Melinka

First of all, to anyone who cares, sorry about the lack of posts for this blog. I just simply haven't been able to post much due to a lack of internet access on this trip and especially on this leg of the trip as we are currently on an island that doesn't even have a single ATM machine. We arrived on the island of Melinka a couple days ago. Again, I wish I could show you all (assuming plural people are reading this) pictures now, but I'll post them eventually as I've taken a lot. Digital cameras are pretty great. It's a small island (approx population of 1500) off the coast of the bigger island of Chiloe (about a 4 or 5 hour ferry ride). The island and hostel is quite beautiful, and we had a lot of fun walking around yesterday exploring. While the girls were making hostel reservations next door using their payphone, I walked around to the back of the house to take pictures of the coast. (I spotted a jellyfish with a spear in it. The spear was essentially a green broom stick and the animal torturer was the small boy whose lives in the hostel with his family. We had watched him jumping from rock to rock trying to hit it with the stick earlier.) Shortly after getting to the back of the house, I was greeted by two small and extremely cute 4 year old children (Ivana and Diego) who immediately wanted to know where I was from. Once again, I'm unable to blend in with the locals. They seemed quite curios about the fact that I had come from the United States as they had been born on this small island. They were calling me 'tio' which confused me as it means uncle in Spanish. Erin later explained to me that in Chile, 'tio' and 'tia' are used as simply a sign of respect.

We did some more exploring and later stumbled upon a group of 4 or 5 kids ranging in age from say 3 to 12 playing in a park. For God knows what reason, Carly and Steph immediately asked them about Justin Beiber. I can confirm, Beiber Fever has a stronghold on the small island of Melinka. When Erin also asked about Selena Gomez, a girl responded 'yep, Justin Beiber's girlfriend.' This is ridiculous. I'm sure these kids are pissed about the Grammy results too, but I didn't think to ask them about Arcade Fire.

Later in the day we traveled to the other side of the island. I don't know what I expected when we jumped in a van to head there, but it wasn't what I saw. It almost looks like a rain forest despite being too far South for that to be an accurate description. Either way, there were lots of trees, mountains, islands, and few signs of civilizations aside from the lone gravel road and a couple of very basic huts used by workers when they come to cut down trees for fire wood. We later stopped in an area where we picked up sticks, dug into the mud, stones, and shells on the coast line to find clams. We found a lot. Some of them we pried open with a pocket knife, scooped out and ate right there on the shore. Needless to say, freshest seafood I've ever had. Steph and iCarly were loving it. Vegetarians my ass. The rest though, we collected and cooked for dinner last night. Along with the wine we picked up, it was a sweet dinner with a sunset view over the ocean. (Really sorry to get all Nicholas Sparks on you guys.) After that, Carly and I headed down the street (some bullshit about nose goes and the tie breaker was complete crap, don't deny it Erin, you were playing favorites, again, complete bullshit) to pick up some more wine and some chocolate (for the ladies, I'm not a big chocolate eater). While we were in the store, I found a honey beer. Cerveza is bueno. iCarly loves honey, so I told her we had to get it and share it on the walk back. She tried to open it using the curb. Needless to say, not smooth as she broke out the bottom of the bottle so we had to get another one. We got the kid working there to open that one for us. It seriously tasted like someone mixed half a beer with a glass of honey. It was good, but sharing one was about my max ability to stomach this. The night then ended.

Today we're about to head to a boat for whale watching. Peace, bitches.