I am an Uncle, Julio and Jamie are Parents...

Julio and Jamie

So today we wanted to make a post in honor of Julio and Jamie. I called Julio last night and they were checking into Herman Hospital. They were supposed to induce the baby on Sunday but obviously he had a different plan. So the Garners, Jamie's parents got in the car and drove down from Memphis. I can't believe they are having a baby today! This is really the first time that Merrill and I have been sad about missing something. We knew that when we came down to Santiago we would miss out on some big days: some close friends weddings, Baylor Football games, Kelly's 50th Birthday (Merrill's Mom), Christmas, and of course Opening day of Dove Season. Whenever we thought about these things we would try to convince ourselves that the adventure will be worth it and it will outweigh the fact that we will miss some very important days. This has been the case so far, we haven't had any regrets and the trips and experiernces we have had, have been amazing. Merrill and I have already grown stronger individually and in our marriage. However, we would be lying if we told you that a big part of us didn't want to be in that Hospital tonight with the newest Laguarta! So whoever reads this please pray for Jamie today and for a healthy baby.

Below are some random pictures of Julio and Jamie.

Hailey, Merrill and Jamie at Elisa's 50th Birthday.

The happy Father to be wishing he had been born a Hermit Crab

Merrill, Chase, Julio, Hailey and Jamie + 1 to be named...

Congratulations Jamie and Julio, we are so excited so for you!

Santa Cruz, Chile.

This weekend Chase and I traveled to the wine country in Santa Cruz. But before leaving on Saturday we had Andrew over for drinks and Queso on Friday night. I found this incredible queso recipe online, the boys did not have high hopes but it turned out really well. We had not had queso since moving to Chile so we all enjoyed the queso.

Saturday we got up and took the metro to the train station. While Chase bought our tickets I wondered around the station to find some breakfast. I almost had a heart attack when I walked into this tiny restaurant and found that they had the most delicious looking cinnamon rolls. They were not Cinnabons but looked and tasted just like them. Like I have said before Chileans are not big into breakfast, so this was a huge treat. I might have to make another trip to the train station just for a cinnamon roll!

Once upon the train, we rode south for about 2 hours to the very last stop, through the Chilean countryside. It is a great way to see a different side of Chile, you really get to see the rural towns. We finally arrived in San Fernando cold and hungry, so we decided to find a restaurant.

Chase loves the Godfather so he was a little too excited to see this sign and talked in the godfather voice off and on all weekend

After a yummy ave palta (avocado Chicken Sandwichs are all they eat down here) we began walking towards the bus station to catch the bus from San Fernando to Santa Cruz. If you are thinking wow that is alot of different types of transportation you are right. We left our apartment at 10:00 am and did not arrive in Santa Cruz till 3:45.

On the bus from San Fernando to Santa Cruz

Bus station in Santa Cruz

There is a fantastic museum in Santa Cruz called Museo Colchagua. It tells the history of Chile and it is definitely one of the better museums I have ever been to. We knew we did not want to miss the museum, so we headed straight there from the bus station. After about two hours in the museum we were ready to find a place to stay for the night. We had looked up some hostels before the left so we set out to find the David hostel. Yes, we stayed in another hostel this one was much cleaner than the last hostel.

Chase and I wondering the street of Santa Cruz looking for the hostel

There was the most beautiful sunset, I only wish we had had a better view

Chase outside the hostel

Hostel Bedroom, I have no idea why all the hostels like this color green

bathroom, not too bad

For dinner we walked to this Vineyard called Vina La Posada located right in the heart of Santa Cruz, we had heard that they had a great restaurant called Veta. Veta did not let us down it is a very small restaurant but had the most delicious food. I would strongly recommend going if you are ever in Santa Cruz.

About to eat a very good apple crisp

By the end of the night we were the only people left

At nice restaurants they bring the check in a box, kinda like a little treasure. Chase paying for dinner!

We went back to the winery where we ate dinner to take some pictures

Saturday morning we slept in, because well who wants to go wine tasting at 10:00 in the morning. Actually when we woke up on Saturday morning there was no power at the hostel, apparently they were working on the powerlines. But don't worry Chilean breakfast don't require power because all it consists of is bread, cheese and ham.

Eating my bread and cheese

After breakfast we checked out of the hotel and started walking around Santa Cruz. Luckily the night before we found a post from a couple who had traveled to Santa Cruz and used a local cab driver and posted his phone number. We thought he might speak some english, so we decided to call Raphael and see if he could take us around to some vineyards. Raphael did not speak English, but we decided to hire him anyways and had a great day seeing some vineyards.

Riding in Raphael's car on the way to Vina Viu Manent

Lunch at the Vina Viu Manent

We ended up having a really nice lunch at the Vineyard, we thought we going to have light sandwiches on the terrace but I guess since it was sunday we had a gourmet lunch. The room was neat with wine bottles in the windows and a thatched roof.

After lunch

After lunch we headed to Vina Montes for a wine tour and tasting. We ended up being the only people on the tour, which was so fun. A funny story is that there was a couple giving us the tour and we figured out that they had been one of the only other two couples in the restaurant from the night before. It was fun to get to talk with them.

Chase outside the Winery

on the tour

This is where they store all of their best wines, there was actually classical music playing to help age the wine better.

Getting to taste the wine. We were looking at all of the wines and Chase pointed to the most expensive wine and asked who do you have to be to drink that? The tour guide went back pulled out bottle a poured us a glass. I must say that was very good.

After the wine tasting we had to hurry back to the bus station to catch the bus back to Santiago. The bus ride was about 3 1/2 hours so we finally arrived back into Santiago around 8:30. The best part is that we arrived to this huge bus station and we had no idea where we were or even if we were close to a metro station. After asking a bunch of people we finally found our way to a metro and home. It felt so good to be home!

Paying Bills in Chile

We received our first chilean bill this week so we had to go pay it. Like everything in Chile it was a very interesting experience. On the back of the bill it tells you places that you have to go to pay the bill. Luckily one of these places is located in our metro station, Tobalabra. We walked up and waited in short line only to find out you can only pay with cash or check. So we got out of line found an atm withdrew cash and got back in line. Not really knowing what to do and not being able to ask, we just handed the lady the bill and some cash. A few minutes later she handed it back with a ticket stapled on it, we hope that our bill is payed.

Chase waiting in line to pay our VTR(internet/cable) Bill

Another interesting thing about paying bills in Santiago is the way we had to pay our rent. The owner of our apartment gave us her bank account number. We then had to go to her bank Itau' and find a deposit slip. This process should have taken us about 5 minutes but do to our incredible limited spanish it took about 20 minutes, which included speaking broken spanish to the customer service rep. We finally got the deposit slip filled in and once again we hoped for the best. We have not heard anything from our land lord yet, so I guess we did it right.

Apparently, our gas, electric and water bill just appears in our mail box. We have not received one yet but hopefully will get it soon. I am sure we have to go or do something else for it. I will let you know as soon as we figure it out!

On a very different note, today I got a new client name Claudia. It is extremely ironic that both of my clients are named Claudia, I am guessing it is a very popular name. She is much younger than I was expecting but very smart. I have a feeling I am going to really enjoy getting to know her. For starters she loves to travel so atleast we have something to talk about.

Day of the Military

Saturday continued with more celebrating with the Day of the Military. At a local park named Parque O'Higgans there is a massive Fonda in which a military parade takes place. The parade consists of the entire Chilean army and Police force literally. Chase and I decided that we needed to go see this for ourselves, so we set out on the metro to find the Fonda. It was definitely not an original idea the chileans that actually decided to stay in Santiago, headed to parade. Upon arriving we could not believe the masses, there had to be atleast 100,000 people Chase thinks maybe even 200,000 people crammed into this park.

The enormous crowd heading to the parade

The kids loved the fountain

More pics of the large crowds, that is my head though

Enjoying the cultural experience

My only regret is not getting to see the Cueca. Here are some young Chileans wearing Cueca dresses.

It blew our minds that people could take anything they wanted into the park. For instance there were thousands of people trying to sell their goods ranging from soccer balls, kites, ice cream, empanadas to umbrella hats. People built open fire pits and kids were flying kites wherever and whenever they wanted. It was really at your own risk to walk around both Chase and I had some close calls with some kits.

This guys was selling buckets to stand on, don't worry that I got one so I could see!

Kites are a huge deal here. Kids fly them everywhere, it does not matter if there are trees or power lines they find a way to get them into the sky. In fact they use their kites for kite wars in which they try to cut or knock other people's kites out of the sky, then it is everyman for himself as to who can catch the kite before it hits the ground.

Chileans and their kites, notice the intense string and holder they have

The parade was typical Chilean very slow to start. the first band paraded and then nothing happened for about an hour. Then the President of Chile paraded down in an open car waving at all the people. Chase and I could not believe that she was out in the open with absolutely no security. After waiting another 45 minutes without anything happening Chase and I lost interest and went to hang out at Andrews where we ended up watching the parade on TV. In typical Gringo style we left way too early. The Parade ended up being pretty cool, we just got there too early.

Parade

Riding the metro you cant see it in this pic but there is some serious PDA going on behind me

Chase thought it would be funny to take a picture of me eating cheetos outside the grocery store I was starving after the parade!

Even in Chile no Saturday would be complete without some College football. So once again we headed to Basic Bar to watch the UT vs. Tech game.

Go Horns go, I have a feeling we are never going to get to see a Baylor game so UT is going to have to be our team for the year!

Even in Chile you can find a local UT fan

Feliz Dieciocho

Chase and Merrill loving the Chilean hats

Dieciocho is Chile's day of Independence and everything shuts down in order to celebrate. There is no school the entire week and people start taking work off on Wednesday although some people work a half day on Thursday, but on Friday nothing is open not even grocery stores, nothing. We had no idea the extent to which Chileans would go to celebrate their Independence, but it ended up being a really fun cultural experience.

Trying to get on the train

Thursday we met Rodrigo, one of the owners of Traduc, at the office along with Andrew and set off for the train station called Estacion Central. It was a mad house apparently all of Santiago was trying to get out of Santiago at the same time. We bought at ticket for the 2:45 train but could not get on the train because there were so many people trying to get on. Actually Andrew and I pushed our way on to the train only to get a call from Chase that he and Rodrigo had not quit made it. Chase was wearing a backpack and the door kept closing on his backpack, so he had to get off. Luckily the train only pulled about 200 yards forward, I guess so people would stop pushing on to the train, and the doors opened up and we took the opportunity to get off.

Much better second time around, we had seats but it was still really hot and there was no ventilation

View from train

Very crowded train, people just kept pushing on at every stop

We rode the train south for an hour and half to Hospital, Chile a very small town outside of Santiago. It was beautiful, completely surrouned by the Andes Mountains.

chase and Rodrigo

The very small town of Hospital

Chase trying Chiche, the special drink of Deiciocho, it is a very young wine

waiting for a ride

Natalia, the other owner of Traduc, picked us up near the train station and drove us to her farm about 15 minutes from the station. Already at the farm house were the other Traduc teachers. I guess you could say this was our corporate retreat.

The farm house

We had an Asado, or barbeque, which is huge deal here. After dinner we learned the Merengua and enjoyed being able to see the stars.

Our delicious Asado, best steak since we have been here

Chase and Andrew enjoying some choripanes, a special sausage in some bread

Some of the other Traduc teachers

Chase starting the only heat for the entire house, I was freezing the whole night

Table set for dinner

Gringos had to do the dishes because we did not help cook

Natalia teaching Andrew how to dance

Playing a typical Chilean game

Chase and Andrew found some funny hats

All the dogs seemed to love Andrew

Friday, we got a ride with Natalia and Rodrigo back to Santiago but on the way back we stopped in a small town called Paine to see their Fonda. Fondas are these fairs that Chileans build during Dieciocho. Every town has them and in Santiago they were built in most of the larger parks. At the Fonda you can buy food and souvenirs and play games.

Merrill at the Fonda in Paine

We set down to eat at this restaurant in the Fonda and apparently because I took a picture of the guy drinking out of the horn the Chileans took it as I wanted to try it. I can be a little of a germaphob and I was not about to put my mouth on that thing. Luckily Andrew was good sport and took a sip for me.

Ordering the best Pan Asado (baked bread) I have ever had

One of the many games to play at the Fonda