Hi everyone,

I’ve fallen into a routine here…breakfast, go to the school (where the lessons are going well), lunch on the way back, do the homework, have a sleep, go downtown and people watch, crawl back up the stairs, have some bread and cheese and wine for dinner, fall into bed.

They are really keen on processions here, and there seems to at least one every weekend.

Last weekend was the festival for…

This particular manifestation of the Virgin seems to be the patron saint of Chile.

The show started in the Plaza de Armas, and I arrived early, so as not to repeat the fizzer of the previous Tuesday when I was queued out of the parade.

I felt a bit conspicuous as a gringo, taller than most Chileans, and being propped up in the front of the action, obscuring the view for the hordes of littler people behind…but I crushed the empathy.

There was a huge bank of of loudspeakers within spitting distance, or do I mean ear splitting distance, so I heard every word. The clerical guy who was revving the crowd up spoke relatively slowly (for a Chilean), so I had a fighting chance of knowing what was afoot. It was a mostly presenting Mary as the mother of Chile…with shouts of Viva Maria, Madre de Dios!, and Viva Maria, Madre de Chile! with the assembled ranks shouting it back as a reply.

I had gone to the church where the image usually lives, the day before, but her niche was empty…

But the next day she processed out of the cathedral on a float, surrounded by flowers.

There were lots of groups marching in the procession, and lots of dancing, but she was the pièce de résistance . There was heaps of music, bands and drums, and heaps of people. I couldn’t hear a lot for the next few hours because of my proximity to the speakers.

This weekend there was another procession along the Bernardo O’Higgins avenue (which I now refer to, as do all locals as Alamera), rejoicing in the different folkloric groups. There were po faced cueca groups…

Others more animated…these appear to be more from pacific islands…maybe Easter Island…

Some quite crazy…

The clips don’t really convey the energy and noise and punch of the thing. It really was a hoot.

Sebastian, one of the teachers I had for a lesson last week, put me on to a series of free concerts that the music department of the huge Catholic University were putting on. Last Tuesday I went to one, a university choral group of 12, then later 25, singing music of Beethoven, Schumann, Debussy, and other European masters, as well as Chilean composers. It was a terrific concert in a splendid modern theatre. Really stimulating music. I have no video of it. Even though my behavioural standards are pretty low, I still couldn’t bring myself to making one, even though there were plenty of others who did.

On Sunday there is a performance of some Bach Cantatas in the same series. It should be good.

I walk to the school, it takes 20 minutes, mainly along a city park which runs along that sad river that was in a pic a few blogs ago. It’s called El Parque Forestal, and has mature trees, manicured lawns and gravel paths, and is a welcome refuge from the smog laden, multi lane racetracks on either side…

There are nice views of the mountains…

…and the odd heroic sculpture: this one, as with almost every available space in the town, covered with it…

Meanwhile back at the Plaza de Armas

there are groups of people that stand out among the throng.

There are groups of youngish women, heavily made up, their busty substances barely covered, but still trying to escape what little shirt there is, and their ample gluteals straining against the very tight …er…tights.

There are drug sellers.

There are the street theatre blokes and the golden Buddha…and carabineros standing right by!

There are religious fire-and-brimstone orators who shout their imprecations into overstretched sound systems…while their lackeys pace around punctuating the tirade with ‘amen’ and ‘allelujah’

I was game to take video of her, but not of the chicas or the drug peddlers, because I feared their minders much more than I did hers!

There are also families, couples, old codgers waiting for the strong to get up and get on with life, and other assorted riffraff…I feel quite at home.

Once the night comes, however, the demographic narrows, and the people I have asked about the advisability of a white haired gringo going there have said…don’t!

At one of the restaurants I go to every second day,

and have the same meal…making the most of salmon that is way cheaper here than in Oz…

..there is an entertaining waiter of late middle age (as are all the men, the women waiters are much younger, highly pneumatic and very charming) who serves the area where I seem to sit most often. He has a pencil thin black moustache, a furrowed face and ready smile, and greets me when I visit. I thought to test the recognition of my regularity at the place, so after the ‘hola, cómo estás’ ritual, I said ‘lo mismo, por favor’ =‘the same please’. He gave a hearty chuckle and repeated my usual order…I assume…because I did not catch one word; such is the unintelligibility of the Chilean speech to the ears of a partly formed hispanohablante=Spanish speaker. Fortunately I didn’t end up with a large slab of dead cow and a flotsam of chips either!

I have tried another variety of fish, but it was soft, textureless, tasteless and profoundly disappointing, so I’ve stuck with the salmon. I suppose my concentration of pesticides, antibiotics and other sundry poisons is well above the level that statistics have laid down for our guidance, but think of the omega 3!

(That’s omega 3 exclamation, not omega 3 factorial, as that would be omega 6, the very thing one is trying to avoid.)

Well…three more lessons next week, and my three weeks will be up. On Thursday I fly to Peru and spend two weeks in Lima (temps in mid 20s) and Cuzco (temps around 10). Then back to Santiago for one night, and that’s it.

So, I hope everything is going well wherever you are,

Hasta luego

T