Con Cuidado

In Santiago (day one), we asked a woman on the street where the Plaza de Armas was. It was approaching sunset, and after the woman gave us directions (that I only partially understood), she said "con cuidado" (be careful) in the most concerned tone I have heard. 

We arrived unscathed, but have heard several people say to us "con cuidado" several times since then.

Recreo, the neighborhood we are staying in for the moment, is on a hill with a lot of twisty roads. We don't have a detailed map of the neighborhood, and the hills prevent us from easily spotting recognizable landmarks. It is easy to get lost in this part of Viña. 

The other morning, we were waiting for a colectivo (a shared taxi) to take us to the metro station (since we didn't know how to get there, and spent a long time being lost in the neighborhood only 12 hours before). We saw a bunch of buses go by, but the colectivos were all full. I spent about 5 minutes screwing up the courage to ask the four people who were also waiting if the buses go by the metro station.  Finally, I eeked something out "los buses pasan por el metro?" and all the folks started giving us all the directions. I could understand that we needed to walk one block, and go downhill from there. I didn't understand what they said to do beyond that point. And they could tell. 

Finally, one of the women told us she and her husband would walk us to the metro, and that is exactly what they did. 

I have found that people on the street (the bus stop, a taxi, anywhere), aren't going to start a conversation with us. But if we ask them something, they will be so happy to talk to us, tell us their stories, explain things to us, and offer us the help we need.  

On the way to the metro, we mentioned that we were going into Valparaíso for the day.  The woman took both of our purses, and swung them around to our front sides.  

Con cuidado! Hay muchas ladrónes!