Chiloé

Well this weekend we headed off to the Isle of Chiloé. It's about nine hours South of Temuco and is in Patagonia. We headed to the bus station on Thursday evening without having booked a ticket. We really hoped there would be tickets available. Arrived at the bus station at eight pm and there were tickets, but the earliest one was at one am. So we waited around in the terminal in increasingly sleepy states until the bus arrived. It was a very nice bus, very comfortable. It instantly felt like we were back to travelling in the summer, when we got chatting to an Argentinian fellow who spoke English. It's weird talking English to people other than Amina. 

We arrived early on Friday morning, and explored Castro. Castro is the capital of Chiloé and is quite nice as city/towns go. It's quite small but then it is a small island. It's about the same size as Lautaro though with much better shops. We walked to the plaza and saw the giant yellow and purple church. 

The saw the palafitos which are houses on stilts over the water. 

We saw a plaza with old trains in it.

And lots of other weird buildings. It's generally quite a pretty little town. If you're down by the water and look up at the town it's just cute little wooden houses, apart from the giant mall that sticks out. Apparently the mall is a bit of a contentious issue. The locals all want a mall because Chiloé has never had one before, but all the people that move from Santiago or other cities to Chiloé want it to stay all pretty and traditional. 

The palafitos

We went to the smaller island of Quinchao which is near Castro. Went to the little town of Achao. It's very lovely. There are so many little islands around there. We sat by the sea and ate our lunch. Amina made friends with a stray dog. We walked around Achao and saw an old church. Churches like it are very traditional on Chiloé. Apparently they didn't know how to build anything other than boats, so they built boats and turned them upside down. It was really sunny on Friday which was apparently really lucky as usually it just rains. We walked up to a mirador before catching a bus back to Castro.

The view from the ferry

Even a stray dog made it onto the ferry

Amina and her new friend

An old church

Looks like Scotland

We found a really nice little hostel for the weekend. Marta the owner is lovely. Straight away calling us hija and mi amor. I think I'm really going to miss Chilean friendliness. We met up with Evie and Emelia, the two PT vols on Chiloé. We were on our way to eat when we saw that a dance show was about to start. Seeing as entry was free we thought why not check it out. It started a bit wobbly. A strange interprative dance which I really didn't follow. But the dances got better and better and I ended up really enjoying the show. The four of us went out to a famous restaurant after the show. Had some really tasty food.

Saturday we relaxed and caught up on sleep the bus journey had stolen from us. At midday we caught a bus to the National Park of Chiloé. It was really nice there. Quite open but very green. Chiloé reminds me of Scotland because it's very green and has lots of hills. Also it has clouds. Saturday was less sunny than Friday but it still didn't rain. For lunch we had milkao which is traditional Chilote food. It's like a potato circle with pork inside. It was very heavy and quite greasy but they filled us up. 

We walked through a little forest-y area. It was nice to be out in the countryside. Chile's weird because there is so much countryside around, but it's quite hard to get to it. There are no public footpaths so if you want to go out walking you have to walk along the road so you always have big trucks going past. So in some ways it can feel quite claustrophobic to be here because you can't just go out walking out of a city. We ended up by the sea. It was quite windy and very cloudy by this point. Looking at the mist covered beach it was quite easy to see how so many legends had been made about Chiloé. I could just imagine a mysterious ship pulling up to the beach. 

We found loads of these berries and they were really tasty. Don't worry we saw people with loads of them in a bucket and asked if they were safe to eat.

In the evening the girls came to our hostel and we made a great meal together. It was really nice to chat to they, seeing as we haven't seen them that much since being in Chile. 

Just the front of a palamito

On the ferry back to the mainland

The only time we'll ever see Chile from the sea

Sunday we just walked around Castro a bit with the girls before taking our bus home in the afternoon. We were slightly worried that we were going to miss the last bus back to Lautaro but we didn't and we arrived home at half 11 to a nice warm house and some food. Also to the surprise addition to our family. Our host sister Lilli has a puppy! She's so cute! She's called Lulu and is a one month old Schnauzer. This morning she was trying to eat my slippers as I was making porridge and we keep accidentally knocking her over. Aww she's adorable. Although she's going to have a hard time of it when Eli comes to visit Agustin in a couple of weeks. She's bringing Nanito (the 2 year old who loves cats and all other things).

Just A Little Blog

I apologise in advance for what's probably going to be a slightly boring blog. I was ill for the majority of last week so I wasn't really doing much more than lying around at home having Ruth bring me water and grapes.
Oh that's something. It's grape season here and there are some really fat grapes around. But they all have seeds. I'm always going to appreciate seedless grapes from now on. But yeh it's seems like it's going to be that sort of blog.

I'm enjoying seeing the changes in kids at school. How they've changed from last year. One boy Emiliano in segundo B has improved so much from last year. Last year he was quite badly behaved and wouldn't do his work. He's been held back a year and he is so much better now. Much better behaved, he does his work and he's actually really sweet. I think it might be because he's been removed from the influence of his old classmates. There are some crazy kids in tercero B. But the new segundo B's are really chilled, sweet kids.

We went to a birthday party at the weekend. One of the capoeira teachers 26th birthday. I can't believe he's only 26 because he is SOOOO good at capoeira. They start young. It's crazy. It was a really great party. It was at a friends house. Lots of dancing and of course and asado. I thought it was about time for another asado, it was nearly three weeks since our last one. I like the Chilean tradition of shoving the birthday persons face in their cake. But then when they give cake covered cheek kisses things can get a little messy.

It's getting a bit crazy because I am so used to giving cheek kisses that I'm starting to be surprised when the men don't cheek kiss each other. I always expect it even though I know they don't, they just shake hands. It's funny watching friends pretend like they're about to kiss each other.

That's really all I have to talk about. Autumn is continuing to be quite a pleasant season. The mornings are generally not too cold and the hot sun in the afternoons means we can continue to lunch in the plaza. There are some beautiful sunrises here in the mornings. I'll try and get a pic and put it on my next blog. My current plan is to learn how to make kuchen from Ruty. It's really tasty.

PT Visits

Another busy week. I swear it's going to be time for me to go home before I know it.

Felicity visited us this week. We met up with her and the girls from CholChol in Temuco last Sunday. I should probably mention that Felicity is the PT Chile desk officer. She's really nice. We had a really nice day together sitting in cafes and going up the big hill in Temuco that we've always meant to go up, but never have. We got really nice views of the city from up the hill. It was a bit weird, it felt like walking up a hill in the UK. Seems that hills are the same wherever you go.

How do we get up this hill?

The view of Temuco

The copihue, the national flower of Chile

Is that a child I see in the kids play area? Oh no, it's Amina...

On Monday Felicity went to CholChol and arrived in Lautaro on Monday evening. We went for a little walk to show off the views we have of the volcanoes, then came home from a great dinner of sopiapillas. On Tuesday we took her to our school. It was interesting having her there because everyone told her things that they never tell us. Just that they're happy with us and that they think we're doing well. It was also nice because Felicity said that she thought my Spanish was really good. It's nice to hear that becuase you forget that you've improved. There's always something new to learn and when you forget something it feels like you can't talk at all. I think I'd forgotten that I used to not be able to speak Spanish at all.

We implemented our new classroom rules. Lets hope they work!

We took Felicity on a little tour of Lautaro. That basically consists of the river and the park. There's not really much here. We went to the little fish farm in the park. The only time we've ever had to pay to get in.

Felicity was totally amazed by our house. I don't think she realised it was so lovely. Ruty is the best mum and our house is so comfortable. The other night we got home from capoeira to find two puddings waiting for us, extra blankets on our beds (it's getting so cold now) and hot water bottles hidden under the covers. She's so amazing!
So yeh it was really nice to see Felicity and meet her. All the kids thought the three of us were related and seemed quite sad when we told them the next day that she wasn't coming back.

Ruty had to take this photo at such an angle that I not only look giant, Amina looks tiny.

The after-school club on Wednesday was good. The kids were more awake so they got a little more done. They're so cute. Although they still think I'm from Peru. I don't know how!
Walking home while it was raining was fine, for me. I had the umbrella. Amina had to prove how crazy/free she was and decided she didn't need one. Crazy girl walked home and got all wet and unsurprisingly got ill.

Thursday was the first day I'd been in the school without Amina. It went alright. I helped Pamela by translating a CV for most of the day. I like translating. There was a staff meeting going on while I was working in the staff room and they kept offering me sandwiches and tea (I think I made them feel bad by working through break).
I bought Amina some milk and biscuits on my way home because someone has to look after her. She told me that she's become addicted to the judge programme that Ruty watches. It's like Judge Judy but about 100 times more condescending. And there's about four programmes all called the same thing, just with different lady judges.

The municipalidad has gone crazy and decided to cut all the branches off the trees. They were still green and everything. Now they look really ugly. There are some things I just don't understand about Chile.

The weekend has passed super fast again. I taught a friend some English on Friday, followed by capoeira.
We went to a friends house on Saturday, followed by capoeira.
Today we went to the park to do some capoeira.
You'd think I'd be good at capoeira now wouldn't you.

Busy Busy Busy

Hello everyone.

This past week's been pretty good. Work has been going pretty well. Ingrid, sadly, is off for three weeks to rest. We hope she's better soon. She's so sweet. Thankfully the school has been on the ball and has hired a replacement teacher. Pamela is really nice and is a great teacher. She's happy to let us participate loads and she has lots of ideas. We're going to try and instigate some classroom rules to make teaching a bit easier. Sometimes the kids are awful and it can be really challenging to teach them. So me and Amina are making a Golden Rules poster for the wall. We've also cleaned the classroom and want to get permission to repaint it. We have the idea of getting some kids to help us and having a little party when it's all spruced up.

The after school class on Wednesday was good. Everyone was pretty sleepy so we just did some songs and poster making. One primero girl actually fell asleep. Pobrecita.

Capoeira's been going really well since the summer. The teacher Remo is really good and helps everyone. Learning the songs and music is fun. The songs are in Portugease because capoeira started in Brazil. The instruments they play are berimbau, atabaque, pandero and cogo. It sounds really good. And the people there are so nice.

Some of our capoeira group

Yesterday we went to an asado with some teachers from the school. It was nice. Some of them we'd talked to more than others so it was nice to talk to everyone. It was reassuring to see that the headmaster was as awkward with everyone else and not just us. But then it must be strange being someone's boss, having a different sort of relationship.

So yeh things have been good recently. Feeling really busy with school and capoeira and meeting friends. Time seems to be passing very quickly. Keep meaning to do things and forgetting because I get home so tired. All week I'd been meaning to wash my jumper. Finally remembered this morning and found that Ruth did it yesterday. What a great lady. The ants have arrived for the season. Find them crawling everywhere. We can't have any food in our room lest they sniff it out and invade. Apparently they're always here in Autumn. It rained for the first time in ages yesterday. We ran from the bus stop to the house, couldn't have been more than two minutes, and we got absolutely soaked! Ruth just sort of tutted and told us to get changed.

Our desk officer Felicity is visiting Lautaro on Tuesday. We're going to spend tomorrow in Temuco with her and the CholChol girls. Should be good.

Happy Easter

Well this week's been pretty average. Working. Getting headaches from the noisy kids. Hanging out with friends. The usual.

The most interesting thing, really, to happen this week is that on Wednesday we started an after school English class for kids at a different school. They didn't really seem to know much English so we definitely have our hands full. Through songs, games and board cartoons we managed to teach something to them. And they enjoyed picking their sticker when they'd finished their posters. It was really nice. We have loads of ideas of things to do with them so we're really looking forward to the coming weeks.

Yesterday was Easter. As we were told you say "feliz pascua del conejo" for Happy Easter. I hope that's right. Sometimes our friends get cheeky and teach us the wrong Spanish so that they can laugh when we say something wrong. We did a lot of baking this weekend. Sadly we left our first batch of cookies in the oven for about 10 seconds too long and they were reduced to blackened rocks. Not surprisingly, the family declined when offered one. 

After a big Sunday lunch with the family, we went to the park to meet up with our friends. General silliness ensued. We took rocky road and cookies and our friends brought milk so we had a great little picnic. Here's a few pictures to finish off this little blog.

These are our two faithful street dogs who are always around to welcome us home from work

I swear that dogs not dead

These are the sort of Easter eggs you get here. Either that or tiny little eggs. But the chocolate's not really that tasty.

Travel and Teaching

Well I don't know about you guys but I have had quite a busy week.

I should probably start with last weekend when we went to Valdivia with some friends. The first day we actually went to a little village just outside of Valdivia called Niebla. It's by the coast and is just a really pretty little place. The ocean was really calm there and there wasn't a lot of wind... pretty much the opposite of Puerto Saavedra, which I have found out has the windiest shores of Chile. We walked along the beach for ages and ended up reaching the next village 20 kms away. It was really sunny and really nice. We found some blackberries to help us with the walk back.

On the second day we went into Valdivia and walked around the botanical garden. Found lots of stray dogs that followed us around all day. They were close friends by the end. We went to the Fluvial Market which is set up next to the river. It has vegetables on one side of the market and fish on the other. Sea lions swim up from the sea to eat the discarded fish parts. They're huge! Not nearly as pretty as the seals we saw in Valparaiso. We didn't really do too much more in Valdivia. We did run into two girls that we met in Puerto Iguazu in Argentina! The world is small.

we found llamas

Our weeks been pretty busy as Ingrid has been off work all week because she's ill. So we arrived on Monday with no idea that we were going to have to take all the lessons ourselves. Ingrid had left us a note with what to do with the classes but other than that we were left on our own. This was interesting. We're in a strange position at the school. We're not teachers but we're also not proper assistants. The kids sort of give us respect but are also a bit more relaxed (naughty). So we end up kind of being teachers and kind of being friends. Some of the classes were really good and listened to us and did the work (of course not all the kids do, but then they don't usually). Some of the classes were horrible. We've employed lots of songs to entertain the children. We know all the words to them all because we've heard them all so many times. Tuesday is our worst day of the week because all the classes are with older children. And the bad ones. The older kids don't listen as much and behave worse. So we left school very wearily on Tuesday, after hearing that there was a substitute English teacher starting the next day.

The new teacher is very friendly and a good teacher. She's nice because she lets us be a bit more involved in the class. It was a bit weird telling her how things went in the school and what we were doing with the kids. But the week did get a little easier with her around. Still we were very happy when the weekend arrived. I did enjoy getting that teacher experience. It's something we don't really have any more because we're not teaching in Vega Larga any more.

Yesterday we did some mega shopping and then went to capoeira. There's a new instructor who's really good and takes us through all the music and movements. He's also doing a good job of recruiting new people because the class was about twice as big as usual. It was a really good class yesterday.

Off for lunch now. Have to try and eat and breathe at the same time as I have a cold.