A PAINFUL EXPERIENCE

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

As he is laying there quietly, she leans over, her breast almost touching his face. She bends down and reaches for his mouth with her hand. He closes his eyes with a deep sigh. In the background is the soft trickling of water from the fountain. A soft breeze enters the window. She places her foot on the pedal and starts drilling into his tooth.

No, this is not the beginning of a new novel. We’re at the dentist office. Both of us need some work done and we have chosen Sylvia to look after it.

I’m first and Ramiro next. We spend most of the morning at Sylvia’s office, a small room with only the basic tools. Sylvia’s assistant does a lot of multitasking. She answers the phone. opens the door when there is a knock. Prepares the tools and assists Sylvia with her work.

With frozen lips, we go back to the house to get our things together and have Marta set the table for us outside so we can have lunch from our cooler, which is full of food  from the weekend. It is super hot outside at 30 degrees Celsius. I’m ready to go back to the coast again where it will be cooler.

Before we leave we have made arrangemenst to see the Microcredit projects of the two ladies we met last night. (I have written a separate blog for this, for the benefit of the clubs involved).

It’s late afternoon before we leave Talangante. We have already contacted a few places in Viña del Mar and have made reservations at one of the hotels, so we won’t have to search for hours. Unfortunately there are no cabins in Viña, which is really our preference.

We take the country road again instead of the Autopista. As we look down from the small road up the hills, we see the beautiful country side and its neat little squares of farmland. It looks so pretty and peacefull from up there.

As soon as the freezing in our mouths is gone we are ready to bite into some of those delicious nectarines we purchased earlier.

As we drive farther west towards Viña del Mar, we lower the airconditioner; we can already start feeling the difference in temperature; A lot cooler and a lot more humidity.

We contact Luis Roberto and Brenda, where we stayed over Christmas and arrange to pick up the suitcase we left behind. As I am unpacking it, I am surprised to find items in there I did not know I had and could have used in the south. I replenish our supplies of toiletries, vitamin supplements and my special food items and switch a few of our clothes. It’s like having a new wardrobe.

Once I am done repacking our bags, Ramiro  is already on his second glass of wine. He claims he is fine to drive but I argue this. He on the other hand thinks I am in worse state than he is. I think the photos tell enough. We would certainly like to receive any comments.
IS RAMIRO FIT TO DRIVE, OR SHOULD I DRIVE???

For the rest of our adventure, we decide to take all our belongings with us, which will be difficult as we have limited space in the car and rather not expose any luggage on the backseat. One of the suitcases will be filled with items we won’t need. Gifts we received, gifts we purchased, our warm “going home” clothes and warm clothes we needed in the south but not up north.

We have been warned that it is going to be extremely hot up in the desert. Are we prepared for that?