Los Cementarios

After half a week of celebrating the anniversary of Chile’s independence – days lined with celebratory asadas (barbeques) and nights packed with dancing, drinking and music – we decided to take a break last Sunday.

Without the benefit of a scale for “before” and “after” measurements we can’t be sure, but our clothes seemed to hint that they didn’t appreciate us trying to smuggle in a few extra kilos apiece.  So we decided to get some exercise with a little sightseeing.

With one of the most beautiful days I’ve seen since my arrival in Chile laid out for us, my sister, her pololo (boyfriend) and I set out for Los Cementarios.  We walked to El Cementerio General and spent the whole afternoon wandering around.  The place seems endless!  We walked for hours and only found one boundary other than the one we crossed upon entry.  According to Wikipedia, it’s over 85 hectares of markers, monuments and mausoleums and is home to all but two of Chile’s former presidents.

Obviously, most of the names have no significance to us, but the sheer magnitude was astounding.  Here’s my photo tour:

For those of you who know my sister, you’re aware of her animal magnetism.  Creatures of all types are inexplicably drawn to her.  At first we thought it was because she likes to (somewhat good-naturedly) torment them; our pets seemed to love being harassed by her and would return again and again for more attention.  Our dogs would love it when she pinched or wrestled with them, our cats let her dust the floors with their backs and allowed her to wrap them in towel-slings and swing them around in grand arcs.  In fact, our cockatiel was the only warm-blooded pet that she didn’t physically pick on because he had a tendency to sporadically bite anyone who happened to offer their flesh (particularly fingers and ears).  But he still delighted in her sarcastic comments and ironic mimicry, and may have, in fact loved her and bonded more strongly with her because of them.

But over the past several years, we noticed that animals who had never before met her are drawn to her in the same manner.  For example, recently while my mom, dad, sister, her boyfriend and I were travelling in Florida, we visited a park in Tarpon Springs.  While walking to the picnic benches, a dog approached.  He passed my mom and the boyfriend without a second glance, then laid down and rolled belly-up at my sister’s feet begging, specifically, for her attention.

On another leg of the trip, we pulled into a reststop.  We had the side door of the minivan open while my mom was in the restrooms.  I was in the front seat, my sister was in the back seat and the boyfriend was standing outside the van.  Someone’s young pet boxer got loose, ran across the parking lot, around the van, past the boyfriend and jumped through the open door and into my sister’s lap, uncontainably delighted to see, specifically, her.*

In the cemetery, it happened again and this time we got photographic evidence:

Animal enters the picture.

He fakes to the right.

But goes left, like we all knew he would.

The sister is annoyed that we called it.

Wherever she goes...

...he's not far behind.

She's ignoring him, but he is content to be near her.

In light of this last picture, maybe we should revisit one of the previous ones:

She's ignoring him, but he is content to be near her.

(Too much?)

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*If you have any stories about my sister interacting with animals that you’d like to share, send them my way and I’ll happily post them.  Mom? Dad? Hank? I know you’ve got some.