Santiago, part two

Thursday, March 24

After coming down from the Cerro San Cristobal we went back to the Plaza de Armes and visited the PreColumbian Art Museum. It's a small, well organized collection showing PreColumbian Art by district. These mysterious figures at the end of one gallery are carved, wooden, larger-than-life sized statues that were placed by graves. I believe they were supposed to be some protection for those buried, but don't recall their exact function.

Leaving the museum we were hungry and stopped in one of the many, many small restaurants. This one advertized a 1/4 chicken dinner, which proved excellent. The dinner came with a choice of French fries or salad, and we both had the salad, which was a heap of fresh tomato slices, accompanied by cold, sliced green beans and cold green peas. Just outside the window where we were sitting was a small park with a flourishing Hibiscus bush covered with flowers. A bus idled noisily by the curb, and we were relieved when it finally left.

One thing that struck me about Santiago was the large numbers of people walking around all the time. The sidewalks are crowded with people strolling along. Hardly anyone is striding briskly, as you would see in a North American city. You often see a pair of police officers in the crowds, looking very neat in their clean, pressed uniforms. The other notable thing is the number of people working at what must be very low wage, menial jobs. There are groups of people hand-watering the grass in parks, raking the bare ground, and even sweeping the sidewalks.

This city employee is using a unique "broom." The green cart shows that he is an official city worker.

Other people just make up their jobs. Many spread some wares on the sidewalk and sell from there. Some

are more inventive. We saw individuals stepping in front of traffic stopped at a red light to perform a sort of fake toreador act with red scarves. This couple had something unique: a high class gymnast/cheerleading act. They were very good. Did about a 20 second routine and then ran to the cars to see what they could collect. I do wonder what sort of take they get. It would be impossible to keep that high energy going for very long.

Again we stopped at a little shop to pick up some food for the evening. The two eggs proved NOT to be hardboiled as we thought. Fortunately they were in a plastic bag, and went directly in the trash, because by the time we had them to the hotel they were smushed! We had also bought a container of what we thought was yogurt, and had a hard time figuring out that it was probably sweetened, condensed milk. Fortunately the jelly donuts dusted with cocoanut and filled with some sweet custard were delicious!

I'd been on the lookout for an ice cream vender, as I am an avid fan of ice cream. And we found some, but I'm almost ashamed to admit where we bought it: at a McDonald's! We sat on the rim of the fountain near the hotel and enjoyed our indulgence.

This had been a beautiful day, with the temperature at +27º by 10:30 in the morning. In the evening people are out strolling, visiting, relaxing in the public places.

Back at the hotel we made arrangements for a wake up call and a taxi to the airport the next morning, then had a shower and a good night's sleep.

This picture goes with tomorrow's post, but I can't seem to get rid of it. Quite often, I'll lose a picture that I've put on the blog, but then again there are times like this when I can't make one go away. So this is the hostel in Punta Arenas, part of tomorrow's story. It's the yellow building with "erratic rock" painted just above the first floor. And we'll get there tomorrow.

Santiago

Having settled into our room, we took a rest. Dear Son #1 had a good nap and I read the novel by Picoult. At 5 p.m. we were revived and went downstairs to use the computers provided to guests. Quite frustrating, as they were OLD and EXTREMELY SLOW!!! But we did manage to confirm our hostel reservation in Punta Arenas for Friday and send a note to Jim that we had arrived safely.

We went for a walk starting in this very European area, the Paris/Londres (London) neighborhood around the hotel. The cobblestone streets and sidewalks certainly add to the European flavour here.

We stopped at a very small shop (three tables), run by a young woman and an older woman who was probably her mother, to have a bite to eat. We each ordered a sandwich, choosing from the list of fillings: jambon (ham) queso (cheese) and were puzzled by palta. What is palta? She held up an avocado. Yes, yes, that's good. Likewise, what kind of bread? When she held up the whole wheat, we said, Si, si. What a delicious sandwich that was! Was it the fresh ingredients, the lovely bread, or the good appetite? Before we left I used my first real Spanish phrase, from DS's phrase book, estabey buenissimo (phonetic spelling), or, That was just the best!

We walked along the Avenida Alameda, also named Avenue Bernard O'Higgins, toward the Cerro Santa Lucia, a very high, basaltic hill in the city. The entrance to this this lovely park is through this colonnaded area with pool and fountains. A uniformed guard asks you to sign into a guest book. There is no charge to visit this park.

The paths lead up the hill and there is something interesting around every turn. Statues, fountains, large freestanding brick entry ways, plazas, and especially people are around every winding of the path. Lots and lots and lots of people.

It was a beautiful evening, with the temperature around 32ºC, very warm, but with a nice, refreshing

breeze flowing up the hill. This is especially a park for lovers, and there are couples embracing everywhere. This cute couple found a unique way to overcome a

discrepancy in height.

We climbed to the very top and were rewarded with views of the city and the surrounding mountains. There was some haze, but perhaps not as bad as most days.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a small grocery store to buy a few things to eat that evening. The empanadas had no filling as expected but were very airy, deep fried pastries. After eating one, I felt I'd had my week's ration of oil.

March 24, Thursday

Breakfast is part of the deal here, and we were introduced to what turned out to be pretty standard fare: some cold cereal (not always included) a plain bun, a pat of butter, a bit of marmalade, a cup of Nescafé, and a small container of yogurt.

We made arrangements with the front desk for a room for our return trip, and the went out walking.

This is the Plaza de Armes, a very large open square park. Lots of place for people to walk, mingle, sit on a bench.

The Avenue Bernard O'Higgins is a very busy street with four lanes of hectic traffic in each direction. Pedestrian crossings are provided with lights, and are the only safe, sane way to cross that main thoroughfare. Many of the other streets are very narrow, parking on both sides or one side only, and almost without exception are one way traffic. These busy streets are compensated for by these wonderful open squares for pedestrians only and by the many parks sprinkled throughout the city.

We made our way to the Cerro San Cristobal, another abrupt hill within the city. We rode the funicular to the top and visited the shrine (?), a large statue with a nearby platform for religious services. The sign said, Silencio, but was ignored, most egregiously by the music coming from the loudspeakers. Not a place to inspire reverence.

We were a little disappointed by the Cerro San Cristobal, as there was not the same abundance of interesting sights as on the Cerro Santa Lucia. There was one "hiking" trail that led down the hill, and we went down that trail for a little way to this view of the city. Then we returned to the funicular and descended to the city again.

(To be continued)

Back Home Again

I arrived back home on Thursday around noon from a two week plus two day trekking holiday with #1 son. Came home tired, grubby, and with a cold that has been slowing me down. Lots of the tiredness came from the fact that I was three hours ahead of the local time. The plan had been to hang out in the airport until 6 p.m., when I would be picked up and taken to a rehearsal of Mozart's Requiem, a final rehearsal. A few days before the holiday ended, I realized the cold was bad enough that I had to cancel that arrangement. Instead the Dear One came and picked me up that morning. How happy I was to see him!!!

I have lots of notes taken day by day during our trip and lots of pictures, but they all have to be sorted and "edited" before they're ready for posting. But I'll just begin a little here today.

March 22, Tuesday

There's been snow falling since Sunday noon, and Tuesday morning brought white-out conditions. We left quite early for the airport, though my plane doesn't leave until 4 p.m. Better to arrive early and spend time reading than to do a nail-biter and maybe not make it.

Said goodbye to Jim at the dropoff for departures. Checked my backpack in and went through security. Then had lots of time to grab a bowl of soup and an iced cappuccino from Tim Horton's and sit down to read "Second Glance" by Jodi Picoult. It's not grabbing me, but that's what I have along.

Get to Toronto on time and go for a long hike through the airport to the gate for the flight to Santiago. My backpack, fortunately, is checked right through, so I don't have to pick it up for a transfer.

DS#1 is already at the gate and we're happy to see each other. He had a horrendous time getting to the airport in San Francisco because of a massive snowstorm through the mountains on Sunday, but he did make it, thank goodness!

The Air Canada flight to Santiago is about half empty, it seems, and it's a great, huge plane. As soon as we take off people grab the rows of empty seats, as this is an overnight flight. We have three seats for the two of us, and after eating a good meal served by the staff, we settle down. I'm surprised at how well I sleep on the plane.

March 23, Wednesday

Morning comes with breakfast served, again, a good meal. We land and deplane. There's our backpacks on the carousel, and there's the taxi from the hotel, holding up my name. We're all set.

Santiago reminds me very much of Phoenix, Arizona. Same type of dry surroundings, mountains shrouded by smog and lots and lots of traffic. We zip along and soon arrive at Hotel Plaza Londres, where we have reservations for two nights.

We're here!!! And we both wish we could go directly to the Torres Del Paine National Park, instead of spending time along the way. We made plans that include lots of transitional time, but now we are both anxious to begin the trek.

However, the weather is warm and lovely, and we have a good room with two beds and a private bathroom. So we settle in.

Not So Green!

Today is Saint Patrick's Day, the wearing of the green, for those so inclined. Alberta is not so inclined right now. There was a snowfall last night, heavy enough that the snowplows were out early this morning clearing our road. We live on a school bus route and it's usually cleared before 8 a.m.

When M. and I went walking the weather seemed lovely: mild temperatures (that's relative, of course), big, fat snowflakes falling gently down, and barely any wind. Later this morning the snow intensified, so our landscape is a beautiful, fresh white.

The sun came out in the afternoon, and there is a bit of melting going on. You can hear the roof draining through the downspouts. Our balcony thermometer reads +12º C, but that's on a brown, wooden post that has its back and side in the sun. The weather station at the airport is recording +1º C, so I guess the truth is somewhere inbetween.

I took some video of the snowflakes drifting down, but it seems my laptop doesn't want to recognize my video camera anymore. Thought I'd try posting a little video, but no cooperation there.

March 17 is my birthday, so we're celebrating today. Went out for dinner this afternoon, as we're used to eating our main meal at 1 p.m. When we got to the restaurant there was one other couple eating there, and later we had the place to ourselves.

Because I was born on St. Patrick's day, the doctor called me Patricia for a while. That wasn't my parents' choice. I was named Louise after my mother's favorite cousin who died when she was only 23, just before she was to get married. My Scottish aunt suggested Kathleen for a middle name, so that was chosen as my (Dutch/ American) parents' nod to the holiday.

I fooled around with the camera for a while, trying to get a good birthday photo as the Dear One is not a photographer. So here it is for what it's worth:

I'm grateful for my birthday, for each of the years that have been given to me, especially as my older brother and sister both died when they were only 45. I'm grateful for my good health, and I'm most grateful for the love of my Dear One and family.

This coming Tuesday I will be leaving for over two weeks for that hiking/camping trip with our older son. I won't be able to post during that time, but plan to take oodles of pictures. I'll be writing a log of the trip in a lovely little notebook given me by the women of the country quilting group. So long for now!

A New Habit Saves the Day

My usual procedure when I have trouble falling back to sleep in the middle of the night is to get up and begin my day. But in February there was one week when my day began at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. three times. I was totally useless after the third "early" rising.

So I decided I had to handle this differently. Now, when I know I'll toss and turn for some time, I get up and go downstairs to the spare bedroom. There I can toss and turn without disturbing Jim's sleep, and usually manage to fall back to sleep after an hour or so.

One night this week I went downstairs around 2 a.m. and noticed that the doors to the solar space were still closed. Here's a picture of the solar space with some of the many plants growing there. This space has no heating except what it receives from the sun during the day, and on very cold nights, what comes from having the doors to the inside open. With night-time temperatures dipping to -28ºC this week, it's very important to heat this space overnight, so I was very surprised to find the doors closed.

I went upstairs and asked Jim about it. What a scare that was for him! He came down and opened both doors and turned the furnace up quite high.

The temperature next to the windows was right at 0ºC, and if we hadn't discovered this problem, most of these plants would have frozen by morning.

How thankful he was!!! And I was glad that my new habit of trying to sleep downstairs had let us discover the closed doors before it was too late.

"Unsewing"

Over the weekend I began machine quilting the Block of the Month quilt, shown in the last post. In only two hours I had outlined each of the 12 stars and put a line of stitching just inside the border. Then I laid it out on the table and had a very upsetting discovery: it was full of wrinkles! Well, too full for me to find it acceptable.

Dear One, for whom it is being made, thought it was still passable. He's very easygoing about many things, wrinkles being one of them. (Thank heaven for that as we grow older!) But it just bothered me. As we were watching the weather forecast, and parts of "Les Miz," I felt more and more upset about this. Up till that point, the BOM had been a really fine project. It felt ruined now.

So I reached the difficult decision that all that work had to come out. I started right in and spent 2 1/2 hours "unsewing." This morning I picked it right up as soon as Jim had his breakfast (I eat an hour later because of my thyroid medication). Another 1 1/2 hours later and 5 of the 12 blocks have been "unsewed." With 12 blocks altogether, the "unsewing" is going to consume several more hours. BUT, it is worth it! In the end, it will be a lovely quilt, and I will be happy with it.

This BOM is the only project I've made in a long time that contains all new material. It's my major project for this winter, and I want to feel good about it when it's finished.

Two Projects on the way

(I have no idea how this first paragraph was underlined! Sometimes mysterious things happen on a computer!)
Yesterday I got down on the living room floor and hand basted this block of the month quilt, in preparation for hand quilting it. It will be for the dear one, seated reading on the love seat. Took me about 3 hours to finish basting the whole thing in approximately 8" squares. I was really looking forward to doing some hand quilting.

This morning I put it on the Q Snap frame and got started. But that's as far as it went. After about 12" of quilting, I gave up on it. I have plenty of experience handquilting, and can usually load 4 or 5 stitches on my little needle before pulling it through. But this was so exceedingly hard to push the needle through, I was averaging just 2 stitches before I had to pull it through. If I loaded on 3 stitches it was too hard to pull through.

The batt is 100% cotton, Quilter's Dream. So that can't be the problem. I think the trouble lies with the backing material. It's a beautiful, silky feeling cotton, which I suspect has too many threads per inch to quilt easily.

So after lunch I packed up my backpack and walked into town for some machine quilting threads to match. Too bad! I was looking forward to doing the handquilting and thought this quilt (and its recipient) deserved that kind of effort.

We've had unseasonably cold weather. So much so that today's walk was the first one this week. When the thermometer sits at -24º and the wind is blowing, the sensible thing to do is stay inside and sew. So that's what I did for the whole week.

First I was machine quilting a panel for a baby blanket. By 4 p.m. on Monday I was getting bored with that, so I started a new project.

This cute wall hanging was a pattern published in the

Quiltmaker magazine (issue #134). I had the pattern up on my design board ever since, and jumped into this week. It was fun! It's a paper pieced pattern, and proved addictive. Each block took about 20 minutes to make, and as soon as one was made, I started another. By Wednesday evening the whole piece except for the outer border was put together.

I didn't have enough of the variegated green to make a border, so went into town on Thursday to buy some more green. Found this and bought two fat quarters to make a 2" border all the way round.

I still need to take all the paper backing off the blocks. It was just the right project for a week inside.

Our string quartet gave its concert this past Sunday afternoon to a cozy audience of about 40 people at the Arts Academy. It went very well!!! We were all happy with our performance, and the audience likewise, indicated by the standing ovation at the end of the concert. We hope to repeat the concert at another location sometime in May, thus making better use of all the effort we put into learning and polishing the music.