From foreign local to “local-heart.”
I used to be a big-city girl, and now I’m a small-town mum. You never know what life has in store for you. So when I arrived in the pretty lakeside town of Puerto Varas, in what is known as the Chilean Lakes District, the northern corner of Chilean Patagonia, I was both in awe of my surroundings and daunted by pretty much everything else.
Vast lakes, emerald green forests, and snow-capped volcanoes had replaced bustling cityscapes and fast-food lunches. You couldn’t dream up a more inspirational landscape. But I couldn’t speak a word of Spanish, there was no Starbucks, and I could forget about replacing my MAC makeup any time soon. Not even Amazon delivered this far south on the map back then. Yet, while it was daunting, it was also thrilling. Learning the lingo, however.
I did it though. I slowly learned the clicks and ticks of local life and fell in love with living here. There is something to be said for adaptation. It takes courage to bend without breaking and spirit to laugh at your own mistakes. Thankfully, there was also a lot of local love that helped me along the way.
So, if you identify as a “foreign local” or if you simply enjoy reading about small-town life in far-flung corners of the world, then perhaps you’ll grab a cuppa, put your feet up for a moment, and spend some time at Local-Heart.
