Trip to the Lakes & Rivers Districts

Hola Amigos!  It has been a very busy two and a half weeks for us! So first of all, I wanted to mention that I had a really nice Valentine's Day and received a few surprises! George bought me some dry shampoo, a new pillow, some coffee ice cream, and some gummy candies.  Those presents may sound weird, but they were all things I really wanted!  George's dad also sent me a lovely surprise!

I have a plant and no cats to eat it!  Yay!  I also just made myself a little sad.

Missy arrived on Sunday February 15th after 30 some odd hours of travels and just left on Monday evening.  I was a nervous wreck while she was on all of her flights, but everything went smoothly.  So here's what we were up to while she visited:

Trip South

After much deliberation about whether to head south to the Lakes/Rivers districts of Chile, or to head north to the Atacama desert, we settled on heading south! We discussed details about renting a car, found places to stay, and bought our tickets.  As I was about to fill out the car rental reservation, George informed me that his paper license was actually expired.  Sister and I would both have licenses, so what is the problem?  Well you see, you can request an automatic transmission car here, but you are going to get a manual anyway.  And I know, it's sad, but Sister and I cannot drive stick.  So George's dad dropped his license in the mail, and we hung on pins and needles.  It arrived the evening before our flight south!  Many sighs of relief! George's dad was basically the hero of the trip because learning to drive stick on the fly in lots of tourist traffic was not on my to-do list!

Región de Los Ríos

So we landed in Temuco, picked up the rental car, and then made our way South to Valdivia.  Valdivia is at the meeting point of the Calle-Calle, Valdivia, and Cau-Cau Rivers.  The whole area is very lush and green, and the weather was beautiful for our time there!  We walked through town and along the river, had some chilean food, took a boat tour, and found a delightful new microbrewery named El Growler.

If I lived in a place with a river or lake!

If George Lived in a place with a river or lake!

Just pretty.

IPA cervesas, chorripan (sausage and bread), and hamburguesas!

Sooo much fish at the market!  Missy did not appreciate the smells.

The seals did appreciate the smells!  They were super entertaining to watch.

On the afternoon of our second day we intended to go to the Kunstmann brewery near Valdivia, but it was so packed when we got there that we opted to keep driving and head to part of the Spanish fort system in Niebla.  Best decision ever! From wikipedia:

The Fort System of Valdivia are a series of Spanish colonial fortifications at Corral Bay, Valdivia and Cruces River established to protect the city of Valdivia, in southern Chile. During the period of Spanish rule (1552–1820), it was one of the biggest systems of fortification in the Americas. It was also a major supply source for Spanish ships that crossed the Strait of Magellan.

Aside from being interesting, it was really beautiful on the coast! I actually would love to visit the area again and see the rest of the fort system!

Región de Los Lagos

After two packed days in the Valdivia area, we hopped in the car and headed to our next adventure!  The drive was gorgeous, but we were very excited by our first views of the Villarrica Volcano!  Here are just two photos that I took in Villarrica:

So, let's talk about our airbnb place!  It was cheap...and well, there's always a catch, lol.  So first, a picture:

Cool right?  The place has potential, but it still needs some love.  In the form of a new hot water heater.  The first night we had some intermittent hot water.  That was the only hot water we had during our three day visit.  The next morning the pilot was out on the water heater, but the stove still worked (so we knew there was still gas).  We lit the pilot again and went on our merry way.  When we got back home in the evening after a long day of hiking, it was out again AND the stove was out.  So, no gas.  Contacted the guy, and he replaced it that night, but it was a night of cold showers and sad dinner (we had planned to make spaghetti).  The next day we were able to cook, but the water never got warm (just less cold), and when we got home from our daily activities, the electricity was out (I know, right?).  Well, it turns out there was a car that had knocked out a tower or something, and it was only out for like an hour, but George was fully ready to lose it.  I told George, "Well, it was really quite nice if you think of it as a fancy tent". Luckily that made him laugh, and we made the best of it! 

While our lodging left a bit to be desired, our visit to Huerquehue National Park was awesome!  We left very early on Saturday morning, and managed to arrive just as the park opened.  It was nice and cool still, and not at all crowded! We did the Tres Lagos hike, and we made it to two out of the three lakes.  For the third lake there was just a little too much more uphill for the amount of water that we had on us.  One thing that is super different is that Chileans don't seem to drink water.  Many people that we saw hiking just had a small thing of juice or even a soda with them.  We had a nalgene bottle and two smaller bottles and it wasn't enough for us!

An Ent looming.

 

Taking a break by the lake

We also drove to a "hot" springs that was about an hour away.  The springs were more warm than hot, but the drive was lovely!  On the way there, the sun was starting to set and it was beautiful!  These pictures don't even do it justice!  The sunset over the springs was also super lovely, and then all the stars!  Missy and I stared out the windows the whole drive back!

Villarrica Volcano

Aside from those two excursions, we also went in to Pucon a few times.  It was the height of the tourist season in the lakes district, so driving and parking and walking was all quite stressful in the towns!  We did find a really good burger place though, and Missy and I tried our first Piscolas (pisco and cola)! Pisco is a brandy that is made in Chile and Peru. The burgers were huge!

OK, my original goal was to write about the rest of Missy's visit and our other travels, but I think I'm going to save that for the next post!  Chao!

La Vega, Muse-y-ing Around Santiago, and Even More Food!

Hola amigos! First things first, Missy gets here on Sunday!!!  I'm so excited!  The poor kid leaves Seoul in about 13 hours, and then has a 30 hour trip to get here, with two layovers in Canada.  Yes, that's right, she is flying from Seoul, to Vancouver, to Toronto, to Santiago. I am going to go ahead and not plan anything for Sunday... I think she will be just a tad exhausted, lol. 

Ok, so today I escaped to the coworking space that George and Will have been using regularly.  It is a very nice space located on the San Joaquín campus of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.  It is a small, pretty campus with many shady trees.  All in all, a very nice way to spend the day! Especially considering it's in the upper 90s in the apartment, but air conditioned here!

So what have we been up to since my last post?  I feel like I ask myself every week where the week went!  I'm in my routine and the time is flying by! We've hung around Santiago, and we go on many evening walks.  According to George we "muse-y". He says that while most people mosey, my sister and I "muse-y" at about twice the pace with half the leg length, lol.  Here are two photos from our evenings in Santiago:

The moon rise!  It was just a particularly nice evening.

A cat friend we made on one of our evening walks!

Most importantly, we finally made it to La Vega on Sunday!  I know, it's crazy that we didn't make it there sooner, given my love for produce and markets, but with 60,000 square meters of stalls, I wanted to go early on a Sunday morning when it was cool and not too busy.  It's a pretty intense undertaking, but even though the crowds and shear number of choices were overwhelming, I still loved it!  I am definitely going to drag Missy there one morning when she visits! The best part about La Vega is that the produce is much cheaper than at the stores.  We bought 2 kilos (about 4.5 lbs) of strawberries for less than $2.50. We also bought some huge cucumbers, a bunch of zucchini, carrots and green peppers... I should have taken some photos of our haul and totaled the price, but by the time we finished, we were ready to get home!  Trust me, it was cheap!

Of course we made a kitty friend. 

Es una gatita muy bonita!

People!  Also notice the bag on wheels... So many people have them!  They use them for La Vega and at the super markets.  Between those, strollers, and people, it can be tough to get around even when it's not too crowded!

Vegetales!

Frutas!

After our excursion to La Vega, we also went hiking on Cerro San Cristobal on Sunday afternoon.  I took a few photos, but it was pretty smoggy so they weren't particularly special.  I did like this one though:

Heading down the trail that leads to one of the pools on Cerro San Cristobal.

Aside from that, I've been doing a lovely job at keeping up on my running.

Today, since I knew it was going to be hot, I woke up early and left for my run before 7:30.  Quite a feat for me!  Week 7, day 1 of the B210K plan had me running for a little over 45 mins (distance-wise it was 5 miles if you include my warm up and cool down walk).  I have also been making sure that one of my runs every week is on Cerro San Cristobal.  Let me tell you, running uphill... it's not easy! And downhill seems better, but it's a whole different kind of exhausting.  Besides the B210K app for running, I also use the Runkeeper app - if you use it, feel free to add me! 

But, the reward for all this running?  Food and drink!  Here's a small sample:

We've been eating a large amount of chicken and avocados... Good stuff!

My favorite!  Veggies, fried egg, and multi-grain toast with herbed butter.  I seriously could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Just a little too much fat and not quite enough protein in that diet though... dang!

More fried rice!  As soon as I get it down I will post a recipe :-)

This was a brunch I made myself after Monday's hill-run day.  I try to only eat like half a banana before running, but that means that I am quite ready for food when I cool down!  Here I made myself some sautéed zucchini, scrambled eggs, and a strawberry-banana-peanut butter greek yogurt smoothie... and some extra veggies because they were nice and cold.  Yeah, breakfast is my favorite.

My other reward is a cocktail or wine of some sort.  This was a Chardonnay and Ginger Ale spritzer with some frozen raspberries... so good!

So other than those things, I've finally started watching Buffy!  I've seen episodes here and there, but I have never actually watched the whole series.  One the one hand, I try not to watch too much TV, on the other hand, George has so much work that this girl has to entertain herself!  I am thoroughly enjoying it.  Oh!  And I've been listening to a Les Misérables audiobook!  It's a 60 hour commitment (damn, that unabridged book is long!), but I am really enjoying it.  I think next I'll be looking for something a bit more action packed for listening when I run, lol.  Any suggestions?

A Brief Visit to the Coast and Other Weekly Going-ons (Oh! and Birds!)

Hello all!  I am sitting here quite shocked to find that it has been over two weeks since my last post. I kept thinking about it because I have taken quite a few photos in the past two weeks, but I think that was part of the downfall!  Anytime I'd think about writing a post, I'd remember that I needed to go through my photos first.  I always have such a hard time narrowing down which ones to share! So what finally made me cave today?  Well you see, I should be working on some Coursera stuff.... :-D

So last Thursday Will and George needed to take a trip to the coast to meet with their padrino (mentor) and I was able to tag along!  It was an early morning and a long day, but it was lovely!  We took a bus from Santiago to Concón, where Camilo lives.  When we arrived, it turned out that he actually had an interview, but told us to eat some breakfast and feel free to explore until he returned in the afternoon.  We walked to the beach, then took a coastal bus to nearby Viña del Mar. We did some more walking and exploring there and eventually ended up at a Starbucks where George and Will worked for a short while.  While it's sunny in Santiago pretty much all day everyday, it's generally cloudy on the coast in the mornings.  It was nice and cool before the sun came out!

The sunrise!  I wasn't kidding about the early morning part :-)

The ocean near Concón

A beach in Concón

We walked along the coast a bit looking for sea lions.

Turrets anyone?

After exploring and visiting Starbucks, we headed back to Camilo's for an asado (barbecue).  They talked business and I watched the meat cook! Meat (food in general) in Chile tends not to be heavily seasoned, so all that went on the large hunk of beef was some salt. As an appetizer we had Choripán (Chorizo y pan: sausage and bread) and some wine. The little sausages in the picture below were similar to a breakfast sausage (noms), and the larger red chorizo was a bit spicier, but still very mild. The main meal was plain rice and some greens with the beef.  After eating, we caught our bus back to Santiago.

Meat!

On Sunday, George and I explored Parque Bicientenario in Santiago. It is a newer park, so there weren't quite as many big trees as I would have liked (it was hot!), buuuut I think it was my favorite park that we've been to so far.  It was quite large, offered some nice views, and at one end there was a pond with flamingos, a snowy egret, black necked swans, koi, and I'm sure a few others that I'm forgetting.  Also there were flowers, and we all know how I feel about flowers!

The view from the park back towards where we live.

Black Necked Swan: the largest waterfowl native to South America

That is a large creepy looking Koi....

Resting in a shady spot

Flamingos!

Snowy egret:  Wikipedia tells me that plumes of the snowy egret were at one time in great demand by market hunters as decorations for women's hats, which caused a drastic fall in their population, but the bird's population has now rebounded.

I believe this is a yellow-winged blackbird, but I could be wrong.  In any case, the flowers are quite lovely!

Aside from heading to the coast and exploring yet another park, I have been busy working on my Coursera class, planning Missy's visit, practicing Spanish, cooking, and reading.  In the past two weeks I read American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Horns by Joe Hill, and yesterday I began Les Misérables.  Admittedly, I might be reading a tad more than I should, but I am thoroughly enjoying it!

As for the cooking, I have fallen into a bit of a rut, but I blame George.  He pretty much only ever wants stir fry, pasta with red sauce, tacos, or fajitas. I gave him a goal of finding one recipe a week that he'd like me to try making, so we'll see how that goes! Here are a few new food photos:

Salad with chicken and balsamic strawberries

Chicken fried rice.  I love me some chicken fried rice!

Black bean and lentil tacos with guacamole

Cerro Santa Lucía

Hola amigos! It was another hot weekend, but George and I woke up early on Saturday for an adventure in Santiago. It was still cool out, so we walked from our apartment to Cerro Santa Lucía (Santa Lucía Hill).  Cerro Santa Lucía is a small hill that is a remnant of a volcano, and in 1541, Pedro de Valdiva, a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile, officially founded Santiago from the foot of this hill. After the founding of the city, the Spanish conquistadors used Santa Lucia hill as a lookout point.

The Route:

Approximately 3 miles

Along the way, we made a dog friend.  He actually followed us for over a mile and a half... and we didn't feed him or even pet him.  I'm beginning to think George might actually be right about the fact that dogs just seem to like me.  There are many stray dogs in Santiago, but they all seem to be pretty well fed and content.  They all seem to get along with each other and with the pet dogs that people bring to the park.  In fact since being here, there was only one dog that seemed to have a problem, and it was a small yappy dog that an old lady had on a leash.

Our loyal dog friend!

For awhile we had two dog friends.

So I think when you're from Illinois Lincoln haunts you...

Our dog friend also very much enjoyed the morning sprinklers. He had such a great temperament. I think if I was going to be living here permanently I would end up taking in many many dogs...

He followed us all the way to Cerro Santa Lucía, but he decided to visit other dogs at the entrance rather than walking up all the stairs with us.  Pictures from Cerro Santa Lucía:

The entrance!  So many nice Palm Trees!

Pretty

City views

Nice fountain and view of the lookout on top of the hill.  It was quite busy at the top so we did not get any great photos from up there.

Statue of Pedro de Valdivia

Beautiful!

Ok, so this is actually my favorite photo... doesn't it look like a portal??  FUN.

Aside from our Saturday walk, we just did our normal weekly things.  Here are a few extra photos from the week:

Dinner!

Dessert!  I have been cooking dinners, and so George has been supplying desserts :-)

The city from our balcony at sunset.  Happiness.