ONE LAST VISIT WITH THE FAMILY

Friday, April 2, 2010

The Easter weekend gets taken very seriously here and is called Holy Week.
Most of the stores are closed for three days and every one leaves town.
200,000 people are leaving Santiago today and the majority of them are coming to Viña del Mar. Not to worry, because we are leaving for Santiago, so there will be lots of space for us.

Patti and Delio are also planning to go to Santiago for the weekend and have offered to take us along with them. That works out perfect, because without the car, we were trying to figure out how we would be able to take all our luggage on the bus. We have enough time to have breakfast on the balcony before they come and pick us up.

When we reach our hotel, I am delighted to see that they did upgrade us to a nicer room as we are entitled to with our Best Western Platinum card. These next few days are going to be very nice and very special.
We are only a few blocks from La Providencia, a large shopping street, but there won’t be much shopping going on because almost all stores are closed.

But there are plenty of restaurants to pick from, we go for the one with an outdoor patio and spend the rest of the evening relaxing.

SATURDAY

Today we will get together with the Ortiz cousins for lunch. They have come from as far as San Antonio and Peñaflores to spend time together and say goodbye. From the 5 aunties and uncles there is only one still alive and she is joining us today and so is Patricia’s Mom.
We treat everyone to a Pisco Sour and get a chance to visit with everyone while Wolfy and Patti order the food, my favorite Parillada.
Wolfy drives around to visit a few more family members and at last we end up with cousin Katy, who has a house full of people, celebrating her grandson’s first birthday.
Cousin Ingrid and her husband Hernan drive us back to our hotel.
It’s great to see everyone and to have a chance to say goodbye.

SUNDAY
There are mor family members to visit.
We take the metro and the bus to San Bernardo to visit the Rubio Varas family one last time. Teruca and Nena have prepared a great meal, including empanadas and stuffed mashed potatoes. Nicolas shows us some of his artwork, designed from ceramic statues which did not survive the earthquake. He is very talented.

It’s too bad we can only stay for a little bit but we have one more family to see.

We rush back to the hotel, freshen up quickly and change clothes for our visit with Fernando the ex husband of Ramiro’s Mom at his daughter’s house.
We go to his daughter’s Patricia’s house for tea and the necessary pastries. It’s a good thing I am not able to eat any of the breads, cookies or pastries, or I would have pigged out like Ramiro does.

I know what we will eat once we get back home......... carrots. Somehow the extra weight needs to come off again.

Tonight will be our last night in Chile. When we return to our hotel room, the room is already prepared for the night. It is sure nice to live in a little bit of luxury now and then, but we have been perfectly allright with the simple life, which allows us to make more of these type of trips.