We are safe

Hello family and friends,
as you have probably heard on Saturaday morning at 3:24am there was a gigantic earthquake in Chile. Much of the country is in a state of emergency. Fortunately Eliana and I (and the Chilean Family) are all safe and well despite extensive damage to many of the buildings here in Rancagua. The power of the quake here was 8.5. Communication inside and outside of the country is tenuous at best as with electricity and water. For this reason we are asking you to tell other friends and family that we are looking after each other and in fairly high spirits despite the stress.

We are still experiencing aftershocks on a regular basis, but other than that we are working together to help clean and reorganize family homes and businesses.

We look forward to hearing from you and send our love,
Greg and Eliana

CANOPY and CAVES

Eliana and I have finished our trip to the south. We went out with a bang, going canopy zip-lining and on a  volcanic cave excursion. Unfortunately  our camera ran out of batteries as soon as we arrived at the volcanic caves (PUCHA!), but we met a nice german couple who are going to send photos that they took in the caves with us later. I do however, have some of the zip-lining photos! It was just over an hour of adrenaline as we zoomed through the forest and over a river. ENJOY!

Pay attention to the instructions... in spanish... we had a translator standing to our left.

Bye Eli!

weeeeee

weeee x2

Looks like a pro.

Smile, your equipment works!

yours too!

look dad, one hand!

look mom, no hands!

Yesterday we bought rasberries from Elvis...

Who knows what today will hold!

Tomorrow, we continue our jouney back north, stopping in Villarrica for a few days before taking an overnight bus back to Viña (and back to Spanish for Greg and thesis work for Eliana).

Missing home and everyone from home lots. 

Love,
Greg and Eliana

Blog

I am sitting at an internet cafe in Castro, Chiloe, and it is a lovely day. The first day with cloudy skies since we arrived on this amazing little island, but beautiful non the less. Castro is an enchanting place. I cant quite put my finger on one specific thing that makes it this way. The people are quirky in their style and look: short, round and smiling. The older generation, wearing the tradition knit wool sweaters and toques, sun darkened faces, lined and squinting against the light contrast sharply against the youth in their hoodies, sneakers, neon framed sunglasses and emo-anime look. In the pasture land and fishing communities surronding the city, it is refreshing to get the puzzled stare from locals as tourists pile off the mini-buses and take photos of the sheep, piles of wool, wind-worn houses, and old Jesuit churches.

Eli and are are at about 38 days until we begining the flight home to our dearest Nova Scotia, and despite feeling a little sad to be nearing the end of this amazing trip we are very excited to see our family and friends and settle back into some sembalence of normality. We have traveled about a third of the length of Chile in our 6 months here and visited many amazing places, and still have some adventuring to do. The last weeks will be spent between Viña and Valpo (where Eliana is finishing her research) and Rancagua (where most our chilean family lives). It is a wonderful feeling to have a new Chilean family, especially now that i can have conversations with them, in spanish. I have a ways to go, but my language skills have improved dramatically since arriving.

Anyway,

I hope that you are all very well and look forward to hearing from you (comments Jane?),


Much love,

Greg

The South!!!

After a very long overnight busride (with the small comfort of reclining seats) we arrived in Pucon... to rain and gloom! The only thing we could see was the forest floor.

However, after the heat and aridity of the north, we welcomed the rain and fog, and of course our wonderful family who shared their cabin with us, even when we were occasionally messy.

On day four, it finally cleared up , just in time for us to see Volcano Villarica... smoking!

Our next stop was Valdivia, where we enjoyed one of the town´s specialties...CHOCOLATE! It lived up to all expectations. Then, on to Puerto Varas, a beautiful city between two volcanoes, and finally to Castro, on the island of Chiloe, where we are now.

Just a little way down the hill is where we´re staying.

Yesterday, we took our first Chilean tour, that took us to an island beside the island we´re staying at. A very turbulant ferry ride that made some seasick...and Eliana relax and fall asleep. She is a true Nova Scotian!

We ate a traditional dish cooked in the ground and covered in leaves. Muscles, clams, sausage, pork, potatoes and potatoe patties, while laughing at the thought that we were vegetarians once (and will be again, we swear!).

At the very end of the very long tour, we stopped at a waterfall before continuing the mostly unpaved way back to our hospedaje.

As always, thinking of you with love.

Greg and Eliana

Only Greg...

We arrive safely to the South a few days ago and are enjoying our time in a cozy cabin with lots of family while it pours rain.

Yesterday, we decided to take advantage of the cold by going to one of the many natural hotsprings in the area (maybe related to the many volcanoes?). It was beautiful and relaxing. When we just couldnt take the heat anymore, I sat by a stream and listened to the birds. Greg walked along the stream and came back with a friend. A bumble bee on a leaf. Then, he fed the bumble bee from flowers growing on the streambank and petted the furry little thing with love, in a way that I am SURE only Greg could do.

I think I married a bee-whisperer.

Thinking of you with love,
Eliana

Nieghbourhood Meeting

This morning, while taking a colectivo (like a bus, except a car) I saw something beautiful... a nieghbourhood meeting that was as Chilean as it gets. About 20 or so organized in a circle in a small plaza with everyone voicing their opinions (at once), and I thought to myself: "If only we could be as organized as these dogs!" Oh yeah, did I mention that all of the participants were street dogs?

I hope this brightens your day.

Love,
Eliana

FINALLY!

Hi friends and family,

Thanks for still checking in. It's been a while, but we finally have the update (PHOTOS) you have all been waiting for...

Here's Greg, chillin' with the marciano (martian). Please note the UFO in the sky (rock).

The source of the alien visions?

Greg-o and I at our first camping site in Valle Elqui... located at the VERY END of a more than sketchy 30 minutes of dirt/rock road, winding itself around mountains and passing, well, nothing. 

Our second campsite in Pan de Azucar is below (Dad/Mick, this is the tent we bought and you might inherit).... that's a small mountain/island behind our hut... on the other side of which is a flock of penguins. (Flock of penguins? Family of penguins?) Sadly, the water was too choppy to take a boat to the other side, so we don't have penguin pictures. 

There were, however, LOTS of really interesting birds along the beach. I wish we could have gotten closer because the photo really doesn't capture the moment.  (Dad, this one's for you!)

We hiked up one of the big hills (small mountains?) to get a better view. It was really more like a long walk at a steady incline, but made very difficult by the heat and the dry air. Even though I am sure we were pouring sweat, not a drop actually formed... the air stole all traces of moisture. The Atacama desert is the driest desert in the world afterall. 

And of course there was the deadly wildlife to contend with... LOOK! a Guanaco!

The view was worth every moment.

To beautiful to believe.

The Atacama desert has been compared to the moon... wouldn't you know it, there's the moon!

Oh, and before I forget, what's a trip to the North without genetically-modified grapes? Mmm... 

And much more natural and delicious... GOAT CHEESE!

In conclusion, it was a wonderful, though very hot and very dry, trip to the north, filled with adventure and food. Now... to the SOUTH!!! We leave tomorrow for 20 days. This time to rain and lush, lush, green.

With love, and missing you in spite of our traveling fun,

Eliana and Greg

Update from the Atacama Desert

By popular demand... we are finally writing an update! Sorry for the delay. We have been travelling in the north of Chile and have been out of internet and phone access for a good part of the trip.

We have amazing photos that are trapped in our camera with a camera cord in Rancagua, so there will be MUCH more to come when we get back in about a week.

The short version...

We started our journey from Rancagua, driving north with one of our cousins and her boyfriend. Our first stop was at the Valle del Encanto. Google this place! It is a beautiful park in the semi-desert with geoglyphs and pictographs from 2000 years ago of ALIENS and UFOs. Not even kidding. Picture exploring something the size of Point Pleasant (Nova Scotians) or Princess Island (Albertans) and encountering what seems like hundreds of little aliens and ufos carved into the rocks. Some from before Jesus´ time. We are officially convinced. WE ARE NOT ALONE!

Our next big stop was especially for Greg who badly wants to see a UFO. (If this ever actually happens, he will happily wave goodbye to his dear wife as she runs for her life and he waits to be beamed up.) We camped in the middle of nowhere in the semi-desert under some of the most beautiful stars I have ever seen, looking up the whole time because this particular spot has the most UFO sitings Chile. Did we see anything? We´d like to answer, but it is top secret.

Next, we stayed close to La Sarena and went to a tourist star observatory. The real observatories are booked at least a month in advance, so we opted for the less organized, less expensive version. Spectacular.

We continued North and stopped in Copiapo for a night to visit another cousin and then continued on to Pan de Azucar, a national park in the Atacama desert. Picture red, red mountains (what the Chileans consider hills) mostly rocks, with a few cactai, meeting a wild, wild ocean. Wilder than at Peggy´s Cove. We stood in the shore maybe ten meters from where the water was before a wave and then had to brace ourselves (I used a tae kwon doe stance) so that we would not get swept away as the waves crashed another four meters passed us. We camped there for four nights, exploring the park a little bit and relaxing by the water.

We are now on our way back and have parted ways with our travel companions. We are taking our time, coming back slowly, enjoying the sites we missed on the way up. Right now we are in Bahia Inglesa. It´s the closest thing to the Caribbean in Chile, avioding the freezing Humboldt current that keeps the rest of the beaches feeling like Queensland, no matter how hot the air is. We´re planning to stay here for a couple of more nights, hopefully going on a snorkelling adventure if my new cold gives me a break, before going back to La Sarena, where there is lots to explore.

We´ll try to keep in touch before we arrive in Rancagua, but if not, check back in about a week for some beautiful photos of our trip.

Thinking of you often and with lots of love,
Eli and Greg

Communist Santa Poster Part II

Hello,

It was pointed out to Greg that not everyone speaks Spanish...

Please allow me to translate the Communist Santa poster in his last post:

May the spirit of Santa Claus make you spend all of the money in your wallet and indebt you with small monthly payments.


The real wish of your business friend...




For a little context, whenever you go shopping in Chile--or to the doctor, or to the grocery store, or anywhere else that you might spend more than a very small amount of money--you are asked if you want to pay in full or to pay in monthly installments. Signs in store windows boast just how small these payments can be. "As low as $5.99 a month for this beautiful TV!". Okay,  I guess a beautiful TV or vacation to Brazil is not really a necessity, and hard to pay for all at once, so small monthly payments make sense...

We have small monthly payments too... Actually, Greg and I have big monthly payments. For our VISA. For our line of credit. For our student loans. For the money we've borrowed to study, go out for dinner, take vacations with, and so on.

BUT, what about small monthly payments to your local hospital?? Can you imagine that in Canada? We've had to go to the hospital twice since we've been here, and both times we were asked if we wanted to pay in installments. Of course, installments are not the problem. Installments make it possible to pay for medical treatment when the other option is no medical treatment, or treatment from a public facility that cannot provide the same level of service. The problem? Incredible class disparity and lack of a social system that takes care of everyone, making small monthly payments a part of every day life.

-Eliana

Holiday Retrospective in Photos.

First of all, I would like to apologize to my devoted fans. I have been incommunicado for quite a while now, leaving all of the posting to Eliana. Mostly it’s funny! Especially because the blog was my idea. Anyway, my apologies.

We are now through the holiday rush, family from Canada has left, and Eliana and I are preparing for the beginning of our travels to the north and possibly into Peru. So, this blog will be a retrospective of the last month with some photos and stories…

So, here we go! (Jane, drum roll please)

Our visiting family included, Pablo and Nicky, Miguel and Melissa and their baby girl Isabella, and my mejor amigo, the man formally known as Matty K, Mateo.

Some of my personal highlights included late nights (early mornings) with a bottle of Pisco, late nights (early mornings) with a bottle of Pisco, and late nights (early mornings) with a bottle of Pisco. If you don’t remember, Pisco is a type of grape brandy that is a point of national pride and legal struggle in Chile (Peru recently won a case against Chile declaring Pisco’s origin in Peru and thus their national drink).

I also had a great time with my family.

Eliana already posted a blog about christmas... so here is a photo of some of the lovely ladies at the fiesta:

in this foto: Chabe (Eliana's cousin), my stunning wife Eliana, Nicky (Pablo's soon to be wife?), Momita (Eliana's mommy Ximena), and Melissa (Miguels wife and photographer/mom extraordinaire)

Matt arrived from the jungles of Peru and spent a month with us and Eliana's gracious family. He and I went to Mendoza, chilled and went camping with one of Eliana's cousins (fotos to come). Here he is too cool for school.

Me at the beach. I don't really miss the snow.

Miguel, wine, and... a baby pool-hat...?... oh ya, wine...

I am so fortunate to have such a lovely family... Consuelo, Paulina, Chabe, and Eliana.

Eliana's exact words 5 seconds earlier... "You wouldn't dare (push me in the pool fully clothed)"... wanna bet.

My Sobrina (niece) Isabella. we have a special connection, I miss you Isabella!

It was a great Christmas... even the communists had reasons to celebrate (you might want to zoom on the one)

I have more photos of my camping trip... but they seem to be missing. so i am going to get them from Consuelo. In the meantime here is a message from Consuelo herself on youtube (she is smoking a cigarette)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dulm4iJvs4

Love you all,
Greg

Oh Chile...

So, it has been four months now and I've gotta say that this is no longer the same Chile that I landed in.

When I first arrived...

1. It was cold, cold, cold and gloomy, with just enough rain hanging in the air to keep me sniffling under the bedcovers for the first week. 
2. The sidewalks were a mess. I'm pretty sure there was an earthquake right before we arrived. Either that or a jackhammer bandit was on the loose. Either way, at the end of every day I had to check all of my toes to make sure that they weren't broken from their countless encounters with concrete. 
3. The water was not drinkable.
4. There was delicious fried pumpkin-bread. 
5. People didn't speak Spanish... they spoke Chilean. If only the U of C had offered Chilean as a language option!

Now...

1. It's hot, hot, hot and it never stops! 
2. The sidewalks miraculously healed themselves. I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but my toes appreciate it!
3. The water has also recovered and "agua de la llave" (tap water) is good enough for me.
4. The pumpkin-bread is gone, but has been replaced by watermelon and peaches and popsicles and humitas (a traditional corn dish cooked in the husk).
5. Well, I guess not everything has changed. People still speak Chilean, and I "de-code" daily, made slightly more difficult by Chileans love of word-creation. Really. Sometimes I ask what a word means and am told it's not really a word, it's just something they made up one day and now use with friends.

Somedays, I feel like I fit in completely, or almost completely, and that I could live here; somedays, I feel like I'll never be anything but a gringa. The longer I stay, the more I feel both. Whatever day I happen to find myself in, I do think that this trip has changed me, and I am so happy that we came.

Okay, that's all for now. Miss everyone lots. Write soon please!

Love,

Eli

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year... seven days ago! 

*oops*

It looks like Greg and I have been slacking. New year, new blog start? We promise to try harder from now on. 

Let me start from the beginning... 12:00 am January 1st, crowded onto a balcony on the 13th story of my cousin Fernando's apartment building, on top of a hill, overlooking the coast... all 25 km of which was lit up by the most spectacular fireworks I have ever seen. We cheered with the rest of Valparaiso, then danced and sang the night away. 

Sadly, our camera battery died, right before New Years, so we don't have any pictures, but, like you, we will always have Youtube. Search videos "Valparaiso Año Nuevo Fuegos Artificiales". You will not be disappointed.

Since then, it has been a blur of family and food. My family really knows how to party and they really know how to make good food, so it has been a great start to a new year. Please be impressed, I have even made it past five am more than once in the last week. My family can no longer call me "la viejita" (the little old woman). I can party like a Chilean... so long as I nap first.

Okay, that's all for now. I will write more tomorrow.

Love,
Eli