Nuestras vacaciones en Chile

As promised an entire post about our vacation to Chile. Even though it was a week ago it is still fresh in our minds. We had a terrific time and encourage anyone thinking about traveling to Santiago to do it already! Here was our intended itinerary:

Thursday - arrive in Santiago. Get ski rentals and groceries then drive up the mountain to the ski resort and explore.
Friday - Scott ski while the girls play in the snow and relax in our Airbnb.
Saturday - potentially a half day of skiing for Scott and then check out in the afternoon, return the car to the Santiago airport and check in to our next Airbnb in Santiago and sight-see.
Sunday - Church then sight-seeing in the city.
Monday - Either see more of Santiago or travel to Valapariso (a coastal city) for the day.
Tuesday - fly back to Asuncion in the afternoon.

Many of these things did happen during our trip just not as we expected. Let's begin with Thursday.

"We're going on a plane!"

We woke up early to catch our morning flight from ASU and all went well. Kiersten unfortunately woke up with a headache and after some medicine it subsided but as headaches are known to do, it came back with a vengeance as they were landing in Santiago and never improved the rest of the day. We got the rental car just fine but soon realized the automatic we requested was actually a manual. We both have experience driving a manual transmission, Kiersten more than Scott but Scott more recently than Kiersten so with Kiersten's head not improved and Scott's name on the rental agreement, we drove off with Scott behind the wheel. We made it to the ski rental place in great time but once we pulled up the drive, the car stalled and we were unable to start it again. Scott went inside to ask for help or a tow or something (luckily some of the employees spoke English) and they called our rental car people about the issue. Scott proceeded to get his ski rental and Kiersten and Mackenzie stayed outside to "play". K sat in the shade nursing a Coke while M got dirty.

Playing in the dirt at the ski rental.

We were there for close to 2 hours and no one showed up to help with the car which miraculously turned on. We decided to just continue our journey and get groceries. Fun fact: Chile has Walmart! Or their version called Lider which is Walmart just under a different name. S&M went inside while K tried to rest in the car/shade. They returned 30 minutes later with provisions and guess what? The car wouldn't start again. Scott thankfully had decided to buy a SIM card at the airport so we could use our phone to call the rental place and get someone out to us. We waited for another 30 minutes before someone came and he couldn't figure out what was wrong with the car but had driven another rental, same model as our broken one, and we transferred our things and off we went for the mountains almost 4 hours behind schedule.

It began to get dark as we drove up the mountains and the ever increasing switchbacks. We counted 40 switchbacks before we lost track. It was a little less than comforting to be driving a manual transmission in literally unfamiliar territory but Scott was a champ. Mackenzie eventually nodded off and Kiersten felt ok as long as she didn't move her head. We made it to our Airbnb around 8:30 and got settled. Dinner consisted of trail mix and bread and then all headed to bed. Some of us did not sleep well....

In the morning things were looking a little better. The headache was gone but in its place was very intense pressure in Kiersten's eyes and she was moving very gingerly. Around 10am we all bundled up for snow and went down the street for Scott to hop on his skis and begin his adventure. This was Mackenzie's second encounter with snow and she was hesitant at best. Her boots were a little big and her snow clothes bulky and her mittens impossible to pick anything up so she didn't fully enjoy the experience. Plus she stated she was cold so we went back inside a little bit after Scott started to ski. The girls got cozy and read books inside then eventually took naps. Scott came back for an hour lunch and headed back out for the rest of the day. The girls tried to go outside again in the afternoon but M was "cold" so we didn't make it far.

She was happy in the beginning.

First time skiing in over a year!

It was a little windy....

That evening we drove to Farallones, which is a town about 20 minutes from our resort for a disappointing dinner. Fun atmosphere and beautiful view but the food was lacking in every way and it was expensive to boot. Back to our loft for a better night's sleep.

A stunning view of the Andes Mountains.

Saturday morning we were all feeling back to our old selves and Scott decided he didn't need to do anymore skiing so we lounged around until about noon when we packed up the car to get back to Santiago and begin our sight-seeing there. We got 20 minutes down the mountain before being stopped by a police road block. We were told no one was allowed down until 3pm. Later we found out that every day there are restrictions on the mountain roads. Between 8-2 or 3 no cars are allowed down to ensure everyone coming up the narrow, twisty mountain roads can do so safely. So we drove back up and to the right towards a different ski resort area. There were so many people on this side of the mountain playing in the snow and sledding. We wished we'd known about this side of the mountain and the road block because we could have let Mackenzie have a more fun snow experience. But since all our things were packed we kept driving up to the resort, Valle Nevado, which is the highest ski resort in South America and ate lunch. 

Standing by some runs at La Parva, the resort were we stayed. It was small.

Mackenzie's "house". Valle Nevado had much more snow than La Parva.

This place mat shared the story of how Valle Nevado came to be.

Couldn't pass up this splendid photo opp.

By 2:40 we were ready to head back down and made it to Santiago about an hour later. We found our next Airbnb in the city and Scott dropped off the girls before taking the car back to the airport. We spent the rest of the day in the apartment and planned out the rest of our days in Santiago.

Sunday morning we hopped on two different sets of Metro trains to get to the chapel by the Temple for church. We figured we'd kill two birds with one stone by attending church and seeing the Temple at the same time to maximize our time in Santiago. Walking into Sacrament Meeting, we saw two familiar faces; Elder and Sister Shultz who had been Temple Missionaries in Asuncion before it closed. After the meeting we caught up with them and stuck around for their English Sunday School lesson which was lovely and Mackenzie was the pride and joy of all the senior missionaries who are missing their grandchildren back home. It was then discussed and arranged that we come back on Tuesday morning to attend the Temple while the Shultz couple watched Mackenzie. What a wonderful surprise!

They only have a few months left so we caught them just in time!

After church we took the trains back to our area of Santiago for lunch in a terrific food plaza where we had some authentic Chilean food. Scott had a beef stew type dish while Kiersten's dish is best described as Chilean poutine. Both of us were in heaven. Mackenzie at this point was beside herself tired as it was encroaching late afternoon. We meandered through a park to get back to our place and Mackenzie napped hard for several hours.

Statue of a boat in the middle of the park. No idea the significance.

I love cities that have a lock bridge! 

Scott's food in front, K's in the background. Those are two poached eggs on top of those fries!

We love our sleepy baby girl!

Once she woke up it was getting later in the day so all we had time for was to enjoy one of the fantastic playgrounds near our place for her to play. It was a quiet but fun day.

Love these lights in this park!

This park was crowded with children!

Monday we did as many things in Santiago as we could cram in. We took the train towards the President's Palace to see the changing of the guards which was scheduled for Tuesday morning. Can't believe everything you read on the internet. After some pictures we walked to Plaza de Armas which is home to many beautiful buildings, a cathedral and a fun fountain where we fed the birds and rested for a bit before continuing on to Cerro Santa Lucia and Castillo Hidalgo. This ended up being more fun than we expected. Very treacherous paths and stairs but a terrific castle, gardens and views of the city. After spending over an hour here, we got lunch at Subway (Santiago has a very American feel) then wandered around the vendors of Santa Lucia market for souvenirs.

Such a colorful church.

Behind this cool fountain is the entrance for Cerro Santa Lucia.

A small view from the top of Castillo Hidalgo.

Such a gorgeous fountain. Too bad it was being repaired.

Art for our world travel wall! Authentic Chilean copper, lapis lazuli blue stones and a llama.

Mackenzie then dictated that we needed to go home for a rest and Kiersten was starting to feel tired too having done more walking in the past two days than in the previous two months. By 4:30 we were back on the streets headed for Cerro San Cristobal which is the highest point in Santiago and you can see the city even better. We rode the funicular to the top and then climbed more stairs to the open air cathedral to take in the city. We caught one of the last funiculars back down and then a Metro to get dinner at a burger place we'd been recommended to try called Streat Burger. Scott confirmed it was one of the best burgers he's ever had and Kiersten got a surprisingly delicious veggie burger (she isn't into red meat these days). After dinner we got ice cream on what turned out to be a pretty chilly evening. We got home very late and Mackenzie had a hard time going to bed.

The Funicular!

Mackenzie loves her souvenir muñeca (doll). She thinks that's it's name!

 

Our food from Streat Burger. Mackenzie ate a lot of french fries (papas fritas) on this trip.

Ice cream! Mackenzie enjoyed the "purple" flavor.

We woke early the next morning, collected our things, ate a quick breakfast then hailed a taxi to take us to the Temple. We made it there with time to spare and Mackenzie went willingly to play with the missionaries. Scott and Kiersten had a fantastic time in the House of the Lord and enjoyed a wonderful lunch with our friends. We got to the airport and found out our flight had been delayed a few hours so we had lots of time to kill. We finally took off around 4:30 and got back to a chilly Asuncion around 6, happy to be safely back home.

On our vacation we noted some differenced between Chile and Paraguay and America. Let us share them with you here:

• As stated above, Walmart and more American restaurants than just McDonald's and Burger King. They had Taco Bell, Subway, Carl's Jr., and a P.F. Changs to name a few. The city itself has more of an American feel than Buenos Aires, for example, which definitely felt more European.
• There was a lot of smoking, specifically pot.
• Nose rings. Nuf said.
• We saw more than 5 Mazda CX-5s on the streets so Chile likes them more than Paraguay.
• The city is so bike friendly. Bike lanes and lights and on Sunday mornings from 9-3, they close off major roads for bikers and runners. It was amazing!
• We saw so much street art and not just graffiti. Some of it was really beautiful and lots of brightly colored buildings gave it a truly Latin feel.
• During church we found we could understand people much better than in Paraguay. Chileans speak Spanish a little more clearly than Paraguayans and mumble less. It gave us hope and encouragement that we are learning Spanish!
• Speaking of church, the Temple in Santiago is about 3 times bigger and older than the Temple in Asuncion. Built in 1983 and it is beautiful.

  

  It was hard to get the Temple in full view at this close distance.

• There was a weird time difference there. Even though Santiago is West of Asuncion, it was an hour ahead. Maybe they don't do daylight savings time? We don't know the reason.
• Because of the mountains, the sun didn't light the city until about 8 in the morning. We got to sleep in a little later than usual which was fabulous.

  

  What a ham! Waiting for our burgers at Streat Burger.

• They have weird sizes of products. Yes we've become accustomed to the metric system somewhat but 600mL water bottles and 637mL bottles of Coke? At least in Paraguay they do round numbers like 500mL or 250mL. It was weird.
• Lastly, many restaurants had fresh juice and we tried mango juice at almost every place we ate because Mackenzie loved it so much. It was the best juice we've ever tasted. Pure mango.

That about wraps up our vacation to Chile. We had a spectacular time and added it to our growing list of places of if-we-get-posted-here-that's-fine-by-us. Thanks for reading!