We came upon this front yard garden a few blocks from our apartment. Most notable for me was the Bird Of Paradise plant but the entire yard was beautiful.
We have talked in past postings about having this apartment until November 8 and possibly into December. As Summer approaches, the housing market will become very difficult. We are therefore always keeping our eyes and ears open for future accommodations. An acquaintance recently told us of a house in Concon that was currently available so we went to have a look. It was fabulous. Great price, well located, beautifully furnished . . . So what was the catch? The landlord would not rent for any less than one year. The next day we called and tried to convince him to accept nine months. "Nope".
We have since talked to two people who advised against moving to Concon. Traveling back and forth to Vina (where we expect to find work) takes 20 minutes now, but come summer time, the commute becomes an hour or more of bumper to bumper traffic. Also, students that we may be tutoring will not make that commute in the summer. Sometimes things work out for the best. Often we don't know it at the time. It was however, a lovely little place. Just for your information, it was the third door on the left.
There are several small bakeries, vegetable markets and flower stands along most streets. There are also fresh meat shops. Yes, those are what you think they are in the display case!
The meat shops all seem to be very clean though.
This little adventure is not ALL about exploring and finding work.
(although a little cash inflow would be good)
This is a sample of what goes on between all of the other stuff that we talk about!
And as warm and inviting as the above picture is, the evenings and mornings in our apartment are quite cool. There is a heater in the apartment, but the propane tank was empty. So there it sat . . . taunting us. This week, we caved! We had the tank filled and can now take the edge off the cold. (I can hear the cries of sympathy all the way from home!)
No more pictures, but there are a couple of more items of note.
When we first moved into the apartment, we mentioned (whined about) the trips to the giant grocery stores. I am please to let you know that we are now avoiding those places. Between smaller grocery stores in the neighborhood and fruit and vegetable stands down the street, we are much happier on that front.
And speaking of shopping, everything here is priced with the tax included. It is convenient but you can quite easily come to believe that there is no tax being charged. I suspect that the government may like that.
Should Canada get rid of the PENNY? Well, in Chile there is a 1 peso coin. In Canadian terms, 1 peso equals about 0.2 cents. Keep in mind that most things cost the same here as they do in Canada. With paper money, the largest bill we have seen is the 10,000 peso note. This translates into about $20. We have heard that there is a 20,000 note but have yet to see one.
Many places do not accept credit cards citing the cost of the transaction as the reason. This is not only in small shops. A car rental outlet that we talked to would not take the card. I haven't been able to get my debit card to work yet. It works at bank machines, but I haven't cracked the code to make it work for purchases yet.
We had a meeting with a Scotsman earlier this week about getting some work. He runs a company called Instruction Ingles. It sounds promising but nothing concrete yet. If it works, we would be tutoring two students at a business in Valpariaso, two hours each, twice per week. Essentially, 8 till noon, two days per week. Stay tuned.
One more little story.....the other day, we were walking down a very busy downtown street. There were many cars and people milling about. What do we hear but the clip clop of horse's hooves coming down the street. Now, that isn't all that unusual as there are many horse-drawn carriages around here. However, what we saw didn't fit with what we had come to expect. It was a young man riding a horse and pulling two smaller horses along behind him. He was dressed just as he might be if he were riding around on his ranch out in the countryside. He seemed most comfortable and not at all concerned about the cars. We couldn't figure out what he was doing. Then he rode up to a light standard, got off his horse and tied it up.....just in the wild west! Maybe he was just coming to do his shopping!! In almost every way, Chileans are living in the 21st Century, but then sometimes.......
OK, I'm done rambling for now.
Just one more thing. If I never hear another car alarm, it will be too soon!
OK . . . later,
Norm
1 comment:
hmmm...pig face in the butcher shop!! I wonder how one cooks that?
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