Argentina and so on and so forth

Hello Friends and Family!

A few updates. We are still enjoying Santiago and the weather has been getting more and more beautiful as we go. Recently we were able to take a trip to Mendoza, Argentina with some new friends of ours! Mendoza is about 6 hours across the border from Santiago. It is a small town and it is THE place to have Malbec wine. It is also THE place to eat beef  and has excellent Italian food as well.  A few highlights:

Tandem Bikes through the vineyards

Wine Tasting

A visit to an olive tree orchard and sampling olives and olive oil

More bikes! With awesome and stylish helmets of course

On the way home you get to drive right by Aconcagua, the tallest mountain outside the Himalayas- so beautiful!! It was so cold and windy though. 

And best of all, dinner with our good friends :)

We also were lucky to be able to go camping in Horcon, a small town just an hour north of Vina del Mar. We went beach hopping and ate delicious ceviche made from fish caught just that morning and shrimp and crab empandas- yum!!  A few photos:

So pretty!

Panorama:

Fun at the beach:

Walking down the country roads

mmmmmm ceviche:

All for now!! 

Getting Settled

Hi all,
Its been a while. What can I say, we've been busy.

A couple weeks ago, we were lucky enough to be able to go skiing in the Andes! We took a bus up to the slopes (39 hairpin turns, pure misery) and had a beautiful day of sunshine and powder. Chileans like to ski on-piste so there was tons of relatively untouched powder on the backside of the mountain right up to the last run. We're talking knee deep powder here :) After the really sad ski season we had in Colorado last year (exposed rocks and trees all season long!) it was fantastic to ski some fresh powder. Look!

We also visited a winery just outside of Santiago called Concha y Toro. They are the 2nd largest winery in the world and produce many varietals including Carmenere- a varietal exclusively found in Chile (its delicious so if you like wine you should try it sometime). The winery was big and beautiful even though it's winter and we took a tour that included some samples. 

This week was the Fiestas Patrias, Chile's big national holiday. As a result we had the week off and took a little trip to Valparaiso and Vina del Mar.  These are two towns an hour and a half outside Santiago on the beach. We had nice weather and explored the towns, hung out at the beach and ate fish :) The view from our hotel was really pretty:

The towns are kind of opposites, Valparaiso is old and hilly and has tons of graffiti everywhere and Vina del Mar is more like nicer parts of California. Valparaiso is the kind of place you would expect to find salty sailor types and they had many random stray dogs and people selling excellent goods on the street- who knew you could buy toilet paper from a guy on the sidewalk! Or underwear for that matter. On that note, here's one of us on the beach (still too cold for swim suits): 

Other than that, we have been working a good amount. Our jobs are going well and we enjoy working with our students. The adjustment to Chile has been a little difficult, especially for me as my knowledge of Spanish is pretty non-functional. I'm getting better though and have started some Spanish lessons (yay). We've been enjoying some Chilean specialties like Empanadas, Mote (peach tea with barley and a rehydrated dried peach), and custard apples (there are no words to explain a custard apple- its got a texture like fish, smells like skunk, and tastes really good when mixed with orange juice) Also we have a new addition to our host family- a little poodle puppy named Almendra- she is cute and fluffy! Spring is on its way and today the weather is beautiful- warm and sunny, birds are singing and the air is the clearest we've seen it yet. We're looking forward to nice warm days for a while. 

-Tracy

We Have Arrived!

Here we are in Santiago and so far so good! So much has happened in the last week I'm not even sure where to start.  Prior to our departure, we had made contact with a pastor here through a friend of ours at church who knows someone who knows the pastor. We had emailed back and forth with him and asked if he knew any good places to live or anyone who had a room to rent in their house. He emailed us back and told us there was a family in his congregation who had an extra room we could rent. So we had dinner with them and they are very nice so we moved in! They live on the eastern edge of Santiago in a commune called Las Condes and have 18 and 16 yr old daughters and a 4 yr old son. We also met the pastor and his family and a young married couple from the church during our first few days here. So far we have been so impressed and blessed by the hospitality and kindness that we've experienced here. People are so welcoming and willing to help us even though we just met.

We also had our first week of work. We went through a training program and met the staff and other new teachers- all of whom are also very nice. Our first classes start tomorrow. Mine are in Providencia and Vitacura which are areas close to our office. Ryan's class is at a factory on the west side of town, almost out to the airport. Considering that we live on the east side, this is going to be quite the commute for him. However he will be right next door to the Barbie factory so that's a major plus :)

We've done a good amount of exploring the city too. We went on a free walking tour around the city, visited Pablo Neruda's house in Bella Vista, and went to the top of Cerro San Cristobal ( a big hill overlooking the city that has a giant statue of the Virgin Mary and a park and allegedly a swimming pool on top of it). We also adopted a new pet:

Kidding..... it would be fun to have a llama though. You will notice that it is winter and cold and that even the llama is wearing a hat. 

All for now.

Tracy

Getting Ready to Go

Hello all!
As we are preparing to leave for Santiago I thought I'd share a bit with you about where we'll be going and what we'll be doing. We leave July 31st for Santiago, Chile to teach English to business people. We start teaching in August and our initial contract will go through December.  Right now, we are working on an online certification and will receive additional teacher training when we arrive in Santiago.

And now, a little about where we're going:
Santiago is located just about in the middle of Chile and looks something like this:

Although apparently its pretty smoggy in the winter- which it will be when we arrive (isn't the equator fun? you can magically change seasons by crossing it :) As you can see, the city is very close to the mountains and to the ski resorts so I think some skiing will be in order. Santiago is also not too far from the beach (one of the benefits of Chile's skinniness) so I'm hoping to learn to surf as well. 

The city is divided into 4 provinces and 37 communes which look like this:

Our office is in Providencia and we hope to be living somewhere near there as well (we'll be finding a place to live after our arrival). The city has good transportation infrastructure and we will be taking the bus and/or the metro. In case you're interested and because I like maps here is what the metro system looks like:

That's all for now! More to come once we've arrived and have more to say!