In my letter dated May 1, 2004 –Entry into the EU & Stephen King– I wrote:
“We have to travel to the Elqui Valley one golden day and its starry night to be blessed again, to heal all your wounds, and for protecting us from future suffering. We will renew our intimate liturgy in the nature. We should spend one more night in Vicuña –the town in the heart of the Valley– for staying in the Hostería to fix our failure in the summer 1999, and to spend some days by the sea in Andalué (Guanaqueros). I have delightful remembrances from our journey by the coast the past year in a sunny winter day of August, when in Rocas de Santo Domingo we had the Stephen King approach to that solitary and weird restaurant on the cliffs at the seaside. Do you remember? Was it a happy day for you too? I have the special wish for us to take the tour to the Mamalluca Astronomical Observatory in Vicuña to watch the heavens in the middle of the night and to enjoy the Milky Way by naked eye. I want to hug you in the starry wind once more!”
But we did not return to the Elqui Valley. It remained my intimate desire postponed for eternity when we reunite with Stella Maris again.
However, on December 28, 2006, at the beginning of summer, I returned to the Elqui Valley in a nostalgic and solitary journey. It was not the liturgy for renewing our vows but my personal farewell and prayer revering the star that was personified in my lifetime, my brightest lucero, Sirius and Stella Maris altogether. The weather was wonderful in the Valley and I stayed overnight in the fine hotel and resort Hostería de Vicuña, fixing so my unaccomplished desire from February 1999.
Late in the evening I went up to the Mamalluca Astronomical Observatory, located on one of the cerros that surround the Valley. In the open air there were field telescopes and the big one was in the Observatory’s Dome in a fancy building.
At midnight, after a lecture on the Zodiac in the auditorium, I watched the heavens through the telescopes and also by naked eye advised by astronomers. It was great spiritual experience, which concentrated my childhood desires learning Ancient History on Assyrians and Egyptians, and my youth longing studying Cosmology in my university years, and later reading about Astronomy and mathematical and physical sciences.
Infinitude, immensity, complexity and beauty of the Universe have always let me in ecstasy and profoundly meditative; the essence of it –space-time, mass, matter, light, gravity, emptiness, and Mathematics– constitute the Divinity, if any. I watched through a field telescope the intensely white-blue star Sirius, which is 23 times brighter than our Sun and has twice its mass (it is a 2-star system).
It was majestic experience seeing it, and also watching the red giant star Betelgeuse nearby, which appeared through the telescope spectacularly big and reddish.
Through the big Dome’s telescope I watched the cluster of the Pleiades. Only a few stars can difficulty be seen by naked eye in that region of the space, but suddenly the telescope revealed hundreds of sparkling stars forming the cluster, making it so vividly that seemed a miracle.
The Three Maries –in the Constellation of Orion– constitute grand gift for the mortals. I watched them at Mamalluca in their glorious splendor outshining the crystal sky of the Valley. They accompanied our love all along Chile during many adventurous and blissful nights. Only the resplendent Southern Cross was missing due to the time it was, but in my heart it was shining as the celestial jewel that united us intimately on Earth, and which we watched with emotion in so many idyllic nights along Chile.
Millennium in Praha
December 10, 2009 - December 10, 1999
Our Christmas season started cheerfully the very day of my arrival from Paris (Dec. 11, 1999), spending the first three days in Prague. I was dazzled enjoying the fusion of everything: our love in plenitude; the soft Prague for a baroque concert; the heartening strolling hand in hand everywhere and my delight at the crystal stores; the mulled wine shared in tender fondness at the Old Town Square; architecture impregnated by History; your Karviná home, palace spectacularly illuminated and magical place of your heart; the Slezská Univerzita parties; the concerts rendered by the Permoník; your celebrations with so fine and delicious dishes, fruits, cakes and cookies; the solemn Nativity Mass; the romantic strolling by Karviná and the Dr. Zhivago Park; the Velvet beer, coffees and pizzas at the Vanili; our journey from Ostrava to Prague in the fine Polish train from Warsaw, and the joyous strolling by Prague again; the glorious New Year 2000, which we greatly celebrated in Prague by the party-dinner at the Esplanade Hotel and the dancing party at the luxurious Corinthia (especially its jubilant culmination!). December 1999 was very great for me.
Thousand happy details I treasure from those days, as my precious crystal heart for a Christmas tree –which you presented to me and I have permanently at my side– and so many charming scenarios for our love. Our lavish celebration welcoming the Millennium was my greatest happiness, treasuring –as a main part of it– our strolling by the Lesser Town, the Loreta Sanctuary, and our sweet love during wonderful three additional days in Prague.
Finally, our last strolling for my return in February 2000 by the shiny Prague again, melancholic but consoling, and the road to the Ruzyně Airport lovely, mild and warm.
Bridal Journey
October 4, 2009
Fidelity
August 9, 2009
Fifteen years ago –on November 3, 1994– Chile was the seat of honor for a total solar eclipse. The main passage of the eclipse was in the Altiplano (Far North) at half an hour from Putre (capital of the province of Parinacota) by the international highway from Arica to La Paz (capital of Bolivia), passing by the Lake Chungará (4500 m altitude). It was exactly that beautiful place where we had our coffee the resplendent morning of our journey. We kept our beautiful photos shot there as imperishable memory from that place, called precisely The Eclipse. I vividly remember the train carriage shining in a dreamy panorama, the sign of the restaurant (the train carriage!), and your wonderful silky red dress waving graciously in the wind. I did not experience the eclipse in the Altiplano but in Santiago, and it was fantastic and unforgettable. I love music, poetry and astronomy, and then I was in the Seventh Heaven having all three things together. It was great not only because of the privilege of seeing such extraordinary event in the heavens, but it was something I experienced with admiration, wonderfully beautiful and emotive, but also eerie, which affected me profoundly. Having suddenly night in the middle of a shiny day for one hour is overwhelming. It is easy to understand the sentiment and beliefs reflected in the Scriptures, History and chronicles of Humanity.
During the total solar eclipse that had its zenith by the Lake Chungará I promised to myself to stay in such magical place someday. I delayed five years in accomplishing this self-promise waiting for my True Love, till Stella Maris appeared as the supernova in my sky and we travelled there to render our bridal ceremony. We did it by a monumental expedition from August 4 to August 17, 1999, returning via San Pedro de Atacama, El Tatio, Salar de Atacama and Moon Valley. The zenith of our journey was August 9, 1999, at the Lake Chungará. It was a feat and landmark in our lives. My adored proved to be a goddess and the most wonderful companion ever dreamt. Since then Chungará became a Jerusalem for me.
Paso Jama was another sanctuary, as magical, far, and painful as Chungará, having to travel 5000 km and to climb 5500 m to reach the planet Mars. We went there a few years later and it was another landmark in our lives.
Then she returned to the heavens. Now her celestial light illuminates my path from there. Her light is also music of the Universe and drama. She is not anymore the dazzling sun but the diamantine Stella Maris. The Constellation of Orion rounds my home circling from the Andes to the Pacific in an angle of 45° (springtime), so it is natural to watch it. The Three Maries form the belt of Orion, and just by its right flashes unmistakably the Stella Maris (Sirius). It appears before the wall-window of my study room late in the evening, and thus She accompanies me every night. My devotion for her perdures in the glittery arm of the Milky Way. The years pass and pass; they will continue passing and She will continue being my glittery Universe.
The mill of time led me to consider Chungará and Paso Jama for a farewell of my own to life, materializing what I had planned for a second time on May 23, 2005, but we did not reach. I was doubtful if I would be able to carry out all the exertions, to drive 8000 km, to climb over 5500 m, overcoming puna, etc., just to have my intimate ritual. I wanted to reach especially the Salar de Tara, farthest point of Paso Jama, where I want to be spread in the wind after my death.
I had more reasons. One was the fact that the year 2008 attained a decade from our beginning. Other motive was that I did not have a photographic chronicle of our expeditions, so this was the opportunity to mend it. Finally there was the factor Bibi (my daughter). I wanted to present her with this adventure, possibly her only opportunity to get it, considering, among many other things, the fortune that it costs. Bibi came from Spain (Madrid) just to render it.
I planned the itinerary to reach Chungará on August 9, the 9th anniversary of my stay there with Stella Maris materialized, a sacred date in my life. Destiny wanted also that it was Tomasito’s day of birth. My journey extended the same as in the year 1999, from August 4 to August 19, 2008. Everything went fine all the travel, which had many dangers and exertions, and it was an unforgettable feat again. I was in perfect form and the highways were wonderfully kept along the 8000 km trail. The Samsung behaved as the winged cradle that carried Stella Maris all over Chile. The zero-fault Pegasus that blessed our adventures during 7 years, the wonderful SQ-5-Full that I had bought exclusively for her, was proud to repeat the journey for the last time.
The spiritual aims of my journey were very much blessed. There was summertime weather all the way, despite being Chile in the middle of winter. The route was the same of the year 1999, even if run partly by the coast, especially between Tocopilla and Iquique along 500 km of fantasy. The stops were our classics: Guanaqueros (our historic hideout in Andalué, with the good news that the lady was 100% recuperated); Bahía Inglesa (the new cozy house N° 18 outside the complex); Mejillones (our apartment N° 1 at the street level); Iquique (the luxurious brand-new 5-star Radisson Hotel); Arica (a nice bungalow among extended luxuriant gardens in the Valley of Azapa); and returning by the same path Iquique (which looked very much developed and beautiful), and the Ayllu of Tolanche in San Pedro de Atacama.
Chungará looked mystical and spectacular, wonderfully surprising, softer and clearer than when we stayed there nine years before, but similar as it was that “celestial” day of the total solar eclipse on November 3, 1994. Neither Bibi nor I felt any puna; paradoxically I felt better than in Santiago. At dawn it had snowed in the Altiplano, especially by Socoroma, Putre, the Payachatas, Parinacota and the Lake Chungará, but the sky was azure all the time for us. Chungará was a precious diamond, as Stella Maris remains in my soul. I buried her body there with music by Mozart, gorgeous flowers, sapphires, emeralds and rubies, as in the Great Pyramid lined with the Three Maries (belt of Orion), but her soul flew to the heavens to shine for me forever.
The Music-for-crying made the most sentimental descent from Chungará in a fantastic twilight, to have a greatly ceremonial coffee in the car at the Eclipse Restaurant (Copaquilla, 2700 m altitude), already illuminated by the scintillating Milky Way.
Paso Jama, beautiful and astonishing in its unbelievable, colorful and varied panoramas, was as glorious as Chungará, with the same crystalline blue sky, although Chungará has no comparison as for the planetary spectacle and greatly ample view. Laguna Verde (Green Lagoon), Salar de Tara and the Volcano Licancabur had fierce winds, so we could not stay much in the open air.
From the travel I brought 600 digital photos, most of them shot from the car at high speed, to tell the story. This is my final homage to Stella Maris and to our planetary love, my Only Love, my True Love and adoration, and here I date her for meeting again –this time forever– far from this Vale of Tears.
This insightful testimony tenderly cares for the bed of flowers and stars that once made us dream together about being united for eternity. [Download]
Happy Birthday for Stella Maris (click)!
Anniversary & World Rituals
June 12, 2009
I vividly remember the afternoon of June 12, 1998, when the bliss hit my heart in the vastness of an ocean of hopes and fantasy. In retrospective it looks as if the evening star had descended for an instant touching me with the grace and beauty of the Universe. Today, as part of my cheerful celebration and the sentiment of privilege of having you as my garland of stars and flowers, I am attaching to this missive my first letter, written on that very June 12, 1998, which is the gala version for our e-Book (Chapter The Pledge) to be legacy for our descendants, to give them testimony of such great achievement and for cheering them up by our heroic example.
During this week two World historic events have made me reflect about you from other special view, which, by the way, has been recursive along the years since I met you. In essence you have been my greatest factor of progress and development since the year 1998, in regard of my intellect, personal economy and profession, bringing me good luck and lighting my good star. It has been a grand plus. I did not count on it nor did I imagine it. I feel much acknowledgement to you for that. You have awoken inside me profound love, joy, satisfaction, pride, but also motivation for the dominion of the English language, which has opened for me widely the World in all senses, achievement that without you and my daring effort started on June 12, 1998 –really nearing temerity– I could not have ever attained. I would have missed a precious part of my existence!
The two World events that I refer have been the 60th Anniversary of the D-Day –commemorated by emotive ceremonies and bright parades by the sea on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 in Normandy (Avranches), France– and, very especially, the funerary rituals and the state funeral for Ronald Reagan, tribute to the great leader of the West, gifted, providential and optimistic Occidental hero, who defeated the Evil Empire of the Soviet Union and its court of totalitarian police states in Eastern Europe, the winner of the Cold War, whom all of us owe so much. In the USA, United Kingdom and Latin America these special events have been given great importance. For me personally, eager witness and dedicated studious of half a century of History, and feeling to have been part of the Intelligentsia of my nation, these rituals and ceremonies have been exceptional opportunity to recall my entire life and to feel intimately close to you. I have been stuck the entire week to the CNN and to the BBC enjoying everything, watching and listening to everything in English as if it was my native language. All of it is your priceless gift to me, and I feel acknowledgement and joy for it.
On Sunday morning the CNN, the BBC and the DW broadcasted the ceremonies and colorful military parades in Normandy on a pretty sunny day by the sea, glittering as our Mirasol. Leading the Honor Guard Standards was the big Czech flag, wonderfully waving in the brilliance before the ocean, and it was delightfully surprising to be seen it feeling you so close to my heart.
Later in the week the funerary rituals and state funeral of Ronald Reagan in Washington D.C., performed in the Capitol and mainly in the National Cathedral, having 300 heads of states and great leaders from all over the world reunited (including Mikhail Gorbachov and Margaret Thatcher), showed expressions of very great national fervor in the United States for a beloved President. The glorious and tender hymn America the Beautiful, rendered by great choir and orchestra under the dome of the magnificent Capitol Rotunda moved to tears. The Battle Hymn of the Republic, a classic and Reagan’s favorite (and mine too), gave the strange feeling of cheer and solemnity at a time. The ceremonies performed inside the National Cathedral were not only valuable from the historical and political points of view but also emotive and beautiful, especially for the music.
The discourse by Margaret Thatcher was a masterpiece for History. The final farewell was given in a golden twilight at the other extreme of the USA, by a dreamy Pacific in California at the Reagan Presidential Library, place surrounded by a landscape very similar to our coastal range nearby Viña del Mar. It was an emotional time of intimate ceremonies under the sunset with fantastic “arreboles”; it seemed to me being together on our terrace looking at the Coast Range by the West towards our own Pacific. I recorded the ceremonies and the rituals for you. I am sure you will enjoy this 2-hour video as much as you did with that dedicated to September Eleven 2001. I apply one Reagan’s lemma for us: we have been successful because we have appealed to our best hopes, not to our worst fears.
Time nears us reaching today a new anniversary. There was a misty autumnal day after the first true rain and snowfall, but for me the sun was the remembrance of June 12, 1998, a glorious day linked to you, Gaudy and Brahms, and to a sunny, warm and promising afternoon in the middle of the winter. [Download]
Entry into the EU & Stephen King
May 1, 2009
On Sunday first of May I was kissing you under the cherry tree! It was a flashing pink tree resembling my Aránzazu’s flower-plum tree at the arrival of the spring. The beautiful “remolino”, which for the Buddhists is a machine of praying but for the Chileans is a machine of joy, was spreading my joyful prayers for you in the wind from your balcony. Spring in Chile is the season of kites and remolinos. I conjure a marvelous multicolor silky kite blown in the sky conveying my love to you. Whirling prayers and flying colors compose a poem carrying my longing for being with you in Karviná, which remains a holy place in my soul. It is out of this World and belongs to the dreamy whirling arm of the Milky Way, where we roam in the search for love, hope and peace. Amidst the music of the universe, the harmonies of the real music and the stillness of the solitary night, I silently enter your kitchen to taste a sip of Porto with Vanočka and apple-chocolate cake baked by your loving hands.
Today was the Czech entry into the European Union, historic event, which seen from Chile looked great, hopeful and confident. The Chileans were specially expectants, for obvious reasons related to our Free Commerce Treaty and our social-cultural links with Europe. The celebrations started in Ireland (Dublin), Poland, Hungary, Lithuania and Cyprus, and spread all over Europe with grand shows of fireworks at the midnight of April 30. Everything was shown on the CNN, Deutsche Welle, BBC, Spanish, French and Italian TV late in the afternoon of April 30, giving an illusory sense of anticipation in the timetable (due to the different hemispheres in which we are). The Chilean TV stations gave live broadcasts showing gleeful and hopeful news too. While before the wall window of my study room was unfolding a spectacular twilight by the High Andes, I was in the Karviná Plaza gleefully celebrating with you. Welcome my beloved Czech Lady and brand-new European!
Nothing was shown from Praha but I was lucky the very morning of May 1st watching the official ceremony in Zittau (the town of the three borders among the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany). Both the Deutsche Welle and the BBC broadcasted it, and even the DW gave the discourse by Spidla and the cheers with big glasses of beer among the three Prime Ministers and their stroll by the three borders, entering symbolically the three countries at once. I found most notable the grand importance given to Lithuania, Estonia and Hungary, stressing the fact that the concept of “Eastern” Europe and its evil bond to the old communist regimes in the Soviet Empire is definitely dead and buried. Thus, now just there is one Europe reunited, and the partner of us the Chileans. As part of the celebrations Lithuania sent to Santiago a fine Chord Quartet, which gave a special concert in Santiago.
News on your preparations for coming let me optimistic. We have to travel to the Elqui Valley one golden day and its starry night to be blessed again. We will renew our intimate liturgy in the nature. We should spend one more night in Vicuña –the town in the heart of the Valley– and to spend some days by the sea in Andalué (Guanaqueros). I have delightful remembrances from our journey by the coast the past year in a sunny winter day of August, when in Rocas de Santo Domingo we had the Stephen King approach to that solitary and weird restaurant on the cliffs at the seaside. Do you remember? Was it a happy day for you too? [Download]
Conjuring I see you gleeful and splendid arriving in Marbella (mar = sea, feminine; bella = beautiful, feminine; therefore Marbella = Beautiful Sea), the 5-star resort near Viña del Mar over hills softly sliding towards the sea, resembling the scenery of Daphnis and Chloe, the Greek mythological love story. Marbella will be the place where we will stay during our initial days and nights when you come –and the 1001 days of those nights!
I reflect about the film The Last Temptation of Christ, a refined, complex and conflictive artwork based on the book by Nikos Kazantzakis. This book captivated me. There is in such film a fantastic scene, hub of it, contrasting in real time the happiness of a youthful wedding procession with the atrocious Christ’s agony on the cross. It shows the colorful, playful, jumbled-up wedding parade amidst which advances the beautiful, spiritual –sexy, dazzling– María Magdalena, dressing fanciful bridal costume. This scene is enhanced by effect of lavish music, zoom and slow-motion camera. The Dominican singer and composer Juan Luis Guerra released a video promoting his song A pedir su mano (To solicit her hand) similarly to this scene, but in the vivacious tempo of such song. This video displays a disordered but playful wedding parade advancing, encircling in lively dance a brown–reddish super sexy bride, dressing a provocative, brief, white dress. Both scenes in the films focus on the same: Eros fascinating spirit. Thus I am seeing you advancing blissfully in ethereal dress of white tulles and lemon blossoms amidst the blue scenery of Marbella, reaching my dreamy happiness. The beauty of your soul is dressed with the beauty of your body, your being giving me life and youth, my longing deeply alive but waiting for the winged hand to release it.
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Entry into the EU & Stephen King
May 1, 2009
Conjuring I see you gleeful and splendid arriving in Marbella (mar = sea, feminine; bella = beautiful, feminine; therefore Marbella = Beautiful Sea), the 5-star resort near Viña del Mar over hills softly sliding towards the sea, resembling the scenery of Daphnis and Chloe, the Greek mythological love story. Marbella will be the place where we will stay during our initial days and nights when you come –and the 1001 days of those nights!
I reflect about the film The Last Temptation of Christ, a refined, complex and conflictive artwork based on the book by Nikos Kazantzakis. This book captivated me. There is in such film a fantastic scene, hub of it, contrasting in real time the happiness of a youthful wedding procession with the atrocious Christ’s agony on the cross. It shows the colorful, playful, jumbled-up wedding parade amidst which advances the beautiful, spiritual –sexy, dazzling– María Magdalena, dressing fanciful bridal costume. This scene is enhanced by effect of lavish music, zoom and slow-motion camera. The Dominican singer and composer Juan Luis Guerra released a video promoting his song A pedir su mano (To solicit her hand) similarly to this scene, but in the vivacious tempo of such song. This video displays a disordered but playful wedding parade advancing, encircling in lively dance a brown–reddish super sexy bride, dressing a provocative, brief, white dress. Both scenes in the films focus on the same: Eros fascinating spirit. Thus I am seeing you advancing blissfully in ethereal dress of white tulles and lemon blossoms amidst the blue scenery of Marbella, reaching my dreamy happiness. The beauty of your soul is dressed with the beauty of your body, your being giving me life and youth, my longing deeply alive but waiting for the winged hand to release it.