The Kitchs

Kirsi and Aidan Videos on a Sunday Morning

2010-03-14T08:00:00.001-04:00

Click here to see Aidan's St. Patrick's Day Dance!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

My first digital layout!

2010-03-12T21:41:00.000-03:00

I've been thinking about trying out digital scrapbooking for a while now and I finally decided to take the plunge. We bought Photoshop Elements and I signed up for a fantastic online class (at jessicasprague.com) and I did my first layout. It's pretty basic but I'm really proud of it! I felt pretty comfortable doing it and I think I just may enjoy this way of scrapbooking too! Here it is:

A big one

2010-03-11T16:36:00.000-03:00

Today, just before noon, we had another big shaking up. They are now telling us it was a 6.9, though earlier reports said 7.2; all I know was that it was big. The kids and I were just leaving the playground at Lider when it happened. We were driving so we didn't feel anything at first. Then we stopped to turn left and I saw the windows of a store across the street moving. It was like they were shaking, like waves. But I figured they were just repairing the shop and that's why. But then, a second later, I felt the car moving. I asked the kids whether they were moving around and shaking the car and Kirsi said no. It was such a weird sensation, like we were in a boat in really rough water. Like riding the big waves.

When we managed to turn, I saw a man who had gotten out of his car and was talking to another man. He motioned that there was shaking and then I got it. We were in the middle of another earthquake! I didn't feel anything else but apparently it lasted at least 20 seconds. They say that it measured 6.9 and I believe it because we were moving, big time.

We were at home for about 10 minutes when we felt the ground moving again. Nothing like we had just been in but it was enough to rattle the gate outside and move the light fixture in the living room and rattle the pictures on the walls. From that one, my head started spinning, like I'd just been on a ride at an amusement park and I'm still feeling goofy 4 1/2 hours later!

Nido evacuated to the fields and parks outside and they were out there until 2:30. Der was busy taking groups of kids from their teachers up to their parents who were waiting at the gate. He made at least 25 trips up and down in the hot sun; he's tired and sunburned now. The kids were well prepared and did the duck, cover and hold with no problems. The biggest problem was that the elementary students were out in the sun for over 2 1/2 hours with no lunch or bathroom breaks. They did get some water later on.

Here are some news articles on the quake:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/lt_chile_earthquake

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8561340.stm

We're all good, just shaken and stirred. :)

Early morning snuggles

2010-03-11T08:39:00.000-03:00

This morning Aidan woke up early, around 6:30. I let him chatter away until he got too loud. I brought him into bed with me and he didn't want to lay down and go back to sleep. Instead, we snuggled and sang songs and played little games. It was fantastic! I love those special moments early in the morning. Even though Simba woke me up at 4:15 and I wasn't able to get back to sleep, those snuggles made my day!

Conversation with Aidan this morning

2010-03-08T07:25:00.002-03:00

Aidan: "Daddy?"
Me: "Daddy had to go to work."
Aidan: "Working."
Aidan: "Cheap."
Me: "Yes, Sweetie, it's cheap that Daddy has to go to work."

Que es esta maquinita?

2010-03-06T08:04:00.001-03:00

The other afternoon, we were watering our front lawn. We looked out our front window and saw that several kids from the neighbourhood - about 10 - 12 yeas old - were staring at the sprinkler. They were running their hands through the water, sticking their heads in it and generally just in awe of this "thing". When I went out to move it, one little girl asked me, "Where did you buy this little machine?" :) Goes to show you how sheltered some kids' lives are. Here in our neighbourhood, they either have an underground automatic watering system or their nannies water with just the hose. So interesting!

Kirsi's Prayer & Looting

2010-03-04T13:39:00.000-03:00

At supper last night, we asked Kirsi to lead us in prayers:

Come Lord Jesus
Be our guest
And let this food
Unto us be fresh
Amen

You gotta love kids!

3 more earthquakes/aftershocks during the night last night. A couple of real good shakes.

School is closed this week as there is no electricity there. They've been running on generators but that's consuming fuel that is in short supply right now. The hospitals rightly get fuel first.

Lots of looting going on. Someone came to Pascuala's door the other night and said that he was from Concepcion and that he had nothing. Pascuala's neighbor shouted out "don't believe him, he lives down the street."

And it's not like they're taking food or water or blankets; they're taking TVs and washing machines. It's just opportunistic thievery at it's best.

As well, some are freaking out with the groceries here. A friend was shopping and she had her cart loaded up. She went to get some item down the isle and someone else took her cart just because it was already loaded. It's a weird mass mob mentality as the shelves are fully stocked and no one is going without (at least in our neighborhood) anything.

For us, it's life as normal except for the fact that we still have one bathtub full of water just in case we love water for a while. We've also got a few extra groceries lying around and we're careful about not driving the car unless necessary.

How You Can Help

2010-03-02T20:35:00.002-03:00

There are many people who have asked us if there's anything they can do to help out with the relief efforts following the earthquake in Chile on Saturday morning. Der and I think that the best way for people to get money to us so we can pass it along is through PayPal. We have a PayPal account under Derwin's name. If you already have an account, just enter Der's email address in the Send space. It's derwink@yahoo.com . If you don't but would like to set an account up, email one of us and we will help you do it. If you pay via PayPal Credit or through a bank account, we don't believe there are any charges. We do ask you to please pay the transfer fees if paying by credit card, though. Thanks.

Our nanny, Pascuala, came to work today and said that everything in her house is fine, thank goodness. She said that there are some panels she will need to replace in her dining room but it's not essential so she's not worried about it for now. Plus, she will need to put money away to be able to pay for it. However, her father, sister and her husband live on a farm near Melipilla, which is southwest of Santiago. His house was severely damaged by the earthquake. The kitchen caved in and the rest of house is not in good condition. The three of them are living in the one small room that is inhabitable. He went to the municipality to see if they will help with the reconstruction and they said that there was nothing they could do. He has to wait to get the quote, which will be at least 15 days, then it's up to him. We, personally, will be donating our money to help Mr. Santibanez to reconstruct his house (if he will accept the help).

People from Der's school, Nido de Aguilas, are putting together a big shipment of necessary goods to send down to the areas in need. We're collecting food, clothing, blankets, diapers, etc. to put in the shipment. Any donations we get, we will buy these items to add to the shipment.

Un Techo Para Chile is a well-known organization here which helps build houses for those in need. They have been around for many years and are a reputable organization. They are taking donations specifically for the earthquake effort. I don't know what percentage goes directly to the cause (and how much is for administrative costs) but I can't imagine it would be that high. I do not recommend you sending a wire transfer to Chile as, in our experience, the costs are very high both to send and to receive. It would be better to donate through your credit card. You'll find a link in English, "Donate".
http://www.untechoparachile.cl/

Thank you to everyone who wants to help out. We really appreciate it.

Update: a friend of ours who has a bank account in the U.S. has given us his account number and routing number if you'd rather deposit money to his account. He is the Assistant Principal of the Elementary School at Nido de Aguilas and will be helping with the food and clothing drive. If you'd rather go this route, email us and we will give you the info.

San Pedro de Atacama

2010-02-28T15:26:00.000-03:00

Atacama

2010-02-28T15:16:00.000-03:00

We got up at 4:30 in the morning and headed for the airport at 5:30 for a flight to Calama, a small city in the north of Chile. Once we landed, we loaded up the rental van and headed straight east up into the Andes to see some of the smaller, traditional towns in the area.

On the way there, we passed the Chuquicamata open pit copper mine. At 4.3 km long by 3 km wide by 850 m deep, it is the largest open pit mine in the world.

Our first stop was at a small town called Chiu Chiu (pronounced Chee-oo Chee-oo), population 322. The main attraction, other than it's name, is this beautiful white washed church with cactus wood doors and ceilings. It made me think I was in a Clint Eastwood movie. The floors inside the Iglesia de San Francisco. were cactus wood as well. The altitude there is 2500 m.

Cactus wood door at the church.

Building near town square.

After Chiu Chiu, we traveled further east to a small town called Caspana, population of 400 and altitude of 3300 m. Caspana is known for its many terraces. The terraces are used to grow garden crops and flowers that they sell to the other towns and cities in the area.

The bustling center of Ayquina (pop. 40) was next. There were a lot of houses there for 40 people but that's because most of the buildings were padlocked from the outside. The owners would only come to the town so that they could celebrate the festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe with 30,000 other people. Party on, Wayne! Party on, Garth!

The Santurario Nuestra Senora de Guadalupe

And the courtyard of the Santuario.

The houses have mud and clay roofs.

Rio Salado (Salado River)

These were all pre-Columbian villages, meaning pre-Spanish. It's a very beautiful, authentic area.

We then trucked it hard to San Pedro de Atacama, the main town where everyone goes to visit the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world.

The town is a fascinating place to visit with its dusty, dirt roads and light-brown adobe buildings and fences. There are many restaurants and hotels in the town. From the outside they look like nothing special, but on the inside they're all well taken care of and very nice. The food was excellent.

Our hotel owner, Alvaro, told us that, back in the day, their ancestors had a lot of restaurants and hotels to serve anyone traveling from the mountains down to the ocean or who would travel along the Incan trail. That's just what they do now, really, except they serve tourists.

We did run into a cool couple who lived in London. She wrote children's books and he was a corporate head hunter.

We arrived at our hotel, which were small adobe rooms north of town. During the day, the adobe kept the rooms fairly cool and they definitely retained the heat for nighttime. It was a rustic place to stay but it was nice.

Day 2

We headed out to see Miscanti Lagoon (pictured below) and Miniques Lagoon, altitude of over 4,300 m. We drank a lot of water to help cope with the altitude and both Dana and Derwin had a bit of a headache dealing with the high altitude. It has been scientifically proven that high altitudes affect those with big, male brains more so than others.

There were many vicunas and some flamingos and other birds there as well.

Next, we headed down to the Salar de Atacama or the Atacama salt flats. It measures 30-40 km wide and runs 100 km from north to south. It is 300,000 ha of rugged, barren salt flats.

We took a brief tour near the Laguna (Lake) de Chaxa where we were able to see flamingos, other birds, some lizards, and a lot of salt. We were right there with them.

Day 3

We woke up early and headed to Death Valley, 3 km north of San Pedro. It's good to get there for sunrise as you're able to see the colors change and the shadows that form as the sun rises.

Death Valley

We then went to the Father Le Paige Museum in town. Father Le Paige, before he invented glue, was a Jesuit missionary who did a lot of excavations in the area. He and some of the town's residents excavated over 300 sites and collected more than 380,000 pieces that represented 11,000 years of the Atacamans living in the region.

Evidently, the Atacamans did a lot of hallucinogenic drugs as half of the museum pieces were paraphernalia related to drug use.

Instead of forest fire warnings, they have UV warnings.

San Pedro Church

Pukara de Quitor

The Pukara de Quitor is a small fortress city just north of San Pedro. In 1540, Francisco de Aguirre and 30 other Spaniards attacked the Atacamans and decapitated all of the chiefs. Oh yeah, they had the help of 1000 Yanaconas.

The fortress was originally built in the 12th century and is made of stones stuck together with mortar. They originally had straw roofs. There are about 100 little enclosures on this steep, steep hill.

Valley of the Moon

Just west of San Pedro lies the Valley of the Moon, an area of sand dunes and weirdly shaped rocks. We headed there just before sunset. There is one spot where all of the tour companies take the tourists to view the sunset. There must've been a couple of hundred of people on top of the sand dune.

Los Vigilantes Tres Marias

Anti Teatro

Sand dunes

Desert Night Skies

The view of the night skies was amazing; very clear with beautiful sunsets.

On our last night, with all of the lights from the hotel out, we came out to look at the night sky. The clarity and number of stars that you see down here in Chile is absolutely amazing. You can see a lot of stars on the Canadian prairies but nothing like I've ever seen up there beats what can be seen here. I guess that's why so many of the world's best observatories are here.

Tulor

Although Tulor is not big on other people's itinerary, we enjoyed the visit to this archaeological site a lot. The area was inhabited from 800 BCE to 500 ACE when it was slowly covered with sand. It stayed that way until 1982, when it was discovered. They've only dug up 10% now but you can see the circular bases of the houses that they had back then. The houses were grouped by family clan. They've built a couple of replicas near the original site.

The beams were tied together with animal hide...in this case goat but back in the day it would've been llamas or guanacos.

The bases of the original houses.

Sunflower near the administration building.

This was thee happening place at one time but the desert eventually blocked the river and forced it towards what is now San Pedro.

There was a young man who was in charge there and he was very knowledgeable about the site and very happy to share all the information about the people and their lives back then.

It is administered by the little village just outside the site and the residents are direct descendants of the Atacamanos people who lived there.

Drink Deliveries

Back to San Pedro. Since the delivery trucks are too large to drive around the narrow streets, they would drive into town and unload in a parking lot. Then guys would load up the deliveries on the bikes pictured below and make their deliveries to the restaurants, stores, and hotels.

Andes from the plane

After a great trip, Nana, Papa, Dana, Kirsi, Aidan, and I headed home. In all, it was a great trip. We had about 3.5 days in total there and did a lot. We were really glad that we rented a van rather than taking all of the tours. It gave us the flexibility to see what we wanted when we wanted and to be able to work around the kid's nap schedule. Everything we wanted to see we were able to with just a van.

Earthquake

2010-02-27T13:17:00.000-03:00

We’ve had earthquakes here in Santiago before and a few when we lived in Lahore but nothing, absolutely nothing, like the one we had last night at 3:30 in the morning.

Usually, the earthquakes we get cause a little bounce or side-to-side shake that not everyone feels. They last for a couple of seconds. I’ve seen the walls in my classroom sway back and forth a little. Then they’re over. No adrenaline, no rush, no heart beating hard in your chest.

Last night, the earthquake must have lasted more than 1 minute. The whole house started to bounce and rock – not sway. I ran and grabbed Kirsi, waking her up, as we heard a crash downstairs. The intensity increased. Up and down, back and forth…we actually bounced as we walked. Pictures fell from the wall.

I gave Kirsi to Dana who stood in the doorway while I grabbed Aidan. We ran downstairs and directly outside to a cloudless sky and a bright full moon. Car and house alarms were going off and dogs were barking. Power was cut. Windows rattled. The lamps on our bedside tables fell off.

When we returned inside, the living room ceiling light was still swaying a good foot to either side. At the peak, it probably came close to hitting the ceiling. We went to our kitchen to our find our spice rack toppled over and spices on the floor. You could smell the curry. The door that leads from the kitchen to the laundry room was still vibrating in its frame.

It’s 3:58 as I type this and we’re still experiencing aftershocks.

4:01- another aftershock but Aidan doesn’t feel it, he’s back asleep. I doubt he felt the big one. Kirsi is still wondering what the heck is going on.

4:05 – windows rattling again.

4:20 – our neighbors came by to ask how everyone was. They recommended that we fill our bathtubs full of water as we may be without for a while.

4:38 Pascuala phones to check on us. She says that everything in her house is broken but that she’s alive. “That’s Chile,” she says.

8:07 Just woke up and the rest of the family is still sleeping. Had another 4 or 5 aftershocks that woke me up since the big 3:30 one. On one aftershock, the bed started to shake head to foot about 7 or 8 times, then it bounced me up once a little, and then shook from side to side.

Our friend Marie called from the hotel where her husband works. Apparently the center got hit bad. Some of her friends had refrigerators that tipped over. The hotel has cracks in the wall and some doors won’t open or close.

After we woke up and went downstairs, we found that our fruit stand had hit the floor. Kirsi and Aidan picked up all the bananas and potatoes. Our ceiling lamp was just hanging by the electrical chord. A lamp in Aidan’s room fell and broke.

I also noticed that there was water in our laundry room and that our backyard patio had been covered by water. We couldn’t figure it out until we realized that the swimming pool was a good 6 inches lower. The earthquake must’ve shaken the water out of the pool.

Overall, big earthquake but we were very fortunate that we were OK and that there was only some slight damage. I’m sure that others had it worse.

1:10 - Internet is back on so now we're getting in touch with everyone and finding out what else is going on.

Thanks for all the emails!

This and That

2010-02-21T09:35:00.000-03:00

We've been settling back into our routine, now that Der is back at work. We are still spending a lot of time outside while we can. I think our pool days are coming to an end because the nights are getting quite cold and the mornings are often cloudy meaning that our (unheated) pool only gets a couple hours of sun to heat it up. The water is pretty cold these days!

Monday, February 8th was an important day for Aidan (or maybe more for us). We went to Antonia's birthday party, which was lots of fun, and we got home late. Aidan was super tired so we put him to bed without his soother. He went to bed very easily. We decided to put all the soothers away and see how it would go. He's never asked for it since, even when he's seen kids with their soothers. Woo hoo! That was an easy transition.

We've started potty training but it's going very slowly. Aidan knows when he has peed or pooped in his diaper and tells us but hasn't yet done it in the potty. We go when he wakes up in the morning and after nap but no success yet. But Aidan loves sitting on the potty reading, so that's a good sign.

Aidan is talking up a storm now. He will repeat anything you tell him and he loves reading his books. He shows us the tractor, the excavator, dump truck and big rig in his truck book and says the words. His speech is coming really well and he's putting two words together now - cat jump, birdie flying, truck vroom.

Kirsi has started t-ball again and she loves it. She's riding her bike and is getting braver in the pool now too. She's also doing great with her letters. She can write her name now and we've been practicing writing other names. She's not interested in doing the letters all by themselves but when they spell someone's name, she's right into it. She also is playing a lot with her Playmobil safari set that she and Aidan got for Christmas - it's fantastic to see her imagination working so much.

Der is super busy this semester. Not only is he teaching full-time, but he's also taking two online courses. He's doing training for ITGS for next year at AISK in Jamaica and he's also working on his thesis project for his master's. He will be done his master's this semester as soon as he finishes this project. So, he's got lots going on.

I'm still tutoring Asahi twice a week. I would like to pick up another student or two as I enjoy working with the kids in our tutoring sessions. I've started scrapbooking again after the holidays and it feels so great to get my creative juices flowing again. I love it! We're also busy getting things done before we leave in June. We've got our plane tickets booked - we get to Regina on June 19th - and we've had the shippers come in to do an estimate. We're doing dentist appointments and all those little things that have to get done.

Kirsi's First Day of School

2010-02-01T20:16:00.000-03:00

Kirsi has been talking about going to school for quite a while now so when Der and I heard about the Vacation Bible School at San Marcos Church here in Santiago, we thought it would be a perfect opportunity for her. It's just 3 hours a morning for this one week. She was soooo excited about it. She was so pumped up about it last night that she couldn't get to sleep; Nana had a lot of extra work to do to get her settled down. This morning, she was ready really early and kept asking if it was time to leave yet.

We got there and she was totally into the colouring activity and didn't even need me around. I was so proud of her. There are 10 kids in her preschool group and the whole group is about 60 kids (I think). After everyone got there, they did an introduction to the week and then all the kids got up and started singing and dancing. Kirsi held her own for a while but then she got scared or nervous and started crying. I went straight to her and stayed with her to sing and dance. She did OK for a little while longer but then started crying again. I took her outside and talked to her. She just kept saying she was tired and wanted to go to sleep in her own bed. I suggested that maybe she was a little nervous and at first, she didn't think so but then once she thought about it, she decided she was. It was the first time she had been in a situation like that so she didn't even know what she was feeling. But she came around and we went back in.

The kids then separated into their groups and I stayed with Kirsi all morning. We did crafts with Ms. Jill first, then games with Ms. Charlotte and then a story and video with Mr. Mike. We ended up with the bible story with the crew leaders Ms. Emily and Ms. Sue. They had a little snack for the kids and then the day ended with the whole group getting together and talking about what they'd learned and some more songs and dancing. Kirsi ended up liking it but she was exhausted! By 12:00 her eyes were glassed over and she wasn't even dancing anymore.

We've talked a lot about it today but it has taken a lot of prodding to get her share what she did today. At least I was there to remind her and to get her to talk about it. She's nervous about going back tomorrow but I know it'll get easier every day because she'll know what to expect.

On a sad note, today was Nana and Papa's last day with us. We have enjoyed having them around and they've become part of our daily lives. It's going to be a huge adjustment not having them around anymore. We hope they have two great flights and good drive back home!

Part 6: Villarrica

2010-01-29T22:14:00.000-03:00

On Jan. 12th we left Valdivia and headed east. Our first stop was at Panguipulli to see the neat church. It was built by the Capuchins and was modeled on chapels around Berne, Switzerland. There are similar churches throughout the Lakes District and they were built like this one. This little town has a pretty plaza with many roses. It’s actually known as the town of roses. The countryside around Panguipulli is gorgeous – rolling green pastureland with cows, sheep and horses dotting the landscape.

We got in to Villarrica to the Hosteria de la Colina early in the afternoon. The Hosteria is great – Glen and Bev make you feel so welcome and are so helpful in everything. We got unpacked and explored the grounds at the Hosteria. They have a greenhouse behind the inn and it is beautiful. There are so many neat plants and flowers throughout the grounds here. The kids were starving early on so they ordered – Kirsi ate a whole barbecued chicken leg and Aidan devoured a huge piece of lasagna.

The next day, we decided to go to the Termas Geometricas in the morning because it was still overcast and we didn’t want to risk hiking in rain.

Countryside on the way up to the hotsprings:

We saw this wild boar and her babies:

They were a little pricey - $23.00 per person – but they were absolutely stunning scenery-wise. They have a wooden platform that leads to all the different pools, ranging in temperatures from 35C to 39C. The coolest one was just perfect for the kids so we spent most of our time there. I tried one pool that was a bit warmer and it was heavenly but I couldn’t have stayed there the whole time. All of us loved our time there – we all felt so relaxed and our muscles were so happy after our soak. The kids had a blast playing in the pool – Kirsi could stand up everywhere and Aidan could stand in places and loved sitting on the steps too. What a perfect morning!

That afternoon we decided to visit Pucon since we hadn’t stopped there the last time we were in the area. Pucon is the Mecca for adventure sports travellers in Chile. It’s extremely touristy and developed, which isn’t really our style. They have plenty of good restaurants, lots of places to stay and a ton of tour companies which will arrange outings. We ate our supper here and then headed back to the Hosteria.

The next morning, we enjoyed another fabulous breakfast – pancakes for the kids, pancakes and bacon for Der and eggs and bacon for me – and then headed off to Cafalquen Lake. This is the warmest lake in the region so we thought we’d get some beach time in here. We first went to the peninsula at Lican Ray and did an easy hike. We did it two years ago when Kirsi was 22 months old and liked it so much that we did it again. Both kids enjoyed throwing stones in the lake, watching Papa and Daddy skip rocks and hiking in the woods. It was so quiet and peaceful – a perfect way to spend a morning. We got some pictures in the same spot as we did last time, this time with Kirsi and then with Aidan. It’ll be neat to see how they turn out.

Since we didn’t get our horseback riding in at Valdivia, we made sure to do it here. We decided to check out a little place in between Lican Ray and Villarrica where they took you through the meadows and woods. Der took Kirsi and Papa went too, as it was his first time riding a horse in a saddle! Kirsi’s horse was naughty and didn’t want to listen but eventually Der got it under control. Not very reassuring but we were happy that it didn’t make Kirsi scared of horses. It was a beautiful setting and they had a great ride. Aidan, meanwhile, enjoyed “driving” the van the whole time they were gone.

Later that afternoon, we decided to go to the beach at the Playa Grande in Lican Ray. Since it was late in the day, the beach was quite full but not too bad. It’s a beautiful beach with black lava sands and relatively warm water. The kids had a great time playing in the sand and water. Kirsi made a house, a garden and a mountain. Aidan loved bringing water from the lake to the sand – he could have done that for hours. As hard as she tried, Kirsi couldn’t make a river near her mountain; the sand kept absorbing the water no matter how much they poured into the “river”.

The following day, we decided to head east again, this time towards Caburga Lake. We first stopped at the Ojos del Caburga, which are a group of pools in the middle of a beautiful forest. The water that feeds these pools comes underground from Caburga Lake and other streams. There are some pretty rapids and waterfalls and it’s a nice walk around.

View of Villarrica Volcano from the Ojos:

Then we headed to Caburga Lake, since we hadn’t been there before. We went to Playa Blanca because it was recommended to us. What a beautiful setting! The lake is surrounded by hills, two of which were volcanoes which created Caburga Lake, and the sand is white and fine. The water is quite warm because of the thermal upwelling at the bottom of the lake and it was really calm. Kirsi loved that, though she had gotten used to the waves at the other beach. Aidan thoroughly enjoyed throwing a stick in the water and getting Papa to retrieve it and Kirsi made new friends, two girls who were vacationing there from Concepcion. It was so neat to see her approach the little girl and ask if she could play with her (the first time she’s done that). We ran into some friends who were camping there – what a coincidence!

After a few hours at the beach, we visited a couple waterfalls in the area. We first went to the Salto de la China. The walk to get to the waterfall is among bamboo, which then leads you to the base of a narrow, 73-metre high waterfall.

Just past the China waterfall was the Salto El Leon. We walked along a path through the woods and saw the remnants of a sawmill in the area. The waterfall is 68 metres high and is in two successive falls. There’s a path to the base of one waterfall but it’s not well maintained. The boards are coming loose and there are places where there are no boards but rocks instead. With the spray of the waterfall, the path is quite slippery and I ended up falling when I stepped on a clump of wet grass. I was carrying Aidan so the only thing that went through my mind was how I could fall without hurting him. Thankfully he didn’t get hurt at all and Papa was in front of us so he took Aidan while I picked myself up. My butt was covered in mud and I cracked my knee a good one but nothing more than that.

Our last night at the Hosteria so we indulged and had one of the fabulous meals there. We all enjoyed our stay so much. Glen and Bev are wonderful hosts and their staff is fantastic too. They do what they can to accommodate guests and they make you feel so at home. The lace of one of my hiking shoes broke and it’s a special kind so I couldn’t get just any kind of lace to fix it. The night watchman, who we met last year and chatted with and who is so friendly, was able to replicate the lace exactly. Little things like that make the whole difference. When we headed out the next morning, I started crying as I knew it was my last time to the south of Chile for many, many years. I really do love the region and it makes me sad to think that I won’t be back.

On the Saturday morning, we decided to head east close to the Argentinean border on a hike recommended to us by my sister and Glen. There are several hiking trails and walking paths in the Puesco section of Villarrica National Park. The road to get there was in pretty bad condition and there was a lot of construction on it. We got part way in to the sector before we decided to turn around. With the history of our wheel, we didn’t want to continue on the bad road and risk wrecking it again. Instead, we enjoyed the scenery. We stopped at the lookout to the huge waterfall and took in the beauty. We were also able to spot Lanin Volcano, which straddles the Chilean-Argentinean border. At 3773 metres, it is the highest volcano in the south and is snow-covered year round. We saw many mountain meadows, which cows, sheep and horses grazing. It’s so pretty to see pastureland with mountains in the background.

We had considered staying at Kila Leufu, a house in the country run by a Mapuche family. We had stopped in the day before to see what it was like and it was really neat. They offer a true farm experience – organic, at that – where they raise their own animals, grow their own vegetables and make their own cheese and bread. It sounded like it would be a great experience. However, we decided that it was time to head home. We’d been on the road for 20 days and we just wanted to be back in our own beds. So, we stopped in Pucon for lunch and headed out to the Ruta 5. We trucked it north until we got home, with only a few stops at the gas stations along the way.

The kids were amazing travellers the whole time. They were great in the van and only fussed when they’d been sitting for too long and needed a break. They did some long driving days and managed it with hardly any problems. They are great little hikers and loved being outside exploring. Nana and Papa were excellent entertainers, which really helped the trip go smoothly. It was a great time for Kirsi and Aidan to bond with Nana and Papa and we had a great trip as a family.

Part 5: Puerto Varas to Valdivia

2010-01-29T21:57:00.000-03:00

On Jan. 9th, we left our cabins by the penguins and headed inland. Unfortunately, it was rainy when we left so it was too ugly to be outside when crossing over to the mainland on the ferry. We first went to Puerto Varas, along Lago Llanquehue, to give Del and Ilene a taste of the little towns in this area. Puerto Varas has a population of about 22 000 people and is becoming more and more of a base for adventure tourism in the south of Chile, just after Pucon. During our stop, we saw people participating in an open-water sports competition. They were swimming in a relay, kayaking and there was lots pumping music coming through the speakers. :) We stopped by the summer handicraft market to see what was on offer. We ended up buying a few prints from a local artist to get framed to remind us of our favourite parts of Chile and a mask of a Selk’nam or Onas aboriginal (from the very south of Chile). We also went to see one of the well-preserved houses of the German immigrants that arrived in this area in the 1800s, the Casa Kuschel, built in 1915 in the Baroque Bavarian style. It is now owned by Doug Tompkins, the American millionaire who bought up land in southern Chile and created a national park out of it in order to preserve the forest of the area.

Countryside between Puerto Varas and Frutillar:

Next, we went to Frutillar, where we enjoyed some yummy food and delicious kuchen from the same family-run restaurant where Der and I went two years ago when we were here, Café de Los Colonos. We were hoping to be able to do a hike at the Edmundo Winkler Forest Reserve but it was too rainy. We spent too much time wandering to get to the Colonial German Museum in Frutillar but it looks really interesting.

Typical architecture in Frutillar:

Then we headed to Valdivia, our favourite city in Chile. We love the rolling hills, all the different types of trees and plants in the area and the rivers. Even though it has a reputation for lots of rain, it still has won my heart. We found a cabin pretty quickly and then went to Saval Park. Last time we were here, there was a horse-jumping competition at the park; this time, there was a chocolate festival – right up my alley! We went for a walk around the Lotus Pond and saw some people zipping across the pond on a zip-line (they call it “canopy” here). Aidan thought it was the coolest thing ever and Papa thought about trying it out. Maybe in Villarrica. :) There was a big playground area so we spent some time there so Kirsi and Aidan could enjoy some running and playing time. Then I headed in to the chocolate area. It was Saturday evening and it was packed! It was hard to see everything but it was neat to see everything on sale. Kirsi spotted some big lollipops so we got her one.

Our next day started out foggy and cool but it burnt off and it turned out to be a gorgeous day. We started off at the riverside fish market. We saw the fishermen (and women) unloading the fish and seafood and opening up shop. We saw all kinds of fish – merluza (hake), salmon (for $5 a kilo), sierra (not sure what kind it is in English but it’s long and thin and has a really pointy snout), congrio (white-meat fish, similar to cod, that’s very popular here). And lots and lots of seafood – clams, razor clams, mussels, crabs, sea cucumbers, oysters, and much more. On the other side of the market were fresh fruits and vegetables. And it’s soooooo good here! We picked up apricots, nectarines, peaches, strawberries, cherries, lettuce, carrots, tomatoes and cucumbers. There was also seaweed bundled up in square packages for sale too. The sea lions, cormorants and sea gulls were all flocking around, waiting for any treats from the fishmongers.

We wandered around the downtown to see the architecture, the plaza and the cathedral. Then we checked out the handicraft market that’s right across from the fish market. Der found a very cool Indiana Jones hat so he was really happy with that purchase. :) There is tons on offer there – woolen and knitted sweaters, hats, gloves and ponchos; wooden items; and a bit of jewellery.

We wanted to show Del and Ilene the botanical gardens at the Universidad Austral de Chile so we headed that way. Just like last time, we had a tough time finding the gardens, but finally made it there. And it was well worth the hunt. They have trees from different parts of the world and it’s just beautiful. After going along some paths through the trees, we headed to the river and wetlands and marshes, my favourite part of the walk. I could spend the whole day in these gardens – there’s something so peaceful about wandering through them.

We finished off the day with a 3-hour boat tour. We headed west on the Valdivia River to see some parts of the modern city, the oldest yacht club in Chile and the different cargo ships along the river. Then we headed back up the river towards the city. We saw Isla Teja, where we were staying, and the Cau Cau River and then went past lots of paddleboats, rowboats, kayaks and even rowers on the river. We saw the Calle Calle River (which I *think* starts in Argentina and flows down to the Pacific Ocean) and then went up the Cruces River to the Carlos Andwanter Nature Reserve. This area was created after the big earthquake of 1960, which registered 9.5 on the Richter Scale and lasted for 4 minutes. There was a tidal wave that was 4 metres high because at the time that the water rose the land also sank. It was this tidal wave that caused the marshlands that are now protected in the nature reserve (UNESCO recognized the importance of the area in 1981 and a year later the Chilean government made it a protected area). It is a breeding ground and resting spot for 90+ species of migrating birds. We saw a few herons and many, many black-necked swans. Our guide told us that these swans keep the same partners for life and if one of the mates dies, the other will stop eating and die also. We stopped at Punucapa, a Huilliche village of 200 residents, to see the church and have our once, the Chilean equivalent of Britain’s teatime. The church was called the Santuario de la Candelaria and it was built in 1883. Every February 2nd, hundreds of worshippers come to celebrate the parish festival. There are some villagers that make homemade apple cider and chichi, though we didn’t sample any. We enjoyed different types of kuchen for our once and then headed back to Valdivia. It was a great time – seeing the city and countryside from the river rather than the car and getting out to see the little village.

Our last day in Valdivia was rainy so we didn’t get the horseride at the Fundo Teja Norte, which we were really wanting to do. That was where Kirsi had her first horse ride two years ago so it would have been fun to do it again. Instead, we drove out to Niebla, the Spanish fort, to get some pictures but didn’t visit the fort because it was so chilly. We decided to go to the Mauricio Van de Maele Historical and Anthropological Museum, which is in the historical Carlos Anwandter house. It is a good example of German architecture of the 19th century and is very well maintained. The museum was excellent. The artifacts were from some of the early German settlers in the area, as well as a room dedicated to Lord Cochrane, a British naval commander that the Chileans paid to help them defeat the Spanish Navy. He managed to help the Chilean navy take over the forts in the Niebla/Corral area in 1820, giving Chile control of Valdivia. More than 700 Spaniards were defeated with the loss of seven Chileans. There were also displays of Mapuche silver jewellery, ceramics and other artifacts showing their culture.

For lunch, we headed out to the Kuntsmann beer brewery. We had some fabulous German cuisine – spaetzle, smoked pork chops and sour kraut. They don’t do tours of the brewery during the summer so we weren’t able to learn anything about the process but it was neat nonetheless. They had a little museum showing the evolution of the brewery to what it is today. Kuntsmann beer is known all throughout Chile and it was started by a German immigrant. He was a pharmacist who decided to start a brewery of German beer as a sideline. A few years later, he was serving the Valdivia area with 12 000 bottles a year. When his sons got involved in the business, they expanded the business to Valparaiso and Santiago. At the peak of the business they were selling 12 million bottles a year. That afternoon, we chilled out. We all had a good, long nap at the cabins and then headed out for a picnic along the Valdivia River.

Part 4: Chiloe

2010-01-29T21:50:00.001-03:00

I found the cabins at Pinguinland online, just by chance, but we were really excited about them. They’re located on a hilltop overlooking a small bay off the Pacific Ocean at Punihuil. They were more rustic than I had thought, at least from what I had seen from the website, but the location was so worth it. It was a beautiful setting and so peaceful; other than the cabins around us, we were alone. It was fantastic.

Just before breakfast, we went for a little walk around the cabins and we saw the strangest little animal. It looked like a tiny deer and it had hooves and little horns. It was busy eating the grass and came really close to us. Nana had her camera with her and got some great shots of the creature. Later on, we discovered that it was a pudu. We were so excited to have seen a pudu because it’s very rare anymore.

Our first morning there, we decided to do a penguin tour. We went down the hill and to the bay that we saw from the cabins. In this bay, Magellanic and Humboldt penguins live together for several months of the year. They come here to mate and hatch their eggs and then in the winter, they go to different locations. The Magellanic penguins go further south and the Humboldt go to warmer climates like Peru and Brazil.

We were the only people around that early so we got a tour right away. Our guide was a local fisherman who knew a lot about the wildlife. We saw both the penguin colonies quite close-up. The babies weren’t small anymore but they still had their grey feathers so we could tell which were the babies. There are also four species of cormorants in the area; we saw the most common ones and the red-footed ones. Of course, there are gulls and we saw where they nested, way up high on the cliffs. There are also sea otters there and one of them entertained us for a while. It was great to do the tour again – I understood so much more than I did two years ago! ;) The kids had a great time looking at the wildlife and Aidan was fascinated by all the birds.

Red-footed cormorants:

After we were wheeled back in to shore on their neat little wagons, we had lunch at a little restaurant on the beach. Del and Ilene had seafood soup and thoroughly enjoyed a variety of Chiloe’s seafood. Der had the Parmesan mussels, a specialty in Chile, and loved it. It was a relaxed lunch followed by a big nap for everyone. :) We needed to get groceries so we made the half-hour trip back into Ancud to do our shopping. While I was in the grocery store, Del, Ilene, Der and the kids checked out the market there. They saw all kinds of seafood and fish on sale, which is what Chiloe is famous for. Well, that and potatoes and huge cloves of garlic.

The next day was rainy off and on so it was a good day to do some driving. We decided to do our tours of the wooden churches of Chiloe. In 2001, UNESCO declared 16 of the 150 wooden churches of Chiloe to be World Heritage Sites. Most of Chiloe’s architecture is made of wood, including the churches. The churches are not only built entirely of wood but they were fitted together with wooden plugs, not nails. There are few examples of completely wooden architecture from the XVIII century in the world so it is impressive to see these churches.

The Jesuits were the first missionaries to Chiloe and arrived in 1608. They were responsible for the construction of the churches in the small communities and islands of Chiloe. That was one aspect of their missionary strategy. Another was to train native catechists so they could maintain the religious life of the community year-round. The last was to visit each church annually in what they called the “Circuit Mission”. Every year on September 17th (early spring), two Jesuit priests would leave Castro to visit the different churches of Chiloe and would return before winter set in. Travelling by sea, they would take three portable altars with them, as well as vestments and ornaments to perform Mass. Every stop was done the same way. When they arrived, the members of the community would walk with them up to the church, singing. The priests would read the parish records and made notes on any milestones. They would finish the day with a sermon or the rosary. The second day was full of activity – they would perform baptisms, marriages, give sermons and accept confessions and penitence. The third and final day ended with Mass and Communion. In 1767, the Jesuit missionaries were driven out of South America. There was no religious assistance in Chiloe until the Fransiscans arrived and took over this responsibility.

The churches were generally built the same way. They all face the sea and are built near a beach or a place where one could land safely from the sea. An open area or plaza is in front of the church. They generally have a three-tired hexagonal bell tower. All churches have three naves, the two side ones having flat ceilings and the centre one having a domed or arched ceiling. The doors, windows and facades are sometimes brightly painted but the walls are either plain, wooden clapboard or the Chilote-style wooden shingles or tiles. The ceilings are sometimes decorated with stars or brightly painted and some of the churches have ships hanging down from the ceiling in the central nave. During the XIX century, the church would have been the centre of community life. If the village was big enough, there would be a parish priest. Otherwise, the travelling missionaries would visit them on their Circuit Mission.

We first saw the church of Mary of the Sorrows in Dalcahue, then we visited the San Fransisco Church in Castro. This church was rebuilt by the Fransiscans after the original Jesuit church burned down in 1861 and then again in 1902. We also saw the palafitos, or stilt houses, that are in Castro. They survived the 1960 earthquake and tsunami and are now protected by the Chilean government as a cultural site. They make me think of the Canadian Maritime fishing villages.

After Castro, we stopped at the church of Nuestra Senora de Gracia in Nercon, which is different to the others because it is built of larch wood (alerce) and cypress from the Guaitecas Islands. Next we went to the church San Carlos de Borroneo at Chonchi. It is a beautiful yellow and blue colour on the outside. It has just recently been redone to repair the structural damage of the years. Our final stop was at the church Santa Maria de Loreto in Achao, a village on the island of Quinchao.

Chiloe is still one of our favourite places in Chile. It is so rich in culture, history and tradition. We bought a book about the mythology of the island so we could learn more about Trauco, Caleuche and Pincoya. It is fascinating to read about their legends, many of which reflect Chiloe’s ties to the sea. We also love the slow-paced, daily life of Chilotes. Agriculture is very important but most of it is subsistence agriculture, providing for their families and perhaps more of the community. It isn’t rare to see an ox-cart or a man herding sheep down one of the dirt roads. In the farmyards, you often saw a few cows, sheep, pigs, ducks or geese and a dog.

In Chiloe, wood is of utmost importance. It is the primary building material and it’s so interesting to see what they all use wood for. There are the woven fences made of arrayan, a type of myrtle tree, which are used to keep small animals out of the fields. There is the “sacho”, which is a type of anchor made from wood with a large stone in the middle, and the “almud”, which is a wooden box used to sell potatoes and shellfish in bulk. They also make flour mills, presses to make “chicha” (apple cider) and weaving looms. Another Chilote invention is the “birloche” or “trineo”, which is a sled used to transport things over smooth surfaces.

Our cabins:

Sunset over the bay:

Kirsi on our walk around the cabins:

Scenery around our cabins:

Part 3: San Martin de los Andes to Chiloe

2010-01-29T21:37:00.000-03:00

Tuesday morning, at 8:00 am we were on the road to San Martin de los Andes. We decided to drive the more indirect but better roads way, so we headed to Neuquen, then to Zapala, through Junin de los Andes and finally to San Martin. It was a long day in the van with very few stops. We got out for gas or to pee a few times but we really tried to make the best time we could. About half way to Neuquen, the wind really picked up and it was blowing non-stop until past Zapala, at least eight hours of it. It was really hard driving, especially in the van because it sits so high up and it catches the gusts. Poor Der! He had to drive much slower than normal because of this. As we entered the region of Neuquen, we entered a part of the Patagonia and they made us throw away all fruit, vegetables, meat and honey because the region is free of a certain fruit fly and another thing that I have no idea what it is. That was a bummer because we’d just picked up some fresh fruit for the trip. We also had to get the van sprayed with some kind of chemical, maybe insecticide?, to make sure we weren’t carrying anything in.

That was the most barren stretch of land that I’ve ever driven, except for the desert. All we saw for hundreds of kilometers was arid land, pampas grass and some goats. There was very little variation in the countryside until we reached Zapala. Once we started going south, there were more hills and greener vegetation. At Junin de los Andes, we headed west towards the mountains and it was just beautiful. There were pastures with horses and cows in the foothills of the Andes; it made me think of Montana. We got to our cabins at 9:30 that night – 13 hours of traveling that day. And the kids did fantastic! They were so good and hardly complained the whole time. It really was amazing. The guy who owned the cabins was less than happy with us and was not friendly at all. We wish that we could have spent our planned 4 nights in San Martin but there was nothing we could do. He was ticked off that he had lost all that money and was downright rude to us. The cabin was great – all wood beams, cozy fireplace, big – 2 bathrooms, 2 bedrooms, living room, dining room, kitchen. We just got settled quickly and went to sleep so we could get going early the next morning.

Wednesday morning we got away by 9:00. We had to leave Argentina that day because of the car insurance so we decided to drive from San Martin to Villa La Angostura following the “Seven Lakes Route”, which is one of Argentina’s most scenic routes. San Martin is on Lago Lacar and though we didn’t stay long in the town, it was a cute place, much less touristy than Bariloche. We got a great look at Lacar Lake from Pil Pil Mirador, up above.

Some beautiful wild flowers:

The next lake we saw was Machonico and then out of Lanin National Park and into the Nahuel Huapi National Park. Just before we got to Lago Falkner we saw the Cascada Vullinanco, a beautiful 20-metre waterfall. Falkner is a big lake, which is also gorgeous, and Mount Falkner lies behind it, which makes for a pretty scene. It’s famous for its fishing as is its smaller neighbour, Lago Villarino. Further along the road, we came to Lago Escondido (“Hidden Lake”) and like our guide book said, it was the most beautiful of the lakes. It has emerald green water, which was very still, and it is hidden in the forest.

The next lake was Lago Espejo (“Mirror Lake”), which is the warmest of all of them so it’s a popular beach spot. The last lake on the tour is Nahuel Huapi, which is the largest of them all. We stopped at Villa La Angostura, a town on the north side of the lake, and last year, we spent a few days in Bariloche, which is on the south side of the lake. It was a gorgeous drive and I’m glad we took the whole morning to stop and see the scenery. It’s a shame we didn’t have more time to explore the area and go on some hikes in these two parks.

We had lunch in Villa la Angostura, which calls itself the Garden of the Patagonia. It’s a pretty little town and, in our opinion, a better place to stay than Bariloche. It’s not as touristy, yet has plenty of services. We ate at a great place and Nana claimed she ate the best fries she’s had in a long time there. :)

We left Villa la Angostura around 2:00 and enjoyed the drive through the mountain pass Cardinal Samore. It really is beautiful scenery – the forests, the lakes, the high mountain peaks. We spent 2 hours at customs, which is what Der and I had guessed. It just isn’t a fast process, no matter how you do it. When we came onto the Chilean side, I loved seeing the pastureland with grazing horses and cows and the Andes as the backdrop – gorgeous.

Since we had left Argentina later in the day, we needed to get a move on through Chile to get to Chiloe before dark. We got to the Panamericana highway and went directly to the ferry. We were lucky and got onto the ferry within minutes of arriving. Unfortunately, it was too windy and cold for us to get out and watch. We drove through Ancud, towards Punihuil, where our cabins were. I was getting very nervous because it was getting dark and our cabins were not in town, but out on the ocean in the middle of nowhere. We made it to the cabins just at sunset – phew!

Part 2: Malargue and San Rafael

2010-01-29T21:32:00.000-03:00

The next day, we headed out quite early to Malargue. It took us a while to get out of Mendoza; we got turned around and ended up taking the wrong road. We finally got going and headed south. We saw some impressive mountain peaks, some of them still were snow-covered. We drove past Las Lenas, the famous ski resort where all the Argentinean socialites go to see and be seen in the winter.

As we got closer to Malargue, we noticed the countryside was dotted with white plastic containers. There is an astrophysics experiment going on where they are trying to measure the high-energy cosmic rays that come to the earth from space. This is called the Pierre Auger experiment. These plastic containers are actually water tanks and they are acting as particle detectors for the experiment. At the end of the project, there will be 1600 of these scattered around Malargue, 1.5 km apart. We didn’t get to the observatory but saw it in our comings and goings.

We got in to our cabins around 2:00 and our guide was scheduled to arrive at 3:00. So, we unloaded fast and then picked up some food so we could cook that night and for the next day.

That afternoon, we went with Pablo, our guide, to the Llancanelo Reserve to see all the birdlife on the lake. They say the best time to visit is in the spring because the lake is high and many migratory birds come here to nest. We were advised to take a guide with us so we would know what roads to take and so he could tell us about the birds. We were all disappointed with how little we saw. We couldn’t get very close to the lake at all because we couldn’t walk in the mud – it’s really stinky mud and we’d sink. We were at least 0.5 km away from the edge of the lake and the flamingoes were just dots on the water. The lake was really low so we were walking on a salt flat and the wind was so powerful. We were getting whipped by dust and chunks from the surface of the dried mud from the lake. Not really an enjoyable walk but we did it nonetheless. Honestly, not a tour we’d recommend. We did stop at a small creek along the way, which was beautiful. It was like an oasis in the desert! There was a small farm by the creek and a single hired man lived there – what a lonely life!

We stayed at the Monte Coiron cabins, just north of Malargue and they were great. Cecilia and Juan are a young couple with two kids who decided to move to Malargue from Neuquen because they loved the area. Juan works for the government in an area dealing with oil. Cecilia is an artist and designed their house 3 years ago and the three cabins opened up a year ago. They are so helpful and friendly and offer a great place to stay. The cabins are really nice and well designed and they offer lots of the small details. On New Year’s Eve, they brought over a bottle of wine for us. Those little things that make all the difference.

The next day was New Year’s Day, and we did a day trip to La Payunia, a beautiful area of a chain of volcanoes. Pablo came with us again and it was a long drive to the reserve on bad and then really bad roads. We hit so many bumps that we lost track of how much we banged around in the van. If we hadn’t had a guide, there’s no way we would have found our way there. It was so rugged and empty and there were many little roads; we never would have been able to get there. The main volcano is Payun Matru at 3690m but according to Pablo, there’s a chain of 800 volcanoes in the area. We drove through lots of pampas and saw plenty of man-made “guanacos”, the oil wells that pump constantly in the area. It took us 2 to 3 hours to get to our first stop – the Pampa Negra. It was amazing…everywhere you looked, it was black volcanic rock dotted with golden tufts of grass and some cactus. This lava covered kilometres upon kilometres and it come from volcanic action hundreds of years ago (as opposed to millions of years in some parts of the area). Pablo laid down on the lava and said it was like a hot stone massage; I felt it and it was wonderfully warm but not too hot.

Mother-in-law cactus:

We drove further along and passed what Pablo called a horseshoe volcano, where the crater formed a horseshoe shape. We also saw tons of black igneous rocks, some small and some huge and all from the most recent volcanic eruptions. Then we stopped at the Pampa Roja, where oxides in the lava make the ground have a reddish hue. We stopped at a place for our picnic lunch and got to see where the goat herders stay when bringing the goats across the pampas to their farms, many of them closer to the mountains. And all around the reserve were herds of real guanacos. It is apparently the largest concentration of guanacos in the world.

Both Derwin and I loved it there. It was like you were in another world and we could have hiked around the place all day long. It would have been neat to spend a couple days there and camp overnight. The stars would have been amazing to see because you’re out in the middle of nowhere.

We continued back along the same bumpy, horrible roads. Pablo didn’t tell us which parts of the road were worse than others, which he should have done. It would have saved us much heartache later. We passed by the Rio Grande, which was a beautiful big river that starts in the Andes and continues down to the Atlantic Ocean, with a name change to the Rio Colorado.

Once we got back to the cabins, we started getting ready for supper and Der and Del unloaded the van. They noticed that the front, right wheel was crooked…noticeably. It was on a terrible angle! It was from one of our bad bumps so we just had to wait till the next day to get it looked at.

Saturday morning, we went to the one mechanic in town who was open and got the prognosis. Being the car genius that I am, the mechanic and I had a very complex conversation about the condition of the wheel. Uh-huh… I know that something was wrong with the suspension and that the end part of the “almortiguador” was bent and that’s why the wheel was on an angle. That and he didn’t have the part to replace it. Change of plans again! We went back to the cabin and just hung out there for the day. While I was busy trying to figure out where we could get the van fixed, the kids played outside with Der, Papa and Nana and had a great time. The family who owns the cabins has two dogs and three cats so the animals kept our kids very, very happy. Later that afternoon, we checked out the planetarium that they have in Malargue; it looked super neat but the show that was on at that time wouldn’t have been of much interest to Kirsi so we convinced her that ice cream was the better choice. For such a small centre, Malargue has a lot to offer. There’s the planetarium, the Pierre Auger Observatory, a museum, and a ton of outdoor activities – rafting on the Rio Grande, excursions to Llancanelo and La Payunia, horseback riding and tons of hiking and trekking.

The closest Hyundai dealerships were in San Rafael (2 hours away but back the way we had come) and Neuquen (several hours away but further south). And of course, both were closed for the long New Year’s weekend meaning that Monday morning was the first possible time we could get it fixed. We opted to go to San Rafael because we wanted to drive as little as possible on that tire.

Sunday, we went to San Rafael to see a bit of the city and play in the pool with the kids. We decided to get a hotel with a pool and it was a great decision. We got there mid-day and we enjoyed a fantastic meal of Argentinean beef under a grapevine trellis. Then we played in the pool before the thunderstorm rolled in. When we arrived, the temperature said 37C. Hot!

Monday morning, we started on getting the van fixed. We first went to the Hyundai dealership, which was just next door, to see if we could get a new shock absorber. The guy was nice but he said that they didn’t have the part in stock and they’d have to order it from Buenos Aires. That would be a minimum of 48 hours and we didn’t have that kind of time to wait. Not only did we want to get down to San Martin, we also had limited time in the country with our insurance and the permission for Derwin to drive the rented vehicle. He referred us to a garage that they work with.

So off we went. Thankfully it wasn’t very far so we could walk back no problems. We showed up, praying that they’d be able to fix it. They were super nice and looked at the van right away. We talked to the mechanics and they told us that they could fix it but they couldn’t replace it because they didn’t have the part in Argentina (that aren’t from the dealership) for the model of our van. That was the good news. The bad news was that it would take all day to fix it. So we were in San Rafael another day.

We decided to get out and walk around with the kids. Nana, Papa and I took the kids for a walk downtown. We got Papa’s glasses fixed, went to the grocery store and stopped for ice cream. It was soooooo hot – I’m sure it was 35C and humid. We were all just sweating! Everyone had a good nap that afternoon and then we headed out to the pool again, which was lots of fun. Kirsi got more and more comfortable in the water. She loved jumping in and getting us to catch her and then getting rides from Mommy and Daddy. Aidan liked coming in once in a while. His favourite game was throwing his beach shoe in the pool and then chasing it with Mommy. He even got in the water by himself.

Road Trip 2009 - 2010, First Stop

2010-01-19T18:47:00.000-03:00

Right after we celebrated Christmas at home, we started getting ready for our big road trip. We were scheduled to leave on Monday, December 28th but we got a call on the 26th to tell us that there was a mechanical problem with the van and they needed all weekend to fix it. That meant that we were going to leave one day later. Rather than move all our reservations back a day, we decided to just spend one less night in Mendoza and stick with the rest of the plan.

By 6:30 am on Tuesday morning, we were on the road. We headed north through the farming community of Los Andes and then on to the Chilean ski resort of Portillo.

We climbed, climbed, climbed through the Andes Mountains. We spent a long time at customs, even though there weren’t many travellers. Not quite sure why it takes so long at customs but there’s nothing you can do about it. Every vehicle that we had seen go through ahead of us had to get inspected once they passed through immigration and customs so we were expecting the same and dreading it, as Der had spent so much time packing the van just so. When I was said that we were a family (little kids and grandparents included) on a big trip, they must have either taken pity on us or thought we weren’t much of a threat as they didn’t even open up the van at all. Phew!

The pass after customs was through the Cristo Redentor tunnel. It actually was shorter than I thought it would be. The Andes on the Argentinean side seemed very different to what we saw on the Chilean side, more rugged.

We stopped at the area where you can hike along trails in the Aconcagua Provincial Park. It was incredibly windy there, which I wasn’t expecting at all. In fact, both kids were really scared of the wind so I stayed in the van with them while Der, Del and Ilene went along a path to get a better view of Aconcagua, the tallest mountain in South America at 6959m high. While we were there, we saw a helicopter land right in front of us. That pilot had to have been excellent because it would have next to impossible to land it in such windy conditions.

We continued on until we got to the Puente del Inca, a natural arch that acts as a bridge over the Vacas River. It is about 2700m above sea level and is not far at all from the Andes. Natural sulfuric hot springs bubble out from cracks in the rock beneath and it is because of them that the rock is the yellow colour. The Inca used this as a bridge in their travels and came to the hot springs for their healing powers. There are several stands set up selling items that have been petrified by the waters. We saw all kinds of things – shoes, bottles, masks, hats. I saw some rocks from the area that had been made into egg shapes and polished. I have wooden eggs from the south of Chile and one of combarbalita (a volcanic rock that comes in many colours) from the Elqui Valley. So, I added it to my collection.

We went a little further and tried to find Los Penitentes, which are rock formations that apparently resemble hooded monks. It took us a while but we did find them – neat spire-like mountains but not as obvious as we had thought.

As we kept driving towards Mendoza, we noticed many shrines on the side of the road, which isn’t that strange in this part of the world. What struck us as different was that they were piled with tons of pop bottles and had signs saying “Difunta Correa”. Here is Wikipedia’s description of it (which matches what we were told but explained much better than I could have):

According to popular legend, Deolinda Correa was a woman whose husband was forcibly recruited around the year 1840, during the Argentine civil wars. Becoming sick, he was then abandoned by the Montoneras [partisans]. In an attempt to reach her sick husband, Deolinda took her baby child and followed the tracks of the Montoneras through the desert of San Juan Province. When her supplies ran out, she died. Her body was found days later by gauchos that were driving cattle through, and to their astonishment found the baby still alive, feeding from the deceased woman's "miraculously" ever-full breast. The men buried the body in present-day Vallecito, and took the baby with them.

The cultus to the Difunta Correa is that of an unofficial popular saint, not recognised by the Catholic Church. Her devout followers believe her to perform miracles and intercede for the living. The survival of her child would have been her first miracle.

Cattle keepers first, then truck drivers, disseminated the figure of the Difunta, creating small altars in several routes throughout the country, with images and sculptures of the Deceased. They there leave bottles of water as votive offerings, "to calm her eternal thirst".

There was a huge change in landscape from the rugged Andean peaks to sparse hills to the flat area around Mendoza. Mendoza has a semi-arid climate and all of the trees that are in the city have been planted by man and have been maintained by an irrigation system. Mendoza’s main economic activities are wine-making and olive oil production and its climate is perfect for both of these.

In 1861, Mendoza suffered a huge earthquake, believed to be 7.8 on the Richter Scale, and it left the city ruined. All buildings collapsed and over four thousand people died. It is believed that the epicenter was right below the city and that is why it caused so much damage. Thousands of people were left homeless, without food, water or anything. The rest of Argentina, Europe and Chile all provided help to the Mendocinos at this time. The French urban planner, Ballofet, designed the new look of Mendoza – the wide streets, open squares and low buildings.

Mendoza is known for its wide, tree-lined streets and avenues and its plazas. There are shady plane and sycamore trees along every street, which are very welcome the hot summer weather. They are watered by irrigation ditches that run alongside every street; these ditches also act as a natural, outdoor air-cooling system. They are really deep and we had to make sure the kids didn’t walk on that edge of the sidewalk. I kept thinking of open sewers (even though they aren’t) and critters that could crawl out. Guess I’ve been in too many developing countries.

We visited San Martin Plaza our first afternoon there, since our apartment was very close to it. It is a rather plain plaza but it does have a statue of General San Martin on a horse looking towards the Andes. His Army of the Andes was trained in Mendoza before crossing over the Andes and defeating the Spanish troops in the Battle of Maipu in Chile in 1818.

The next morning, we visited the main plazas. We went to Plaza Independencia first of all since it is in the centre of them all. It’s four blocks in size and is very pretty with all of the trees, fountains and monuments.

After Independencia, we went to Plaza Italia, named after the Italian community of Mendoza built two monuments in honour of Italy. One of them is a bronze statue of the Roman wolf feeding Romulus and Remus. There is also La Patria, which is the main monument and is made of stone and bronze. On either side of her is a statue of an aboriginal and another of a Roman philosopher. Around the bottom of the monument, there are scenes of the Italian immigrants to the area ploughing, building and harvesting. Much of Mendoza’s population is of Italian descent.

Then it was off to Plaza Espana, which was the most beautiful of them all. There are ceramic tiles all around the plaza, which makes it so pretty. There are Andalucian tiles decorating the benches, blue and white tiles in among the terracotta tiles that make up the pathways and other tiles that make up the scenes along the bottom of the monument commemorating the Spanish discovery of South America. There are fewer people of Spanish descent in Mendoza than of Italian but the old, traditional families of the area came from Spain.

We skipped Plaza Chile because we ran out of time that morning. This plaza was dedicated to Chile after all the help it provided to Mendoza after the big earthquake.

That afternoon we went to the zoo in San Martin Park. The park is apparently one of the most beautiful in the country and is huge, 4 square kilometers in size. There are lots of open green spaces, as well as the city’s main soccer stadium, an amphitheatre, a weather observatory, a monument, a rowing lake, a tennis club, a hospital, the university campus, a riding club, a research centre for agriculture, restaurants, a rose garden and a museum. There are more than fifty thousand trees planted here of 750 varieties. This is quite impressive since Mendoza was built in almost desert-like conditions.

The zoo is located in the park on a hillside, next to Cerro de la Gloria, and it covers a lot of ground. It’s a big zoo and is one of the best in Argentina for the variety of animals and the conditions they’re kept in. We can agree with that to a degree but still, some of the enclosures are pitiful. The worst ones were the African elephant, where the poor thing wandered around without any shade or water and nothing to even look at, and the pumas, where there were eleven pumas cramped into a tiny enclosure. The setting, though, was beautiful – lots of trees and plants with the paths winding along the hillside. There were monkeys roaming freely and it freaked me out. Derwin, of course, thought it was very cool. We walked and walked all afternoon and it was great fun for the kids.

While in Mendoza, we stayed at an apart-hotel, which we have discovered, is a great way to travel when you’re a family. There’s lots of space so the kids don’t get feeling so cramped in, and you can make meals there so you’re not always eating in a restaurant. Kids just need “normal” food sometimes and having the option of not having to eat out all the time is great. We stayed at Gala Apart-Hotel, which was quite close to all the squares and downtown activities. It was a great location for what we wanted to do.

We're back!

2010-01-17T22:19:00.001-03:00

We are back from our 3-week road trip in Argentina and Chile and it was great! We got in late last night and today was spent doing laundry, unpacking and getting back into the swing of things. I got the pictures of the trip uploaded to our Photobucket site so check them out there. Let me know if you need the link and password.

I'm working on the blog entry but it's slow-going. Not sure when I'll get it done but I hope it's before Friday as we're on the go again on Saturday. We'll be heading to San Pedro de Atacama for 4 days.

2009

2009-12-28T06:36:00.000-03:00

Here is our year in review video!

Christmas 2009

2009-12-27T19:40:00.001-03:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year here in Santiago. It was lots of fun having Nana and Papa here to celebrate with us. Here are some pictures of our fun day:

Merry Christmas

2009-12-24T17:27:00.000-03:00

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas! Wherever you are in the world, may you enjoy a wonderful Christmas season filled with love, peace and hope. And all the best to everyone in 2010!!

Jamaica bound

2009-12-16T12:35:00.000-03:00

We accepted the contract offer from the American International School of Kingston for Der to be the Head of IT. (Click on the school's name to go to the website.) He will also be teaching some IB Diploma classes. He's very excited about the job, as they are looking at many different progressive tech options. We're also excited about the opportunity to live in Jamaica. Their culture and history sound fascinating and we can't wait to learn more about it, as well as explore the island. Other than the job itself, the main reason we decided to go there is that it's much closer to home. The flight will be short and it will be cheaper, definitely cheaper than flying from Chile. Plus, we should be able to convince people to come and visit us there!! ;) We'll find out the good places to stay and we'll share the info for anyone who'd like to come visit.

The bad thing is that the country does not allow dogs in and Simba is very much part of our family. However, we have a couple options for him to stay with people at home. That means that we know he'll be taken very good care of and we'll be able to see him whenever we go home to visit. It makes us less sad to not have him come with us.

Don't worry about security issues - we spoke to several people who live there and they reassured us that the violence is limited to certain areas of the city and that we won't have any need to go to those parts anyways. We'll be in the northern part of the city, away from the water, and it seems like a good place to live.

Here's a website for those of you who are curious and want to find out more about Jamaica:
http://www.visitjamaica.com/

By the way, the weather forecast for today is 27C. :)

Messages from Santa

2009-12-16T08:47:00.000-03:00

Kirsi and Aidan both got messages from Santa today and wanted to share them with you.

Kirsi's:
http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/55a9591e8d896dc38ce42a8b3803d3e9

Aidan's:
http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/a9450ed083bb4082c984ae7c2a7da033