Nancy came well prepared with clorox wipes, baby wipes, dog food, extra towels, and, most importantly, RICE CAKES! Yes, rice cakes! Ambrosia for the dogs. They will do ANYTHING for a rice cake. An amazing secret that a Swissy breeder shared with me at a show when I was looking at her dogs. Low calorie and yummy, at least to dogs. I find them somewhat bland, unless you add peanut butter. And, hey, these dogs will do even more for rice cakes with peanut butter.
While the Hyundai van was fairly large and Ramon, the driver, had removed the last row of seats, it was not quite enough room for two fully assembled GIANT kennels. The driver and one of the cargo facility people set about disassembling them with amazing speed. The kennels have about 20 bolts with small wingnuts that need to be removed. I'd assembled and disassembled the crates at least twice moving them from the dining room to my basement to hide them from potential buyers of the Baltimore rowhouse (agent thought the house was a wee bit too kennel-like), back from basement to dining room once the house was sold, and from the house to the minivan for the drive to Atlanta (was that just yesterday...), because the assembled crates would not fit through my door frames. At 54 pounds each, it was a workout!
Back to Ramon and the task at hand. While Ramon and helper were disassembling Emmett's crate (the clean one), Nancy and I cleaned Riley's crate with the Clorox Wipes...thank goodness for wet wipes in a container! Riley wasn't quite able to hold everything. Fortunately, the towels soaked up most of the mess. We were unable to save those and they were tossed in the closest garbage can. Crates cleaned, disassembled, and stacked in the back. Luggage tossed into the crates, towels on the seats with floor mats underneath to keep the seats from being beaten to death by large doggie hooves (these really are small clydesdales). We're ready to go. Oh wait, Ramon recommends a tip for the helper guy. I hold Emmett. Nancy, Riley, and Ramon wander off to find helper guy and tip him. I give Emmett some water. If you've ever seen a Swissy drink, you know that they drink ALOT and spill ALOT. Emmett was vacuuming up the water in the little bowl we had. His enormous snout didn't quite fit in the bucket, so he was being particularly messy. Ramon and Nancy come back with Riley, who at this point looks thoroughly exhausted. Nancy mentions that Riley vomitted a little. I look at Ramon, who at this point is checking out Emmett's watery mess with great big eyes. He says to only give him a little bit of water. His gestures and words tell me he's worried about the beasties having accidents in his very clean Hyundai van. Poor man. Of course, I was a bit worried about what these two would get up to in the van.
We climb in for the ride home. Nancy is in the first back seat with Riley and I've got Emmett in the back seat with me. We have them strategically blocked by positioning ourselves nearest the door. We drive to the gate, where the guards had heard about Dos Grande Perros as we traipsed back and forth through the cargo facility. We could only see one guard at this point. He smiled as we approached and called to his colleague who was busy checking someone through the entrance gate. They both came over and smiled. Emmett and Riley were too tired to really get excited. They accepted pats on the head and off we went.
They were restless for a few minutes, but then the realization that we were there and that they were absolutely exhausted set in. We stopped quickly at a rest area before we really got going. There was some grass available for their use; something that was lacking in the cargo facility. We bought them a huge jug of water and a coke for us and set off. They settled right in. Emmett plopped down next to me with his big head in my lap and started snoring. Riley was comfortable in the front seat with Nancy and she also went to sleep, comforted by the fact they were with us. Ramon seemed surprised and pleased that they were so calm. YAY!
The drive, while long and somewhat uncomfortable in those little seats with no cushioning (Business Class, remember), was incredible. Initially, the road out of Santiago wound it's way up, down, and through the mountains. It was a toll road, so every 100 kilometers or so, we had to slow down to pay. Several of the toll collectors were rather surprised as Emmett's big head popped up as Ramon rolled down the window to pay. Emmett does have quite a big head. He takes after his uncle, Bert. If you've ever seen Bert, you KNOW. If you haven't seen Bert, well, it's just BIG. His Auntie Ursula's pet name for him is BIG HEAD.
As we pass through one toll, we notice several fruit stands on the side of the highway. They weren't just fruit stands. They were art. Each virtually identical stand had orange, green, and yellow mesh bags hanging from the back wall and ceiling. The bags contained kilos of avocados (paltas in Chile...a good word for me, the avocado lover, to know), oranges, and papayas (not tropical papayas...these are cooked and preserved here...but apparently you can eat them raw with enough sugar). Hand lettered signs indicated that the avocados were 800 pesos per kilo. 800 pesos, I ask Nancy....about $1.50 she answers . WHAT...WHAT...WHAT...$1.50 a KILO?! REALLY? I've died and gone to heaven....I generally buy one or two back in the states.....and they are about $2 each....my mind races...guacamole...sliced avocado...epicurious.com here I come.
We pass miles of avocado farms, cherry trees in bloom (it's Spring here), vineyards, and lemon trees. Emmett and Riley miss it all as they snore; Emmett with his big head in my lap. As we leave the mountains of Santiago, the road straightens and I can see for miles. I looked back the way we came and saw mountains in the distance, covered in snow. The Andes. Wow! The landscape along the road was dry for the most part, but occasionally varied revealing enormous sand dunes nearer the coast. Enormous. Big enough to snowboard down. Goats, sheep, and horses dotted the landscape. I wondered who owned these animals for there was no house, barn, or corral in sight. I did see a shepherd with a herd of goats once, but other than that, the animals seemed to be on their own. We saw a few of the facilities used to load copper onto ships. Large impressive operations. There were also random check points for trucks by the police along the highway. Not quite as organized as weigh stations along the I-70 corridor, but you get the idea. In fact we stopped at a random closed one along the way at about hour 3 to let the pups out. We pulled off, got out, and walked around while Ramon crossed the highway to use the facilities (?) at the stop on the other side of the highway. His crossing wasn't a big deal. There was very little traffic on this stretch of road. Every few minutes a car or truck would drive by. That was it. Very lonely out there.
Ramon seemed to know exactly when I was falling asleep during the ride as he would throw a CD into the stereo. Either he was hard of hearing or had no speakers up front (the only ones I could see/hear were right next to me). The music was fine, but loud. I was thankful each time his cell phone rang and he turned down the music to speak with the person on the other end. Exhausted like the dogs, I did manage to sleep for an hour or two of the journey despite the challenge of small seats with no headrests. It helps to have a big dog for a pillow!
Ramon was a great tour guide pointing out the various exits that we could take to get to the valleys for we never really passed through a town until we got to Coquimbo, the town just south of La Serena, our destination. It was a bit strange to go from highway to stoplights, all on the same road. Coquimbo is a small city that is built on a peninsula with a huge cross built on the highest point. We could also see the minaret of the mosque. There was a story about the mosque that Ramon relayed to us in Spanish. I didn't catch it due to my non-existent Spanish and I know Nancy translated, but my neurons weren't firing by then.
We finally got to La Serena, our new home. Nancy pointed out the mall (yes, THAT kind of mall) and the Jumbo (will blog about my first excursion to Jumbo later), and the Home Depot-like store (salivating...waiting for my tools so I can build things). We drove up a one way road, past the new dog food store (I am so going to miss Howl in Hampden), past the hair place where Nancy hopes to get her hair cut before she heads out on a business trip. Up and up we go, through the gate of our new community, up some more, and finally, the new casa. We all get out. Emmett and Riley sniff the flowers, drink some water, and roll in the grass and thought, "we're not in Baltimore anymore."
As we pass through one toll, we notice several fruit stands on the side of the highway. They weren't just fruit stands. They were art. Each virtually identical stand had orange, green, and yellow mesh bags hanging from the back wall and ceiling. The bags contained kilos of avocados (paltas in Chile...a good word for me, the avocado lover, to know), oranges, and papayas (not tropical papayas...these are cooked and preserved here...but apparently you can eat them raw with enough sugar). Hand lettered signs indicated that the avocados were 800 pesos per kilo. 800 pesos, I ask Nancy....about $1.50 she answers . WHAT...WHAT...WHAT...$1.50 a KILO?! REALLY? I've died and gone to heaven....I generally buy one or two back in the states.....and they are about $2 each....my mind races...guacamole...sliced avocado...epicurious.com here I come.
We pass miles of avocado farms, cherry trees in bloom (it's Spring here), vineyards, and lemon trees. Emmett and Riley miss it all as they snore; Emmett with his big head in my lap. As we leave the mountains of Santiago, the road straightens and I can see for miles. I looked back the way we came and saw mountains in the distance, covered in snow. The Andes. Wow! The landscape along the road was dry for the most part, but occasionally varied revealing enormous sand dunes nearer the coast. Enormous. Big enough to snowboard down. Goats, sheep, and horses dotted the landscape. I wondered who owned these animals for there was no house, barn, or corral in sight. I did see a shepherd with a herd of goats once, but other than that, the animals seemed to be on their own. We saw a few of the facilities used to load copper onto ships. Large impressive operations. There were also random check points for trucks by the police along the highway. Not quite as organized as weigh stations along the I-70 corridor, but you get the idea. In fact we stopped at a random closed one along the way at about hour 3 to let the pups out. We pulled off, got out, and walked around while Ramon crossed the highway to use the facilities (?) at the stop on the other side of the highway. His crossing wasn't a big deal. There was very little traffic on this stretch of road. Every few minutes a car or truck would drive by. That was it. Very lonely out there.
Ramon seemed to know exactly when I was falling asleep during the ride as he would throw a CD into the stereo. Either he was hard of hearing or had no speakers up front (the only ones I could see/hear were right next to me). The music was fine, but loud. I was thankful each time his cell phone rang and he turned down the music to speak with the person on the other end. Exhausted like the dogs, I did manage to sleep for an hour or two of the journey despite the challenge of small seats with no headrests. It helps to have a big dog for a pillow!
Ramon was a great tour guide pointing out the various exits that we could take to get to the valleys for we never really passed through a town until we got to Coquimbo, the town just south of La Serena, our destination. It was a bit strange to go from highway to stoplights, all on the same road. Coquimbo is a small city that is built on a peninsula with a huge cross built on the highest point. We could also see the minaret of the mosque. There was a story about the mosque that Ramon relayed to us in Spanish. I didn't catch it due to my non-existent Spanish and I know Nancy translated, but my neurons weren't firing by then.
We finally got to La Serena, our new home. Nancy pointed out the mall (yes, THAT kind of mall) and the Jumbo (will blog about my first excursion to Jumbo later), and the Home Depot-like store (salivating...waiting for my tools so I can build things). We drove up a one way road, past the new dog food store (I am so going to miss Howl in Hampden), past the hair place where Nancy hopes to get her hair cut before she heads out on a business trip. Up and up we go, through the gate of our new community, up some more, and finally, the new casa. We all get out. Emmett and Riley sniff the flowers, drink some water, and roll in the grass and thought, "we're not in Baltimore anymore."
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