It's been a while since I posted on here, as things have been a bit busy with settling in back here in England. I can report, so far, so good, and I am now starting to feel like I might have a bit of spare time to communicate again. Life here is just as I had hoped it might be. A little lonely for now, but it takes time to break into communities where you know no-one, so I am using my patience and trying not to dwell on all the friends we left behind. Mary has settled very well into her lovely primary school, and Jude has just started 2 days a week at a pre-school which is giving me a bit of child free time. We have chosen a fantastic place to live, very close to the open spaces of Salisbury, excellent for both walking and cycling. The house we are renting is right next to a cycle path which goes all the way into town. This is just such a boon for me. Last week I slipped into another relapse and so we went out and bought a mobility scooter. Something we have discussed for a long time, but we were never able to follow it through in Chile. So now I can zoot around to school, to town, and to the various activities the girls do, using the cycle path. Ah, independence! The girls love my scooter almost as much as I do. They love to ride on with me, and I have been amazed at how accepting of it they have been. They have reacted like I have always had one.
Our last couple of months in Chile were fun, trying to explore and spend time with friends before moving on. One of our favourite trips was a visit to a Mapuche village near the Lakes District in the South. If I may rewind back to September, I can share with you this wonderfully special trip we made with our really good friends. I actually wrote this back in November, but never got a chance to post it, so here it is, better late than never!!
Mapuche visit
As part of our desperate attempt to see more of Chile before we left, we decided to take advantage of a day Ross could spare from work. In the airplane magazine whilst flying from Easter Island we had seen an article about staying in a traditional Mapuche village further south from Santiago. The programme they offered sounded really interesting and as we love cultural experiences, we jumped at the chance to go.
Our great friends decided at the last minute to join us which made the experience so much more special. It was a solid 10 hour drive to get there and we only had 3 days to spare!! The programme was 2 days and 2 nights so we slept for a few hours on the Friday night, got up at 1am and drove the 10 hours to arrive at 11am the next morning. It was a long but easy journey and the co-ordinator Nadia was there to greet us with a fire burning in our ruka and a breakfast of freshly made traditional bread, jams and a type of coffee made from wheat (which even I enjoyed!). The scene was spectacular. The tiny village edged a large lake, lago budi, and the ruka was set up at the top of a field with prime views of the lake.
Our first activity was a boat trip on the lake to the island in a small rowing boat. The man who rowed for us also acted as our guide on the island to show us the native flora that grows on the island. He was very knowledgeable and was able to answer Mary’s many questions along with ours too.. Having heard about the rain which falls frequently in the south of Chile we went prepared. It turned into an interesting excursion as the rain began to fall as soon as we got on the boat and set in for the rest of the day. We were able to find shelter under the trees of the island until moments of abating when we advanced around the island. We felt quite wet by the time we got to the restaurant for lunch! The girls were delighted to see a piglet suckling from its mother and were quite amused by their first sighting of this.
Our friends, the Allen's met us at lunchtime and we enjoyed drying out near the logfire whilst eating some good traditional food in good company. The people we encountered were so friendly and we were always greeted with big smiles by all we saw. As we walked back from the restaurant an elder was riding by on his horse, and of course he was enchanted by the girls. He stopped and greeted us, teaching us the phrase for Good-day, which, easy for us to remember, is Mari-Mari. An invitation followed to Mary to get up on his horse, which, of course she readily accepted.
An excellent activity for a wet, cold afternoon was to snuggle around the fire inside the ruka and learn all about the techniques of dying and weaving using wool. Nadia the young lady who greeted us, taught us, with the help of her mother and great aunt firstly how they dye wool using onion skin, a fascinating process which is so simple. Varying shades are achieved just by the amounts of skin used or the amount of time which the wool is boiled for.
After this we were shown the art of weaving on a handmade loom. No fancy machines to be found here, they really were basic but self sufficient. This was a major form of income for them. The children had fun watching the lady and each of us had a turn afterwards. It looked quite complicated but none of us expected that it would be as complicated as it was.
The children tried their hand at weaving but were much happier sitting by the fire drinking matte, the traditional herb tea, with Nadia and her mother. A large cup is filled with herbs and covered with hot water and left to steep then drunk through a metal straw. We enjoyed our supper and our beds that night, so much so that we were all so exhausted after the long drive we couldn’t even bring ourselves to socialise after the children all went to bed!
The next day the sky was blue and the sun was shining, making for beautiful views out over the lake. More activities awaited us which were much more enjoyable with the beautiful sun warming our backs. After the traditional breakfast with their special bread and coffee, the lesson for the morning was medicine. Great aunt has a herb garden where she has growing a large selection of plants with medicinal properties. It was fascinating to go around and learn about the different uses of known and unknown herbs from around the world. Mary took a great interest in this and wanted to know everything about what was growing. She loved smelling everything and having inherited my heightened sense of smell was able to identify certain plants which we often use at home.
Waiting patiently for the end of the lesson were a group of horses which were available to us for a ride through the village. Our friends are not big horse fans, but all credit due to them, they climbed on the horses so that their children didn’t miss out. Mary set off on her own horse, having ridden alone before, and the other three we each had with an adult. Unlike before when I rode with Jude, there were no blankets for the kids to sit on so they soon became uncomfortable. Soon all the children were riding on their own and I was the only adult still in saddle! It was a lovely gentle stroll through the village, an ideal way to get the children more riding experience.
After a lovely morning we sat down to some well needed food. They served simple, interesting food which is creative and uses all parts of a type of food. During the afternoon we were to find this out first hand as they had planned a cookery workshop for us. This was lots of fun and certainly an eye opener, both good and bad, into culinary ways. There were some recipes that we will repeat and some we most certainly won’t! One we won’t be repeating was a pudding called milkao which is basically potato balls boiled in sugared milk. I think all the children left it… but it was lots of fun learning to make empanadas, quinoa juice and quinoa salad, pan rescoldo (bread cooked directly in the coals of a fire) and delicious herbed fried fish. The thing which let them down was, like in the rest of chilean culture, the vast quantities of oil, salt and sugar which is used. Nevertheless we had a delicious supper prepared by our own fair hands.
After supper we went to a display of traditional dancing given by the youngsters of the village. Barefooted and heavily clad in silver jewellery, they danced with branches and sticks, to the beat of a drum and toot of a whistle. The dancing is not used much anymore except at special ceremonies, and only a small number of youngsters are still taught the dances at home. We were invited to dance with them at the end of their performance and it was fun to watch our young children interacting with the young adults and trying to mimic their dancing style.The dancing was a fun way to round off our 2 night stay. The children had lots of fun running around in the fresh air. They loved the company of their special friends and many a game of tag, hide and seek and run in the rain was enjoyed!
The next morning after the typical breakfast which we had together one last time, we had to pack up and drive the 10 hours back to Santiago. The others, sensibly had decided to combine it with a trip to Pucon so had a much shorter on going trip than ourselves. Before leaving we enjoyed watching the oxen ploughing the fields in the traditional old style of farming. A round up in front of the ruka for a group photo enabled us to display our knitwear that we had purchased from the ladies of the community. Staying in a ruka was definitely a first for our friends and for us it was a little like being back in Africa. We were extremely grateful for the fire as the nights were cold, but its’ smell was impregnated into everything we owned! It was a trip which will be forever in our memories.
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