Landfall

CHILE | Thursday, 10 January 2013 | Views [1343] | View Smaller Image

WOMAN FROM CHILOE. No matter neither age nor sex: the whole family is present, especially women. Salvador Zurita Mella, poet of the area, portrayed this way the woman from Chiloe when they arrive to the port: "when they arrive in Puerto Montt with boatloads of vegetables, seaweed, milk, charcoal, shellfish or fish, they jump nimbly and rolling up their long dresses to expose some earthy and chunky calves, they sink your feet in the cool waters. It's time to get the boat ashore. Silent, amid staccato monosyllables, they push their boats. There is a human anthill in the creek. The air is saturated with the characteristic smell of vegetables and fresh fish".

THE ARRIVAL.
Every day, early in the morning, dozens of fishermen and small farmers navigate through the Tenglo watercourse up to Angelmó, one of the most typical places in Puerto Montt (Chile), to sell vegetables, meat and seafood flown in from nearby islands. In 1926, this fishing village was immortalized by the chilean painter Arturo Pacheco Altamirano and since then, it became a point of admiration for poets, painters and tourists around the world. But today there is little left of what once was: the sails of the boats were replaced by engines and oars, and the earthquake of 1960 profoundly affected the environment. And after the red tide that hit Angelmó 2005, the place was left dying. However, little by little, the place has come back to life and has been named as

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FAITHFUL FRIEND.
Not only the candles were changed by the engines; the carts moved by oxen and horses, which helped land the products, have completely disappeared. Now the smaller boats are the ones that help stranded boats to get near the coast. However, the animals haven´t disappeared from the landscape of the port: a few pets accompany the fishermen through every moment of their journey. And on important dates, like the days before New Year, tens of lambs and ducks are brought into these vessels for their subsequent sale.

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