Our neighborhood in photos

Greetings from Castro Chile, or to be more precise, in the village of Nercon or to be exact: kilometer 1190.900 on the Panamerican Highway South. A few of you asked for more photos from our immediate neighborhood. So here goes. The first image is Berto waiting for the bus from the end of our driveway. The view is to the south towards Chonchi. The blueish roofs to the right are Cabanas San Jose. About half a mile south of our house is the edge of the Castro urban zone and where the Microbus (aka the micro) turns around. Micros come about every 5 to 10 minutes, cost 300 pesos(60 cents) for adults, are free for elementary school kids and get us the 2 miles to the center of town in about 5-10 minutes. Time varies by how many stops the micro makes. Lucky for us the micro stops just about anywhere someone is waving a hand. For us that means door to door service. This next shot is looking north towards Castro from our house. The Panamerican highway is more like a two lane state road by US standards. There is fairly constant traffic of cars and buses going about 30-40 mph. The occasional 18 wheeler hauling something related to the fish farms and fish canneries in the south of the island whiz by. Enough traffic that we are glad for the sidewalks but not so much that we have can't easily cross when we want to. Just up the hill and around the bend is the landmark of Nercon, the old church. The village of Nercon once was a few small houses around the church. Now it is more or less middle class houses along the main road and big fancy homes up the hills. The views Mike posted a few weeks ago of the bay and the Andes in the distance are what the folks in the big fancy homes have for a view. No buses go the 1 or 2 kilometers up the steep dirt hill roads. To get to that part of Nercon either folks drive their SUV (nouveau riche) or walk (old time locals). Back down on the Panamerican, the road to town goes by the water where the bay bows in. On our ride to school, Berto and I like to make note of the tide (marea alta o marea baja) and whether people are out clamming or collecting seaweed. One of our favorite adventures is the walk along the shore at low tide till the shore meets the road. Then we tromp home up the road to our house. Here's the view of the shore heading back to the mudflats behind our house.



And for those of you who prefer to get pinpoint accuracy or an aerial view. Here is the link to the google map satellite view of our house. If you click on the link you will note that Google maps doesn't have the roads and the pictures coordinated. Our house is the bright shiny roof above the green roofed house. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Castro,+Chile&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=37.956457,79.013672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Castro,+Chile&ll=-42.504592,-73.785456&spn=0.00108,0.002411&t=h&z=19
Further down the road to Castro we pass the most famous view of all the island: the palafitos of Castro. And since I can't figure out how to make the image fit the page and the sun has come out, I think I will go outside. Bye bye!