Sunday, February 22, 2009

trash

Today was the last day of the festival, and I´m glad it´s over. It was fun to go, and I enjoyed looking at the pretty things for sale and watching some of the cool traditional things, but it got a little old after a while. We made a good time out of it, even while it was raining, and got to see a lot of the process of making a wooden boat, which was super cool. And we continued to pick up trash, the amount of which did pick up when thousands upon thousands of people were there, but it still stayed remarkably trash free. I was impressed. We went to a Chilean rodeo today too ... which was pretty cool. My favorite part was the man and his horse who were working to help move the bulls. The horse was so pretty and so well trained, we were all impressed. I felt bad for the bulls, and it stressed me out a lot when people rode them, but it was worth it to see.

Tomorrow we get to pack up our things and clean the house a bit, and get ready to go to Quehui! We´ll be there for five nights, then on to Puerto Varas, our last stop for the trip before we head back to Santiago to head out!

I´ll update you upon our arrival to Puerto Varas. Wish us all luck with our homestays!!!

¡Ciao!
Adrianne

Friday, February 20, 2009

life at a festival

We have been working hard ... and hardly working ... at the Biodiversity Fair for the last couple of days. I think they have what has to be the cleanest fair grounds I have ever seen. Our job is to pick up trash, but there is hardly any to pick up. Let alone trash for ten of us to pick up. But it´s fun, and they laugh at us sometimes. But the lack of trash means we get to wander around and look at the merchandise. They have some interesting stuff to look at, and lots of us have bought things. They also have some animals that we have thoroughly enjoyed visiting.

We have had some very full days and they´re going by quickly. We have been getting up and cooking breakfast, then spending the day at the festival, then coming back and cooking dinner. It´s good though ... we´re having a good time, and Castro is great.

On Monday we head to Quehui for five days. We´ll be staying together as a group for the first couple of nights, then have two nights of homestays, so that should be fun. Then we´ll be back together for one more night before we head to Puerto Varas, the lake district, for ten days! The trip is flying by!

I think that´s about it for now.

¡Ciao!

Adrianne

Sunday, February 15, 2009

La capital de Chiloé

We are in Castro now, and for the coming week. Castro is the capital of Chiloé, the island we are staying on. Today it has been really rainy, and we went to a little festival in a nearby town - which ended up being a fun, but only for a little bit since we were all soaking wet and cold.



We have, otherwise, been wandering around town and enjoying the cafes and markets. There are TONS of markets in this town, and several large artisan markets. Lots of cool things. Many knit socks ... I feel a little weird about the idea of buying handknit socks since I make them. But I´m planning on buying wool!



We´ve been grocery shopping and cooking for ourselves as a group, which has been really nice. We are staying in a little house right in the center of the city, which is so nice since we can go out and wander around by ourselves if we want to. There are lots of internet places too. :) The house is authentic and has character, and there´s only one bathroom between the ten of us and the other guy that lives in the house. It´s a little cramped when we´re ALL trying to take showers, but otherwise it´s been fine. We´re getting used to using the bathroom together ... to say the very least.



Tomorrow afternoon we have a meeting with the municipality to see what we´re in for for this week. We´ll be doing some kind of service work for a couple of festivals that are going on. One is the Festival Costumbrista and we don´t know what the other one is. We´re hoping/planning on doing some variation of recycling ... so it should be good work.



So that´s what we´ve been up to for the last couple of days. I´ll keep you posted!



¡Ciao!



Adrianne

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

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

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Chiloé ... la finca de la familia Maldonado

We have finally made it to Chiloé and we are all glad to be here. We are staying at a wonderful farm owned by the Maldonado family. They have a great set-up and we are all very comfortable. Doña Luisa and Don Hardy are so amazing, and have some of the best laughs I have ever heard. Our schedule for the next eight days with the Maldonado family is lo mismo cada día - the same every day - breakfast (which is almost always bread or sopaipilla, peach jam or honey, coffee or tea) at 9:00, class in the woods at 10:00, a couple of hours of service, a big lunch around 3:00 with everyone, then a small siesta, sight seeing and going around the town in the afternoon and evening. It´s pretty much heaven on earth. It is so beautiful here on Chiloé and it just keeps getting better. This afternoon we went to the Mythological Park where they have recreated a lot of the mythological creatures of Chiloé, of which there are zillions. It was very cool. I took tons of pictures.

Oh, and another adventure involved witnessing the butchering of a cow from the farm ... I only saw it once it was skinless, headless, and hanging from its feet. It was pretty gross, but I know it´s good meat. I just can´t help it ... the baby cows are too cute for words and it´s hard to see their parents being butchered.

Until next time,

¡Ciao!
Adrianne