Chile---part 1: travel, santiago, san cristobal, quilicura

I took no less than 1800 pictures while we were in Chile. I finally narrowed it down to just over 300 to post on our blog. Yep, that's it. I have plans to make a video that will include a lot of the photos/videos that didn't make the blog cut, but seeing how long it took me to get this up, it might be a while before the video is done, or even started.

So, without further ado, here is a photographic journey to Chile... part 1.

Even before we had said goodbye to our kids, I was already missing them.

I knew they would be fine without us because they were in good hands, but I was gonna miss them.

This was the first time we would be by ourselves (for more than just one night with a babysitter) since the day Drake was born.

We arrived at my parents' home late Friday, scrambled to get things together the next morning, said our goodbyes and many thank yous, and left for the airport not long after breakfast.

Shad had borrowed a co-worker's IPOD and listened to books most of the flight there. I read practically everything in the seat pocket in front of me and enjoyed watching the in-flight movies. At night, Shad slept while I kind of slept.

Our first layover was in Texas, if you can't tell.

We were gonna buy one of these for my brother, but didn't want to pack it around for a week and half, so decided we'd get it on the way home.

But the store wasn't open on the way home, so here's a picture.

I love looking outside from an airplane.

Our next layover was in Florida. This is me sitting, waiting, too tired from doing nothing but sitting to do anything else.

DAY ONE

And this is Chile.

Bienvenidos a Chile!

A family that Shad had worked closely with on his mission borrowed a relative's truck to come pick us up at the airport.

Because it was Sunday when we arrived, the first place we stopped was the nearest chapel, hoping to attend their 1:00 p.m. meeting.

Unfortunately, it was election day for their new president, so all the meetings had been scheduled earlier so people could vote in the afternoon.

It was so fun just driving around and seeing everything for the first time (for me anyway).

And because it was close to Christmas, there were random decorations every once in a while.

One thing that stood out to me that very first day was the graffiti... everywhere.

After driving around for a while, we found the home of one of Shad's "mamitas". She cried upon seeing Shad and we scheduled a time two days later to come back and spend an afternoon and evening with her and her family.

I have no idea what "pernos" means, but our name was under it.

Some of the streets of Santiago.

Cuteness.

A frozen treat bought from a man selling them in the street.

A supermarket.

They buy fresh bread every day, and it's really good. I think it's made with a lot of lard though, because it's really heavy.

Looks appetizing, doesn't it?

After the supermarket, we went to our friends' home and got settled. We ate dinner, or what I thought was the main course. Then I realized it was just the appetizer when they brought out the actual meal. I literally could not eat another bite after making some decent headway. Little did I know that nearly every single meal would be the same way...

DAY TWO

We spent most of the next day just walking around Santiago and seeing some of the sites. Dagoberto (the father of the family we stayed with) and two of their kids, Patricia and Felipe, showed us around.

This was a huge tree that I think they might have been decorating... not sure.

This is "la Moneda" (the Chilean White House, essentially).

Down below was the "Centro Cultural Palacio de la Moneda"---a museum that we decided to go to.

The current exhibit was about ancient China. I would have taken more pictures, but didn't think I could use my camera inside until I realized the sign just meant "no flash".

Back on the streets. There are street vendors everywhere.

I really like this about big cities.

Most of the buildings were old and had a lot of personality.

We rode the subway quite a bit.

We saw a display about the evolution of photography.

I really enjoyed looking at artwork at an outside market.

I was reminded of how grateful I am for the gospel while looking around inside a beautiful cathedral.

We visited the post office, and found a room where there were several big bins in the middle. Each bin contained numerous letters that children had written to Santa. People were pulling the letters out left and right, reading them--some funny, some sad, some very genuine. You could take one and buy something for that child to help fulfill their Christmas wish. It was cool to see so many people in that one room with the intent to do good.

Here we are riding in a cab. Ana Maria (Dagoberto's wife) met up with us later that day. If you look in the rear view mirror, you can see me squinting with the camera in hand. I learned that most taxi drivers will try to up their price by quite a lot if they think you are tourists and unfamiliar with the regular rates.

Fortunately for us, Shad had lived here for two years, knew that, and spoke very good Spanish, so we never paid more than they usually charge. Several drivers even asked him if he was Chilean!

SAN CRISTOBAL

This was a gondola ride we took to get near the top of "San Cristobal", one of two famous hills in Santiago.

Here is the happy group.

As our gondola went up, another gondola, on the same cable came down. You can see where we would pass each other on the tracks.

Once at the top of San Cristobal, you could see out over Santiago.

It's a huge city. Huge.

Did I mention Santiago is an incredibly big city?

There was a manger display at the top, but there was no baby Jesus in the manger. Some random kid hopped the fence and sat down so his family could take a picture. Apparently there is no baby Jesus in the manger because he hasn't come yet... It isn't Christmas yet, so he hasn't been born.

And this is the huge statue of the Virgin Mary that can be seen for many miles.

Down below the statue was an area where one could burn candles in honor of Mary.

And there was a wall where you could hang stuff as sort of an offering I suppose.

Right below the statue was a small, quiet room with a shrine and candles in one corner. A lady was in there cleaning up, and I couldn't help but notice the placement (or displacement) of a "Plan of Salvation" pamphlet.

One of my absolute favorite foods (or drinks, rather) from Chile was their "mote con huesillos", or for the English translation, see below:

It's basically cooked wheat, water, sugar/syrup, and dried peaches. It was very refreshing and I never turned it down if it was offered.

Patricia and Felipe went to buy us all some big, flat pastries. One thing that impressed me was how close their family was. Shad asked one day as we were walking around, "How often do you see a father and their almost-teen daughter holding hands everywhere they go?" It was neat.

Something else that was neat was this big flat pastry (I can't remember what it was called). Neither of us finished ours, and it took us several days to finally, um, finish them off.

We stayed up on the hill until the sun went down.

It was cool to see all the lights coming on out over the city. But because we stayed up there until sundown, we missed the last gondola ride down, which meant we had to hike down the hill. I don't have any good pictures of our treacherous hike back down the mountain--the lighting was bad and the camera battery was dead anyway. But suffice it to say that I felt lost and wondered why no one else was coming down the same trail as us... It took us a little longer than it probably should have, but we eventually made it back down and returned "home" for the night.

QUILICURA (DAY THREE)

The next day was spent in the town of Quilicura. There we met up with Irene, the lady whom Shad had surprised on the first day. She was one of Shad's "mamitas" (a lady that he and his companion lived with while a missionary).

We went for a little walk to see the church building where Shad used to attend, and Shad and Irene caught up on things. Irene had two sons who left on missions just before Shad and his companion came to the area. Shad and his companion didn't have a place to stay, so Irene and her husband volunteered to take them in. They literally built a new wall in their front room to divide it so the Elders would have a little room of their own.

Shad told me about how they would take "showers" by pouring water over their heads with a small plastic container, using boiling water mixed with cold water. This picture has nothing to do with anything except that I was amazed at how they fit their cars inside the gates.

One thing I really enjoyed was seeing so many different types of plants and flowers.

We didn't find out until later that day that it was Irene's birthday. It was probably around 9:00 p.m. or so when Irene fixed us "once" (their traditional late-night meal/snack). As we were sitting on her back porch talking (or listening in my case) and eating, her children started showing up. Pretty soon, a big birthday cake was brought out with candles lit---Irene had no idea her kids were up to anything.

They also brought out a TON of Chinese take-out. Keep in mind that this is now day three of having eaten to max capacity at every meal (and in between) while only drinking soda as the beverage (at least 5 or more glasses a day, mind you). So I told Shad to politely let them know how grateful I was, but that I would have to pass. My share was gladly eaten by others. I did consent to eat a piece of cake though, which tasted good, but I still had to force my way through most of it. Here is a short video of them bringing out the cake, just for fun.

It was very fun and fulfilling to meet Irene and her family and to get to spend some time with them. They were very kind and generous and had a happy glow about them. It was a very satisfying day.

And now for some random pictures from day three:

This is the card that lets you use the city buses. You keep money on it and just swipe it when you get on the bus. Why is it called "Bip!" (pronounced "beep")? Because that's the sound it makes when you swipe it.

Tons of wires that looked like a hazard to me, but was familiar all over the city.

The guy with the red pack is selling something--I don't remember what. But almost everywhere you drove you could find someone just walking around among the cars selling stuff, usually food.

These next several pictures are of the home of the family with whom we stayed for the majority of our trip. This is Dagoberto's and Ana Maria's room, but they fixed it up for us to stay in for the entire time we were there. Shad is writing in his journal in this picture. We had a hard time keeping up with all we wanted to write down and eventually had to just start jotting down notes that we could expound on later.

They had a lot of plants just inside their front entrance.

It was fun to see them hang out all of their laundry to dry. I used to hang up my sheets and towels to air dry, but that stopped once we started having kids.

Just to the left of where the towels were hanging was this cool, old sink.

They had several cats that usually showed no interest in us.

This is a window that looks into their kitchen from their dining area.

And this is their kitchen. I was constantly humbled by how happy and satisfied they were with everything they had.

This is the sink (the stove is to the left), looking back through the window into the dining room. When it was time to eat, Ana Maria would call someone to come to the window, and she would pass the plates or bowls of food through the window to be placed on the table in the other room.

This is Shad brushing up on his guitar/singing skills.

And this is a shot of everyone that we got to know so well over the next week. I can't even begin to thank them for all the time, effort, means, and love that they so freely spent on us during our time there.

It's neat to be able to travel thousands of miles from your own home and have instant friends who take you in as one of their own. The one thing I really wished for was the ability to speak Spanish. I could understand a decent amount, especially as the days continued, but if I ever wanted to speak more than just a few words, I had to use Shad. I never got tired of trying to figure out what everyone else was saying though. It was sometimes fun to just sit and watch without even trying to understand.

And if you've made it this far, congratulations. Only two more installments...