Posts
These last seven days in Cartagena have gone by so fast, I could use a few more days to continue with my projects and cathing up with family and friends. It is nice to have Skype, which allows us to talk to anyone who has either Skype on their computer or a telephone. Of course, the luring beach, the outdoors, the fantastic weather and the opportunity to spend time with family and friends hold me from sitting in our bungalow at the computer.
As soon as Ramiro’s cousin Guillermo finds out that we are in town, they arrange for a get together at their house. There is one more person; Michael from Holland is also in Chile, making it extra nice. Michael speaks English as well as Dutch, taking off some of the pressure for me, having to pay close attention to the conversations.
It’s too bad that people in Chile do not take advantage of the opportunity to sit outside as much as we do at home. They alwasy sit around the table inside the hosue. Whenever we can sit outside, we do; In Holland even more and I know in Spain they do as well. Therefore we are so happy with our patio at the bungalow, whenever we are not on the go, walking, enjoying the beach, or working on the computer - which of course we try to leave for the evening, when it is a lot cooler and dark - we sit outside.
There are many others things to enjoy and we do at the fullest. Just north of Cartagena at the end of Playa Grande is a bird sanctuary. It’s all closed in to provide a safe place for the thousands of birds who nest here. We like to walk along the sand dike around the lagoon to watch the birds. There are so many of them and so many different varieties.
Being on the west coast in a country with such a long coastline (Canada's coastline is the world's longest at 243,792 km or 151,485 miles (including the coastline of the country's 52,455 islands.) , it is interesting to see how different this coast is and each of the many communities close to it.
In the southern part of Chile for instance, a good portion is rock, as we go farther north there are more beaches, but even the beaches and the towns are much different from one place to the next. San Antonio has no beach to speak of and is a Port city wit rocks. Cartagena’s two beaches have black sand and the town is poor and dirty. There are beggers and drunks every where. All signs of poor economic status. Some of this is as a result to the automatization of the San Antonio Port. There are now jobs; No jobs, no money; No money, no education. and so it goes on and on.
Only a 10 minute drive north is a nicer little town, not quite as poor and dirty as Cartagena, but the beach is a paradise. It’s called Las Cruces. The beautiful golden sand and spectacular dunes are home to the most unusual desert plants and flowers. The beach is so inviting that we decided to have a picnic right there. The cool breeze from the ocean makes it very pleasant. No bugs, no noise, no balls thrown at you, no sand blowing aorund from young people running around. No garbage laying around. Just pure and clean.
As we continue north, the towns are getting more and more attractive. Algarobbo being the most attractive. You see it in the way the people are dressed, the cars they drive and the homes they live in.
Algarrobo is famous for the largest swimming pool in the world, measuring almost 3500 feet in length. It is only accessible for those who own a condo in one of the giant complexes, known as San Alfonso del Mar. The pools is acknowledged by the Guinness World Records and measures 1,013 metres (3,323 ft) in length, covers an area of eight hectares (20 acres), contains 250,000 cubic meters of water and is navigable in small boats.
I experience many different images, feelings and thoughts. I try to keep my feet from getting wet and walk where the sand is just wet enough to keep it hard and easier to walk on. When the waves are larger than previous days, I need to jump out of the way. Every now and then, when I am deep in thought, I may miss a wave and go home with my pants all wet. As the waves get bigger, red flags are placed at the end of the beach to warn beach goers not to go into the water, because of the dangerous undertoe. But this is Chile, people do whatever they like. There is little discipline. You hear of children drowning on a regular basis. I learned that there are practically no indoor swimming pools where children can learn how to swim. In a country with so much water, I find that strange. Take Holland for instance. Every child learns how to swim. Even in Canada, most children know how to swim.
I watch the children go deep into the water and as a large waves approaches, I stop as if it is my responsibility to make sure these children are safe. A sharp whistle blows when they go in places they are not suppose to go.
There is plenty of authority along the malacon and the beach. They vary from the carabineros, dealing mostly with traffic, the PDI (Policia de Investigaciones), who I often see talking to suspicious looking characters and searching their pockets for drugs, possibly. The Marine, I’m not sure what their role is, And there is private security, possibly looking after the interest of business owners.
But there is no one who stops the people from throwing their garbage around. The few garbage containers along the promendae are too small for the large volume of garbage. Every evening the beach looks like a garbage dump. Plastic bags flying around, take out food containers, dirty disposable diapers, lemon peels, meat bones, not to think of what all those dogs on the beach leave behind. And of course the bottles, both plastic and glass which are a danger to children. At certain parts of the beach you may see a few people raking the beach by hand. Imagine, miles and miles of beach. trying to keep that clean by hand.
Oh, do I miss my own Rotary Club. We have so much more fun, we are involved. No reading of the mail or minutes from last week’s meeting. Our meetings and its members are full of energy. We joke we laugh, we encage. Well, this is Chile; a different culture, different people, different needs, different interests.
The Chileans frown when they hear of the 7:00 am Breakfast meeting at my club.
There may be a lack of discipline and lack of ambition, but the friendliness of the people means a lot. When you spend so much time with family and friends, you don’t have time to clean or work. You just sit back, enjoy and relax. As we do with Rafael and his family, another youth friend of Ramiro. They’re having a great time together as if they just saw each other last week.
Yesterday we went shopping. Hoping to find a large supermarket where we could buy everything at once. But we ended up going to a variety of different stores. Leaving the car behind and walk back and forth to the small Supermarket for Cola, Bubbly and wine and back to the car, then to the meatmarket for the meat and two different stores for our fruit and veggies. Next the bakery and hunting down other items we thought we may need. That was our exercise for the day.
Ramiro is helping today because he can not find any excuse not to.
Once Guillermo, Myriam, Gabriela and Guillermo Jr. arrive the afternoon officially beings. The entire procedure of preparing the BBQ and cooking the meet, takes up the entire afternoon. Don David also comes over for a visit. He always likes to chat. It’s been a great afternoon, but boy am I tired. It’s time to start packing and prepare for the next stage of our trip. It’s been a nice break.
