This is why we travel!
February 28, 2012
A very special day that started out sort of not so great. In the morning, it rained and so we did a little shopping in Villarica and further south toward Lican Ray. Pretty successful as shopping goes, but for me at least not so especial. But, then came the afternoon where we had 2 adventures. First we drove all the way to Lican Ray in search of a peninuslar path around the Lago. We kept asking and finally stumbled upon what we thought was the path along the beach. Not sure it really was the path, but eventually we heard loud music and laughter and decided to sneak through the chain link/barbed wire fence onto the property from which all the raucous goings on emanated. We followed the sound to the source. There were about 25 teenagers playing some kind of racing game combined with Karaoke. Never quite figured it all out, but i did shoot a short movie of it. From there we wended our way toward where we thought the car was parked and stumbled upon a Christian summer camp - where the teenagers must have come from. And, finally, we hit upon the dirt road that led us back to our car.
Adventure 2 involved Miel (honey). We had spotted several Miel shops along the road and had decided on our way back to Villarica to stop at one that had many working hives and looked quite nice. So, we did - and thus discovered Alejandro Koffmann O'Reilly - I kid you not! He is the biggest Chileno we've ever seen. A great big bear of a man. As soon as we greeted him in Espanol, he switched to quite excellent English. And soon we had learned his life story.
He was a writer, having gone to college in the states - Michigan State University (I did not hold that against him for long) and U of WIsconsin. When he returned to Chile, a year before the Pinochet led Coup, he started writing things that the right wing government did not like. So, he was "kicked out of Chile". Fortunately, he was not killed or imprisoned. He then went to NYC, where he spent the next 18 years of his life, before returning to Chile. He is now 'retired' and has his bee honey and pollen business. We bought both of course. Alejandro was a delight. We could have talked to him forever. I hope he and his bee business will be here if/when we return.
Adventure 2 involved Miel (honey). We had spotted several Miel shops along the road and had decided on our way back to Villarica to stop at one that had many working hives and looked quite nice. So, we did - and thus discovered Alejandro Koffmann O'Reilly - I kid you not! He is the biggest Chileno we've ever seen. A great big bear of a man. As soon as we greeted him in Espanol, he switched to quite excellent English. And soon we had learned his life story.
He was a writer, having gone to college in the states - Michigan State University (I did not hold that against him for long) and U of WIsconsin. When he returned to Chile, a year before the Pinochet led Coup, he started writing things that the right wing government did not like. So, he was "kicked out of Chile". Fortunately, he was not killed or imprisoned. He then went to NYC, where he spent the next 18 years of his life, before returning to Chile. He is now 'retired' and has his bee honey and pollen business. We bought both of course. Alejandro was a delight. We could have talked to him forever. I hope he and his bee business will be here if/when we return.