A Chilean Wedding...

I'm writing this at noon the day after the wedding and I might be one of the few guests awake at this early hour...

The church ceremony for Paula's nephew Antonio and his bride Consuelo was last night at 8:00pm (they were married in a civil ceremony about 6 months ago and this is the church/family event). It all started off with everyone (including the groom and all of the various faimly members) milling around outside the church and most of them smoking cigarettes for about a half hour prior to the arrival of the bride. This smoking of cigarettes will be a signature feature of the evening...

A few minutes after 8:00 Consuelo arrived with her father and the ceremony began almost immediately. The ceremony was a traditional Catholic service (including Mass) and in contrast to American weddings there were no bride's maids or men or best man or any of those additional participants - just the happy bride and groom plus a couple sisters who spoke a few words and some cute ring bearers.

After an hour of standing up and sitting down, they were pronounced Man and Wife (or at least I think that must have happened, it was all in Spanish and other than an occasional "Dios" or "Padre", I pretty much understood nothing...

After everyone stepped outside for a cigarette and congratulations to the happy couple and their familes, we retired en masse via separate and circutious routes to a wedding hall across town for the main event - the reception.

Wow!

We arrived after being lost for a while, but always heading in the right general direction. After consulting taxi drivers, gas station attendants, and a couple cellphone calls to family members we ended up at the reception. Actually it was a wall of smoke with a reception somewhere inside. Of the 160 guests, I would guess that 140 of them were smoking. But enough of the smoke, what about the food?

Delicious! Waiters and waitresses moved through the crowd with trays of pisco sours, mango sours (yummm!) and fruit juices. Then others came through the crowd with trays of appetizers - shrimp on sticks, crab dip, quail eggs wrapped with bacon (originally I thought Paula said that I had missed the "whale eggs" and I had to explain to her that whales are mammals and have their young live rather than in egg form... eventually I figured things out...), little crackers piled up with tasty salmon and avocado, and several others. All of them delicious.

After an hour or so we headed for the dining room. It was 11:00pm and we were sitting down to a 4 course dinner. Delicious! Towards the dessert course we were shown a video of photos from the bride and groom's lives with pictures from their baby days until quite recently.

Around midnight the dancing started.

First the Bride and Groom danced to My Way by Frank Sinatra (a video of Frankie singing at Vegas was shown in the stage screen) and then family members joined the dancing and finally everyone. The first hour was Latin hits. The dance floor was packed with crazed dancing (many dancers holding a drink and cigarette at the same time!). Also included during the night were American rock and roll (that pretty much emptied the dance floor except for an older crowd), a waltz, and even the traditional Chilean folkdance - La Cueca.

Dancing was suspended for the tossing of the bridal bouquet, the groom's glove, and cutting of the cake.

At around 2:30am Paula and I decided, during one of our oxygen breaks outside, that we were ready to head home. We made a round of kisses and handshakes to our tablemates and other family members. A taxi was called and off we went. We were one of the first to leave and rumor has it that the party continued until 5:30 or 6:00am...

You just never know...

Walking out of the hotel in the morning and heading towards the center of town, you just never know what you might find. Today was pretty unique. As I neared Temuco's main square in town I couldn't believe my ears. It sounded like I was hearing bagpipe music. Now that just can't be right. But it was. A young bagpiper was wailing away (actually doing a pretty good job to my un-bagpipe tuned ear) with traditional Scottish favorites. He wasn't wearing a kilt (I guess that might be asking too much) - but otherwise he seemed to know what he was doing. Here's a photo.

This might be a good time to list some of the oddities that one needs to get used to when traveling in Chile (or lots of other non-USA destinations)...

The buses are a hectic confusing adventure. While there are bus routes just like in Seattle - there are no timetables or schedules. Each bus is an independent entity and they get paid by the number of passengers they carry. So you'll see bus drivers racing from one stop to the next trying to get there before a competitor bus arrives. On the route between Viña del Mar and Concón up the coast there are scores of buses - never more than a 2 minute wait and always a hair raising ride.

Jobs are scarce and people will find all sorts of niches to try to make a living. The car parkers are on just about every block in Viña del Mar (I don't see them as often here in Temuco). I don't know if this is a licensed job given out by the city or if it's more of an impromptu, "buy a Car Parkers Coat and find an empty block" situation. They are always seen waving at approaching cars when they have an open parking spot for a car. When one stops and parallel parks, they helpfully make hand motions for the driver. They will also wash cars while people are away. When people leave they will sometimes try to hold up traffic for the car to exit (but this is seldom successful - drivers here are aggressive, bordering on the maniacal). The car parkers come in all ages and both sexes.

Another niche is the world of entertainment. At many stop lights jugglers will step in front of the stopped cars and show off their stuff. That's a guy job. Girls wave a couple flags in imitation of a drum majorette on a college marching band - strutting back and forth in front of the stopped traffic. Another popular entertainment is the traveling muscian on buses - they'll wait at bus stops until a friendly driver invites them onto his bus for free. Then they´ll play their guitar or flute or whatever they specialize in for a couple stops and collect tips. From the new stop they cross the street and work their way back to where they started. I also saw a man and woman clown team (dressed up in full clown regalia) working the buses yesterday - he stood at the back and she was in the front and they had a routine to entertain the passengers.

One of our favorite entertainments so far on the trip was here in Temuco in the town square where a mother, father and son had a musical act. The mother cranked the organ grinder while the father and son danced with a pair of drums on their backs that they hit with sticks. They also had a set of cymbols on the top of the drums with a cord that attached to one of their heels to activate the cymbols. Their routine included spinning around at a frantic pace while drumming and cymboling! YOW! The crowd was dizzy just watching. They seemed to be making some excellent tips (I know Paula and I boosted our usual tip by about 10x).

I doubt that the tips from any of these jobs really adds up to much - but here it doesn't take a lot to survive and it's apparently enough.

Another form of employment people follow is the selling of ice cream bars for less than a dollar along the streets. They have small styrofoam coolers with the ice cream. I've seen adult men who probably are heads of households hauling these little coolers around. We also had a avocado salesman at the gate to the apartment in Viña. 7 ripe avocados for 1000 pesos, equal to a bit less than $2. We bought a bag. And Paula bought a couple plastic bags full of humitas (similar to Mexican tamales) that from a salesman on the street - the large humitas were 500 each.

The sun. It's always north of us instead of south. That takes a bit of time to get used to. It also sets moving down and to the left instead of the down and to the right that us North of the Equator people are more used to. Plus there's the ozone hole that people here are very aware of. We've received warnings from several people to be careful with the sun (I'm writing this with a sunburn from yesterday's swim...) and the pharmacies have sunscreen in all of their displays (some up to 60 SPF!). With any luck George Bush will visit here and, denying that there are any environmental problems, will go sunscreenless...

This keyboard. The keyboards on all the computers are Spanish versions (¡surprise!) with keys like Ç and ¿ and ñ and ¡ that don't have places on the keyboards I'm used to. The - : ' ) (? and many other English puncuation keys are in unusual locations. But I'm adjusting.

That's enough for now. I'm a tourist again today - at least until 7pm when I have to be ready to go to the wedding tonight. I'll have to take a nap this afternoon because after the 8:00pm wedding is the reception dinner and dance that will very likely last until the sun rises tomorrow... Paula is visiting the family today (her brother Tite arrived last night and they haven't seen each other in several years) and I have the entire day on my own. I'm writing this from the internet shop near the market. I'll probably stop in the market for some lunch soon and then hang out either in the market or the town square. Tough decisions await...

Viña to Temuco

OK, now we're vacationing!

Yesterday Paula, Lola and I left Viña at 7:30am and caught a bus to Santiago. That trip was about 2 hours and then we hopped on a bus to Temuco here in the South of Chile (check out that map down below on the first entry to this blog) for the 8 hour trip south. I listened to the Michael Palin book, Himalayas on the trip (I copied the files of the author reading the book from 7 CDs to my mp3 player, so it's easy to listen to) and had the contrast of his experiences in India and Tibet in my head while having Chile pass by my eyes...

As we rode south Lola got a phonecall from the vet that one of the kittens had been adopted - the smaller one, not the grey one staring into the camera. So that was very good news. If the other doesn't get taken Lola is going to keep it.

South of Santiago we passed through miles and miles of vineyards. Chile is famous for it's wine and this is where all of the grapes are grown (see the rather blurry image from a moving bus...). After a few hours we got past the grapes and into the forests. Just like being in Washington - the forests stretched across the hillsides. And finally as we got further south (remember as you travel south here, you are actually getting farther from the equator) we hit farming and ranch areas with freshly harvested wheat fields and cattle ranches. It was like traveling from California to Manitoba in a single day.

As we rode the bus south a line of volcanos passed to the east. This area of the Andes is very active volcano-wise and we must have passed 6 or 8 during the day. At one point I could see 5 at once and it would be very much like living in Seattle and seeing 5 volcanos ranging from the perfection of Mt. Fuji to the wreck of Mt. St. Helens all along the Cascades. Pretty amazing. From our hotel room here we can see a volcano called Villarica in the distance (see photo).

So now we're in Temuco. It's a commercial center here in the South and probably not worth a stop unless you have a wedding to attend (for us, that'll be tomorrow night). Our hotel is very nice and is famous in town with the taxi drivers for having a Turkish Bath and a Sauna. It's called Tierra del Sur and has a website at www.tierradelsur.cl

Paula and I enjoyed our first day on our own with no family commitments by strolling around town and eating some typical Chilean fare in a restaurant in the market (Paula had a Pastel de Choclo which is a corn casserole with chicken that was baked in an individual dish while I had fried fish a la chileano which turned out to be fish with a tomato and onion salad). The restaurant area in the market is a real adventure around lunch time. Every restaurant has a couple women in aprons outside their doors extolling the advantages of their food over all others. As you walk between all the restaurants (there must have been 25 or 30 small places in the large market) you are accosted good naturedly from all sides. We eventually found a place that looked busy and friendly and popped in.

This afternoon we had a swim in the hotel pool, found out that the Turkish Bath and sauna are for men only- not really sure what's up with that - and generally did a lot of nothing.

I'm writing this from an internet cafe (well, there's not really a cafe - it's a telephone/internet shop where people without phones can make long distance phonecalls or use one of the dozen computers they have available). This is my first stop at one of these stores (previously I was using the family computer in Viña and also tried the computer in the "internet" room at our hotel here in Temuco, but it wasn't up to blogging with pictures...). Amazingly, this place is air conditioned (very nice even at almost 9:00pm when I'm writing this) and there are signs that say, "¿Gracias por no fumar!" - no smoking! People smoke everywhere here, but that'll be the topic of another blog entry...

Otra Dia, Otra Lunch...

Well, today will be our last here in Viña del Mar visiting with Lola and her kids. It's been a great time - though a bit heavy on the family visits rather than vacationing...

Today three of Paula's and Lola's aunts and a cousin stopped by for lunch. They were rumored to be coming at noon and showed up right on time at 1:00pm... At around 7:30pm they left after a long lunch, a stroll along the beach, and another tea time spread (see photo).

Early tomorrow morning Paula, Lola and I will be catching a bus from Viña del Mar to Santiago and then one to Temuco in the South of Chile (check out the map in the first entry to this blog). We should arrive down there sometime tomorrow evening (I think it's about a 10 hour trip from Santiago). The reason for this trip to Chile is that on Saturday Lola's son, Antonio, will be getting married in Temuco. So we should be there in plenty of time...

Hotel Recommendation

Francisco (Lola's son and my nephew, who some of you at Swedish might remember because a few years ago he was a volunteer while living with Paula and me in Seattle) works for a hotel here in Viña del Mar. Next time you stop by, please be sure to stay at his hotel - Roca Blanca with complete information at http://www.presidente.cl/english/presidente.php?zona=vina

Francisco says it has the best view of the ocean in all of Viña.

Tell them Francisco sent you!

Earthquakes and Chile Time

We had a mild earthquake this morning around 5:15am. Enough to wake people up - but not enough to be too scary.

On other fronts - it appears that Paula and I have somehow warped into "Chile Time" in that the days go by and we never seem to have time to do all the things we planned. But it's also only Wednesday and we were in Seattle last Friday - so no real cause for panic. The days seem to be eaten up with arrival of various extended family members for a few minutes that end up extending to a few hours as Nescafe and tea are brought out along with some cake, bread with smashed avocados and whatever else might be around. But then, that's part of the deal when visiting family...

Yesterday I went to the Fonck Museum. It has a nice display of Easter Island artifacts and information - the Lonely Planet Guidebook says if you can't afford to fly to Easter Island, it's the next best thing. I agree.

That was pretty much the highlight of the day. Strolled around town a bit soaking up the South American ambiance and ended the evening with Paula downtown eating ice cream and sipping cafe helado (cold Nescafe with ice cream and cream - delicious) at a sidewalk cafe while the population of Viña strolled by.

We also put out posters at the local grocery store, pet shop, and vet with pictures of the kittens hoping to find them a home. I'll include the pictures here. They are adjusting to homelife very well and are fun to have around. We have hopes of finding a suitable home for them soon.

Siesta...

Questions?

If you have questions or comments about any of these postings, please feel free to hit the "Comments" button at the bottom of the write-up. I´ll reply when I see it. I promise.

Lunch - Chilean Style

Well, we arrived right on time (in the Chilean way of doing things) for lunch. We were invited for 2:00pm and walked up to the house (after a beautiful busride up the coast through a couple beach towns) at 2:45pm...

It turns out that lunch is an extensive affair. First was a chance to sit on the patio and chat over pisco sours (the Chilean version of a margarita - 3 parts pisco, 1 part lemon juice, and sugar to taste). Then lunch was spread for nine of us (including Paula´s nieces, nephew, cousin, and aunt) around the dining room table - roast beef, salads, avocado (of course), roasted potatoes and roasted onions. Plus Chilean wine. We chatted over that until it was time to return to the patio for more conversation.

Late in the afternoon, Paula (the Mother Teresa of Lost Pets) rescued a couple kittens that mysteriously appeared under the barbecue (see the photo). We brought the wild things home in a box (leaving "lunch" around 8:00pm...) and the kittens kept us up much of last night crying for their momma. One (the one on the right in the picture) is relatively tame and doesn´t mind being held. The other (a long haired grey kitten) is a hisser and spitter - until you finally get ahold of it and then it´s ok.

Today´s agenda is clear. Find a home for the lost gatos (rumor has it that a vet nearby takes strays and finds homes for them) and do some more sightseeing. Paula is responsible for the first and I´m lined up for the second.

Turista

I got my first chance to wander around town as a tourist on my own this morning. Paula and her sister Lola were going to visit her mother in a nursing home three blocks from Lola´s house (I went with them yesterday) and I was free until this afternoon´s lunch.

I had a quick chicken and avocado sandwich for breakfast with a cup of Nescafe and headed out at the crack of 10:30am... A short three block walk took me to the beach and a lefthand turn had me heading south towards downtown. Since no self-respecting beach lover would think of arriving at their Saturday night party or club before 11pm or leave before 4:00am - the beach was, not surprisingly, pretty empty - except for the horsey odor from the scores of Victorias (horsedrawn carriages that are found all over town). And an occasional stray dog walking along the beachside sidewalk with a distinct air of having a place to go.

Downtown was equally quiet on this Sunday morning with fewer Victorias, but more mongrels. The legion of municipal employees standout in the morning as they go about their duties cleaning the beach of last night´s bottles and trash, sweeping the streets with brooms made of wood and straw, and sweeping the water in the gutters towards the drains. Parking attendants prowl their assigned block helping parkers by standing next to the driver´s window and waving their hands (which is usually totally ignored by the driver) as the driver parallel parks. They receive a small tip for this service along with the chore of watching the car until the driver´s return.

In the main square, Plaza Vergara, families fresh from church parade past my shady park bench. Organ grinders - with a fortune telling bird in place of the usual monkey - crank through their tunes spasmodically (see picture) while a beer bellied Chilean passes in a bright Britany Spears tee shirt (sorry, no picture...).

Arrived Safe and Sound

All went well on the trip to Chile. 4 hours from rainy Seattle to Dallas, 3 hours to wait for our next flight, 9 1/2 hours from Dallas to Santiago, a quick trip to the ATM machine and then an aiport shuttle bus to a bus station where we caught another bus (about 90 minutes) to Vina del Mar, and a 10 minute taxi ride to Paula´s sister´s Lola´s apartment.

We´re just three blocks from the beach. Weather feels like it´s in the 80s. And it´s a huge change from 24 hours ago in rainy Seattle.

It turns out that, probably due to daylight savings time here, Chile is 5 hours ahead of Seattle. So that means I´ll find out who wins the Seahawk/Carolina game 5 hours before any of you Seattlites... I won´t spoil it for you.

Vina is a beautiful beach town with crowds of people at this time of year. The oceanside walk along Avenue Peru was filled with vacationing Chileans. Street performers earn a few pesos from motorists at stoplights with juggling, mime, or other acts. One of my favorites was a guy painted all in silver and dressed up like an old west cowboy. He was standing as still as a statue at a stoplight on a busy corner near the beach.

One of the first impressions on the bus ride from Santiago to Vina is the struggle many people have making a living in Chile. While it´s one of the biggest (if not the biggest) success stories in South America economically speaking - it´s still obvious from the houses clingling to hillsides and people hustling jobs that many many people have to scramble to make a living. We were met by a phalanx of taxi drivers and hotel agents at the airport and again at the Vina bus station. I´ve been through so many of those gauntlets that I don´t think twice about a distracted smile and ¨no gracias¨ when they approach. It´s not as easy for Paula who sees beyond the annoyance of fifteen people approaching with, "you need taxi?" and sees the importance of each commission to these people and their families. It gave me a new perspective.

Tomorrow I´ll be wandering around town in the morning and then in the afternoon we´re heading north a couple towns to Concon for a Chilean lunch at the home of one of Paula´s cousins. The invitation is for 2:00pm - but in Chilean tradition we wouldn´t think of getting there on time. We´ll be arriving around 2:20 or so...

Chao! (The Chilean goodbye - not to be confused with "ciao" in Italian)

On the Road Again...

Greetings!

I'll be using this blog to update our friends and families about Paula and my trip to Chile in January/February of 2006. We'll be leaving Friday and the current itinerary (well, the current guess at what our itinerary might be...) includes:

January 20-21 - Travel from Seattle to Dallas to Santiago, Chile and then to Viña del Mar

January 21-26 - Stay with Paula's sister Lola and her family in Viña del Mar (a resort on the Pacific Ocean near Valparaiso) and also visit Paula's mother

January 27-29 - Travel to Temuco in southern Chile for the wedding of Paula's nephew Antonio on January 28th

January 29-February 1 - Spend a few days at a ranch near Temuco (or something similar, the translated details that I've received aren't quite clear and I don't think the original Spanish version is any better...) visiting with family after the wedding

February 2-8 - Travel to Chiloe, an island further south in Chile (just south of Puerto Montt) to visit Paula's brother Tite

February 9-16 - Head back north to Santiago by bus and train to catch our flight home. We'll probably stop along the way in Valdivia to visit Paula's cousin Francois and also in Concepcion to see Paula's adopted dog "Lucky" and finally in Santiago or Viña del Mar to meet Chris Leininger, his wife and cousin (Chris is a friend from work that will coincidentially be in Santiago at the same time we are)

February 17-18 - Jack's Birthday - Fly from Santiago to Miami

February 18 - Wedding in Miami - Paula's nephew Javier

February 19 - Fly from Miami to Seattle and home

This trip is a bit different from our usual style of travel. We've been to Europe, Africa and Asia on trips before and always travel with just a carry-on bag or two. We travel light. And we don't usually have an itinerary - we arrive and decide where our next stop will be by our mood and interest.

This time we have responsibilities and appointments plus we're taking some semi-bulky gifts for members of the family along with real clothes for a couple weddings - so it looks like we'll have our usual "carry-on bag or two" but also be responsible for a couple extra suitcases. I'm not looking forward to walking out of the airport in Santiago and finding transport into town to the bus station and then onto a bus to Viña del Mar while lugging our suitcases.

But we'll manage.

I'm sure it won't be as bad as some of my other travel horror stories (see your local Barnes and Noble Bookseller for these former best selling titles: "5 days of Mud in Northern Kenya" or "Boatride from Hell to the Sudan" or the gripping "Malaysian ER", or maybe "Sick and Alone in a First Class Waiting Room Somewhere in India" or the always popular "The Chinese Canned Pears of Wadi Halfa" and "No Rooms in the Inns of Colmar" plus others in the continuing series...).

Watch this space for the first update from Chile sometime soon! If you want to get some background information on Chile - check out the Wikipedia Chile webpage.