HAPPY NEW YEAR

Thursday, December 31, 2009

We’ll be spending New Year’s Eve with the family tonight.

Joel takes Ramiro to the market with a list of items to buy.  Nena takes me later and we walk through the many lanes with fresh vegetables, fruit, meat and fish. Everything looks so good and is so cheap.
The strawberries are $4.00 a kilo, How can I not buy any? We also buy fresh corn, squash and chicken for a casuela Nena is going to make for lunch.

Nena takes us to a juicebar at the market for a fresh, blueberry and strawberry shake with walnuts before we go home. No sugar added, that’s rare here in Chile but that’s the way I like it.

We need some time alone and drive to San Pedro to the lagoon, hoping to find a Geocache. We find a lake filled with hundreds of swans, but no cache.
We’re expected home at 3:00 pm for the Casuela, a soup in which large pieces of meat are cooked, together with whole potatoes, and large chunks of corn and squash. It’s quite good.

I think it may be a good idea to take a little nap, it could be a late evening tonight.

Family starts to arrive around 7:00 pm and everyone helps with something, (well almost everyone, some just watch) cleaning shrimp, barbecuing sausage preparing salads or setting the table. But first we have Onces, which is coffee or tea with bread or cake.  I settle for just tea knowing we will eat again later.

The new years eve meal starts with avocados stuffed with cooked shrimp, beets and mayonnaise on a bed of lettuce, followed by BBQd beef a variety of sausages, accompanied  by various vegetables and cooked potatoes. For dessert there is Citrus sorbet with Strawberries.

We are accompanied by Nena’s daughter Tanya, who lives in Santiago. Nena’s sister Patty and her daughter with husband Rodrigo , his sister and their two little children and of course Joel. Aide and Manual have left to visit his family.

When everything is cleaned up and the dishes are done at 11:00 pm, we take two vehicles to drive to the harbour area to watch the fire works. Rodrigo takes the Champagne in his car and we  take Nena and Tanya.

Thousands of people are lined up along the bridge. There are cars everywhere. We hardly move and after 30 minutes still have not found a place to park.
We keep on losing Rodrigo’s car, at a traffic light or congestion area.
It’s  11:55 we’re still driving around. We continue across the bridge to San Pedro and have lost Rodrigo all together. It’s 11:58 We find a place to park, but will we be able to see anything of the fireworks from here? The moment we get out of the car, the fireworks starts. It is midnight. We exchange New Year’s wishes to each other and watch the fireworks, which lasts for 20 minutes.
Having a vague idea of the cost of fireworks, I can’t help but think about all the poor people who could have been helped with all this money going up in smoke.

We finally get to do our Champagne Toast when we get home at 1:00 am. The rest of the family has gone home to take the little ones to bed.

Of course we think of all our family and friends in Canada, Holland, Spain, United States, Mexico, Chile or where they may be, and via this blog wish them all a new year with happiness, peace, health and lots of love.

Chiflon del Diablo Mine

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Not far from Conception is a small town named Lota. Since 1850 there has been a coal mine where Ramiro’s maternal great grandfather worked as a company doctor.
It was at this mine, where the movie Terrafundo was filmed.

The mine is open for visitors for an underground tour. We’re lucky, the next tour is ten minutes from the time we arrive.
We buy our tickets and join the rest of the group in the equipment room where we are fitted with a battery pack and hard hat with a miners lamp. Both the battery pack and the hard hat are quite heavy. We will be carrying this for a good hour.
 Our guide, a handsome young man, tells us about the mine, which is the only undersea mine in the world. It was shut down in the late 1990s
The mine is called Chifon de Diablo. It was named such because often the miners would see flames appear, which killed many miners. They claimed was the devil.

The young man himself, his father and grandfather were all miners. It was an extremely hard life. They worked seven days a week, and every day before they reached their work space in the mine shaft, they had to crawl through a seven kilometer long tunnel, only one meter high. It took them two hours to reach the work space and for this “commuting” time they did not get paid. Often they took their sons with them who helped with small jobs. One of those jobs was to open a gate in the tunnel, which allowed deadly gases to escape into the tunnel leading to a chimney. I had heard before how they would use canaries in the mines. If the canary passed out, it meant there was deadly gas present.

The young boys were tied down with a long rope, so that when their mine lamp would go out, they would not wander around in the dark and get lost.

We enter a small cage, which serves as an elevator. It takes us down into the mine. I try not to listen when the  guide tells us how deep we are going and close my eyes until the elevator comes to a stop.
I remember Ramiro’s cousins telling us earlier about the 5.5 earthquake yesterday, while we were on the road. Every time my mind drifts off to the possibility of an earthquake, I force myself to focus on something else and pay close attention to the words of the guide, who speaks so fast, I can only hear part of it. Whenever there is a moment, Ramiro explains some of the details.

We walk to various tunnels in the mine and get a - just pretend - turn to try out the drill used to loosen the coal. We crawl through a narrow tunnel, the floor is wet and slippery. In the early days, miners went in without hard hat, shirt or shoes. I imagine what that would have been like.

Our ticket includes a visit to the museum, which served as the doctors house. It is quite an experience for Ramiro to walk on the floor, his great grandfather and his family once walked. There is a library with thick books; The records of the mine. Unfortunately we do not have access to any of these books, but we have  a feeling there is a piece of the puzzle which links Ramiro to this town and the Sumaran family. There is even a possibility his great grandfather is on one of the many pictures on the walls.

For a small town such as this, Lota has a beautiful park which once belonged to the Causiño family, who build a castle on the land and brought in over 350 spices of trees from all over the worlds.
We learn a lot about Lota from the young lady who is dressed in traditional costume and leads  us through the park.

When Mister Causiño died, his wife donated a lot of money to the community and built the first school a theatre and provided other public services.

In the early 60s the entire family died of Tuberculoses and in the early 70s the castle was destroyed by an earthquake.

The park still has a number of buildings including a greenhouse, built in the late 1800 and still in very good shape. In order to keep the temperature high inside throughout the year, fires were built inside.

There is still one more thing Ramiro want to do. A visit to the cemetery in the hope he will see the family name. But with the hundreds of mausoleums and tombstones it is impossible to find anything.

When we get back to the house after picking up some groceries for the evening , cousin Aide from Montreal has arrived. What a busy place. Nena’s daughter Tanya is also in town and ends up sleeping with Nena.

A visit to the Contreras Family

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Before we continue south we need to get all that dust off the car. The first person we ask directs us to a large buildiing on the corner.
It appears to be a repair shop, but, yes, they are also  equiped to wash the car.
The kid does a great job. He even sprays under the hood and opens the doors to get all the dust  from between the doors. He then wipes everything dry with a towel. The car is like new again. Now is a good time to take some pictures for the web, so we can post it for sale before we go back to Canada.

The road to Concepcion takes us through a large forest. It’s as if we drive through British Columbia or along the Oregon coast. The only thing missing is rest or picnic areas.  It will be another stand up backseat lunch.

There is little traffic so we have a chance to practice the Spanish verbs. Very complicated, I must say. The rules change constantly. As a matter of fact I don’t think there are any rules. At least I know the meaning of every single road sign, and continue to learn new words every day.

As we approach Concepcion we decide the take the road north on the Peninsula to Talcahuano, hoping to find a place to stay. No luck. We turn south and cross the bridge over the Bio Bio River into San Pedro de la Paz and end up in the slums.

We have no other choice, but go to the city centre. While Ramiro battles the traffic, I look on both sides of the road for hotels. We zigzag through the city and finally give up and call Ramiro’s cousin Nena. She give us direction to the house and of course insists we stay with her.
It’s a fairly big house and has been the centre of the family for over 65 years. It’s where most of the ten kids grew up. Ramiro’s Dad also lived in this house. As a matter of fact he died in his early thirties, in the same room we will be staying in for the next three nights. Cousin Joel from Montreal is also staying here and tomorrow cousin Aide and her husband Manuel, from Montreal will be arriving. We though that may be a good excuse to decline her hospitable offer, but Nena will not hear of it.

Joel and Ramiro have a lot to talk about and of course this is done over bread and coffee.

It is to know that in Chile, no one brews coffee like we do. A jar of Nescafé and a thermos of hot water is placed on the table.
Many people also make use of sweetener drops or tables. As a matter of fact the waiter in the restaurant always carries a small container and adds it to the coffee upon request.

There is a resemblance between Joel and Ramiro, they have the same hairstyle  and similar mouths. Even the same mustache.

A PARADISE IT IS

Monday, December 28, 2009

It’s overcast when I get up at 7:30 pm. I’m sure the clouds will soon withdraw back into the ocean or at least burn off with the hot sun.

I dig up my running shoes out of the suitcase and head for the beach. There is not a soul in sight. All I hear is the waves crashing against the rocks and my owning breathing as I run at a not too fast pace.
It’s been exactly two weeks since I last went out for my morning walk.

I don't have enough energy left to run back and take walk along the road on the way back.
I grab a few things from our cooler in the car for breakfast and while Ramiro showers, I make him some cereal.


I finally took some new pictures of our car which I wanted to show you.

Don't be shocked, with this car we won't have to worry about it getting stolen.

North of us is a lagoon we like to visit. On our way up we notice a large number of fishing boats coming in.
The sore is too steep and they need to be pulled out of the water by oxen.

Once, they are on the beach, the fisherman pull their nets out of the boat and untangle the large number of fish which are thrown into one of the compartments of the boat. The crabs are thrown out for the buzzards and the eagles who fight about their morning meal.
What a treat it is to be able to watch this scene. No toru guide could ever show us this cultural experience.

We don’t get to visit the lagoon unfortunately, but end up on a sans road up the mountain. A 4 x 4 would have been really helpful here.

The view from the mountain is worth the difficult drive. We see lots of quails. We often have to pull over for the large logging truck coming from the opposite side.
Much of the forest has been clear cut. But we are happy to see that a lot of reforestation is taking place.

We turn into the small community of Vichiguén, a national heritage site.
A climb up the steep hill takes us to a view point with a statue of the Virgin Marie.
Today is garbage pick up. The cart pulled by two oxen stops at every residence and the plastic bags are thrown in to be taken for disposal.

It’s time to head south, direction Constitucion. As we cross the river we drive for several kilometers through the dunes. A beautiful sight with all the yellow flowers, spread out throughout the dunes.

As we enter Constitucion, my stomach tenses up. Another busy city. Not my kind of thing, but I let Ramiro decide where we will go. We stop at Piedre de Iglesia. I remember this place from the last time we visited Chile in 2000. We stop for a walk along the beach and watch the pelicans and the sea lions.

We see a sign: “Cabiñas de Cables” We continue south and are so glad we did. On the side of the road, is a small place with cute little cabins, with a private beach, a swimming pool and lots of flowers. Can we afford this place? Yes!!!! Only $60.00 per night including breakfast. I can’t believe my eyes. What a gorgeous place. Even a small balcony with each cabin. We’re back in paradise. From our bed, we look straight at the ocean. I wish Fred and Annemieke could have made this trip with us. I know, that especially Annemieke would have loved this place. Well anyone would for that matter.

For dinner we drive back to “The Flinstones”. The smell of the petroleum they use to drive the roaches away, is quite strong. But our meal nevertheless tastes good. $ For a total of $ 10.00, including tip, we enjoy a glass of wine each, a quarter chicken with French fries and tomatoe, green beans and beet salad.

We decide not to close the curtains tonight but enjoy the view of the ocean.


The car is parked safely outside the cabin. No not the NEW car, but the other one.