Valpo Photo Update!

Jill and I do things apart from writing, working, and making obscene noises...believe it or not.

Here's some evidence for the non-believers!

Jill, just before a group meal at the ol' Casa.

She is smirking because she is about to eat

vegetarian red bean stew and homemade German bread. 

ShanFace on a beach in Vina del Mar.

Satisfied due to outwitting the weather that, by all

signs that morning, should have sucked 110% more than it did.

Our first editing meeting in Valpo was mildly successful.

We were slightly distracted by the view and the ugly faces.

A stylistic pause for a picture during Wanderings

in Cerro Alegre. 

A whole crapload of pet food remnants.

Made epic by the graffiti of the Chile country code. 

"This isn't degrading, right? I'm just standing how it feels natural."

Views from the cemetery. 

Lock that crap up.

 

Jill and I during her first visit to Taco Tony's.

Neither of us remember this photo.

(Just kidding - we half remember it.)

More wandering and street art in Cerro Alegre

NEWS BULLETIN

If I had an ostentatious circus tent, a booming-voiced announcer and several barely-tamed elephants, I would use all of these implements to formally announce the arrival of one of my best friends in this life and most likely several others....Jill Smith.

Also known as Jylle Smythe, Billy, Gel, and Jillicus, this life companion of mine decided to join me down south for a month before I head home to Ohio for a 6-week visit. She will be living with me in the extra room in my apartment -- which makes us not only best friends and soul mates, but also roommates. I have warned my existing two roommates, who I suspect are both intrigued and wary.

Our plans for the next month include copious waffle consumption, editing meetings in our living room, struggling to successfully navigate the already-hard-to-navigate-streets, hopefully avoiding port-based pirates, infuriating introductions to Chilean Spanish (Jill...I'll try. But I make no promises), cultural insensitivity, and public displays of tomfoolery.

We have a history of the above shenanigans and the passage of time only refines our god-given skills. Jill has been my travel companion since 2004, and we have no plans to break the tradition. Most notably she was the star companion on the Doomed Voyages trip of 2009 to the Middle East and Europe, a trip that still has her name on a black list in Denmark for reasons that may not be legally discussed at this point in time.

Jill and me in 2009

Nuweiba, Egypt.

Here's to some damn fine times in my beloved Valpo with my beloved Jillpo. The first test occurs Monday, when I will make a pylgrammage to Santiago to play a game called Find The Phoneless Jill In The Capital. It should probably work out fine.

(But in case it doesn't, Jill, just remember to brush up on key phrases like "Hey, I'm lost", "Please help me for god's sake", and "Have you seen a white girl with dreadlocks?")