It’s 6am UK time. 1.50am Chile time.
Our weather indicator in the right-hand menu bar reads as follows:
# Temp: 12°C
# Humidity: 82%
# Wind: Varies at 2 mph
# Dew Point: 9°C
# Barometer: 30.06″ Hg (1018 hPa)
# Clouds: clear skies
# Conditions: smoke
# Visibility: 3.1 miles
Eh? I think they mean smog. Dangerous photo-chemical stuff too. I’m encouraged to hear there are clear skies up there somewhere….
This has been a hard Easter. I never like admitting things like this on a blog, but then that is what it is for. Honest admissions and fair reflections and all that…
Rachel has been up the mountain for 7 days now and it happens to be the quietest week in Santiago. I miss her and our families. Even our Santiago friends are away or unavailable at the moment. I have little work to do and everyone else is celebrating Easter today (as is the Catholic tradition) and watching movies starring Jesus and Moses. No, really. They live for these movies at Easter time, despite them dating from the 1960s. No Tom and Jerry for the kids this morning…. just Jesus, wearing sandles and bad make-up.
Living in a foreign land is difficult at times. I think i’m feeling more isolated than ever before in Chile. With technology like Skype and MSN you might think it is getting easier, but the technology of sleep hasn’t changed, so the UK goes to bed as we start our evening.
They’ve been long quiet evenings this week… not something i’m accustomed to nor something I have ever really liked. You know me… hyper-Doug, party-goer, hiker and horticulturalist. Or Horrid Boy (Auntie Dorothy). Handyman and hen-pecked are debatable too!
Today, the city is dead- hardly any cars on the road nor pedestrians. It is like everyone has vapourised or something. But this has two wonderful consequences- the air is clean thus the view of the mountains is magic, and the silence is bliss (bar the odd car alarm).
Back to my book then…. “Is religion dangerous?” by Prof Keith Ward.
Another Jeffer has come into the world! Congratulations to Paul and Joyce on the birth of Elsie Jeffers, in Antofagasta, northern Chile. 2 weeks earlier than forecast but safe and sound. All well. 2.75kg and just 49cm long! Will she one day reach the cloudy heights of Paul (6ft 3in)?!
We were told recently of an incredible spike in visitor statistics on a Santiago newspaper website after the publication of an article relating to un-iden-ti-f-ied flyin-g obj-ects being visible in Chile.
So we’re going to try the same experiment. In exactly 5 days (thursday). I’m going to post a blog, with “apparent” pictures of said object in the sky above Santiago. In fact, better than that, i might just create an entire category on the subject!
Those pictures will in fact, be pictures of the recent lunar eclipse, whose credibility (if they ever had any), is damaged by the additional interference of a young 5 year old, Mandy, pulling at my left trouser leg. Yes, they are more blurred than the eyesight of your average canine friend after polishing off a pint of Newcastle Brown Ale.
I don’t suggest you give your dog an “Old Dog”, but I do suggest you do your bit to feed the frenzy of web traffic attracted to our website by my selection of related keywords…. in english and spanish.
We’ll see if it has any impact whatsoever on visitor statistics (you can detect my skepticism already). Now, time for that pint…
Last weekend, we travelled 1000km with friends, to spent 4 days in the south of Chile, on the shores of Lago Llanquihue. We didn’t just go for a holiday, but to meet with over 100 people who own or share an interest in Land Rovers, those typically unreliable but fun 4×4s! It was an International meet, with more than 6 vehicles arriving from Argentina!
The weekend started with a large meal at a wonderful restaurant, Espantapajaros (see earlier blog on this subject). On Saturday, we all made a “paseo” which involves a lot of queuing, then moving, in convoy along a predetermined route, delighting local people with our vehicles (especially restored vehicles or those which appear ready to invade a small country) but annoying any other hapless road users!
We took a beautiful route, by the north and east side of the Lake to the foot of Volcan Osorno and then to the foot of another volcano, Volcan Calbuco, where we took a short safari and walk to a nearby waterfall and then sat down to a huge lunch. We were served a typical southern dish, Curanto, which might not look very attractive- a net bag of clams, mussels, chicken, pork and spicy sausages- but which tastes phenomenal.
On the sunday we recovered a little, spending a morning exploring under the bonnets of each Land Rover, whose ages ranged from 38 to less than 1 year old. And then eating cake before returning home, some overnight, others through the night!
But it wasn’t in vain- we got into the local newspaper, El Llanquihue! Twice!
I’ve been searching for a way to display slideshows of our pictures off-site for some time. And i’ve finally found a way! I hope you enjoy this slideshow of pictures from the weekend. More slideshows to follow!
The Highlights
Meet the Land Rovers….
