Off to La Ligua

Last week the temple missionaries planned a bus trip to La Ligua, about two or three hours northwest of Santiago. We were invited to go and eagerly accepted. This would be Jay's first trip out of the city and my second.The trip would involve a bus to the Metro subway to a central bus station. Ten of us rode standing up all the way to the bus station because we were traveling at peak morning rush hour. Two of the native-Spanish speaking missionaries (sisters) were going to meet us at the bus station. We looked for them till we boarded and the driver was putting the bus into gear. We saw one of them running, sounded the alarm, and she was able to board the bus. The other sister didnt make it because of miscommunication. That was sad. Several of us remarked that the bus was better than a plane for seating and TV. We passed a lot of little towns, villages and farms. We drove through the foothills of the Andes, high enough in altitude to make our ears pop. We saw avocado farms, grape orchards, lots of farms growing things we couldnt identify. We saw goats, sheep, donkeys, horses and cows in herds.  La Ligua is a town of about 7000. It has a very nice plaza in the center of town with lots of trees and benches. We got a lot of stares because there were eleven of us gringos with name tags. We engaged three taxis and drove five kilometers (three miles) to a village where every tienda (store) had sweaters for sale. These sweaters defy definition! There are every color, combination of colors, and style. There are ponchos (knitted or woven in yarn), shawls, scarves, gloves, socks, hair doo-dads, and on and on.They are all wool and as soft as cotton fluff.  I found three GottaHavs and a whole bunch of Nextimers. Jay found a very nice cardigan in medium dark blue. Those four sweaters totalled about $80 US!!!!!! One sweater was only $12! How could we afford NOT to? There was one little "restaurant" about half-way down the street and we were hungry and it was 1:30. We were the only ones there because it was way too early for the Latino lunch. Jay had a baked chicken thigh (which included the back quarter of the bird) and the ever popular french fries. French fries are offered everywhere. I had beef with a little broth over it - it was a large piece - and french fries. Those fries were soooo good when dipped in the chicken or beef juices. We had Fanta to drink, of course. There were rolls served as appetizers. There was no butter, but I found that when dipped in olive oil and lemon juice, they were really good. While waiting for the bus in the bus station, we bought one of each of the pastries because they all looked good, and maybe we wouldnt ever see them again. We bought twelve different ones, but most of them were filled with manjar and surrounded in meringue. Manjar (pronounced MAN-har) is very sweet and reminds me of soft caramel. Yummy. Dulce de leche. We arrived in Santiago just as the sun was setting, and at our apartment an hour later. We did not have dinner. We went to bed. What a glorious day we had.