Small Mammals, Big World: New experiences in Chile

I made it to Fray Jorge, only to turn around and head back to Santiago the next day. There was some errands for the project that Loren and I needed to work on so I came back for a few days. One task I had was returning our rental truck. We noticed the morning we packed up to go to Fray Jorge that a back tail light was a little busted. Loren suspected that the rental company would make me go to the cops before I could finalize the return and he was right. So I got to experience a Chilean police station for the first time. It went smoothly, but then the rental company showed me that apparently the center caps were taken off of all 4 hubcaps. Don't know why anyone would want to steal those things...

Then I had another new experience: riding a bus from Santiago to Ovalle. I had almost the whole first floor to myself (one other woman was on it). And I had one of the fancy seats called a salon cama (not just the usual semi cama) so I could recline more and had a lot of foot space. I watched two movies: Hangover 3 and Rush. Very different, both entertaining in their own ways. They were in Spanish with Spanish subtitles so I got a lot of practice in. Hearing it and reading it is very helpful for me. Also, in the last week I was in Santiago we all went to a movie in Spanish! It was the Inside Out movie, called Intensamente here. I liked it a lot and it was very cool to see a movie in Spanish on a big screen, but I couldn't follow all of it. We did miss out on hearing the American actor's voices so for those reasons I will probably see it again.

Loren and I stopped at a beach town for lunch and to look at the ocean. There was a tiny dog so happy to be running around in the waves and of course my faves, sea gulls! My internet connection is slow right now so I will try to post pics of the beach on facebook :)

Chile will be in the Copa America final on the 4th of July! Very exciting, but they'll be playing Argentina so even the Chileans are pessimistic about that game.

Our house is in a town outside of Fray Jorge and is very nice. We have a fridge and freezer, a little more space than last year, friendly dog and cat neighbors, beds with real bedding and pillows, drinking water, but unfortunately no hot water for showers :( I guess I'll be using the sponge bath method where I heat water on the stove first.

Next up will be pics of degus at Fray Jorge! I'll be going into the park tomorrow for the first time since November 2014. Megan already found one of my males still alive and kicking (and hopefully breeding right now) and I hope to find more!