success!
Off to Valdivia in the south now - got a long bus journey ahead, we have already flown down from Iquique today.. on a rahter interesting airline which kept breadrolls in one of its toilets!!!
Ciao!
Team Chile
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