list of things I like about chile.(a post for my class)

Hi everyone! Here is a list of things I like about Chile so far...(from Theo)

1. the best desserts in the world!
2. lots of mountains.
3. right by the coast.
4. a lot of pools.
5. hot and sunny.(unlike Minnesota in January)
6. lots of empanadas.
7. it fits my criteria
8. there's a metro
9. it's summer break here!
10. lots of teeter-toters

Our days in Santiago

Hey Everyone!

Well, I thought I'd give a sense of how the kids and I have been spending our days while Dan has telecommutes with his Minneapolis office.

After a late breakfast and the ritual sunscreen application (the sun is very strong here with a hole in the ozone somewhere above Chile) around 9-9:30am, we have been trying to get out to see something around Santiago. One day we headed up to Bellas Artes and saw some cool art. Yesterday, we discovered the Science Museum. Modest by US standards, but we had a great time doing some great hands on physics experiments, wishing former professor Dano was with us, and checking out some cool astronomy and geology displays. Chile hosts all sorts of international telescopes because of its very clear skies. We hope we can visit some this year.

After our morning outing, we try to find some lunch somewhere along the path around 2pm...looking for vegetables or salad has been a focus of mine as Dan's last entry pokes fun at. Then we head back to the hotel, head to the really cold pool for a quick dip, and have a bath and a little down time. Around 6 or 6:30pm, Dan joins us and we head our again for a late dinner and some more walking around.

There's usually something to see or its just fun to discover more about the neighborhood - since everything is new. Last night, Gracie and I happened on some amateur astronomers in La Plaza de Armas on our way back to the hotel last night. The main plaza in the center of Santiago was alive with street performers, vendors of all kinds and tons of people at 9:30pm on a Friday night. We paid $1US or $500 pesos each to be shown a great view of the moon's craters and Jupiter's moons through the telescopes. Most fun was watching these hobby astronomers get all the kids excited about what they were viewing! Super fun. Needless to say, its a late night for everyone. We usually read a little or post something and try to get to sleep around 11pm.




























Today being Saturday, was different and we grabbed Dan for some exploring. We headed up San Cristobal peak (around 800 meters above sea level). We didn't try hiking it, but we took this cool little rail car up the peak. We had a great view of Santiago in all directions. And then we did hike another 2 miles or so, over to a swimming pool also on top of another peak. They say its the pool with the best view in the world! :-)

Finally, we ended our day with meeting up with our friend's, the Valencias, family in here Santiago. We had such a fun time visiting with them and sharing a great meal that ended with huge ice cream sundaes. I must say that people in general have been incredibly friendly and welcoming to us. It bodes well for a great year to come.

Goodnight. Laura

El menú, once, y ensalada

We're slowly adjusting to the way they do things here in Chile, but we aren't yet on quite the right schedule for meals.  Chilenos generally eat the main meal of the day in the early afternoon.  Many restaurants here in Santiago serve only a handful of daily specials around that time, which the call 'el menú del día', or the menu of the day.  In the late evening they have 'once' (own-say, literally eleven, meaning 11pm), which is a sort of bedtime snack. [Update:  the meal 'once' does not get its name from 11pm.  Its etymology is disputed; it might derive from 11am, but there are several more interesting stories of how the term came to be.  If you read Spanish, the details are here.]

This is cool except that old habits die hard, and we gringos just don't think about eating a big meal at 2pm.  And if you go out on the street looking for lunch at noon, or dinner at 6pm, they can be hard to find.

This was the mistake we made tonight, heading out at about 6 to a restaurant that Lojo had seen during the day that advertised healthy-looking salads.  Here's the sign -- I'm not sure what that red stuff is, but "salad prepared to your taste" sounded good...

Hmmm, salad...

Turns out, not surprisingly, they don't serve salads at night.  At night this particular place turns into a drinking establishment, with typical drinking establishment food.  So, our 'salad' became this:

Can you spot the little hot dog pieces?

Yes, that's french fries with some sort of shredded beef and onions, topped off with a couple fried eggs, and some sliced hot dog for added protein.  The four of us couldn't quite finish it!

critica gastronomica 2

When we went out to our first meal it just happened that they had beets! The chicken was very good to but the spinach and carrot salad was not so good and my chicken was the best of all of our food in my opinion. I am looking forward to more good food thanks a lot


GRACE








here's our hotel



Here's Chilean pesos- 10,000 pesos is $20 US dollars. I'm rich!

The Arrival!

Hi everybody! We just arrived! Here's a picture of us in Chile eating empanadas on our first evening.












I was the only one who slept well on the 9 hour flight. Apart from not sleeping well, we had a great view of the mountains! I even got a picture of the coast!

-Theo

Eight hours in an airport...

... can make you sort of goofy.

1.11.11 Departure

A day of ones and new beginnings… Fortunately we left about three hours before our flight this morning and were able to get rerouted to Dallas connecting to Santiago. We avoided the Chicago to Miami connection and a snowstorm and expected delays.

So we have lots of time in Dallas before we leave tonight at 9pm, arriving tomorrow at 10am Santiago time. Chile is three hours ahead of Minneapolis, quite a bit to our east, which was a surprise to all of us.

Things have changed a great deal since the most recent time Dan or I were traveling and living abroad back in the 90’s (Dan in Costa Rica teaching English in ’92 and I was training Peace Corps Trainees in Dominican Republic in ’96). How we know we’re not in our twenties - exploring the world – anymore.

1. Then: We traveled with a duffle bag or big backpack. Now: As you can see by our departure photo, we don’t travel light.

2. Electronics explosion! Then: I think I had a short wave radio. J Now we have: 2 laptops, 2 smart phones, 4 e-readers, 3 digital cameras, 4 Mp3 players, and several small bags of cables! Wow…

3. Then: Maybe during a long layover before Dan or I might find a quiet corner to read something like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Now: we have spent the last couple of hours at the Internet Station, charging devices, checking e-mails and in Dan’s case, working.

4. Then: Much to our parents’ chagrin, it might have taken a couple of weeks to receive word that we had arrived and all was well. Now: Well, here you are…thanks to the blog, you are able to get updates perhaps sooner than you would prefer! :-)

Alright, I promise the next post will be from Chile… Thanks to everyone for such nice e-mails, messages and goodbye skypes.

Hasta pronto, Laura