Princess For A Day

When we rented our house in Pucón, our landlords expected us to accept their long-time employees, the housekeeper and the gardener. The very idea of having servants is foreign to most Americans, but in Chile we were the extranjeros and we didn't want to put anyone out of their job, so we agreed. Good thing. Perhaps the greatest blessing of this year in Chile has been our nana, Maria Luisa Riquelme.

A "nana", or household maid, is a traditional part of every upper class and many middle class homes in Chilean society. The nana can be either live-in (“puertas adentro”) or live-out (“puertas afuera”). Household employees generally receive a salary (currently $300-350 per month) plus social security benefits and taxes (about 25% of salary) and transportation costs. A bonus is generally expected on Chilean National Day (Sept 18) and at Christmas. Employers are also expected to provide a light breakfast, a hot lunch, and snack or sandwich if the work goes past 5:00pm.

Every day, Luisa makes our lives easier that they have ever been before. She cleans the house, does the laundry, makes the beds, prepares our lunch, and most important, keeps the wood burning in the furnace and fireplace all winter long. When the phone rings and we don't know what to say, she can listen and help us communicate. When the propane tank runs out, she can order more fuel. If a tap starts dripping, she can call the plumber. When the cat needs a veterinarian, she knows who to call.

We have subsidized evening English classes for her at Language Pucón, and together we are gradually expanding our understanding of each others' language and culture. One of our first experiences with Luisa and her three children was when the circus came to town. We all went together, and she helped buy the tickets and find our seats at ringside. Henry and Luisa's son, Sebastian, have gone to the hot springs and the canopy zip lines together. Later, when Joslyn and her friends came to Chile in May, Luisa made all the difference in their experience by helping with the many meals and keeping the house in order. And when we returned to the USA in July, Luisa came each day to feed the cat and keep the pipes from freezing. Each day we are grateful for Luisa.

Luisa is a puertas afuera nana. She lives at home near the center of Pucón with her extended family of three children and her parents. In this photo are her oldest, Carolina (18 in Dec), then Sebastian (15), and the youngest, Natalie (8).

In this photo are Luisa's father, Antonio Riquelme, sister, Nora Riquelme, and mother, Luisa Bustos Riquelme. Nora has her own home in town, but is visiting the family this day to watch her neice, Natalie, celebrate the occasion of being "Princess For A Day" at school.

It is for the Aniversario or Founders Day at the Esquela de Ramon Guiñes. This year, eight-year old Natalie has been elected "Princess" of her class. Luisa has crafted a beautiful princess gown with a crown and jewelery for Natalie to wear for the occasion.

Natalie's father also came to the school to observe the celebration.

The procession of students is lead through the streets by their "royal family" riding in a finely decorated horse-drawn carriage.

Princess Natalie and her handmaiden.

It is a very special day for Natalie.

Here is their arrival at the school with the other royals.

The Princess with her Prince.

Sebastian decorates a cake for the celebration at home that evening.

Sebastian with another member of the family.

This is Loki.

Centro de Ski Pucón - The Local Ski Hill

Snowcovered Volcan Villarica dominates the winter skyline of Pucón and beckons the people to come play on its slopes. As residents, we qualified to buy the discounted season's passes for the little resort and could ski as often as we cared to.

On Thursdays, Henry always joined his classmates for a day of exercise on the slopes at Centro de Ski Pucón instead of going to gym class at school.

We made the drive along with Chilean tourists in their rented ski clothes.

Some of Henry's classmates ski, but most are snowboarders.

From the parking lot, Andarivel No. 1 lifted us up to the ski slopes that skirt the volcano above the snow line.

Sometimes friends from Pucón would join us. This is Deanna Sverdlov with Susan.

Here we are posing on the deck of the day lodge.

Henry riding Andarivel No. 3 overlooking Lake Villarica and the town of Villarica on the left shore.

The students quickly tired of skiing the easy slopes, so they would build kickers to pump up their adrenaline levels.

Henry did the videos when he wasn't taking his turn jumping.

Susan ready for another cruising descent.

The weather is the major factor limiting the skiing here in Araucania.

Many days the volcano is shrouded in clouds. When it is too windy or there is zero visability, only the lower slopes are open.

Here is our neighbor, Anthony Riggs, an ex-New Hampshireite who teaches snowboarding and randonee at the resort.

The day lodge has a cafeteria that serves surprisingly good sandwiches and a full bar.

This day we met David Johnson, at one time a patrolman at Montana's Moonlight Basin, and now owner of Casa Tours. David impressed us with his encyclopedic knowledge of Chile and Argentina and we collected many tips for our upcoming travels around the continent.

Some of our friends here are just learning to ski or snowboard and, for them, the area is a perfect snowy classroom.

Macarena Ayala improves her skiing skills each time she returns to the mountain.

The poma lift is perfect for beginning skiers.

Susan follows Macarena who practices her snowplow turns.

The view down the slope to our little village of Pucón at the foot of the volcano.

Across the valley in the distance we can see Volcan Llaima where there is another ski area called Las Araucarias. We intend to travel the eighty kilometers and try the skiing there before the end of the season.

Pablo Neruda National Railway Museum

The capital city of the Araucania

Region of Chile, where we are living,

is the town of Temuco. Throughout

the twentieth century, Temuco was

known as the "City of Trains"

because it was the hub location

of all the rail traffic for the southern

part of Chile. The old locomotive

hall, or "roundhouse",

built in 1933, is at the

center of a large park

that has been preserved

to celebrate the history

of rail transportation in Chile.

The facilities were declared

a National Monument in 1989

and inscribed a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998.

Officially known as Museo Nacional Ferroviario Pablo Neruda,

the site also honors Temuco's favorite son,

poet Pablo Neruda, whose father worked for the railway

and who lived here during his youth.

The romance of the rails and the constant winter rains

of Southern Chile inspired some of Neruda's poetic cadence

and imagery which is demonstrated in the following example:


ODE TO THE TRAINS OF THE SOUTH

Trains of the South, midgets
among the volcanoes,
cars
sliding
over
wet-slick
rails
from the lifelong rains,
among crisp
mountains
and sorrowing
for the charred tree stumps.
Oh
frontier
of dripping forests,
vast ferns, water,
and wreaths.
Oh fresh
territory,
newly emerged from lake,
and river,
sea or rain,
with sopping hair,
waist girdled by
prodigious vines,
and then
in the midst
of all the greenery,
parting
the heavy head of hair,
a lost streamer,
plume
of a fleeting locomotive,
with a train dragging
vague things
through the shattering solemnity
of nature,
voicing
a cry
of anxiety,
smoke,
like a hot-and-cold chill
on the landscape!

So
from their waves
the wheatfields
converse
with the passing train
as it were
shadow, waterfall, or bird
of those latitudes,
and the train
spits out
its sparks
of burning coal
with the dark
malice
of the devil
and continues on,
and on,
and on,
climbing the high viaduct
of the river Malleco
like mounting
a guitar,
singing
on the heights
of the balancing blue
steelwork,
the vibrant train whistles
at the end of the world
just
as if
it were saying good-bye
and going to fall where
earthly space
ends,
and plunge down among the last
islands of the sea.

I'm going with you,
train, rattling
frontier
train:
I'm going to Renaico,
wait for me,
I have to buy wool in Collipulli,
wait for I have
to get off in Quepe,
Loncoche and Osorno,
to look for pine nuts, new
woven fabrics, smelling
of sheep and rain ...
Run
train, caterpillar, murmur,
longitudinal little animal,
among the cold
leaves
and the fragrant earth,
run
accompanied by
taciturn
men in black mantles
on horseback,
with silent sacks
of potatoes from the islands,
with the wood
of red larch,
of fragrant beech,
of eternal oak.

Oh train,
explorer
of lonely places,
when you return
to the Santiago yards,
to the beehives
of men and their criss-crossed domain,
perhaps you'll sleep
for one sad night
a dream without perfume,
snow or roots,
or islands waiting for you in the rain,
motionless
among anonymous
railroad cars.
But
I, in an ocean
of trains,
in a sky full
of locomotives,
would recognize you
by
a certain air
from afar, by your wheels
wettened there far away,
and by your grieving
heart that knows
the unspeakable, savage,
rain-drenched
blue fragrance!

-- Pablo Neruda

Today, the City of Temuco has restored a steam engine convoy
that can transport up to 250 persons, consisting of an 820 locomotive,
two economy class wagons, a tourist wagon and a dining coach.
The dream is to occaisionally revive the magnificent times prior
to 1980 when passengers regularly traveled the
Temuco-Osorno route.