Weekends-Saturday's adventure

On Saturday, our family was invited to Natalia's home, a co-worker of Jason.  She and her husband recently built a beautiful home in the country.  (I felt weird taking a picture, so I didn't.)  Natalia and her husband are both well educated and have good jobs. Their property was delightful and enviable.  :) 

Let's be realistic though, nearly anything out of Santiago is rural and Natalia's property is not the standard of most rural Chileans.  Country folks are hard working, take pride in their products, are friendly, and want you to love their country as much as they do...just don't talk politics.  There is also a very apparent social class structure. If you were not educated in certain schools (we were told their public education system is terrible),  have certain family names, or come from family money, then it was very difficult to get a job and earning a good income is very difficult.  People try to make money however they can.  Petty theft is also a major problem in Chile. 

 The following pictures aren't great and will likely be viewed better if you double click on them to enlarge them.  Without stopping, which would have been rude, I got the best pictures I could.

 

I took these to try to capture what "typical" rural living is for Chilean people.   Homes are small and rustic.  Often properties have many smaller buildings, few of which would meet our "standards" of living.  A high percentage of homes turn the front of their property into little produce stands selling melons, tomatoes, onions, fruits, and cheese.  Signs for empanadas and other traditional Chilean goodies are sold out of homes on every road we drove on.

So many grapes!  Huge vineyards. Wine is a major commodity.

 It is very dry here.  Nearly all crops are irrigated, which is great for disease control.  Nothing is paved that doesn't have to be.

 We followed another co-worker of Jason's to Natalia's house. It was good we did.  We wound around on these dirty roads for awhile.  We tried to avoid large rocks, dogs, pedestrians, and bikers.  Walking and biking are necessary means of transportation all across Chile.

 We hoped we didn't meet anyone coming the other way.

 It is summer in Chile and supposed to be between 90-100 degrees...It isn't supposed to rain, in fact, they were all very stressed out with the weather because rain causes the produce to decay quickly and when you are studying drought stress...rain isn't helpful.

Jason works with Natalia (lady in the black shirt) and has enjoyed working and biking with Ignacio (white shirt on the left).
Lovely outdoor dining, kitchenette, and brick oven.  A typical Chilean BBQ is composed of big chunks of smoked meat, a tomato salad, potatoes, and pasta salad.  Fruit and chips were served as appetizers and drinks before, during, and after with dessert.   It was lovely to be in their home and enjoy fellowship with many of Jason's co-workers.

Looking away from the dining area.  Love the view of the mountains and their small orchard. Unusual to be cloudy and cool on this day.  To the left of the picture, in front of the other portcullis was an in-ground pool. Callie swam in the cold for at least 90 minutes! She might be part penguin. 

Jason also works with this lady (I forgot her name) and Ignacio(pictured earlier)

 All of Jason's co-workers speak English and Spanish and we were able to converse well.  Most of their spouses also speak English, but not everyone.   As we traveled around, it was best to assume people spoke only Spanish...and Chilean Spanish is crazy!  They cut words off and talk very quickly. I could hardly discern when one word ended and another started. They will say their Spanish is terrible.
On the way home now...

Oh look...another empanada stand...

 One of many lumber storage areas on personal property.

 On the way home, off the major highway, more produce stands pop up. It's like farmer's markets everywhere!  Choclo (Chilean sweetcorn), and melons are in full season. I'm pretty sure we were given gringo prices as our watermelon cost us almost $7.00.