One for the dolphins.

Twice this week my attempts to save the planet have been thwarted.   I was in the deli section of Lider buying some ham.  Normally we buy ten slices, which gets wrapped in paper then put in a huge plastic bag.  I thought it would help save some plastic if I asked for fifteen slices of ham.  The lady weighed the ham then disappeared around the corner.  When she returned she had my ham on a polystyrene tray, double wrapped in plastic.  Thwart number one.

Bag packers stand at the end of each checkout and the idea is that you give them a tip for packing the bags.  I’m all for equal rights but bread is not as strong as a can of soup.  Should you tip someone who can’t put the heavy stuff on the bottom and the soft items on the top?  This is not a gringo-grumble.  A few Chileans have agreed with me on the subject.  At least I think they were.  We now feed the items to the cashier in the way we want them packed.  Most of the heavy things go into the backpack that we take shopping with us.

To help reduce our plastic bag usage I asked the packer to put a few more items into each bag.  This was done without hesitation but while my back was turned paying the cashier our shopping was double bagged.  Thwart number two.

On the cerro opposite us we often see camp fires or a circle of people sitting around playing the drums.  We put this place on our to do list and today we made it over there.  This was obviously off the normal tourist path and as such we found some beautiful artwork.