PATAGONIA - 2 PISCO

Providencia, Santiago, Chile: with nearly 7 million souls in residence, Santiago is a big city. It’s divided into communities or regions, a dozen or more of which Providencia is not only safe but affluent by Chilean standards and easy to get around. Many if not most Americans preferred it. The Spanish language school, Terra Australis; was owned and operated by Juan & Olvia Barrios. Their son Marcelo, early 30’s, filled in nights as our social director. 

When the other students were done for the day, Juan and Marcelo loaded me and my belongings into their Subaru. It took 15 minutes to reach 2993 El Aguilucho Ave. Alberto & Cindy met us at the door. Alberto was a mining engineer, spoke perfect English; Cindy was an Artist and a mother. Her English vocabulary consisted of “yes, no and hello.” In their 40’s with two teenage boys, I was comfortable. Engineer doesn’t mean the same in Chile as in the USA. He was a glorified mining equipment salesman and She, as I came to appreciate, did whatever she felt like doing. They had a modest, two story row house with no front yard at all but a small, walled courtyard in the back. The two boys shared a room while I was there. Cindy took on the Home Share business for the money. That way she had her own source of income, didn’t have to go to Alberto.

The next morning she drove me to school, detailing our route, when and where to turn, in Spanish of course. I was making my own mental notes and would soon have my own street map. Spanish class was fluid, with people dropping in and out, day to day. However much time you had and whatever you needed, they would do their best to meet your need. I didn’t get to know the ones who were ready to move on but by the end of the week there were four of us who became a group. Eric, in his late 20’s was an I.T. guy from Washington D.C., worked for the V.A. Fed up with his job, he came south for very much the same reasons as me. Benjamin was 19, fluent in English, from northern Germany. He was between his 2nd & 3rd year at university in Munich. It is not uncommon there for students to take a year off and travel. Deirdra (Dee) was a daring, attractive, 24 year-old chemist from Cork, Ireland by way of Australia. She had a month to kill, to learn the language before her fiancé arrived. They would travel South America for 6 months then return to Ireland and marry.

Our first big trip was set for Easter weekend. We were to catch the bus late Thursday night, north to LaSerena on the coast, ultimately to the little mountain town Pisco Elqui, famous for its vineyards. On Thursday before Good Friday, I woke up with a tender tooth. By afternoon it was a toothache and by evening I knew I had to have it looked at. It was Easter weekend in a Roman Catholic country. Chances of seeing a dentist seemed bleak. Alberto took me to a public clinic in Providencia, acted as my interpreter. The bad news was, I needed a root canal and a crown. All the doctor could do was to drill out the infection, pack it with an antibiotic, give me meds and have me come back on Monday. The good news was, I got to go to Pisco Elqui with my friends. 

Pisco is a brandy-like liquor, Chile’s national drink. It is Peru’s national drink as well and between the two, they insult and argue at the drop of a hat; maybe a harmless way to wage national pride. They dilute it with large amounts of crushed ice, lemon, sugar and any number of spices to make Pisco Sour. I didn’t like Pisco, any way they fixed it. Natives want visitors to love everything about their country, especially Pisco. If you don’t like their Pisco then something is wrong with you. I bruised some egos but in the long run nobody really cared. The Elqui valley is where the best grapes come from. A long time ago they named the town Pisco just to spite Peru.

It was daylight when our bus reached LaSerena. We ate breakfast, rented two cars and were off to see the local sights. Pisco Elqui was only about 100 Km but it took us all day to get there. Scenery was awesome with vineyards tucked into every little patch of soil and steep rocky mountainsides reaching up from there. Our hotel had a balcony that overlooked the main street and a clear view of the Andes. I had forgotten about youth and alcohol. My amigos had some serious drinking to do before dinner at 11:00 p.m. The guys wanted to get Dee drunk but she drank them all under the table. I nursed a glass of Carmenere for a couple of hours. It was clear that Dee could take care of herself, I was tired and turned in. 

Pisco Elqui is also a destination for Chilenos campers with campgrounds, you can even rent the tent. They have a dude ranch as well. On Saturday we signed on for a horseback ride, up on the mountain side above the town. Our host was an old vaquero who could have been Mel Gibson’s twin. With 7 of us in the party for a half day ride, he invited us to sample his own personal Pisco Sour. We spent over an hour toasting and shooting Pisco shots. I don’t remember how I got out of drinking mine but he was paying more attention to Deirdra than to my bad behavior and let it go. The ride was great. I couldn’t help but think what awesome athletes those horses were. Just out of town, steep got even steeper on narrow switchbacks and steep drop offs. The horses were spirited, anxious to get to the top. We didn’t notice so much going up but coming down was like looking down the barrel of a gun. No trees, just big rocks and a long way down. My horse was a real hero. 

We split up in small groups, walked the streets and spent some coins. Dark ‘O clock meant drinking time again. You need to be well lubricated, well before dinner. Marcelo had great stories and it was fun. He had a degree in agronomy, worked for Lider, a big grocery chain. His goal for me was to get me educated when it came to vino. Reds with heavy tannin were awful. So I learned to stay away from the Cabernet Savion and go with Carmenere, it was light and it popped in the front of your mouth and that was good. Early dinner at 10:00 and I gave up for the night. 

I don’t know how late they stayed up but I was up early. I walked, did some exploring; it was Easter, a sunny fall morning and the town was quiet. The hotel had a covered, outdoor dining room in the courtyard in the back. I was there, writing in my journal when Marcelo sat down beside me. He knew I’d be up while the others slept in and didn’t want me to feel left out. So we walked up hill, cobblestone streets with simple homes, only tree and rooftops visible behind stout security walls. As we climbed, we walked under pomegranate limbs that over reached the walls, ripe with fruit. With a little help and a leg up, we had enough for breakfast and lunch. On the upper boundary where houses gave way to vineyards, a steep hillside had been stripped of vines except for a few volunteers that grew along an irrigation ditch. The grapes had ripened and begun to shrivel up, dehydrating into natural raisins. They were so sweet you needed something to wash them down. With food in hand, the quaint town below and the Andes above, the view was remarkable. I asked him “Requerdas de hoy es Pascua?” Did he remember that it was Easter. He nodded that indeed, he did. In English I asked, “Would you like to take communion with me?” I held up the raisins and a water bottle. He thought it was a great idea. I concocted a make shift ritual that was more pagan than Christian and we blessed it with a high five. It took the rest of the day getting back to LaSerena and a long night on the bus to Santiago. 

My Spanish was coming but that’s classroom Spanish. On paper you have time to figure it out. Conversational Spanish comes at you like bullets. We were conjugating irregular verbs in class which was difficult enough. When you’re face to face and the other person doesn’t know that you don’t know, you can’t fake it. Out of need, one of the first sentences I learned was, “Hablas demasiado ràpido y yo escucho lento.” You talk too fast and I listen slow. Then I had to follow that up with, “Por favor, una vez mas.” Please, one more time. It’s not like building a brick wall, one brick after another, one tier on top of the last. It’s like total darkness giving way to day. The sky starts to gray and you don’t notice you can make out shadows. After a while you see shapes but it still feels like dark. I was creating a base and it takes time. It would be a while before the words started coming out without me translating them first. 

Olvia was not happy about me going to the clinic so Juan made an appointment for me with their dentist. His office was as sheik and up scale as the clinic was plain. They worked me in between other patients and, after 6 visits, I had my new tooth. Before I left home, I took out a travelers medical insurance policy. It cost $400. You had to pay the provider up front and submit a claim form with the receipt, after the fact. All of my dental work, the bill was exactly $400.