Sunday, August 30, 2009

Apartment searching and Texmex mmm!

Chase attempting to negotiate

Saturday was our day to look for apartments. We set out with two Spanish dictionaries and had a long day of "que, lo siento, no comprende, and a whole lot of made up spanish words that got us nowhere. Although it was extremely frustrating at times, it ended up being a good experience. It was the first time that we really had to use our Spanish, well Chase's Spanish. We have almost done too good of a job finding people who speak English, so we have not had to speak very much spanish. I really think we will be more challenged to speak spanish once we are on our own.

To reward ourselves for a such a long day of working so hard, we treated ourselves to some delicious Mexican food, at La Mordida. It was great because the menu was in Spanish but it was all words we understood because obviously the dishes are called the same thing at our Mexican restaurants.

Chase enjoying Mexican food!

The Margaritas were not bad either!

Sunday was a much more low key day we continued the Apartment search but tried to relax a little. We spent the afternoon walking to Jumbo, which is the biggest grocery store I have ever been to. It was not an original idea half of Santiago also thought it would be a good day to go to Jumbo so it was extremely crowded.

Chileans are a very interesting people they are some of the craziest drivers I have ever seen in the way the drive and they places the park. They push their shopping carts in the same manner. Chase and I actually saw a guy ram another cart out of his way and keep going down the isle. It was like bumper cars trying to push your cart through the Chileans.

Getting bread out of the bread bins proved to be just as dangerous. I felt like I was back on the basketball court trying to rebound under the basket hoop, because I had people pushing, bumping me out of the way as I quickly tried to get my bread. Apparently you have to be aggressive just to get some bread.

Even though it was crazy, I loved Jumbo because they had everything! Because it was 40 or so minute walk we took a cab home and cooked some dinner. I finally got to make some pesto, which I have been craving for some time. Thank to Ashlea Taylor, who has a fabulous cooking blog I got a great recipe. Her blog is Thelittlekitchenthatcould.blogspot.com you should definitely check it out, she has some great recipes.

Eating the fabulous chicken pesto sandwhiches with some chip and salsa we found.

Enjoying the cheapest biggest ice cream cone

ConCon, Chile

The third and last day of our trip we spent in ConCon yet another bus ride from Vina Del Mar. We met back up with the group for light breakfast and headed to concon. On the way we stopped in Renaca, but there was really nothing to do or see so we got back on the bus.

About the only thing to see, I would definitely not recommend stopping here

the beach was beautiful, but as you can tell the weather had turned cold and it was freezing again.

Once again no one really knew where we were going once we got to Concon so Andrew was trying to talk to people of the bus to figure out when we needed to get off. This lady told us that we needed to get off, so we all jumped off soon realizing we where in the middle of now where. We knew there was a Radisson hotel and that was probabley where we wanted to be so after walking for a long time we hailed a cab and headed the Raddison.

Upon arriving the two girls we were traveling with fell in love with the hotel and were determined to stay, so they got and room we dropped our stuff and headed to get some lunch.



The fishing boats in ConCon

Concon seems to most quaint town that we visited. It was a little fishing town I really hope to go back and spend some more time there. It had great food and beautiful views.

A running joke has been that every where we go people say they have the best empanadas, so ofcoarse we have to try them just in case that they are the best. Well from multiple people we heard that Concon truly does have the best! So we set out to find them and found this hole in the wall restaurant with sea shells for the floor and I think I can honestly say they had the best empanadas we have had so far!

Chase enjoying his shrimp Empanada

The rest of the group all full from too many empanadas

After a very filling meal it as time for Chase and I to head back to Santiago. We found a taxi to take us to the smallest bus station that I have ever seen. We got two tickets on the bus back and while we were getting on the bus we where accosted by a pan (pastry) seller and were so flustered that we bought two pastries that we did not want. We eventually made it home around 10:00 and were so tired we pretty much went straight to bed.

Day 2 in Vina Del Mar

Our second day in we went to Vina Del Mar which is only a short bus ride from Valprasio. It was so fun to walk around the city and see the sites.

Valprasio is mostly built on a hill so there is lots of walking up and down hills


Fresh Fist anyone?

Andrea and Chase relaxing after a long walk up a hill

After walking around for a couple hours we worked up a big appetite and since it was a beautiful day we ordered a pizza from Telapizza and took it to the park for lunch.


One of the strangest things about Chile is that there are stray dogs every where. They are as friendly as can be, but very dirty. They followed us around all weekend.

Because we stayed in such a run down hostel on Wednesday night, Chase promised me a nice hotel for the second night. Before leaving Santiago, I did a little hotel research and fell in love with a boutique hotel call Casa Higueras. So we left the rest of the group and went and found the hotel in Valpraiso. I must admit that I have almost never been so excited to be some where!


View from our room

Chase and I had a great time, we relaxed went to the swimming pool and hot tub, then went to a fantastic dinner at the hotel.



Chase and Merrill have drink on the patio before dinner. Chase a Pisco Sour the local chilean drink.

This was the best dinner we have had since we got to Chile




Saturday, August 29, 2009

Our First Night in a Hostel



Wednesday morning Chase and I met Andrew, Ashley and Maddy at the bus station to take a bus to Valprasio. It was amazing, on a Wednesday morning there was a bus leaving every 15 minutes. Upon arriving, our first impression of Valprasio was as Chase said, "this place is terrible." the area that the bus pulled in was so dirty and there were people trying to sell the most ridiculous things. But once you get out of the bus terminal and up an acsensor it is a beautiful place.

Chase and Merrill on the bus

Traveling with 5 people none of which had researched a place to stay proved to be very interesting. We wasted about 2 hours trying to find a place to stay and even then we settled for something that was bellow par. Our first hostel experience was not the most pleasant experience but it could have been much worse. In fact the most redeeming quality of the place was that it had an incredible balcony that overlooked the entire city.

our room in the Hostel

After checking in we spent the afternoon at the beach just hanging out. We really lucked out and had incredible weather! I actually got to wear shorts!

At the beach

Watching the sunset
The view from the Hostel terrace

We had a wine on the terrace before heading to a great dinner.

Andrew, Ashley, Maddy and Chase


Dinner in Valprasio

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Chase and I exhausted from a long day yesterday we left at 7:00 and did not get home till past 7:30 so we decided to take it easy. We spent the morning looking for apartments which is not easy to do when everything is in Spanish. I love the internet we found a site that will translate so we typed in a pharagraph and then translated it to Spanish. We have no idea if it is right but we used it anyways.

Chase would call people we found in the paper and say the phrase, it was pretty funny to listen to but it seemed to work alright. We are still looking but hope to find something soon!

Chase looking in the Spanish Paper and calling people

Thanks to my good friend Liesl Austin, Chase and I had the most delicious lunch. Last week Liesl saw Anthony Bourdain in Chile and forwarded me the link. So Chase and I decided to go try one of the restaurants today. We had the best pork, avocado and cheese sandwich. We will definitely go back again.


We had another training session with Traduc and looks like we are going to get some clients next week, which is exciting.

Tomorrow we head to Valprassio for three nights, we will post pictures when we get back!

Over 37 Hairpin turns Later we FINALLY arrive at the top!

Sunday was a very relaxing day for Chase and I, we slept in then listened to a sermon online. We then met up with Andrew and Ahsley, one of Andrew's friends visiting. Our first stop of the day was for lunch. We walked over to Bella Vista. Bellas Vista were all the University students hang out it is fun place during the day and for dinner but gets dangerous at night.

After lunch we headed up to Mount St. Cristobal a small mountain overlooking Santiago with a huge statue of the mother Mary on top of it. It was fun to walk around but we went of a cloudy day so I really want to go back when it is clear.

Chase and I riding the Venecular up the mountain

One of the beautiful views

Inside the church

The Chilean flag look so much like the Texas flag that we always think at first oh look there is a Texas flag.

Chase and Merrill in front of Mother Mary

Andrew and Merrill

Walking down from St. Cristobal

After walking down we headed to the grocery store to buy a few things for dinner and walked to Andrew for some incredible guacamole and chicken fajitas. Mexican food tasted so good!

Ashley, Andrew and Merrill enjoying Mexican food at Andrew's house

Monday was a very early morning. In fact I got to see my first sunrise in Santiago and I must say it was absolutely beautiful. Chase and I grabbed a quick bowl of cereal and headed out the door once again dressed in our ski gear. We met Ashley at the Metro station and hoped on the metro that took us to a bus that then dropped us off at the ski shop. This time we made the bus and began the most treacherous, longest drive of my life and the worst part was we were facing backwards. About half way up I began to feel really sick and if it had not been for a very nice Brazilian I might have thrown up on the bus.

1 hour and 30 minutes later we were in the Andes I was so glad to put my feet on the ground. Skiing was very fun we met an Australian named Adam that had skied at Valle Nevado before so we skied with him the rest of the day.

Right before lunch we decided to go on one more ride. We headed down the mountain and found some great powder. We got down to this lift and Adam says, "I have got some bad news Mates,"which is a phrase you never want to hear, "We are in El Colorado not Valle Nevado." We had skied into the neighboring resort! The thing that makes this so funny is that our friend Andrew had warned us about this because he had to walk back up the mountain and it took him about one and half hours to walk up.

We decided to take our chances and tuck our lift tickets into our pockets and see if we could just get on the lift. As we approached you could tell the lift line guy was seriously contemplating whether to ask to see our tickets or because we were obviously gringos just let us on the lift. We got really really lucky and he did not ask so we got on the lift as quickly as possible.

At the top of El Colorado in front of the T-bar we took up

Luckily the rest of the day was relatively uneventful till the bus ride home which proved to be just as sickening as the ride home. This time I did start out facing forward and stuck my head our the window the entire ride down, which helped a little. I can honestly say that I love to ski but I really do not think I can go up that road again!

Chase and Merrill during lunch, we had the biggest burgers I have ever seen in my life

Chase skiing

Our Australian friend Adam

After skiing about to head home




Saturday, August 22, 2009

Thursday was another beautiful day in Santiago. Chase and I got up had a nice breakfast and headed back to the pre-columbian Art museum. This time we actually got to go inside and look around. It mostly Indian art from Mexico down to South America. It was interesting but now our favorite.
Some art from the museum

After the museum we walked around downtown Santiago, it was incredible crowded with people but fun to see. We soon realized how hungry we were so headed back towards Los Leones, our Metro stop to find something to eat. Chase saw a Domino, the most popular hot dog place and had to try one. So we sat down and he ordered the Italian hotdog. I could not figure out why it was called that for the longest time because it came with Mayo, tomato, and avocado, none of which seemed very Italian to me. John, later told me that call it that because it has the Italian flag colors.
Chase eating his Italian hot dog
After Chase's we walked to Fabella, which like a Dillards so I could get a hair dyer. It is incredible too cold here not to dry my hair and nothing every really dries. For instance our towels never seem to dry so they are always damp. We made it home just in time for the most beautiful sunset which we got to observe from our balcony.



After a quick dinner of rice and chicken we headed out to meet up with Andrew for his conversation class. We arrived at the Traduc office and were greeted by three men of all different ages and professions. Andrew had prepared some questions and for an hour we discussed them. It was so fun to hear their answers and learn about their lives. While they were speaking Andrew would nicely correct their English and help them out with they seemed to get stuck. I really enjoyed the class and look forward to conducting one soon.

Friday was a very interesting day for Chase and I. Because it has been raining so much in Santiago, it means that the mountains have been getting lots of snow. So on Thursday chase and I decided we were going to go Skiing. We woke up early Friday morning ate a quick breakfast got all our ski gear on and began our brisk walk to the metro. we got on the metro rode it the last stop got off found bus number 406c got on and rode it to the last stop. All the while we were never really sure if we were going the right way. Once we got off we found this little ski shop we walked in hoping that someone, anyone might understand a little English but no one did.

So through some gestures and the use of our dictionary we finally told them we wanted to rent some skies and ride the bus up to the mountain. An hour later we were finally ready to go we walked out side the bus was gone! Luckily right at that moment there was a very nice man who was also a customer who offered to translate for us. He explained that the bus had left and we could either take a Taxi or a private bus which would cost about $100 each. Chase and I looked at each other with utter dismay we were not going to pay that much just to get up to the ski mountain.

With a lot of help from the nice gentleman we convinced them to let us come back on Monday to try again. So we got back on the bus, then the metro to walk home. I can not tell the you the funny looks we got because we were all decked out in our skiing gear.

Chase in front of the ski shop

They wrapped our stuff in plastic, I guess so it is easier to carry

Merrill inside the ski shop

Instead of skiing we walked to the grocery store which is about 3 miles away and found local place to have lunch. We were a little nervous about it but it ended up being delicious. we had some grilled chicken and pappas frites (my favorite).

Once everyone was home from work and other things we are hung out then set out for dinner around 9:30. John and Claudia took us to a traditional Chilean restaurant called Laguria. We started with some parmesan mussles which I tried but did not really enjoy. Chase then had some delicious ravioli and I had steak and mashed potatoes. Not much different then what you find in Texas.
John, Bastin(Claudia's cousin) Chase, Merill and Claudi
As far as today who knows what we will doing!