One month in Chile

We have now been a month in Chile.

I finally got my camera back from Chillán this week, so here are pictures from our trip south of Concepcion: 

Lago Mallalafquén, under the volcano

This was taken on the grounds of a very large, very expensive hotel.

After visiting the lake, we visited the shoreside town of  Pucón.

A close-up shot of the beautiful Chilean fire tree.

Friday evening we attended a special satellite broadcast for married couples from Buenos Aires, with talks from Elder Christofferson and Elder Holland on love in marriage. Elder Holland and Elder Christofferson
both met with the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, whose term is coming to a close. Before the broadcast, we went to the food court with four other senior missionary couples at the top of the Mall Centro and had Chinese food, all the while the Chilenos were cheering as the Chileans won at futbol (soccer) against Argentina.

 Back to Conce. A picture of our clever little ice cube tray. This is for you, Laurel!

Elder K. must have been thinking of pasteles on our walk home, because he saw this sign on Calle Anibal Pinto and thought, "Handmade pies!" Of course, it says, "Hands and Feet Spa."

At least three of these horse-drawn carts travel up and down Calle Chacabuco. The horses must have nerves of steel, and they travel at least as fast as the cars do. We often buy ingredients for lunch at the Unimarc supermercado across the street.

At our Thursday weaving workshop, Hna. Ortega demonstrates her fingerless gloves, each glove made with one size 20 cuadro. Hna. Ortega showed me her favorite knit shop in El Centro, where we walked last week, where I bought all the burgundy-colored sale yarn to make my first cuadro.

More fingerless gloves, edged with crochet, and children's slippers made with size 20 cuadros.

Hna. Hernandez demonstrating a glove made in a soft yarn

This lovely lady was selling lana, wool yarn, that she has dyed and spun herself

I plan on making wall hangings with these.

My size 50 cuadro frame finally came, so this is my first attempt. I crocheted the black mesh bag to hold the yarn for this project.

The finished woven piece, about 17" square. These are either sewn to other squares, or edged in crochet.

Romy borrows my camera to take pictures of the ladies' finished projects. Here a cute Chilena models her woven falda, skirt.

A beautifully made bag from one size 50 cuadro, finished with crochet.

On Saturday we set out to see if we could find the Chiguayante LDS stake center by bus, by ourselves. All fares are $440 pesos to wherever you are going, less than one U.S. dollar. We got on the bus first going to the terminal in Collao, so we could see where all the buses connect, from north and south of Chile. The route for this bus is on the placard behind the driver. Each bus has a sign in front, of where it is going, so you wait at the bus stop until one hopefully shows up. There are some stops specific to certain places, for example Talcahuano, where every bus going to that place has to stop on his route. Each bus is owned independently. This particular driver paid little attention to stop signs, raced with other buses for the best curbside spots, and multi-tasked about ten things at once, including counting out fares, opening front and back doors for passengers, and honking at any car that didn't jump when the light turned green. 

The quiet town of Chiguayante. The bus driver preferred his town to big-city Concepcion. We found the stake center, just past the restaurant Rocinante, but stayed on the bus in order to get back to Concepcion. Unfortunately it was the bus driver's last route of the day, so we ended up in the bus terminal for Linea 14, got on another bus, and made the trip back. The entire trip took us 2 hours.

The Biobío River, visible from the Chiguayante highway. The word Biobio is from the Mapundungan (Mapuche) language. It is 2 km, over a mile wide, and fairly shallow, as it flows into the Gulf of Arauco on the Pacific Ocean. Hna. Kimball told us the members of her ward, Pedro de Valdivia, who live on the banks of the river, walked neck-deep in the water to a little island, then took their food and best china out of their backpacks for a ward dinner.

Today is Chile's election day, so this appeared on Google Search for Chile, http://www.Google.cl. We only have one church meeting today in honor of the vote.