Chile, being long and very thin, has hardly any time difference across the country so when it is 12.00 on the coast where we are, it is probably 12.10 in the Andes but instead of being noon the sun is only just warming up. It is not 'til mid to late afternoon that the sun is directly overhead. For some reason Chile uses the same time zone as Brazil and Argentina which means even in summer the sunrise is not until 7.00. In practice Chileans start work and eat their meals later, now we have realised this is no great problem. It is not a great move to ask the guest house for a 7.30 breakfast. I have also been brought up in the belief that you should never drink alcohol before “the sun is over the yard arm” in other words after mid-day so a beer with lunch means I have to break one of my rules.
As many of you know Gill and I love the holidays we have had on the beach near Christchurch courtesy of Mandy and Chris so when we saw a beach house B&B in Chile we could not resist booking it. We are here for three nights, it is a modernist tin hut on the beach with three large bedrooms with huge windows overlooking the sea and a big communal living room / kitchen. We have seen dolphins swimming past and if we are luck we might see whales.
Last night we decided to cook our own food; the only other guests, two Americans, walked into town to find everywhere was closed and ended up with ham sandwiches. From now on when away from the tourist trail we will make sure we have good lunches so dinner becomes less of an issue.