you'll never guess what happened on our geocaching adventure.

Grace, my dad, and I were off to find a geocache, but little did we know that another surprise was waiting for us...

The geocache was on the top of a small mountain not from where we were staying in Viña del Mar. When we got to the foot of the hill, we saw a small stand and a big poster on the next small mountain over. The poster said, "Canopy". We weren't sure what it meant, but then we saw someone go over us and realized it was a zip line (see first video). So we found the geo-cache and then we went back to the foot of the other mountain. We had a snack and decided that I and possibly Gracie would do the zip line!!!

When we reached the zip line, we learned that Gracie and I had to go together to reach the minimum weight limit. So we got belted in, hooked together, put our helmets on, buckled our shoes to our life jackets (good thing Mom didn't see all this) and then we stepped off the mountain and went zooming over the ocean!!!! (Mom says, really good thing she didn't see this). See second video of us zipping. About 29 seconds later we felt a jolt. It was the thing that was supposed to stop us and it succeeded in its job. Gracie took both videos. This zip line is special because its the only one in South America that goes over the ocean. It was the funnest thing ever and not a bit scary.
-Theo

Another city, another update 1.31.11

Well, we said a fond goodbye to Viña del Mar and Valparaíso on Sunday. Before we left, we had a great boat ride through Valparaíso's harbor with some Chilean friends to get an up close look at the big boats, the docks, and the sea lions. We had a delightful evening with Carlos Caceres, a Chilean professor who taught at Oberlin College recently. We also put some serious kilometers on our tennies, walking around and checking out lots of neighborhoods in both cities. Finally, Dan and the kids had a fun geo-caching adventure, but Theo has promised to blog about that....

On Sunday, we headed to La Serena. It was a 7 hour trip through really arid foothills, with the coast on one side and far off mountains on the other. We were riding in style; front seats, top floor of a double decker bus!!! Needless to say, there was lots of excitement about that.

La Serena sits on the coast and our hostel is close to the beach. The center of town has beautiful colonial architecture. Though less convenient to get to know the town, we opted for staying out of town in some cabañas, so the kids could have some outdoor space where they can run around and a pool.

We've also found a Spanish tutor for Grace and Theo this week. Paulina is a elementary teacher on summer break and the kids had their first hour and a half lesson with her today. It was the first time they have been without Dan or me for the last three weeks! Theo commented that having Spanish lessons with Paulina was a little easier than doing them with me.. we are all in agreement about that!!! Hurray for Paulina.

We had a little excitement when we arrived to La Serena, but Gracie says she'll share about that. Stay tuned. Hope you are all well.
Sincerely,
Laura

An update on our travels

I thought it was time for an update and to share some neat and unusual sights we have seen.

We are starting our second week in Valparaíso. We had planned to stay only a week and move to Viña del Mar this week. But because Viña del Mar and Valparaíso are really Chile's version of the Twin Cities - as it takes only about 15-20 minutes by bus or metro to travel between the two and wanting to cause the least amount of disruption to Dan's work - we decided to stay put in our old hostel and move instead on Friday to Viña - just for the weekend- before traveling to La Serena in the north.

Valparaíso and Viña del Mar are both lovely cities in their own right, but very different. If one had to characterize them, one might say... that Valparaíso is a working port, more artsy, bohemian, old, romantic, unplanned, mostly vertical and dirty ...and that Viña del Mar is a bit more modern, upscale, clean, orderly, green and perhaps typical of a coastal city. Ironically, the foreign tourists flock to Valparaíso and its old colonial architecture and quirky, twisting streets and the Chilean (and Argentinian) tourists flock to Viña, its green plazas and its beaches.

Last week the kids and I spent a good deal of time getting to know the cities and beaches. As Gracie described, we tried all the different transportation options and we had some great outings with new Chilean (Alonso, Maria Eugenia and Adrea as well as Cecilia, David and children) and US friends, Artie and Margy. We also visited some potential schools for the kids.

This week, the kids and I are on a bit more of a schedule; wake up 8:30am, breakfast, exercise a bit (soccer or yoga), Spanish lessons with Mom, then free time, lunch at 1:30pm, then run some errands or do an outing, and come back for a bit of free time (checking e-mails or reading Kindles) before a late dinner with Dan at 7 or 7:30pm and in bed by 10pm.

Even though we have such a flexible schedule, there still doesn't seem enough time in the day to negotiate daily living, research future living, stay in touch with new connections here in Chile and stay in touch with friends and family at home. Once we're settled we won't have to figure out food, laundry, housing, transportation, and all the rest with each new move. But we have another month of moving around and getting to know Chile and its people.

So, for now we're just embracing the fact that everyday is about discovering the new! And then by the end of February, we will happily move into a routine and community. Honestly, I think we could be happy settling in either Viña or Valparaíso for the year.

Here are some photos of some neat and unusual sights for us:

1. The Pacific Ocean!
2. Tsunami evacuation route sign
3. A chilean naval submarine and its crew coming to port
4. A wall of flowers (a vertical garden)
5. Palm trees everywhere
6. Mosaics everywhere!
7. Dan's watermelon birthday "cake" (thanks Margy)
   
8. Our new soccer "field" in front of our hostel
9. A 20 foot diameter functioning clock made out of flowers
10. Our daily vertical climbs
    

Mote con huesillo

Jon suggested that Grace (our resident food critic here at OFA) try a drink here called mote con huesillo.  In my rusty Spanish that sounded like something involving 'little bones', which didn't sound like an appetising drink.  But the other day, on top of Cerro San Cristóbal in Santiago, we were confronted with this stuff everywhere.  It was a hot day, and what the heck, a nice cool glass of little bones might just hit the spot...

Grace wimped out, as did the rest of my family, but in the name of science I had to try one.  For my $850 pesos I got a cup of thick, syrupy substance filled with a large soggy apricot and what looked like... a handful of little bones.  Turns out it's actually a handful of waterlogged pieces of cracked wheat, and the whole concoction is considered the national drink of Chile.

It tasted about like one would expect it to taste:  sickly sweet, with a confusing texture, and not at all thirst-quenching.  It's also very difficult to drink, er, eat.  It came with a cheap plastic spoon which was not at all up to the task of parting the soggy but tough apricot flesh from its pit, and after forcing down a few bites and splashing a bit of it on my shirt I gave up completely and dumped the whole thing in the trash.

I love what I've seen so far of Chile:   the culture, the language, the warm, friendly people.  But I'll leave the national drink to the natives.

Valparaiso

We have been spending a week in a city called Valparaiso. It is a port town so there are a lot of boats here which is really cool if you go down in the port and see the ships. We have been staying in a really nice hostel when you go inside the passage way you will see six or seven cats on your way to the hostel there are also a lot of stray cats or dogs when your just going on a regular walk around the city. There are a lot of hills in Valparaiso, but not any in Vina del Mar. On the hills there are outstanding houses some are on a cliff and a little part of them is leaning off the cliff and looking like it is going to fall of any minute.

Another thing about Valparaiso that is nice is that it has lots of transportation like buses, metro, trolly car and the most intertaining was the finicular. The buses were nice but hot in the day because they stopped every few minutes. The metro was very nice just like the one in Santiago but we think it might be newer than the one in Santiago. And the trolly car was unike just like the one in Minnesota that goes by Lake Harriet (see green and white below). The finicular is almost like a outdoor elevator on a hill. The one we took was very old and it was very unique when you are going up or down the other one goes the opposite way (see picture above with Chilean flag). It is very cool to go in it.

When you look out our window it is a beautiful site. You can see the boats and the Pacific Ocean and tons of other stuff. It is really pretty. Hope your doing well. Grace

it's beach time!

Hi everyone! Here is a picture of grace and me, and we are at the beach! Yesterday we went to a beach with sea lions. Here are some pictures of the sea lions eating the fish the people throw to them and pelicans chasing them for the leftovers. All these beaches are pretty close to where we are staying. Yesterday we went to two!
-Theo







CHASING THE WAVES!

Hemos llegado...

We've arrived in Valparaiso. What a strange and wonderful place. At least until the next earthquake, at which time, by all appearances, all of the 100+ year old wooden buildings clinging to the hillside here will surely fall into the sea. In the meantime, Lojo will enjoy her pisco sour...