Hola a todos,

Today is my last day in Santiago for a week. Soon I’m heading off to Valparaiso, 2 hrs away by bus, on the coast. As seems to be a pattern when I’m arriving or leaving, it has started to rain, bigly. The apps say 30mm,

with about the same where I’m going. Fortunately the host,Eduardo, at the destination has offered to pick me up from the bus station which is a big relief.

I went to another concert at the church of San Augustin: this time with an orchestra and some soloists. It was excellent, but I realised how peeving it is to have a pair of blokes sitting in front, unable to sit still, whispering sweet nothings in each others ears, taking videos with the phone held high. It was a treat when they left.

I went back to the Fine Arts museum, home of Odysseus and Calypso, and enjoyed a couple more of the sculptures: one, a descent from the cross, has the usual characters supporting the dead Jesus…

But from another angle…

Who is this nude chick who is ministering to the feet of Jesus with her hair? Could it be Calypso muscling in on the story? No, but it could be any one of a number of Marys: the gospels are a bit hazy on who did the weeping, the anointing or the wiping, but the sculptor clearly enjoys a good nude, and as Mary of Magdala has been given a bad rap in the last couple of millennia, here’s a chance to depict another. Rebeca Matte, the sculptor, died in the 1920s and was the preeminent Chilean woman sculptor of the century.

Another of hers in the exhibition is of Horace, the BCE Roman post, critic and author.

Here he is shown answering a young man who asked him for some advice during wartime.

‘What does a lone man have to do when confronted by three?‘

Horace’s answer was…you die!

The words of this interchange are written on the base of the statue…at the back.

One of his other bon mots was ‘carpe diem’.

At the front of the museum is a another statue of hers, this time of Daedalus and his son Icarus. They both were imprisoned by King Minos on the island of Crete. Daedalus, creator of the famous Labyrinth wherein lived the Minotaur, hatched a plan for them to escape…he made them wings from feathers and beeswax and anything else he could find, but cautioned his son not to fly too high (wherein the sun would melt the wax) or too low (wherein the moisture would clog the pinions). Icarus, overcome with youthful excitement and bravado, flew higher and higher, and you can guess the result. The moral is clear…listen to your dad.

Last letter I spoke of the trial of getting the phone registered. I did constantly check to see if it had been approved, all through the weekend, until I realised that they probably didn’t work on those days. On Monday morning however they were working, and the email arrived. Whew. I had thought of going back to the guy who had sought to take advantage of me, and vent, but venting in a half learned foreign language can’t be all that effective, and I’m sure he knew that what he was saying was deceitful, so my response would have been no news to him.

Last Friday there was a wine festival going on in one of the trendy side streets. Different wineries were present in an array of booths, and small samples were being doled out in small plastic cups. One bloke had a better idea…

On Monday I went to the General Cemetery. Quite a few of the political and social heavies are buried here, including Salvador Allende, the leader who was displaced by the military coup that brought Pinochet to power, and who committed suicide as the junta closed in…

The chicas on the school excursion seemed more interested in their phones, but a couple arose and gave a smile.

Other mausolea were more classical…

Another grave was of the guy who began the scouting movement in Chile …

And next to it the touching tribute…

The place was very peaceful with lots of big trees and birds everywhere.

Today is Wednesday 6th September. In one week I’ll be back here in Santiago ready to start the 3 week Spanish course. Hooley Dooley.

See you on the other side of the weekend,

Hasta la proxima

T