We woke up this morning to a freezing house again. The temperature was 50 degrees F. I really struggled to get out of bed. The fire just did not last through the night. So I tried to quickly get a HOT shower and then get dressed. Guess what, the water was not hot and the water pressure was so low that I could barely get the soap off my body. Once we were both ready it was over to the abuelos house for breakfast at 9. We had something that was very similar to homemade dough nuts, but I have no idea what they were calling them. These were plain and we put honey, or black berry jam, or rhubarb jam, or powdered sugar on them ourselves. They were great.
After breakfast, we drove to the city of Castro, to visit the artists market. This city is also the home to the last houses on stilts in Chile, and, what I am told is, the most famous church in Chile. I had no idea how cool the houses on stilts were until we were right there looking at them. Every picture that I took of them look as if they should be on a postcard. The Church was very beautiful as well, and I now understand why it is the most famous church in Chile. One of the pictures of the church that I took was I think the exact same picture as on a postcard that found at the artists market.
The artists market was the next stop. This is where there were all kinds of different artists that sell just about anything and everything you could possibly think to buy. The other amazing thing about this is that everything is hand made, everything. I really had to resist buying a lot of things. I did however make 3 purchases and they were things that were special to the island of Chiloe. I was quite impressed by the quality work that was availible, the hats were amazing and there was all kinds of furniture that I wish I could fit in my luggage. The other thing that was amazing was the price. I bought 4 different things and only spent like 9 US dollars.
After the artists market it was back to the house for lunch. We were told that we were in for a treat for lunch and to return hungry, this was not a problem considering lunch is usually around 3 or 4 (I don´t think I will ever get used to that). On the way we had to stop for a few more pictures of the houses, and the boats that last time we passed were laying on the beach and this time were floating. I find their way of parking the boats on the beach to be very picture perfect. The one city that we drove through that had the best views of the boats was Quemchi. I really think that some of these pictures will have to be blown up and framed.
When we got home, I could smell the feast as soon as we pulled into the drive way. The first thing that I noticed was that both of the cars were removed from the carport. Then I saw the smoke. There was a fire already started underneath the carport an extremely large amount of meat on a stick resting on two supports over the fire. It smelled delicious. My abuelo told Pancho that one of the neighbors owed them a lamb, so they claimed it this morning and prepared the feast. The fire was built early this morning so most of what remained were red hot coals. We salted the meat and for the next 2 and a half hours we drank wine and took turns turning the meat. The most interesting part was that we never left the fire. Once the meat was done we would just cut some off and put it on our plates, if you wanted seconds you would just cut some more off. It was delicious and I ate so much. I was ready for nap time.
After a short nap we took a trip to another neighbors house to help the abuelos get some more fire wood. They were beginning to stock up for the winter (a wood burning stove is their only form of heat and their means for cooking food). I was more than happy to help load the truck because I no longer felt bad about taking wood to try to heat our small house. Perhaps tonight we will be able to keep the inside temperature above 50 degrees F. We returned home, unloaded the wood and guess what, it was time for dinner (I was praying for something very very lite, I was still full from lunch). Luckily it was only Once (spanish word for evening snack, also the number 11) tonight. This meant tea and bread and something sweet. The rest of the family was off to bed. Marshall and I took some tea and snacks back to our house and got the fire going. We struggled with the flu so at one point the house got pretty smoke filled. Other than that we just sat around and talked and tried to stay warm.
Just before I fell asleep, I could help but think, how much I wish Aimee were here to experience all of this with me.
