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