Lake Calafquen . . . ¡Que rica!

Rica, rica, rica . . . a word used frequently down here - and a perfect way to describe the long weekend. It means good, great, awesome, pretty, awesome . . .

After an all night trip on a very comfortable bus - the seats lie basically flat - I awoke in Pangipulli, the nearest bus station to the Lake. Family friends of Carolina´s gave me a ride to her home. Arriving around 8 a.m., no one was stirring except Carolina who greeted me at the door. After a shower and a little nap, folks finally started arousing at 10, 10:30 - yessss, good precedent! At breakfast I met Carolina´s parents, Fernando and Margarita, her oldest brother, also Fernando, her sister-in-law, Rosario, and saw her girls, Emilia, Antonia, and Florencia, the baby. ¡Ellas son muy preciosas! (They are so precious!) (Grandparents and the two older girls are in the picture above.) We established that everyone would speak Spanish to me, as long as they would speak slowly. However they all spoke very good English if we ran into a snag.

The most fabulous thing about their place is the view of Volcan Villarica. It is perfectly framed by the huge bay window in their living room. (See above!) On Thursday the sun was shining, but there were clouds in the sky, so I couldn´t get a good look of the top. ¡Que pena! Carolina gave me a walking tour of the area where they live. This area on the edge of Lake Calafquen was bought by her father and about15 of his friends in the Catholic church (including Andres´father). They have been vacationing there since the early 80´s. The land is adjacent to a small Catholic church and school that teaches and serves the native Mapuche population. Across the lake of course is the stunning volcano. When these folks vacation here, they hold misa (mass) quite frequently as a padre comes from Santiago as well.

After our walk, we went down to the playa (beach) which, instead of sand or mud, was all small pebbles and rocks. Margarita took me out on their 2 person kayak, so neat! That evening, I went to mass with the family, and met many others folks who vacation there. Very interesting to go to an spanish-only mass.

As I groggily made my way to the breakfast table the next morning - oh why not, it was 10:00 - Fernando pointed out the window and my jaw dropped. The volcano was fully visible and just as perfect a view of a volcano as one could ever find. I could even see some smoke rising up out of it! ¡Que linda!

At Calafquen every year, this weekend is celebrated as ¨San Sebastian¨. A celebration in rememberance of their acquiring this land, the tragic passing of a child years ago, and to remember those who may have passed in the past year. They had a special memorial service on Friday for this, and this year was especially tragic as Andres´younger brother, Tomas, died in a car accident at the end of 2005. It was a sweet service and showed how united this extended family was. They placed a memorial plaque in an outdoor shrine type structure with a sainted statue (again, help me out my Catholic friends) to remember him always.

Next was an outdoor reception with empanadas and different types of appetizers. More time on the beach that afternoon with lots and lots of kids! A wondrous nap before dinner, then after, a outdoor slide show set up on a huge projector of pictures taken that weekend, as well as pictures from the weddings of the original couples from the 60´s, very cool.

Early (relatively, I mean, it was 8:45) next morning, I got a ride with Carolina´s cousin to the bus station to pick up Tim. He came back to meet the family and enjoy breakfast as well. (Here, fyi, breakfast is usually bread, butter, jelly, cheese, cafe (they love instant here, it´s amazing), and fruit.) Later in the morning, we were joined by Carolina´s two other brothers Matio and Felipe, as well as Matio´s wife. Tim couldn´t wait to get out on the lake, so we paddled out in the kayak around a small island. However, we couldn´t spend too long exploring as the next event of the weekend was lunch on a larger island in the lake. Here, four of the couples had massive homes with pristeen yards. The picture of us above is from the island, with the volcano in the background. We were ferried out on a huge pontoon boat, and fed corillero, which was lamb and deer roasted outdoors rotisserie style. I preferred the empanadas and salads they served as well. We had a good time walking around the beautiful yards and talking with Carolina and her family.

That night was sort of a Calafquen talent show at the church. Carolina had given me a head´s up ahead of time, saying it´s really not that good. There was definitely a mix, ranging from bad karaoke to a beautiful Chopin piano piece. The best was Carolina´s older two girls and three of their friends singing ¨Twinkle, Twinkle¨, I´m a little Teapot¨, and ¨1,2 Buckle My Shoe¨ in English with precious chilean accents. Afterwards, Carolina´s brother, Fernando pointed out the stars - more than I have ever seen in any sky ever! We think we saw the Southern Cross, and definitely saw a cloud-like galaxy. What made this night even more amazing, was the fact that you could see a rosy glow of lava at the very top of the volcano. Absolutely fascinating.

On Sunday morning, the volcano had what the folks call ¨sombrero de chino¨, or chinese cap, which means that rain would be coming in the next few days. Still, this day was gorgeous, and we attended mass in a full church that morning. Fernando, Sr., took us water-skiing in the afternoon with one of his friends. You´ll be happy to know that Tim and I both got up on the first try!

In the afternoon we bid good-byes to the Pullido family, who had accepted us so warmly and treated us so graciously, exchanging addresses and emails. We also agreed with Carolina to get together to show all of our Chile pictures.

So now we´re back in Santiago, Tim is finishing classes and we´re readying ourselves for the next portion of our travels - to the very, very south - in Patagonia!