City Living

When Manuel and I first met, he lived in a one-bedroom apartment in the center of Viña. I have to note that the first time I saw the apartment I would eventually share, he had not bothered to tidy it. It really cracked me up, and now that I think of it, maybe helped set the tone for the rest of our relationship. At that time, I lived 12ish blocks away, also in basically downtown, but on a slightly quieter street and in a smaller building. As we spent more time together more of my stuff ended up living at his place until I basically did, too. On July 26, 2010 my suitcases rolled out of this apartment on my way to the plane that would take me home.

In January 2011 I came back to school a week late in order to prolong my visit down south. In January we lived in the same 13th floor apartment, but this time, I had no other apartment 12 blocks away to go "home" to. This was home for one month. Viña Park is a modern building, and the first time we drove up to it together I was really impressed. It has a water feature in the lobby and at least two concierges on duty at all times. The square footage (square meters) of our one-bedroom was small, but well designed. We never felt cramped except when it came to shoe storage. It just seemed natural living in an economical space in a big city. And we had a view of the ocean.

In July 2011 my suitcases were packed to stay. And one of my suitcases was actually a kennel. And the kennel contained a dog. Bauzá is pretty close to a perfect apartment dog. He's really mellow, likes to sleep a lot, and needed very little encouragement to understand that the balcony was to serve as a backyard in emergent situations. Still, he's bigger than perhaps the ideal apartment dog, and we felt it. The economical apartment began to feel small. So when the family who rented Manuel's house in the country decided they had to move and the house was left empty, we began to consider a change.

It was really hard to leave the view and the convenience and the beautiful building, but in the end, I think we told ourselves that it was the best thing for the dog, and that we'd probably love it as much as he would. Circumstances caused me miss the first part of our country living, but like clockwork I was on a plane to be back in time for New Year's Eve again.

In January 2012, I began to realize the beauty of country living. Bauzá absolutely loves it. He taught himself to leap the fence in order that he can patrol the perimeter of our parcela. It wasn't until we had overnight guests from Santiago who reveled in the silence that I also realized it is incredibly quiet and we have as much privacy as we could want. And you know, we don't have a lobby with a water feature, but we have a clear blue swimming pool.

Other city dwellers also recognize the novelty of spending time in the country, and we've been able to pay for our home improvement projects by renting the house for a week here and a weekend there. This week is one of those weeks. Maria has a big house, also in the center of the city, located almost exactly between my two apartments of 2010.

She has a surprising number of bedrooms for the location, so we and the four dogs we somehow now have are staying with her for the time. We are back in the city, and it has really put the parcela into perspective. On the 13th floor, busses and traffic were almost reduced to white noise. On the second floor of a house built literally right against its neighbors, this is not so. As I put myself and the indoor dogs to bed tonight, I heard dance music from my window and cueca music coming in from the window down the hall. The neighborhood's garbage is collected at night, and car horns know no hour. I think Bau and Ody are content to spend a week barking at the passersby we never get in Mantagua. But I don't think any of us will regret it when we pack up and go home.