During my childhood it was traditional to go every year to visit my uncle, the brother of my mother, at his house in Valparaiso.

My uncle had married his wife Olga when I was 2 years old. I still remember hiding under the long train of her beautiful white dress after the ceremony when they were taking pictures at the foot of the big stairs at “tia” Olga’s paternal house.

The father of my Aunt Olga was a famous entrepreneur in Chile who single-handedly initiated the export of Chilean fruits to other countries. His house in Los Placeres hill in Valparaiso was huge. It faced the back borders of the Santa Maria Technical University.

When my uncle and aunt married they went to live in the country and took care of a farm of my Aunt Olga’s father. We visited them sometimes when I was a child, and I still have pictures with my cousins at that place.

My aunt and uncle had two girls. The first one, named after one of my aunts, was born in December 1944, and the second, named after her mother, was born in March 1946.

After a while, my aunt and uncle moved back to Valparaiso to live at my aunt’s house. The house was remodeled, and the second floor became a huge apartment for them to live in. My aunt’s mother and father lived on the first floor.

The health of my aunt’s mother was precarious and she needed much attention. A cousin of hers also lived there and took care of her. My aunt’s father traveled much because of his business, so he did not spend much time at home.

From Valparaiso to Concon, the coast in Chile presents one beach after another and my cousins and I certainly enjoyed them.

I have good memories of the time we spend in Valparaiso going to the beach and the pool at the Recreo Spa. The place not only had this huge sea water pool but also offered seaweed baths, mud baths, and thermal pools. I remember mother and father enjoying some of those baths while my cousins and I had fun in the pool.

Sometimes my aunt would join us. Together, we dived to search the rocks at the Cochoa Beach and collected sea snails to make delicious salads.

We stopped going to see my uncle and his family when I started going to the University and I volunteered for summer work at the South of Chile.