Cheeky, affectionate and a real
joker, within minutes of meeting Jóse was winding me up 12foot6-style about
being English not Scottish (“so you’ve been 12 years in London, so you’re
English then”, “noooooooo!!” Jóse tells it as me nearly punching him in
protest... obviously not true!! ;-) )
Jóse is the elder brother of a
large clan., including Manuel, (our flat mate of the broken elbow), Antonio,
Diego and tiny 7-year old sister who he was gorgeously affectionate with and
who said he feels like a father to because of the age gap. It was Jóse’s room I
stayed in for the first week in la Serena while he was away at work in the
north, working the 7-por-7 (seven 12-hour days on, seven days off) shift
pattern that is common with mining work here in Chile. In his week off he studies in la Serena with Diego,
spends time with his family, plays football and jets around on his moped. I had the joy of a midnight seafront ride on
the back of the moped when Jóse gave me a lift the night of the tattooing...
yay! Thanks Jóse! :-)
On my first visit to neighbouring
fishing village and Jóse’s hometown Coquimbo, the lads introduced me to the
tasty delights of seafood-and-cheese-stuffed empanadas that had me mmmm-ing the
whole way through eating one and Jóse taking the mik out of me for a whole week
after! Tell you what though, it deserved
the mmm-ing, it really was delicious.
That first visit to Coquimbo with
Mauro and Felipe I hadn’t taken my camera and so Jóse was kind enough to take
me across with him again early one Sunday morning. We stopped off again by the spot where the
sea lions (lobos del mar) come and hang out, sometimes jostling aggressively
for space on the rocks as they wait to be fed the scraps from the fish
market. On both visits we saw the same
pair of street fellows (vagabundos in Spanish) feeding the giant lobos,
sometimes literally hand-feeding them, which made for an impressive up-close
sight of the powerful creatures,
(watching the movements of their shoulder blades as they heaved their
huge weights around the rocks I could see the parallel with lions and hence
their English name) But it also provoked some questioning about the healthiness
of the practice. As Jóse pointed out,
when the creatures get accustomed to being fed scraps from the shore, they stop
their natural practice of hunting in the sea, losing their ability and
self-sufficiency and become dangerously dependent on the humans on the shore.
Overlooking the whole process of
the feeding were a row of huge pelicans perched on the overhanging roof. These were also fascinating creatures to see
up close, with their interesting way of holding their long beaks close to the
chest giving the impression that they are peering out over the top tut-tutting,
like stern teachers peering out over the top of their glasses. They seemed wise and observational, like
elderly relatives overlooking the adolescent-like hustling and jostling of the
huge sea lions!
On both Coquimbo visits we also
stopped off by a couple of really impressive murals. One a 3D rendering of a cruise ship around
three sides of a building, whose characters highlighted class difference in
Chile, with the contrast between the wealthy suit-clad couples dancing
care-free on the deck and the haggard faces of the bodies huddled side-by-side
on the floor of the hold of the ship.
This other mural painted recently
this year, tells the story of Chile’s transition from tribal communities living
in harmony with nature, using plants naturally, to the invasion of the Spanish
and the arrival of trains and Catholicism’s devil. With it’s impressive textured painting this
has to be one of my favourite Chilean murals, along with the impressive
patchwork work in Valparaíso that turns out to be a friend of Daniela’s... Inti Castro!
An interesting detail within the
mural is a hand holding a treasure map in front of a open box of green
treasure. Local legend that says that
bucaneer Sir Francis Drake buried treasure at local beach La Herradura on his
arrival in 1579, giving the quarter Barrio Inglés its name.
Jóse, thanks for all the good
times!
And good luck in your dream of
opening your business with your mates in the future.
Nos vemos!
:-)
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