A huge earthquake struck earlier today in northern Chile, about 100km north of where I was visiting this past weekend. We could feel it here in La Serena (about 4 min after the quake struck) and it was very different from the smaller, local earthquakes. A ‘slower’ rolling wave as opposed to the regular shaking.
Nothing else to add, but I know people would be concerned and want to know if we were affected.
Though my birthday was at the end of September, I’m just now getting around to posting about it. I ended up having a joint party with 2 of my friends here- Judith and Lyn. Their birthdays are just a few days before mine, and they were also having big ones as well- they both turned 60. To celebrate, we decided to throw a 150th birthday party at Hacienda Santa Cristina. We celebrated on the 29th with about 40 of our closest friends. The party started at 1pm with drinks and appetizer in the gazebo by the pool. We hired a local jazz group to perform during the cocktail hour. We then had a nice meal and cake. The party ended at about 6pm, though those of us who spent the night (about 15 people) partied to the wee hours. Steve and I then got up the next morning for a nice hour horseback ride. It was a fantastic party, just wish you all could have been there as well!
Well, we finally did it. After 2 years of talk, we finally bought it. Yes, I’m talking about a Serrano ham. When we first moved here, the things freaked me out. They have them hanging in the stores, and the foot is still attached. I didn’t realize at first what it was. Apparently, my friend Jenny didn’t either. She invited us all over for xmas our first year here and bought a ham to cook (or so she thought). When she got it home, it still had the hoof attached, so she tried to saw it off. When that didn’t work, she decided just to throw the whole thing in the oven, hoof and all. To be honest, I don’t remember if I ate it or not, I just remember how much fun we had with them. Anyways, I digress. We had our friends Rikki and Chris over for dinner the other night, and decided to break it open and have some melon with it. It was AWESOME!! The ham is now sitting on the counter (it came with a stand and a knife) waiting to be eaten. Steve likes to carve some off when he gets home from work, and sit on the patio, watch the sunset and have a beer (wine or pisco sour for me). Life doesn’t get much better! If the Margheims are lucky, we’ll try not to eat it all before they come!!
I know I haven’t been posting much lately, but I feel like nothing is ever new. It’s taken a while, but summer seems to be here in La Serena. We’ve been getting nice sunny days in the mid to upper 60’s (though it feels like the 70’s) with a nice breeze off the ocean. Leyna dog and I have been trying to go to the beach for a walk/run at least 3x a week. Occasionally Steve gets to come with us as well. Here are some pics from a couple days ago.
Today, we unfortunately forgot out camera. Steve and I had gone out for a nice lunch, then decided to go for a walk on the beach and enjoy the day. Right now in La Serena is hosting an International Motocross competition. This weekend featured opening events, but the races themselves got started today. The first few time trials are along the coast from roughly La Serena Golf down to Tongoy. As luck would have it, the first set of riders were returning along the La Serena beaches as we were out for our walk. So interspersed with the waves, birds and other beach goers, the riders would fly by us. It was really cool to see, I do wish we had brought the camera. We’re hoping to go to one of the other trials in the area.
While my parents were visiting in July, we bought 4 rose bushes. About a week after they left, the rabbits ATE my roses. I was worried that they wouldn’t come back, but I was pleasantly surprised to find these last week-
Since then, we’ve had some beautiful sunny weather, and I am happy to say that all 4 bushes are flourishing.