Small Journey, Big Journey and Some Work

The Small Hot Springs

As it turned out bad luck had not already finished with my tonsilitis. From the penicillin I got a viral infection in my mouth which forced me to eat only liquid stuff for two more days and was even more painful than the tonsilitis itself. Finally I lost 4 kg in just three days. From all the tablets I had to take against all the attacks on my poor body I got stomach problems and so had to diet some more days. Finally I had been so ravenous that the first meat after all that which I had taking a dinner out in Pucón with Inés tasted like heaven!

Finally healthy again I went with a friend to some free of charge hot springs close to Pucon. You reach them in half an hour by car and a steep 5 minutes walk down to Liucura River. There just at the bank of the river is one small pool formed by a natural rock face and a concrete wall. Because it already had been dark I can´t tell you anything about the view of the surrounding landscape but the night sky with millions of bright stars and the sound of the running river were amazing. The beer we had brought under these circumstances tasted especially sweet and smooth.

My next journey brought me to Santiago with Inés. We went there to meet her mother who lives in Italy and is on holiday in Chile right at the moment. So I got to know my future mother in law. She´s a likeable, little and funny person. Unfortunately weather conditions had been quite bad with rain, wind and low temperatures (one morning snow in the Andes range almost had fallen as low as the first suburbs of the town - never saw Santiago that winterly). This in combination with not heated houses let me suffer of the chill all the time we had been there. When we were in the house of Ines' sister where we usually stay in Santiago I was just sitting next to the only gas oven that exists, wrapped in blankets reading a book or the newspaper like a crabby grandfather. Fortunately we daily went to the city. One day to buy cloth for my wedding suit and clothes for Inés to wear at the marriage (we are going to be a damned pretty bridal couple), the other day to take the rare chance for us to go to the cinema. We watched 'X-Men'. It was the first movie I did see not in the original English version and Spanish subtitled but Spanish synchronized. Although I have not seen the first part of 'X-Men' I understood quite well and got the meaning of the movie which of I was a little proud.

After three days with big parts of Inés' family (which always is quite chaotic and not really relaxing) we had been quite happy to go back to our own warm and cosy house in Pucón but fate did not want to let us come back that easily. We missed the bus that left at night and so had to stay one more night in Santiago. The next day we had to take a bus connection with changing the bus, because their had not been a direct bus to Pucón during the day. Finally we reached there at midnight, tired but happy!

The next day I started working for the winter season. Now I am waxing skis and snowboards for the next three months. After working  the whole day  standing my back hurt terribly in the evening that I nearly could not move anymore. As it seemed I had caught a chill of my back in Santiago and for sure the long odyssey in the bus had done its bit as well. In the night I could sleep with pain killers only and the next days wore my kidney belt for the motorbike to warm and support my back to bear working the whole day. Meanwhile I can stand upright again and already gave my first skiing lesson (which I am doing too as well as guiding snowshoe hikes). My student was a Venezuelan woman who had touched snow the first time in her life that day. It was great fun and let me go for skiing again which I have not done for several years.

Home Adventures

Eruption of volcano Puyehue

Just a week after our engagement we had the next celebration. It was Inés´ birthday. In the afternoon we celebrated with the children giving Inés her presents, eating the cake and the usual birthday things. In the evening and almost all night long we did the usual adult party in Pucón with some of Inés´ friends. We had so much fun that we just forgot about going home but paid the price for that the next day on which neither Inés nor I could hardly move.

While the workers kept constructing our sauna/cafeteria I constructed another woodshed because the old one did not survive the rearrengement of our lot due to the construction and had been broken down. So I had to pile almost all the wood for the winter another time with the effect that I almost can not see any more fire wood if it is not burning inside the oven warming the house. Well at least we will not run out of fire wood for the rest of the winter especially because so far it seems to be a not too cold one. That is why up to now the construction in our garden progressed uninterruptedly. Until this week which was the one of the bad incidents. First of all volcano Puyehue erupted heavily covering wide parts of Argentinian Patagonia (although the volcano itself is on the Chilean side of the Andes - that's how nature cares about political borders.) Thankfully no one was injured or killed just more than 3000 people around the volcano are still evacuated and daily life in the affected areas in Argentina broke almost down like if there would be heavy snowfall in any major town in Central Europe. For volcano Puyehue is about 200 kms south of Pucón we had never been in danger here and could be astonished about the incredible pictures of the eruption Chilean TV since then broadcasts daily.

At the same day there had been reported a small tornado in Villarrica, the town on the other shore of Villarrica Lake. This leaded to another evacuation  and unfortunately caused severe damage which affected us although the tornado itself never came close to Pucón. Though the workers of our building site live in Villarrica and their houses had been partially destroyed. So the last days they could not come because they had to take care about their families and repair their houses.

Apart from that Inés got heavy back pain which forced here to stay in bed two days. She has problems with her spinal discs which became acute what according to her happens regularly in winter and so did not frighten her as much as me seeing her there in the bed almost like paralized. So I took care of her these days but soon there came my revenge although before there waited another adventure for us. The next day we had a chimney fire in our house. I had been down in Pucòn and Inès had been in the house with her oldest son Pablo. Fortunately the workers that day still had been there on our lot  because they saw the fire coming out of the chimney up on the roof of the house. Otherwise Inès and Pablo inside would not even had noticed it. They knocked the door and told Inès who was quite surprised and frightened about the fire. Fortunately we have an extinguisher at home (since the roof of the house already burned two years ago) with which one of the workers climbed up the roof and put out the fire. As fate would have it this day I had left my cellphone at home because it was out of charge so Nelson, Inès' ex-husband, searched and found me down in Pucòn when I was just ordering lunch in a cafe. When I came back to the house a few minutes later, everything was full with the dry chemical of the extinguisher and Inès and Pablo already diligently cleaning. Luckily apart from the dust absolutely nothing had happened thanks to the quick reaction of the workers who really safed our house (and got an extra beer for that). The whole afternoon we spent cleaning up the mess inside and the chimney again so finally nothing left than a big fright. 

The next day I suddenly got 40 degrees C feaver, pain all over my body, feeling of vomitting and several other symptoms of influenza. So now I was a nursing case for Inès. Because the feaver did not recede on the third day Inés brought me to the hospital where they told me that it was not an influenza at all but a tonsilitis. As far as I remember I never ever had that in my life and had to become 34 years old to suffer of it. Could have missed that one out for sure. In the hospital they put me on an infusion gave me two huge injections of penicillin (one of them right into my bottom which that for still hurts) and send me home again with some obviouously really effective tablets.

Writing this I am at home in bed now curing myself. It had been my first day without fever since then so it seems the upcoming week I will be back to (social) life again. At least I did not miss that much because just these days arrived the winter with heavy rainfalls and storms so the bed had been the cosiest place to be in  anyway. Nevertheless I hope we had enough adventure for some time and I can start working for the winter season in one or two weeks without any further surprises.