First the five of us and then the four of us have had an amazing time together reminiscing, comparing memories, and getting caught up on our personal lives. We even had lunch and a fundo (large farm) visit with the brother of a former student of Glenda´s. The fundo was a beautiful place near Temuco. We continually question each other about the places we´ve been, the names of the lakes, volcanoes, vineyards, and towns. Luckily we are four and we all have hi-lighted our 1800 mile journey on maps.
On Feb. 10 we arrived in Santiago and were warmly welcomed by Erica to her spacious apartment near Plaza Italia. It was very hot the last several days when we were in the Colchagua Valley visiting vineyards. We based ourselves in Santa Cruz, several hundred kilometers south of Santiago. The hills are a very dry yellow with green scrub bushes and trees and sometimes cacti, where there is no irrigation. Vineyards otherwise go on and on and on, not only on level terrain, but up and down the hills. There are also fruit and olive trees, corn, and other vegetables, and in the distance the snow-covered mountains of the Andes. This is the countryside we all remember.
Chile has become very modern and developed; Santiago is lovely and has an amazing subway system. The PanAmerican highway here has four lanes and is excellent. It´s been good hearing Chilean Spanish again and relearning the words and phrases used. It´s also a challenge to understand campesino (country) Chilean. Chileans are as open and friendly as we all remember. People are so very helpful-one taxi driver even said follow me and drove us to our destination.
There are several highlights of our trip, one being the hot thermal baths of Geometricas, not for from Villarica, up in the hills, located in a narrow valley with waterfalls at the far end. Orange walkways lead from pool to pool of varying temperatures. They also have many small changing rooms and toilets along the way and places to sit. Lush vegetation is all around. It was an amazing setting with warm pools to relax in.
Our best hike was up a mountainside north of Pucon in the National Park of Huerquehue. We followed an excellent trail up the mountain where we had view of a lake and volcano Villarica. As we hiked further on we came to three small lakes deep green in color. The different forests were lovely that we hiked through. Also in Pucon were incredibly huge blue hydrangea, they were in many places in the south by most of the houses.
It was easy to decide which was our best most exciting day. We left Curico after visiting the cathedral and headed towards the coastal town of Pichelemu, a number of people told us to visit this surfing town on the coast. As we drove through Paredones we could see people gathering including huasos (cowboys) on horseback in their colorful striped vests and hats. They had beautiful horses and used carved wooden stirrups. We joined the crowd and before we knew it, the MC had spotted us and pulled us into the ring and had us introduce ourselves. We became instant celebrities. Lynda and I accepted the invitation to ride behind huasos on their horses. It was great fun going round and round in the ring. Later there was cueca dancing with the men dressed to the hilt in black and wearing silver spurs. Footwork was very fancy. The couples twirl white handkerchiefs and dance opposite each other while a small band played. The main event consisted of 7 young horses being herded around the ring on top of wheat. Two cowboys/girls went at a time winnowing the wheat under the hooves of the horses.This event is called a ¨trilla.¨ It looked as if it were going to continue for quite a while so late afternoon we went on. We arrived in Pichelemu and found the 100 year old concrete ¨boat¨which would be our hostel for the night. We were on a cliff above the sea with big breakers. There were windows all around the dorm room and we were able to hear the crashing waves as we fell asleep.
In Santiago we took a walk near Erica´s, then Glenda was off to Canada. Lynda and Susan left the next day, and I left the following day for Uruguay for more fun in the sun. It´s been a grand amazing adventure with wonderful friends who get on well and care very much for each other. We´re already making future plans.
No comments:
Post a Comment