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| After getting pain meds! |
WOW!! Seriously, is it less than a month until Christmas? It’s easily been six weeks since I’ve posted and so much has happened. We experienced a few beautiful days in Chile and on Easter Island, one of which Steve was in the hospital for a kidney stone; we’ve again started the rounds of “peak time social events” and I recently took an ESL teachers training course. Not exactly a “lay-by-the-pool” type of retirement. But it’s certainly been interesting.
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| Sunset on the snow-capped Andes |
First of all, the trip to Chile and Easter Island was amazing. Santiago is a beautiful and extremely modern city. You’d never know you were in a South American country – except for the language. We did struggle because their Spanish is very different from the Mexican Spanish, but thankfully, we had English-speaking guides on our numerous tours. It was when Steve went into the hospital and also when we went shopping that we struggled – mostly me! I had check Steve in and then pick up some meds for him at a pharmacy where you take a number same as in a deli; then you give the note from the Doctora, and the clerk comes back with the packet of medicines. You have to be sure it’s the right things because in Mexico, the people in the farmacias are not trained, and they may give you anything. In Chile, I had no way of knowing, but I got the pain drugs that Steve needed with relatively little problem. When I stopped into The Body Shop on the way back, the young woman there followed me around the shop talking constantly. I kept saying in Spanish, I’m just looking, I don’t understand and I don’t speak Spanish but she wouldn’t stop. I bought some little tubes of lotion and left as quickly as I could.
Fortunately, our first three days were spent sampling and appreciating the wine region around Santiago, days when Steve was perfectly healthy. There are several valleys and numerous wine regions to choose from. We visited six vineyards over three days, and it was fascinating how the different valleys with different soils, climate conditions and processes can change the taste of the wine. These tours gave us an excellent taste of Chilean wine. We enjoyed the tours of the vineyards and presentations of the different methods of making the wine and of course, getting to taste the various examples. | |
| The rest of their bodies are underground. |
Our time on Easter Island, Rapa Nui, was mind blowing! The island is exceptionally remote – it’s 3,500 kilometers from Santiago and even further from other land masses, so we had a five and a half hour flight from Santiago. You don’t get a lot of modern amenities in Rapa Nui – the hotel was bare minimum basic, and we had hardly any Internet service. We had to sit in the lobby and hope there wasn’t anyone else trying to access the Internet at the same time.
The tours of the most famous Moai were the most incredible things to experience. You can’t possibly imagine how people a few hundreds of years ago with minimum tools could carve these massive statues weighing hundreds of tons and then how they would move them to their locations. Once in the location, they were hoisted onto massive platforms. There was a lot of walking over “rough terrain” (rocks and hills) and it was hot, but it was worth the experience! This island is so remote and thousands of miles from anything else so it’s definitely not something that an everyday tourist wants to experience. This meant that it wasn’t overrun with tourists and we had full days of exploring the sites of the Moai.
As soon as we returned, we got back into our day-to-day lives with feline shelter tours, donor meetings and catching up with friends for dinners. In the second week of November, I started a 2-week course for Teaching English as a Second Language. It was intense with lots of reading and homework as well as in-classroom instruction, presentations and hands-on teaching in a Mexican school. The program is offered from a group in Canada, so we had to cram a month’s worth of work into two weeks. This studying, which I wasn't used to, was on top of our busy “catching up” social schedule so most days I was burning the candle at both ends – up at 4 am to do my homework and in bed at 10 – 10.30 so that I could fall into an exhausted coma. I definitely now have a higher regard for what teachers go through!! Lesson plans plus having to cope with very high energy kids – how on earth did you do it day after day?
We’re continuing our Cuale spay and neuter volunteering every first Sunday of the month. Somehow, I was “voted in” to keeping the clinic schedule as well as setting up an English Facebook page and liaising with a Spanish friend who is doing the Spanish Facebook page. I need to keep it active now, so those of you on Facebook will see several posts. Somehow, this all seemed to evolve while I was away – or maybe not paying attention! I have to admit, offering the free clinic is something that I’ve become passionate about, though, because there are so many street dogs and island cats and the Mexicans don’t have the same regard for animals that the North Americans do. It’s an educational process and one that the PuRR Project is addressing at a very early age through the handing out of coloring books in schools. These little books (in Spanish) tell kids how to care for their pets (mascotas) and have been tremendously popular with the kids. The last clinic, we even had a little girl of about 8 bring her parents and their two dogs to get fixed because of the coloring books’ message.
I also was roped into helping with a charity fashion show that took place this last Saturday afternoon. I produced the menu/program, table numbers and helped the organizer out on the day with anything and everything. I do want to help because I love these people but I also definitely need to learn to say NO!
Christmas is coming up and here in Mexico, and there are so many fiestas leading up to Christmas week. We have the posadas (parades) that begin on the 12th of December for Our Lady of Guadalupe. These run for two weeks and get bigger and bigger each night. There are lots of other fiestas too. And best of all, my daughter and her two sons are coming for a visit on the 28th and will be here for just over a week! We’re planning on playing on the beach, snorkeling, paddle boarding, boat trips (hoping to see dolphins and whales), turtle releases, markets, maybe zip-lining and lots of tacos. We have so much planned for the boys; they will go home completely exhausted.
Oh -- I did my autumn leaves before we left for Chile.
And now it's time to put up Christmas decorations. We can't wait to see how Kato reacts to a decorated tree.
