Moving to Chile - the first 10 days

As I write this, the sun is rising across the city of Concepcion, Chile. I've come to this part of the world from my home in Canada (see my tiny house blog) because of my wonderful wife Grace. We are here working and exploring while making our new lives together.

Outside, wraiths of mist were sliding along the Biobio river earlier, occasionally making forays out across the wide band of treed floodplain and sliding into the city streets, then retreating again to the river. In the west, a bank of fog still hangs over the ocean. From where I sit, I can look out across the little lake (known as Laguna Grande), across the tan grass of the winter wetlands, the row of leafless trees backed by a further row of evergreens, across the jumbled band of housing of the Lomus Colorado district, and out to the ocean, stretching into the horizon behind it's thin veil.

People seem to have a great love for dogs here. There is a row of houses in a street below our apartment in which quite a large number of dogs reside. These particular dogs are of an extraordinarily tireless breed and appear to be capable of barking continuously without any need for sleeping or eating. They carry on a loud and lively conversation on a more or less constant basis. Thankfully, they are far enough away that their voices blend somewhat with the more soothing rumble and hum of the city and one can almost not notice them after a while.

Life, as I have said to a few people lately, is life wherever one goes. People are people and it doesn't really matter in what city or country or on what continent or in what language. We eat and sleep, have work and relationships and struggles and in the end it doesn't really matter a great deal where we are doing it. However, there are different rhythms to different places, and while the instruments may be mostly the same, the music can still be somewhat different.

A few impressions so far:

People work harder here, I think. The standard work day is nine to six rather than nine to five and staying late at the office after work is quite common. This translates into a need to push other activities later into the evening and so dinner is usually at 8 or 9 rather than 6 or 7, or sometimes 5, like in Canada. Parties and gatherings often go late into the night and then later into the early morning hours. People seem to be able to do this and then still get up and go to work in the morning. However, naps are a bit more common when there is an opportunity.

There is a more stark line between those who have and those who don't and poverty is more evident. Despite this, Chile is a very developed and orderly sort of country.

I've been a bit frustrated with grocery shopping. They don't have the idea of buying things in large quantities here and so you have to buy 1 kg of flower, or 100 gm of quinoa. Everything comes in small sizes, and I find myself craving a trip to Costco. I'm a bit ashamed of this...  :-)

People, though, are friendly and kind. My few forays into the world without Grace present to translate and communicate have met with enthusiastic support despite my lack of language ability, and some fun conversations in Spanglish with taxi drivers and store clerks.

There are fences everywhere, often topped with sharp objects or pointed posts or razor wire and this gives the impression that it's not completely safe. However, I have not ever felt threatened or worried, in any of the places I have visited in Chile, and I have found the people to always be honest, helpful and kind.

Places and events

Our first dinner at home, after I arrived. Married life begins (for real, now that we actually are living together)  :-)

a beautiful present from Grace - a hand made woolen poncho, made by a Mapuche woman that Grace knows:

Grace's son and daughter, Andres and Francisca, were here for a four day weekend these past four days. While they were here we did a day trip up the coast to the north, driving from Concepcion to Cobquecura. The trip is about an hour and a half, generally, but we arrived at Quirihue just as a big bike race was starting. It was fun to see several hundred racers zoom by, but also a bit slow having to follow them all the way to Cobquecura. We therefore decided to take a "shortcut" and took a back road instead.

Grace and I are quite fond of shortcuts actually. We take them quite often and always find that they take longer than intended, are rougher and muddier than intended and are also much more interesting and at times beautiful than expected. This was the case again and so we had quite an interesting journey along the edge of the Itata river and then the ocean, on a narrow and winding road with only an occasional vehicle appearing around a blind corner and keeping the driving interesting.

Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures. Here are two though, of one of our stopping points along the way:

and the restaurant - La Esquina - in Cobquecura. Good food!

The fish is merluza, a very tasty fish somewhat like cod but less grainy and better tasting:

Papas salteadas - fried potatoes, but better. An interesting note is that one of the many disputes about origins of things between Peru and Chile is the dispute about the origin of the potato. Chile says that potatoes originated in Chile, on the island of Chiloe. Peru says that potatoes came originally from Peru.  Another dispute is about the origin of the rather delicious drink - the pisco sour, and more importantly pisco in general. Pisco is a very strong distilled alcohol made from grapes.

We also visited, on another day, Talcahuano and the village of Tumbes. It is a small fishing village about half an hour from where we live.

Talcahuano is the home of a ship called the Huascar which is the result of a somewhat more serious dispute between Peru and Chile in 1870. It is a steam ship, purchased from England by Peru and eventually captured by Chile in a series of heroic battles still talked about. We were unfortunately not able to visit it, however, as we forgot our ID and it is in a navy facility that doesn't have a sense of flexibility about procedures.

The Huascar

Talcahuano, waterside

Sidewalk sales

waterfront

 and Tumbes.  Dry dock...

Lots of seafood

Piures and machas.

and boats from which to catch it

This pelican seemed very happy with its perch in the boat:

This one doesn't float very well:

And lunch in the famous "a la pobre" (of the poor) style, which means you get french fries and a fried egg (or two) with it. Portions are usually pretty big. The fish here is reineta, another of the locally caught species. It tends to fall apart more easily than merluza and so is generally cooked in a batter. Grace and I generally by one plate and share it and are quite happily full. The picture also shows a mostly gone, but very tasty, pisco sour.

and finally, not to leave out the cultural experience, we were able to meet with Sergio Jarlaz. He was the winner of the Chilean "X factor" - a Chilean singing competition program, in 2011, and he was also a student of Grace's mother for quite a few years. He will be singing in an opera (Lucia de Lammermoor) in Concepcion at the end of the month and has invited us, along with Grace's mother to attend. He's a very nice person. :-)

So, though quite a lot more has happened and there could be more to say, I will end with this for now. Until the next time - love from down here in the southern hemisphere...  :-)