Valparaiso

To continue from our last blog post, below, we drove around the Valparaiso bay along the port side and up the hill to the Museo Maritimo Nacional.

The great port city of Valparaiso, Chile

Students outside the National Maritime Museum above Valparaiso. 

With a coast as long as Chile's, the entire national history is on display in this museum, including cool models of ships, uniforms, cutlasses, rifles, cannon, and shot.

Bro. Farias inside one of the capsules used to rescue the Chilean copper miners in 2010.

Soft alpaca wool scarves and woven shawl I bought at a feria artesenal near the maritime musem

One of the fine old buildings common in Valparaiso, now scrawled all over the street level walls

Busy, brash, immensely rich and poverty stricken, Valparaiso is a city full of students, street dealings, and communist slogans.

On the way back to Santiago, we stopped at Los Hornitos de Curacavi, a Chilean cowboy restaurant with dirt floors and mournful Mexican-style music in the background that the Chilenos made fun of. The roasted pork was excellent, the Ensalata Chileno (fresh avocado, peeled tomato, beets, peeled cucumber, carrots, julienned green beans, and peppers) served with fresh lemon and olive oil, was outstanding, and the cheese empanada and salsa picante was to die for. Bro. Farias and Hna. Villaroel thought it was very funny that I should want to photograph my food. I said it was to show my children that I was not starving in Chile.

Back in Santiago, we visited another feria artesenal. I bought lapiz lazuli earrings and a heart pendant set in silver.

One can never have enough earrings.

It was a relief to get back to the temple grounds. We attended a session and ended up being the witness couple. The surrounding garden was alive with families and couples well into the night. We shared what food we had in the Hospitality House with some very funny middle aged ladies.

Friday morning, we visited Self Reliance centers in Republica and Vitacura in Santiago. I like the "Director of First Impressions" titles on the desks. Elder K. and I realized we had been in the country one week. It seems like more.

Vitacura area of Santiago, from the 13th floor Self Reliance center. The 8.8 magnitude earthquake centered just off of Concepcion in 2010 has kept construction workers busy replacing & strengthening buildings throughout Chile.

In the afternoon, the four of us flew back to Concepcion, where on Saturday Bro. Farias gave a taller (tah-yer)--workshop--on the fundamentals of starting your own business, in the church on Calle Bulnes from 10:00 in the morning until 3:00 in the afternoon. There were probably 60, mostly women, in attendance. Even an education may not find you the job you want. Thus the ferias artesenales. Our barrio, the University Ward, has begun a cottage industry in weaving and crocheting. I saw some hand-woven wall hangings I wanted to buy, but instead the sister invited me to learn how to make them. Elder K. and I will attend the lessons in weaving on Tuesday evening. I was also asked about teaching computaciones--computer lessons--for members of the wards and stakes in Concepcion.

When we got back to our apartment, we were thrilled to find Elder Kimball had installed our new high-efficiency washer/dryer. Now if only Clint can position it so it doesn't try to spin itself right off the floor.

After the workshop, we stopped at the Super-Lider, which has the best pan de campos, country bread, and a baguette. The Kerrygold Irish butter is more expensive, but more like butter than extra-beaten heavy cream typical of the brands here. I ultimately couldn't resist trying the bread, and found I can tolerate it much better than bread in the U.S. Something about less gluten content in the wheat. Whatever it is, I still have to watch it, but I don't get screaming heartburn or flu-like muscle aches. The cute chicken on the fridge was a present from Elder K.'s sister Heidi Cameron.

Although we had a wonderful time visiting Chile's capital city Santiago and its colorful port, Valparaiso, we were glad to get back to our small-town Concepcion. What a relief. The traffic doesn't seem so bad anymore.