How to Fold a Shirt

July 3, 2010

The view of our beach, looking North.
Our home is about 3:00 in this picture.

As I mentioned before, Todd and I have rented our house out to vacationers for the last 3 years. It is our livelihood, and we’ve enjoyed it. It has been a challenge to run the business from 4000 miles away, and we’re glad to be here now to oversee it firsthand. The flip side being: now that we are here, we must find places to stay while our home is occupied with guests. We considered that when we decided to move here permanently, and figured we’d just make it an adventure by trying the various local hostels. Eventually, we need to find a nearby apartment, because we have a pretty full house from December until March.

We have a young honeymoon couple from the Midwest (Brian and Lara) arriving tomorrow for a couple of weeks, and today has been a flurry of last minute preparation and activity.

Facing East (ESE)
 the Olon Soccer field.
Our house is on the other side of the wall

A local friend of ours, German Mike, stopped by to deliver 3 fresh chickens (he raises them on a hillside nearby).   Which - ahem - we received newly slaughtered, plucked, and still warm. That was a little gross, but they taste great.  Grosser was the fact that apparently German Mike missed the lesson on the hazards of poultry juice, when he plopped them on my newly clean counter, and sopped up the mess with the brand new sponge provided for our arriving guests (tossed).

Then our young friend, Alex stopped by as I was finishing up some laundry.  Alex drives a local taxi, and we’ve gotten to know him well over the years. Alex’s father owns the Olon ferreteria (hardware store).  His uncle and aunt, Antonio & Patricia Zamora own the Oloncito Mercado, and those two have always been wonderfully kind to us. Patricia, especially, has been patient to help me with the language when I grocery shop.

Alex just stopped by to shoot the breeze (challenging, since his English is about as good as our Spanish), but he and I ended up spending about a half hour laughing while practicing the technique shown in the video below.

We are moving over to Hostel Isramar tomorrow, and looking forward to it.

It may not look like the video will load, but it does if you click on the start arrow: