Thank you, strangers...
I nearly missed my bus from La Serena to Valparaiso two nights ago, if it wasn´t for the help of one kind hearted stranger. And in my short two days stay in La Serena I have come across so many helpful people, it was amazing.
Two experiences stand out in particular. One was when I came back from a tour and got off the tour bus in town, but not knowing exactly where I was. I asked a middle aged lady for directions, and she ended up accompanying me to go to the central plaza, then asked everyone where was the nearest telephone centre, so that I could call my mum (to get some urgent information). She accompanied me for nearly an hour, waited for me to finish calling and walked me back to my hostel... when I suggested I was fine and she didn´t need to do all that, she simply said that we are both women and should help each other. And she even gave me her home phone number and her mobile and said to call her if anything goes wrong.
Then when I got back to the hostel I told the hostel family that I´m catching a night bus to the next town. The lady suggested to take a taxi because it would not be safe at night, even though it was fairly close by. There was a guy watching TV nearby, and he heard and offered to walk me to the bus terminal. It was around 11pm, and I thought the bus was at 11:45. I showed him the ticket and he promptly got up and got both of my heavy bags and said we had to get going, it would be better to be early than late. So we walked to the bus terminal, with him carrying my bags the whole time! Then when we arrived I thought we had plenty of time and wanted to rest, but he went and found my bus, and gave my stuff to the driver who was loading the luggage, then said goodbye. I thought it was very early and was surprised that the bus was already there, but when I checked the ticket again I realised that the bus actually leaves at 11:15, so it was very lucky that we made it with moments to spare.
On top of these, the family at the hostel really looked after me during those two short days, and a tourist agency guy let me download pictures from my camera to a CD for free. Another hostel person let me leave my bags at her hostel while I went looking for another (because theirs was full), and an internet cafe lady let me pay her later because I didn´t have the right change at the time.. all in all, everyone have been amazingly kind to me and it surprised me to no end..
posted by Susan @ 8:54 AM
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