This, that, and catch up

I realize we haven't blogged about the celebratory events lately, so this one will be a combination of Easter, Mother's Day, and Students' Day at Carpe Diem. And, before I get too far ahead, let's just share this photo of a recent Sunday paseo (hike) in the Nercon hills. Where else can you say "hi" in the morning and "yummy" in the afternoon?

First off, Easter... We returned from Punta Arenas Saturday night before Easter. Easter Sunday dawned Chiloe fallish...cloudy, overcast and temps in the low 50's. At around 10:30 we heard the bells tolling from Nercón church. Lisa dashed off for Easter mass only to discover that the bells were "get out of bed" bells and not "mass is starting" bells. Lisa returned at 11, the advertised time of mass, to a congregation of ten. In true Chilean fashion, mass started at 11:10 with people still strolling in at 11:30. Past that, Chilean Easter mass was pretty much the same as an Easter service in the US, but in Spanish.

Meanwhile, back at home, Easter celebrations hit full swing in the afternoon. Tía Margot and Piti were over while Monica y Luis were up to Luis's family in Ancúd. Lisa hid eggs in Tía Victoria's garden. Gabi and Roberto poked around looking for eggs. Tía Margot helped out with the egg discovery. Later, Berto and Gabi learned a new skill, car washing. Tía Margot reports that she was able to sell her car for many more pesos following the fine wash. Berto and Gabi seemed to have as much fun with car washing as they did with egg hunting. Maybe we have a new Easter tradition...

Mother's Day was another less-than-traditional celebration. Living on the Panamerican highway, we see the occasional long-distance traveler go by and wonder if they're coming from the Peruvian border, Panama, or Alaska. Given the option of taking a right on the Panamerican highway and travelling 20,000+miles to the end or taking a left and going less than 100, we opted to explore to the left. So, when Mother's day was a clear sunny day, we hopped on the south bound bus to Quellón and Kilometer 0 on the Panamerican. Clear days begin as frosty cold mornings here. The bus south whisked by frosty tinged fields and woolly sheep shrouded in a fog of their breath. We enjoyed the ride south. Shortly after passing Chonchi, the landscape changed. To the south, trees covered the hills, valleys were wider, and the country side opened up to wide vistas. Much more enjoyable than the flat, swampy landscape to the north on the way to Puerto Montt. Alas, Quellón is one of those locations where getting there is much more pleasurable than actually being there. Once off the bus we posed for a photo and set out in search of the end of the Panamerican. Thus far in Chile we've noticed that even the smallest towns have a Plaza de Armas at the center, a church on the edge of the Plaza and a Calle O'Higgins (the Geo Washington of Chile). Quellón seems to be the exception. We're told that, when the salmon boom came to Chiloe, Quellón mushroomed from 5,000 to 25,000 nearly overnight. If "overnight" means without any civic planning, we could tell within a minute. Quellón was utterly without even the shabbiest of charm.

The monument celebrating the end of the Pan-Am highway was no exception to the general disappointment of Quellón. A huge cement sacho (Chilote wood & stone anchor) at the end of a road that was under reconstruction. Even the name of the location is anticlimactic: Punta Lapa, or Limpet Point. The search for the famed bronze plaque at the end of the highway was in vain. Only a wood replica. Later when we looked more closely at the Wikipedia photos of the plaque we could deduce that the plaque had been pried out and stolen from the monument. Things must really be grim in Quellón! A photo of the wood sign and we were back on the bus to Castro. Home sweet home Castro.

We got back in time to join in an asado with Victoria, her sister and the family. Days like that make us both happy that we live were we do.