We start off this week with one of our new favorite pastimes, watching clouds. Why would we spend time in such idle pleasure (ocio)? Because we're looking for perro shapes? Because we're avoiding digging? Because we have the time? Maybe all of these, but most of all we're looking to see if we can guess what the weather will be. The Dirección Meteorológica de Chile seems to do as good a job as anyone and I'd guess they're correct about half the time. In winter in Pucón you could predict that it would rain every day and you'd probably be right 75% of the time.

Watching clouds

You may recall that last week we did a lot of digging and we started off the same way this week. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday more digging. Fortunately, the clouds still appeared benevolent.

Doesn´t look like rain

Wednesday night we had the typical violent Chilean storm with thunder that lasted for minutes at a time. Lightning lit up the cabaña much better than we're accustomed to. I think Fran would call this real weather. I was worried about the possible mess, but I know that the ground drains quickly. It's a good thing, since it also rained most of the day on Thursday and again on Friday morning.

Progreso

As you can see the sun did shine again eventually. The sun might also eventually reach the bottom of these holes. Some are nearly 2 meters deep. I think Andrés is planning to bury someone here.

Drying out

So it goes, poco a poco. Compare this picture to last week's to see if you can figure out what's changed. I've been told that the digging's now finished. That's a good thing, because I fear that the rainy season is starting shortly.

Gravedigger's nightmare
So what to do if it rains? We could always go check out the latest in artesan perro arte. Actually, here Karl Marx is demonstrating just how big the tree trunks are in our little bosque. Kenny claims that 5 of these trees would provide enough wood to build our entire house. We have about 70 of them. Some of the trees were cleared just before we purchased the parcela in order to allow more light for the native trees. Either that or to build someone else's house.

Dog statue

One other thing we've been doing is picking berries. Moras (type of blackberries) are all over the place here. The berry bushes are somewhat of a plague because they spread so rapidly. We're doing our part by trying to eat as many as we possibly can. Even the pinhead is helping out.

By the way, it looks like the NY Times has caught on to Chile, too. Take a look at the article and pictures from Torres del Paine and Patagonia. Hopefully we'll have more to update next week.

Let's eat berries