Panchito

Hehehe. Yeah snail cream seems to be big here. They even sell it in the street. My boyfriend's mom actually has a pet snail and she has it crawl across scars, scabs and sunburns to heal them faster. Snail saliva (or whatever that is) is supposed to regenerate your skin. One day Vuko and I arrived from the beach and the tops of my feet were all burned so Tere and Pepe (Vuko's folks) convinced me to let Pancho the snail crawl across my feet and slobber on them. Unfortuately I think I poisoned him with the lotion I'd applied on my feet because after about 10 minutes, he, uncharacteristically, rolled up into his shell and stopped still, but not before leaving me a big white loogey with curative properties. It was pretty cool.

Vuko's friend Guillermo told me that his girlfriend's mom (la suegra) actually lets the snail crawl across her face to try to get rid of her wrinkles. I heard about this before my encounter with Pancho so it was kind of freaky and slightly nasty to hear. With a grimace, I asked him if it worked, and he started laughing and said it didn't work at all.

Springbreakers bring sexy back in Ft. Lauderdale

On vacation we came into contact with a "new" 70s-inspired fashion trend: the mini skirt. Actually the mini-dress. It´s basically a long sexy t-shirt that is worn with matching sexy panties. So this trend is new to me (I've been in Chile for the last 4 years and am not up-to-date on US fashion). Vuko and I went out dancing to this club called Art Bar and we came into very close contact with this fad. About 4 spring-breakers had their ultra short dresses in florescent shades of blue, orange and green and they came and danced on the raised stage by Vuko and I. The place was so packed we had nowhere to go, so we stayed where we were right by these girls who were bringing sexy back with their provocative attire and dancing. The one in orange was loving all the attention and giving quite the sexy show. She made her way over to the main stage with the stripper pole to shock and awe. Then she came back and while getting back on stage almost toppled over on me, steadying herself on my shoulder. For me, this maneuver took points off her sexiness. But the goggle-eye gringos on Spring Break weren't fazed. They cheered and drooled. As the girl in orange tried stealing the show with her short dress and sexy pole-style dancing, Vuko, who was dancing right in front of her, ruined it for her because when she got really sexy and show stealing, he would just stop dancing, look out at all the other partiers, and point to her with both hands as if he was presenting her sexy dancing. She didn't know how to interpret this and was visibly uncomfortable. The couple next to us and I all chuckled.

A week or so later my mom and sisters-in-law saw another woman with a super short dress and I explained to them that the fad seemed to be "in". And then in the airport before coming back to Santiago, I was leafing through some fashion magazine and saw lots of pics of models wearing super short dresses and showing off their underwear. With that, my suspicion was confirmed. I don't think this will be a fad hitting Chile too soon due to the amount of jotes here.