Festejemos en la granja Maldonado

It´s nothing but a constant party at the Maldonado Farm! We have been doing a lot of stuff. I´ll update you briefly on some of our adventures.

We have been helping out doing some trail work on a trail that has recently been cut through the woods on their land, and we made some flag poles to put up along the trail to mark it better. It´s pretty well marked already, but we were making it a little more blatant so people don´t get lost. Some of the trail work also involved lugging bags of rocks to put in a particularly mucky part of the trail. It was hard work ... rocks are heavy.

We´ve also been doing plenty of exploring around Chiloé. We went to a mythological park and got a tour of the various myths of the island ... of which there are many. Then we each wrote about one of the mythological creatures and put together a couple of skits to perform for the family. It was funny ... they enjoyed them, and so did we.

Yesterday we went to visit the Williche community, an indigenous community of Chiloé. It was interesting. We also went to a mussel farm ... that was cool. It takes a year or more for mussels to grow to the appropriate size for eating. And they´re damn good.

We also experienced the traditional dish of Chiloé called the Curanto. It is basically a huge dish cooked on hot stones under lots of leaves and sod - including, but not limited to, mussels and clams, potatoes, chicken, pork, beef, and some potato bread. It was really delicious. And we had a big party to go with it. We were up late, dancing and enjoying Chilean wine (which we have at almost every meal as well). Hardy, the Don of the family, asked me to dance three times and then called me his bailarina the next morning. He´s a hoot and a half.

Tonight we are doing our own Curanto, which should be interesting. I´ll keep you posted.

Like I said ... it´s a constant party here at the Maldonado Farm!

I´d love to hear what´s going on back in the states! Feel free to email me if you feel like sharing! I miss you all! adriannedawn1st@gmail.com

¡Ciao!

Adrianne