Hola! We just got home from a 10 day trip to Chile to visit Adam's brother Alex, and his wife Amanda. They moved down there about a year ago for work- They are both geological engineers, and Alex's company where he worked in Vancouver has an office in Santiago, so they decided they'd move south for a little while. We couldn't move East without taking advantage of them living there & I hadn't seen them in a year and a half. This was also my first time to the southern hemisphere- so it was late fall/early winter there.... the only obvious difference. I've never taken the time to really take in which direction the toilet flushes here, so I didn't notice the difference there :)
When we left Nashville, I wasn't feeling so hot but I attributed it to my usual plague of motion sickness. We got into Santiago at about 3:30 am, and after getting back to their apt we slept for a little while. Then we went out and about around the city. I ate a lot that day, hoping that my ongoing nausea was from being really hungry. Not good. I woke up around midnight, and spent most of the night on or hugging the toilet. It was horrible. I'll spare you any more details- just appease me and have sympathy. It was terrible. Needless to say, I spent the next 2 days in bed. Not eating anything. Not a great way to start our trip.
Here a a few pictures from the first day there before I got sick, and a few that Adam took while I was dead to the world.
Some kind of tradition Chilean drink. Looks Tasty.
This is really all of the earthquake damage from February that we saw....
which is pretty crazy considering the magnitude of the earthquake.
The virgin Mary looking over the city.
After a few days I re-entered the world, and we headed to the coast for the weekend. Alex, being the master geologist that he is, patiently gave me lots of lessons on plates, faults, rocks, etc. I am fascinated by that stuff and have lots of questions. He graciously answers them the best way that my brain can understand. So in all of my lessons I learned that because of all of that fun geological stuff, the Chilean coastline is very, very similar to the California coastline which I think is absolutely beautiful. The Chilean coastline is as well- if not more so. We were most definitely in for a treat.
We first drove over to Valpraiso, a colorful port city on the coast, grabbed a bite to eat and walked around for a bit.
An hour or so before sunset we headed up the coast, jumping out of the car along the way to enjoy the beautiful beaches and throw the frisbee around. We enjoyed such beautiful sunsets over the weekend. The kind where you watch the sun disappear into the vast ocean. Sweet reminders of God's creativity and beauty.
Alex & Amanda had been horseback riding on the beaches a while back, and remembered Ritoque, a tiny beach town with cabins they passed along the way. They were determined that we would find it and stay there. We found the town, but couldn't figure out how you stay in the cabins they saw.... BUT we found "Cabana Rustik"... in the dark. This is a perfect example of how my cautious, reluctant, not so adventurous side often leads me to miss out on things. The sign for Cabana Rustik (which I assume means Rustic Cabins) looked like it led to a haunted house in the woods- but my husband, brother in law, and sister in law couldn't be more opposite of me when it comes to adventure. So we went in to scope it out- and I'm so glad we did! We found these great cabins for really cheap, and the really nice owner lived in the states for 20 years, so he was excited to have us there.
I would have kept on driving, and gone back to the bigger town and stayed at the Raddison I saw on the coast. I laid in bed in the cabin that night, pondering on why that is. Its not that I need somewhere nice or fancy. I like rustic. It's that I want to feel secure- that by being somewhere that isn't unknown, nothing is going to happen to me..... I'm going to digress- How did I end up this way? Sometimes I feel like I'm the most cautious person on the planet when it comes to unknown situations. Adam wont let me watch the news, CSI, 48 hours mystery, or anything else that is going to convince me that there is someone around the corner waiting to attack or kill me. My parents do fun things. I'm pretty sure my dad isn't afraid of anything. I never had a traumatic experience during my childhood that would lead me to fear and distrust anyone or anything unknown (except now I'm remembering that incident we'd all love to forget forever at the movies in HS). Maybe that's why I'm prone to doubt that the Lord will protect me. Who knows. I'm going to see Florene tomorrow. Maybe she can tap into my head and figure out why I'm such a baby.....
Where was I? The cabins on the coast. Ritoque was a great little spot with an incredible beach. We went to the beach at night- and before the moon came up- the stars were absolutely incredible. I'm positive that I've never seen so many stars before. It was beautiful. Then the full moon came up and illuminated the entire beach. This beach was like no other beach I've seen before. It was unbelievably beautiful. Rocky cliffs enclosing it on one end, and giant sand dunes enclosing it from behind. The sand dunes quickly became Adam & Alex's playground for the night.
One evening, we climbed around and over the rocky cliffside to watch the sunset. It was fantastic.
I so enjoyed our time on the coast. It was a beautiful reminder of the beauty of the Creator, and the fact that He wired us to delight and find such great pleasure from splendor.
After exploring the coast for a couple of days we headed back to Santiago. We drove in right as the sun was setting to see this towering over the city.....
Gives meaning purple mountains' majesty. Chile is fascinating in that you can drive from the beautiful coast to the base of the enormous Andes Mountains in less than 2 hours..... which is where we headed the next day, to find natural hot springs.
We drove as far as we could without the risk of getting stuck, and hiked the rest of the way in up the snowy road. On the way in, I was sure that nothing was worth walking up a slick, icy, snowy road in tennis shoes, while burning up from the heat of the sun reflecting off of the snow. We (Adam & I) didn't have the "proper" gear with us for this trek. I couldn't keep my feet stable underneath me to save my life. (I told them at one point that I felt like the kid that you see at the ski resort skiing in jeans as I thought of all of my stuff at home that would have made the trek more pleasant). Anyway, it was most definitely worth it. The hot springs were amazing and couldn't have had a more beautiful backdrop behind them.
It got really cold really fast when the sun started setting behind the mountains, so we got dry quickly and trekked back to the car. And it was freezing on the way back. Its strange that the temperature can change so drastically is such a short amount of time.
We spent the last few days of our trip exploring more around Santiago and enjoying time with Alex and Amanda. We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary there with them (as mentioned in my last post). On Thursday before we left, Amanda took Adam & I to a lovely winery outside of the city while Alex was at work. It was a nice way to end our trip together.
I was glad to be able to spend time with Alex & Amanda before we move to the other side of the world. We had a lot of great laughs- there are never a shortage of them with Amanda- and just enjoyed each other before we all go another year or so without seeing each other... except they just decided that they are going to come home later this summer and visit us, but this was a great opportunity for just the 4 of us to spend quality time together.
Now were here for the week, and headed to South Carolina on Saturday to spend some time with Jamie & Matt before Adam heads to Orlando to take seminary classes for a few weeks. I have SO many things that I want to blog about from before our trip, so I'm going to try REALLY, REALLY hard to do so this week. Fingers crossed.
Joyfully more "southern",
