Day 97 – Gringos (Bus to Viña del Mar)
Location: Bus to Viña del Mar, Chile
Date: Saturday, January 15, 2011
Look. You know how much I love bus trips, right? Well, I went and did it again. This time, it was 25 hours from Castro on Isla de Chiloe to the beach town north of Santiago called Viña del Mar. Needless to say, it sucked. But it wasn’t without its benefits.
For example, I learned that gringo is not really a bad word. At least not according to the papers. Gringo is just the word for “white people” in Spanish. It’s so ingrained and (I assume) neutral that it shows up in headlines like the one pictured above. (Note: the article talks about how white people are studying the oceans bottom after a recent tsunami.)
So I’m a chinito and my white brothers and sisters are gringos. Did I mention that black people are called negros?
I Put It in My Mouth – A Periodic Feature on Food Told With At Least One Picture
The Overpacker 