Happy Easter! (April 14-16)

Did you ever wonder if the Easter Bunny made it all the way to Chile to hide eggs? Well. I was certainly surprised that they chocolate eggs and bunnies certainly did. (My favorite chocolates are the eggs with dulce de leche, almond, or hazelnut centers in them.) Deb and I like to color eggs at Easter, but they don't use dyes here to color eggs. They use water color paints and paintbrushes. The Easter Bunny hides eggs in the yard for children to find. People tell me this tradition comes straight from the states. Usually, Easter involves several church services and family gatherings.

Deb and I travelled south to Rancagua where we toured a hacienda, vineyard, and alpacha farm. We slept in one of the adobe buildings used by the ranch family. Adobe is perfect in this region because it resists changes in temperature. It remains cool in the heat of summer and warm in the cold of winter. They raise horses, plums, and peaches, teach about local history, give polo lessons, and organize tours to local attractions.

The vineyard was amazing because the grape clusters were big and ready for harvest. Deb and I were the only "Gringos" in this vineyard tour. Wine is noted for it's subtleties, often having subtle flavors or aromas that make it unique. So we played the "Guess-the-Aroma" Game. We passed little bottles with an essence of something aroma in it, we all took turns smelling it, and then at the end we guessed what scent it was. One was easy and everyone got it -- Vanilla. The second I recognized in an instant and was surprised that no one knew it -- Rose. The last one I recognized, but couldn't name. The only person who guessed it -- Deb! The people in our group were quite impressed with these gringos.

The alapacha farm was very educational. Symbiotically, the farmer feed almond shells to the alpacha and alpacha poop to the almond trees. They get almonds and alpacha wool in the process. The alpacha were surprisingly cute. We went with one of the hacienda employees and her two children. It was neat to see how the children interacted with the animals. I got a couple of cute photos. (And Deb got an alpacha pull-over.)

Amidst all the tours, in an ever-present sort of way, the mountains were my favorite part of the trip. (People will probably get tired of my harping about the mountains here, but they are sooo amazing!) Wherever we went, they were there in all of their majesty. We drove up a highway into the mountains to take pictures. We topped one mountain and saw the Andes! HUGE is and understatement. Nothing I've ever seen compares to the Andes! And would you believe, we recently noticed that there is more snow on the ones outside our windows.

The Grind (April 13)

I should apologize maybe for not blogging consistently. But sometime I find it hard to make time to write, even though I really enjoy it. It is often on the weekends that I have the most time to sit with my computer and let other things go. So it is with the prospect of Easter weekend, I have no school and time to recreate. Thank goodness for time off.

Which brings me to the point of this blog entry. I have become friends with some of the building caretakers. (Pictured is Gustavo, the building maintenance dude and Maximo, one of the concierges.) One in particular makes me laugh. For me, Don Gustavo has been a source of good humor and (yet) the reality of life here in Chile. I became friends with him the day I realized we passed each other every morning on our walks to work. I didn't realize until about a week of school went by. Then one morning I saw him, he smiled wryly and winked at me. Back at the apartment building after school, I greeted him (for the first time). I told him that I hadn't seen him on my way before. Smacking his hand to his forehead, he told me to walk with my head up!

I like Gustavo and frequently talk with him. I am amazed by his schedule. He arrives at the apartment building around 7:30 AM and works until 10:00 PM! Fourteen hours a day seems unreasonable!! But he also works 7 days a week!!! His good-natured response to my shock was that it keeps his 53-year-old body in good shape. I just asked him if he had time off for Easter. Nope! Not even Easter Sunday!! His response -- He likes to spread out his sleep, why would he want 24 hours all together. Then he said that if he asked for a day off they might hire someone to replace him, but not just for the day.

Time is precious. We only get so much. We need to appreciate all we have. Gustavo does.

Auto Independence! (4/1-2)

We finally bought a car!!! Deb and I have looked for some time, but always felt that we were sized up as rich Americans. So the prices seemed a bit inflated to us. Well, it was our friend, Andres, who made our car deal possible. Andres, Priscilla, and Benjamin went car shopping with us. Andres just had a good sense about cars and determining how previous owners had treated them. He focused on the mechanics and the price, while Deb and I were more interested in the raio and color. We found a good deal relatively quickly.

So our car is a Chevy Corsa. We have the four door version of a car too small to import in the States. The Corsa is fuel efficient, has pep for climbing mountains, has a good re-sale value, ours is a 2004, and didn't cost us all our savings. Gasoline is currently more than $5 a gallons. Deb will use it to go to work every day. I will continue walking, but I get to drive it on the weekends.

So we had to drive the car all the way to Deb's work. I had never been there so I took some pictures. Deb test drove the route, then was ready to go. Now she is talking about where we are going on vacation. Good thing we got a car!!!