Day 196: What’s Your Game?

Santiago, Chile

Ever since I embarked on my trip this time around to South America, I hadn’t done any couchsurfing at all. Not sure why. When I logged into the Couchsurfing site a couple of days ago, I found out about a picnic that local Csers would be having today.

Upon checking out a few members that would be joining the picnic, I saw that a fellow named Eddie has a couch availability. Hit him up, requested for a couch, and was accepted! Hurrah! My first CS experience in South America and his first CS hosting experience ever :] Hopefully, I don’t freak him out too much as not to ever host again.

The picnic took place in Parque Forestal. We got some 20 members joining, each bringing some food. The members were quite diverse, probably half locals half travelers. Many had cool stories and neat skills to share. It was a great fun. I met a few interesting people.

Carlos, a local Chilean, taught a few of us how to tie cool bracelets. I got the basic idea down but I think I just don’t have much patience or concentration needed to make these things.

Bruno, a wiz kid from Brazil, travelled all the way from his hometown to Santiago merely by hitchhiking. It’s his project to pull off a pure hitchhiking trip to and fro Brazil and the coast of Chile. It so happened that he’d be heading to Vina del Mar the same day that I planned to go. I immediately entertained the idea of hitchhiking his hitchhiking trip

Nate, an American, whom I later found out that we have a mutual friend, Victor. I met Victor in Morocco in the Sahara and he in Guatemala. What a small world. It’s insane!

After the picnic, I went back to my hostel to pick up my bag and relocate to Eddie’s place. Eddie is originally from China and has been living in Chile for almost a year. I got to his place quite late and he was about to head out to a party. I was too knackered to join and Eddie was trusting enough to just leave me in his apartment. Rolling out my sleeping bag, I crashed on the floor and had a good long sleep.