Rosa and Marcos

August 19th, 2008

The table was laid with fine china, silver, and crystal. Prepared meats and cheeses and savory biscuits adorned the table. It was as if an honored guest was expected, but it was prepared for me.
I had met Rosa and Marcos just yesterday, a lovely chilean couple from Punta arenas in the south of Chile. Rosa is the sister of the the swim coach Pedro Ordenas with whom I had swam in the San Francisco bay at Aquatic park to prepare myself for the open water of the Ironman. Pedro has distinguished himself among the bay area swimmers for having swum from Alcatraz to San Francisco 500 times. I am just 498 crossings behind him.
Rosa and Marco spent two days showing me the lovely city of Vina del Mar. The long stretches of beach were reminiscent of Nice in France or Brighton in England. We went to the botanical gardens where the recent rains and flooding had destroyed their ponds and scattered their ducks and swans. Vestiges of spring were present in the soft white and pink blooms of cherry blossom flowers and the magestic magnolias, but the gardens glory was yet to come and resting beneath the light misty rain that fell.
After the gardens we returned to the apartment of Rosa and Marco where she had prepared the table for the ¨onces¨. The onces is a light tea or meal that is eaten around five but called the ¨elevens¨ for a reason I wasn{t able to elicit.
I was reminded of my grandmother{s carefully laid table in the handstitched table cloth, the dishes carefully placed, and the loveing hand that I knew had placed it all.