¡Bandera Chilena!

Abrazo flies the Chilean flag at last: 

Richard took down the US flag, and then moved the Chilean flag from the "guest" position to its new place on the boat.  

The Chilean Customs bureaucracy has officially accepted the valuation of Abrazo as calculated by the tasador from a certain prestigious empressa out of Viña de Mar.  We’re specifically grateful to the tasador, himself, a young man whose Chilean ancestry traces back to the northern Italian area of Milan/Lago Maggiore from whence Richard himself descends.  This appraiser admired Abrazo immensely, inspected her thoroughly, required scans of her original plans, took the book I wrote about her construction in Bellingham, as well as the For Sale flyer (posted in an earlier blog), and also understood that R was going to have to pay a tax of 20+% of the boat’s official value.  We’re grateful to the Agente de Aduana, Sr. Arturo Bello, for his shepherding of the flock of papers through the Customs process.  He charged plenty, si.  Valió la pena, esperamos.

Several bankers played their parts faithfully as the thousands of US dollars were transferred across the country to New York City, and thence over the wires into the Chilean system.  Richard has complied with every request made by his chosen bank here in Puerto Montt, but they are not quite ready to let him have a checking account yet.  So when the money came in from the US, he had to take it en efectivo, cash ... and the largest bills available were 10,000 peso notes.  There must be a better way than taking a six-inch deep stack of paper pesos from one bank and having to carry it four blocks to the bank where the Agente de Aduana has HIS account … but that’s what we did.  I went along as bodyguard.  All's well.    

So, now:  Richard will adjust the sales price to reflect the fact that a buyer will NOT have to pay the 20% IVA.  The dollar is highly valued down here right now, around 540 pesos per.  Pricing is the new challenge.  Right around $56,000 US is the target, I believe.   

But it's not all work.  We had a wonderful time last weekend at a gorgeous performance of Mozart’s opera, The Magic Flute, La Flauta Magica.  

Neither of us knew anything about this work, but our Pennsylvania amiga, Nancy, has infected us with her enthusiasm for the opera, so we jumped at the chance to experience this music in the “world class” Teatro Del Lago in Frutillar.  You can't just call in your credit card number to reserve seats here.  You must call to reserve tentatively, then look for the email from the theater giving you their bank account info.  You email the theater when you've made the deposit, and they ask you to send a photo of the receipt!  Then you've got reservations.  What a system.  

Main floor ... we arrived early.  

 The pic I took of Richard in his balcony seat did not turn out well, but here he is, outside the theater, dressed for the opera.

We enjoyed the sopranos immensely, and the great bass voice of Sarastro impressed us.  It took me a week, after the performance, to read the program and understand the story, finally.  I just loved the way the two young men, Prince Tamino and the bird-hunter, Papageno, each followed his own path to success:  one by the righteous road, supervised by the wise old men, and passing thru hard trials, tests of character; and the other by the natural, winding, happy path of instinct, holding to pursuit of pleasure above all things!


Ah, there's more to tell of that trip to Frutillar:  a delicious lunch at the Lavender Casa de Té, where Kristina, the owner gave us a walking tour thru her blueberry grove and then up into the horse pasture to meet the studs and geldings and enjoy the view of hayfields, woodlots, acres of lavender a-buzz with honey bees, and the beautiful lake, Llanquihue, sparkling across to the volcanoes.
We stayed in a great farmhouse built by German colonists more than a hundred years ago, far on the other side of town from the theater.  Our transportation funds mostly went to a young man named Javier, who delivered us back and forth 3 of the 4 trips.  He brought his wife and two small sons along on Friday night when he met us outside the opera house for the 6 km drive along the lake shore, under the full moon, to our lodging.  And I'm sure he was sorry to hear that our last ride with him the next day was to the bus terminal so we could get back to Puerto Montt.

Next adventure, well, besides selling the boat, is north on Ruta Cinco for about 5 hours on the bus to Temuco, where Richard will rent a car.  We want to go to the tiny town of Capitan Pastene.  Brother Bob saw a PBS documentary about this town and told us about it last week.  The colonists who started the town in 1904 came from Modena, Italy and have made themselves famous for their Italian cuisine in the mountains of Chile's south-central region.  We hope to feast on prosciutto and pasta.  Then we'll get down to the business of marketing Abrazo.