We had a nice surprise in our 'quiet cabin in the woods' on Christmas night! The teenage daughter of the household threw a party while mom and dad were out at friends! Ahhh...nothing like the serenity of nature! When they talk of the sound of silence, I didn't realize that they meant techno-dance music until 2 in the morning! I did go and talk to the owner the next day about what time to check out and all and mentioned the music (daughter was in the room) and turns out my revenge was ratting her out to her parents!

On the 26th we went on a river rafting trip and had a great time, but it was another humorous example of what we do and don't understand. (Duncan is doing very well with his Spanish and is doing all our travel arrangements--I am able to ask basic questions and understand less!) For the rafting, we understood that we'd put on drysuits over our clothes, and as the day was quite cool and cloudy, we were dressed in quite a few layers. When our driver picked us up, fortunately he noticed our tennis shoes and said something which Duncan understood to be about needing sandels. Whew--we ran back in and got those. We then made a stop to get the raft and our guide, who did speak English well. As we were driving the hour or so to the river, he began explaining to us what we would be doing. Turns out, we were to be wearing wetsuits, not drysuits. None of us had swimsuits on and all our layers were cotton, therefore, we were going to have to be in our skivies! Brrr! Of course, they were all layered up in polypro as well as the wetsuits! It turned out to be okay as they gave us jackets and liftjackets so we were warmer than I thought. (the whole ensemble is quite attractive, as the picture attests!) We did get cold the last bit as that is where the bigger rapids were and when the rain began, but we finished at a warming hut where they served us hot chocolate and coffee. Some beautiful landscapes around here and a lot of fun rafting!

Bariloche and that area has been experiencing a cold spring and summer so far. They had a lot of late snow and instead of the temperatures being in the 80's and 90's, they were in the low 60's with a cold North wind. They say it is "la nina" this year. Not quite what we were hoping for!

The day of the 27th was spent looking around Bariloche one last time and buying a few more pieces of chocolate and then we headed for the bus station for our overnight ride. We left Bariloche and headed south on 40 (the road that takes you to the end of the earth) before turning east and crossing the country to Puerto Madryn. The buses are great here and run on time (actually left 5 minutes early, so glad we were not late!). We were in a semi cama, which means the seat recline most of the way and are quite wide. They also show movies (had to cover the girls eyes a few times) and serve a dinner (10:30pm) of sandwiches. We all fell asleep and did pretty well, all things considered. We left the Andes and awoke to the flat, flat scrub of the eastern coast. A man from our hostel was at the bus station with a sign and brought us to our room of bunk beds, but at least there is a private bath!

And then there was sun! We walked out to the beach, across the street, and looked at the blue Atlantic ocean and felt the warmth of the sun on our bodies! Ahhh--no more cold! We were all sun screened up (something that everyone keeps telling us--wear sunscreen in the south as we are near the hole in the ozone and the damaging rays are so much stronger here) and ready to play on the beach. The beaches were empty in the morning and then from 1-4, all the stores in town close and the beaches fill with tons of people. Business resumes around 5pm. Cailin's question of the day was, "Why are all the girls wearing wedgie swimsuits?" The only answer Duncan had, was that many of them shouldn't be! Pretty funny though. Some tan buns around this town!

We walked a ways down the beach to the Ecocentre and had science class. This interactive museum is all about the sea life in the area (baleen whales, sea lions, seals, penguins, orcas). Most of the info was in English as well so Cailin had to read everything, and Alia was quizzed on certain areas of interest.

It was an early night as we were all tired from the bus ride. We now need to figure how long to stay here (we need to see the penguins before we go) and where to go next. Takes a little more planning with kids--we cannot jsut show up in a new town with no where to go. We have to figure out New Years and how to avoid the crowds! We will see.

For now,

Ciao, ciao!

Hi to all my friends!!!!!!!!!!!,Love Alia Jewell

Crossing the Andes into Argentina

Merry Christmas to one and all!

It does seem odd sitting here in Argentina and thinking of the normal ways we celebrate. Since this trip is our Christmas gift to the family, and we opened gifts from relatives before we left, today is rather mellow. We found out last night that the Argentines do their celebrating (and I do mean celebrating!) on Christmas eve. At midnight, the fireworks began and excited yells all around. (So much for quiet cabin in the woods, but more on that later!) Wish we could understand more of what is being said--although we are doing way better! Now, we are up on Christmas morning while all others sleep! Thank goodness for Cailin's friend, Megan, who gave us a tiny Christmas tree to bring on the trip--it was surrounded by candy this morning when the girls awoke. I am also attempting to re-create my mom's Christmas breakfast cassarole. It is cooking as I type and is full of 'substitutions' so who really knows how it will turn out. Bread, eggs, sausage, cheese--how bad can it be?

Well, back to the trip! We began our journey across the Andes in to Argentina on Dec. 22. Here is a "Fun Fact" (Alia's favorite saying): The Andes are the longest mtn range in the world, running through Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile and Argentina, and covering over 4 thousand miles.

We were crossing the Andes via the Cruce de lagos--a two day trip that goes bus, boat, bus, boat etc...Day one, the 22nd, was cloudy and cool when we left Puerto Varas (a little different than the swimsuits the girls wore the day before!). We boarded a bus that took us to some beautiful waterfalls (yes, we have seen quite a few of these--wait for the slideshow montage I will create: 500 waterfalls in 30 days, or something like that! Williams family--just like the prayer wheels!?), and then to our first lake crossing in a big catamaran. The lake is called the Emerald Lake from the color and it was truly amazing. Due to the cloud cover, we couldn't see the tops of the volcanos that were around us, but gorgeous, none the less!

Our night stopover was in Peulla, which is the Chilean side of the Andes and is just 2 hotels in the middle of the national park. They, of course, cater to the touristas, like us, and have all sorts of excursions you can do. We opted for the Canopy tour (zip line) and it was a blast! We zoomed over waterfalls and trees, giant ferns etc... until the last platform that had a 35 ft. rappel! The girls are hooked!

Ready for another Fun Fact? We are about the same latitude south of the equator that Seattle is north of the equator! Therefore, the June weather that we have in Seattle is just what we are experiencing here. Also the flora and fauna is very similar. These are the only two regions in the world, from what I have read, that have temperate rain forests. Duncan is really wondering if we needed to come this far to see what is in our own 'backyard'!

The morning of the 23rd dawned raining and grey and unfortunately the clouds were very low, giving us little to no visibility on the lakes. Of the 400+cm of rain this area receives annualy, we saw 300 cm of it come down today! Yikes, it rained hard and was about 40 degrees out. Sound familiar??

However, crossing the pass in the Andes on a 4-wheel drive bus, driving on a one-lane dirt road through tight turns and greenery was quite amazing. The lake crossing ended in San Carlos de Bariloche. This is a cute, very German influenced town. The Germans settled in Chile and Argentina in the 1850's with a second influx after WWII. As Duncan says, we are celebrating Christmas with the Nazis!

We have been laughing over our accomodations here. They were described as a cabin in the woods in the middle of the Nahuel Huapi national forest where silence and nature abound! Turns out this whole area is in the national forest and we are, yes, in cabins and yes, see trees, but are right off the main road and in a neighborhood by other houses. Hmmmm....The cabin does have radient heat and that is great. We did laundry in the tub (see picture with DIRTY water!), and the clothes dried so fast over the warm floors! See, glass is always half full around here!

Dec. 24, Christmas eve was a gorgeous day and we could see the snow-covered Andes that we couldn't see the day before. We took the gondola up to the top of Cerro (hill) Otto, which is in the middle of the area and could see forever! Last Fun Fact for the day: The reason trees are such a big deal and cause so much excitement around here is that this in the only place in Patagonia that is covered in evergreens! There is about a 20 km band that gets the rain and has the trees. Up on Cerro Otto, we could see the green trees to the North (400+cm rain), a few less trees right where we are (100cm rain) and then to the South, a dessert with very few trees and mostly brown.

After coming down the hill, we took the bus into town and explored that. This is the Chocolate capital and everyother store was a Chocolateria! Huge chocolate stores--we did have to sample some!

Today, we will hike to a nearby lake--if the busses are running. We asked if they were and think the answer was yes, but only every 30 minutes. We shall see if we understood or not! :)

Feliz Navidad!

Pachamama!

Our life is still being defined by food and eating, but it is getting better! While there are still some errors in what we order (black olives on the cheese pizza, wanting chocolate chip ice cream and getting rum-raisin)--we are all finding things that are edible and often quite delicious! All worries over Alia are gone as she has discovered Nutella (we just call it chocolate) and she is all good. Some highlights in our gastronomical experimenting have been soppapias (fried dough), anticuche (beef and sausage on a skewer), culanto (a boil of mostly mussles, with potatoes, chicken and pork) and, of course, papas fritas (french fries).

We have also been able to drink the water pretty much since we left Santiago. We have our steri-pin and use it if the source is questionable. So far, so good!

The other eating challenge is the late hour of dinner. Most Chileans don't eat until around 9:00 pm and we find ourselves on that schedule as well. That means we are getting back from eating around 11:00 and then don't want to go right to bed with full stomachs. Somehow, getting to bed before midnight has been hard, but we are still up and on the go around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning. Needless to say, we are getting pretty tired, but having too much fun to quit doing anything!

Our mtn. bike ride in Pucon was fun, but a bit longer that we thought--a little lost in translation with the bike rentals. We thought it was 19 km round trip. Turns out that was each way, but by the time we figured it out, it was too late to turn back. Plus, the waterfalls were really spectacular and well worth it. We did decide to return via the paved road and that did help, but a short ride turned into a 6 hour day on our bikes, covering 24 miles. The girls were troopers, but after running out of water, we did bribe them with icecream at the first place we could find it! The natural hot springs we went to that night made it all worth it. I would put Pucon on my list of places to do again!


From Pucon, we went to Valdivia (an amazing drive on the Seven Lakes Road with lakes and volcanos all around) and then to Puerto Varas where our travels with Pachamama by Bus ended. That, so far, is one of the best things we decided to do. The people were all very nice, the driver and guide spoke English well and we were presented with places to stay and ideas of things to do. Since it was not a tour, you were on your own, but having suggestions really helped! Pachamama means "goddess of the earth" to the indiginous peoples of southern Peru and N. Chile and that is where the name comes from. On our last night together, our driver and guide madeus to pisco sours (the national drink of Chile) and amazing pico de guyo! We were sad to say goodbye to our new friends.

Adios!

(Thanks, Catherine, on the tip with pictures!)

Pictures in backwards order, but at least they are posted--figuring this out on the fly!

Outside a great museum showcasing Chile's history and Cailin at sunset above playa los lobos--a surfing mecca.

Doing homework.

Outside hostel.

Girls testing the water on the black sand beaches south of Santiago.

Inside our hostel.

The old and new--horses and cars all share the towns.

Funicular (tram) up to top of Cerro San Cristobal

Cerro San Cristobal.

Girls waiting for a taxi at Santiago airport.

Say What??

Well, we made it to Santiago, Chile! Our first 24 hours felt like they were defined by language and food. What could we understand and was it edible? Turns out, the pasta with cream sauce we ordered for the kids was really a veggie stew--not a noodle in sight! Duncan and I have been eating empandas, which is a Chilean mainstay. They are like a little meat pie. We are learning, and other than Alia, are eating! Alia is saving herself for the beef in Argentina. Hope it is good as she will be hungry by then!

Before we left, we had heard from many that the Spanish spoken in Chile and Argentina was hard to understand due to accents and colloquialisms. Duncan and I have not found that to be true at all. The reason they are hard for us to understand is due to them speaking SPANISH! How would we know if they were saying words differently when we cannot follow much after "Hola"? Apparently the 13 "listen and repeat" tapes I listened to in the car were not quite enough to make me fluent! I should have listened to all 25 tapes in unit one and then I am sure I would have been fine!

Our trip so far has been great and the girls are doing amazingly well! We have felt safe and comfortable everywhere we go. The Chileans seems to really like children and are very kind. We landed in Santiago Wed. morning with out much sleep on the flight. We found our hotel and then walked all over the city since we only had that one day to see it. They have a great subway system that we used too. Seeing all the Christmas decorations while it is 90 degrees out seemed strange. We took the "funicular" (tram) to the top of Cerro San Cristobal--highest hill in the city to enjoy the view. We made it until 8:00 that night before crashing and sleeping all night!

We were picked up Thursday morning by the Pachamama Bus and it has turned out to be great. Very nice people (only 9 of us) and most speak English. We have made our way south for the last few days, staying in hostels and seeing the beautiful countryside. We are impressed with the infrastructor of this country. They have garbage service in the smallest of towns and a bus service throughout the country. You can even flush the t.p. here, and that, according to a fellow traveler, is a sure sign of progress! (usually you throw it away in the garbage--fyi).

We are now in Pucon for 2 days and it is gorgeous. We are in the mountains and this is a ski town in the winter and lake resort in the summer. There is a big snowy volcano, Villarrica, towering over the town.
Cannot seem to get the picutre download to work, but will try again later. We are off to go mtn. biking to a waterfall and then soak in the natural hotsprings this evening. Rough life! More later! Love to you all!