We didn't have long to wait after returning from the tip of the Earth until my sister made her maiden voyage to South America. We were super excited to show her as many things as possible, and I planned a jam-packed week for her to get the whole experience if you will. Part of the Chilean experience, as I'm sure you can tell if you've read anything I have written or talked to me in the last 6 months is also adjusting when plans don't work out. We did plenty of that too.
Day One:
Kaitlyn arrived in the morning after a good night's sleep on the plane and we headed back for a relaxing day at Michael's family compound. She immediately got to eat parotos granados, a Chilean dish that they are very proud of, and began her immersion into Spanish. Even though we informed the entire family that she spoke absolutely NO Spanish, they still tried to speak to her, just slowly. (The whole time I was wishing that they had ever spoken that slowly to me... that could have been so stinking helpful... ) We took a trip to the giant grocery store owned by Walmart to buy all of the makings for an Asado that evening. Around 10 o'clock that night everyone began gathering water into water bottles and we soon found out that there had been too much rain in the Andes which meant the water company had announced a scheduled "shut off" for 24 hours beginning at midnight. Wait!?.. you´re thinking... they shut off the water for a city of 7ish million people. Yes... Yes they did. Welcome to Chile Kait!
Day Two:
Day two was made incredibly interesting because of the whole... there is no water ANYWHERE thing. Santiago looked like a ghost-town as we took Kaitlyn around to see some of the big sights... San Cristobal, Santa Lucia (not the market that day though.... closed), Moneda palace, Plaza de Armas, etc. The weather was also uncharacteristicly cool for the city that had been a varitable sweat box for weeks.... that part was nice.
Kaitly and Michael atop Cerro San Cristobal
The Virgen
With Santiago and some haze in the background.
Kaitlyn´s first empanada.
Hiking up Santa Lucia
This.
As we approached Moneda palace, you could hear drumming and chanting, and upon further investigation, we found this: A celebration of Chinese primavera (en verano) put on by the Confucius club of Universidad Catolica.
Plaza de Armas wasn't quite the ghost town like the rest of the city that day as proven by the rando that jumped out and growled at Michael, giving Kait a small heart attack. Then I made her pose with some stuff.
We lucked out that one of our favorite restaraunts was serviced by another water company and was the only thing open for blocks. We fed Kaitlyn chorillanas... and kunstmann... and scene.
Day 3: We took a day trip to Pomaire, a little town that specializes in artesan clay things... namely pigs in the shape of sugar bowls and pigs with only 3 legs that are good luck. We followed the signs and then paid a few coins to pose with this guy: the largest clay pig ever. I translated for Kaitlyn as she took advantage of low prices to buy souvenirs for all her peeps back home, and I only dropped and destroyed one clay item during the day.
We met Condorito carrying a gigantic empanada.
When we returned from Pomaire, we quickly packed and started our journey to the bus station where we would take an overnight bus to Valdivia (we purchased the tickets earlier). Once on the bus however, it turned out Michael and another guy had the same seat number on their ticket... how could that be? Then some ladies had our seats.. and then upon further investigation we realized that the lady had sold us tickets for the same date in March... neither us, nor the guy tearing tickets had noticed. (In case you were wondering... the dates in February are the same as the dates in March.. as in 10th on a Sunday... yeah). All of the buses were completely full that evening, so we had to change our plans and leave the following night. After a few minutes of extreme frustration at the whole thing, we hopped a city bus back home, tickets for FEBRUARY in tow and rearranged the beautiful plan I had made.
Day 4:
We visited the Cousina Macul Winery which included a tour, glass, and wine tasting. Then, since the water was on this day, we headed down to Santa Lucia market for Kait to do more shopping.
We then took our already packed bags and set out on our trip to the South, where we would now begin with Pucon and THEN head to Valdivia thanks to our little mishap.
Pucon was amazingly beautiful. I could have stayed there for weeks, but we only had about a day and half. The first day was rainy and cold causing Kaitlyn to wonder where her escape to summer was. We ate at a hamburger place that wasn´t awesome, hung out on the black rock sand beach, and took a trip to the hot springs in a local bus which was more like a van. Rule number one at the hot springs: Don't have sex. I'm not kidding... NO tener sexo... rule number one. There was plenty of wallering to be seen.
Kaitlyn had her first Pisco Sour
Fun at the hot springs.
Terrible translations are awesome... we recommend "heither" be added to the dictionary
The hike back up.
We got caught in an epic traffic jam that evening in the bus on our way back to Pucon. By the time we made it back, it was time for food and bed.
The following morning we went river rafting. As per usual, there was an issue when we arrived at the place where we had made our reservations the day before. They said something like, "Oh yeah.. sorry there isn't room... you can go at three this afternoon." We then said... "no... we need to go now because we are leaving this afternoon" and somehow a magical solution was found.
We did the level 4 rafting which was really fun! We went over a few level 4 and 5 rapids first and then came to a level 6 where we stopped, got out of the raft and hiked around it. Our guides sent the raft down and then made there way to the rock that everyone was standing on where they then informed us that we would be jumping off the 20ft ledge into the river. Well played, guys, well played. I started the group off with a graceful jump, and before we knew it, everyone was down in the rafts gazing up at the point where we had all been a few minutes earlier. Our guide Ricardo told us we had one more rapid, but, and I quote, "it would be super easy compared to the others we'd done". Sure enough, it was just a small bump, but I flipped off the side into the water. I was laughing so hard (and so were Michael and Kaitlyn) that it was difficult to get back in the raft, but I managed to hold on to my oar like a champ. They had beer waiting for us at the end (Chile rules in this aspect) and we made our way back to town. We spent the day on the beach of the lake where the sun finally made an appearance! That evening we hopped a bus to Valdivia.
The guides called these "sexy shorts"... right... on!
Our beach friend
In Valdivia, we were in our hostel for less than 10 hours. We spent the day doing exploring the riverside, visiting the Kunstmann Brewery, chilling in Niebla, and of course, watching lobos marinos.
We asked the girl at the hostel if the Brewery was too far to walk, and even though she said yes, we ignored her and trekked all the way there. She was right... note to self.
We took a tour of the Brewery and then, during our wait for a table for lunch, took the opportunity to Prosit! with all of the inflatable/statuesque German looking dudes with beers. I think Michael and Kaitlyn will be glad I made them do this some day. :)
Always....
Taste testing...
Salud!
In Niebla, there was some kind of festival going on, so Kaitlyn got to experience an anticucho of awesomeness.
We took another overnight bus from Valdivia to Santiago, and upon arrival, immediately bought tickets for the next bus to Vina del Mar. We spent the day on the beach... Kaitlyn getting amply sunburned just in time for her flight home,
All in all, I think we earn some kind of award for fitting an unreal number of things in a week. The next time she visits, we can be a little more chill :).
