Fin de semana de la aniversario de bados - 14 & 15 de Marzo

Happy Anniversary! We are so grateful. We know we are blessed. So many people feel blessed, yet so many do not and are not. People have marriages they tolerate, some people are lonely; some are ill, some are afraid, some are hungry, some are cold, or yet some are so warm they cannot sleep. The list goes on. Yes, Stan and I do have our concerns and challenges. We have sleepless nights, but in the grand scheme of things, Stan and I are blessed. We have each other that we can mutually lean on and share problems but more importantly we have each other to help celebrate and appreciate our joys. Thank you, God.

We had been told we must visit Parque Quinta Normal. We did and we are happy we did. First we toured the Museo de la Memoria, or the Museum of Human Rights. It was a very sobering experience to see what the people of this country went through on September 11, 1973 until 1990. Did you get that? 1990!!! On September 2, a military junta took place which overthrew Presidente Salvador Vallende. The military, headed by General Augusto Pinochet, took over. Pinochet became president via a military dictatorship. He ran the country with a cruel arm until 1990. UNBELIEVEABLE!!

That's when world governments recognized the atrocities and violations of human rights happening in Chile and forced the government to allow a monitored public election. "Democracy" was returned. During the coup and Pinochet's dictatorship thousands of Chileans were executed or disappeared. Some were buried in a very unsacred mass burial site, Plot 29, in the Cemeteria we visited a few days ago. Remains of people thrown into this mass grave have since been exhumed and the country has gone and still is to this day going to great lengths to identify bodies for proper identified burials. Sad! Sad! Sad! And the horrors were recent. They just ended in 1990. Cody, our daughter was 8 and we were living fat and happy without a clue as to what was happening to our southern neighbors. God help us all so that these things never, never happen again and help us to recognize early on atrocities against humankind in parts of the world we know little about. Syria?

Whew! We had some fun at the park too. We shared a just-fried queso empanada. It was golden and still hot! Oh boy!!! And we toured the outdoor train museum. I don't think I ever realized how grand the first-class cars might have been and I surely had no idea the engines were so huge!!! Lord, I wish we could all reinvigorate the train system we so cavalierly threw away. They were so efficient!

Because it was Saturday and because it was our anniversary, we stopped at a local restaurant, relaxed and had cervazas at a street-side table. For whatever reason, we began orally practicing our Spanish. "Que es esto? Es un vaso de cervasa. De quien es? Es mio!" A man at a nearby table heard us and began talking to us. He is Chilean but spent 9 years in USA in Michigan, Ohio (think Detroit) and San Francisco. He said he was good at avoiding ICE. We talked and talked. We used our spotty Espanol and Maurice used his spotty English. We all enjoyed a great time communicating in each other's native language. The experience was simply exhilarating. We are getting it!! We are getting it!!!

Our anniversary dinner was at Borago. Cited over and over by the world's press, Borago is among the top 50 restaurants in the world. It is special not because of the portion sizes or the variety of its seafood, or its grand service, etc. No, not at all. Borago is unique in that it is understated. The décor is industrial with simple concrete and granite floors and walls surrounding a full wall of glass displaying a panoramic view of Santiago's highest point, Cerro Manquehue. It is unique in that it offers merely a tasting menu: guests only choose if they want their tasting dishes served with wine or not. Sixteen different tastings are served on simle, clean-lined small slabs or tiny flat bowls of granite. The first offering is a sparkling glass of rainwater from Pategonia. Each tasting is accompanied by a complete explanation of the ingredients, where they are sourced and how each is prepared. Each tasting is small but a delight to the eyes and the taste buds. Each offered great, sometimes exotic flavors. All fish comes directly and daily from the fisherman who caught them. All vegetables are grown from their own nearby farm. Many items are grown wild and are gathered by a team of knowledgeable gatherers. En masse is not a part of the Borago culture; for example, a fermented variety of tomato that ripens only for 3-4 weeks a year was served to us last night.

I could go on and on. It was fantastic! We tasted dishes, like an appetizer of fermented plum branch, baked squash shell lined with camembert and filled with very ripe tomato and green grapes slices en sauce, seafood root cooked for 10 hours seasoned burnt lemon peel to add acidy served in a seashell half. Enough! I won't go on. I will say this, it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It was a quite an amazing way to celebrate our 45th anniversary. I will add this, however, while we enjoyed the amazing, beautiful, flavorful, specially crafted dishes presented to us at Borago last night, they are ones guests will ever be served at our house.

We had a lovely UBER ride home. The driver spoke a little English and of course, we only speak a little Spanish. Edwardo is a big Trump fan. You can imagine our conversation.