Brazil and other stuff!

Hello all! We recently took a trip to Brazil in September and wanted to tell you all about it!

First we met up with our wonderful and fabulous friend Morgan in Rio de Janeiro. It was Morgan's first trip outside the US and she made it there and back on her own LIKE A BOSS! Once Morgan arrived we spent one night in Rio (Morgan surprisingly was not affected much by jetlag so we got quite a bit of sightseeing in at Pao de Azucar and explored the Santa Teresa neighborhood) and then flew out in the morning for Iguasu Falls.

The town of Iguassu Falls is not particularly inspiring. The architecture is blah and there's not particularly anything exciting in the town itself. But it is the home of Iguassu Falls, one of the 7 natural wonders of the world! and it is awesome! Iguassu Falls is amazing, it makes Niagra Falls feel sad and insufficient. Apparently upon seeing it, Eleanor Roosevelt said ' Oh! Poor Niagra!' We walked all over the Brazilian side of the falls and took a boat trip right up into the falls! We were warned by signs to not overtake the barriers and we saw lots of coati (if a raccoon and a possum had a baby) running around looking for snacks. We also went to a bird park and saw tons of birds including some time spent in some walk through spaces filled with Macaw Parrots and Tucans and tons of other kinds of birds

The falls

Morgan making a new friend

Coati, master of the garbage can

After that, we returned to Rio to spend a few days exploring the city, going to the beach, and enjoying the culture. Rio is awesome. I might even say its my favorite city I've ever visited. The people are friendly and kindly answer your questions when you are lost or point you the right way in the metro. We even met an older couple one day at an outside cafe who wanted to know where we were from and what we were doing there. They were so nice- they offered to share some of their food and bought us a beer and told us about all the places they had lived and what their kids were doing in one of the strangest conversations I've had being that it was a mix of Portugese, Spanish and English. The man was in his 90s and said he only eats eggs and cheese- more power to him I suppose.  The city itself is really beautiful with lots of old architecture and we visited a lot of really cool places from the Christ the Redeemer statue to the history museum, to a huge botanic garden, to Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Rio combines the best of both worlds with a beautiful city surrounded by the beauty of lush green mountains and beautiful beaches. We also really enjoyed the music scene in Rio. In genereal, the musical taste in Brazil is really good. They have their share of American music but it was more like Ben Harper on the cover of Vogue magazine instead of Katy Perry played on a constant repeat everywhere you go. But Brazilian music itself is awesome! We visited a variety of places, the first was a classic Bossa Nova club in Ipanema call Vinicius Bar, the second a tiny bar in Cobacabana called Bip-Bip that is an official historic site where all of the tables are occupied by people with instruments singing classic samba songs and locals hanging out outside singing along ( we definitely didn't fit it not knowing a single samba song ourselves but it was fun anyways), and the third a giant samba club in the Lapa district called the Rio Scenarium which was really fun. 

Look how pretty it is! Pao de Azucar

Kissing on the gate at the botanic gardens

Looking out over the city at sunset

Then, as if we had not had enough fun already, we went a few hours south of Rio to Paraty. Paraty is an old colonial town that has been impecably well preserved and although we got bit to death by mosquitos it is definitely worth a visit. We walked around the old town and took a ship on a tour to snorkel at a few beaches. 

Downtown Paraty, the streets are built this way so that at high tide, they can fill with water and then drain out again

The street at high tide

Having a great time snorkeling and riding on a boat that looked like it should have pirates on it

At the end of our trip we spent about 5 days on Ilha Grande, a giant island (as the name suggests) in between Rio and Paraty. Ilha Grande is covered in jungle and has a few very small towns and no cars ( exceptions= police car and ambulance). The only thing there is are tons of gorgeous hiking trails and beaches. It was a little cloudy the first few days we were there but we enjoyed the oppportunity to hike with the heat to various beaches and we saw monkeys and birds along the way. 

View of town from one of many trails

Ryan taking a break to have a coconut. They sell coconuts in Brazil and when you buy one they drill a hole in the top and stick a straw in it and voila! Coco Verde!

We did get some sun on the last day Morgan was with us:

Saying goodbye to Morgan, I was so sad to see her go! It was such a blessing to be able to travel and experience new things with her

And my favorite place in the world, a coffee shop on the beach where the water reaches up to your toes and you can order any kind of fresh made juice you want ( this particular one is mango)

In the end, I would say Brazil was my favorite place I've ever been. Its like where Latin America, Europe and Africa meet to make a rich vibrant and diverse culture surrounded by amazing nature. The atmosphere is vibrant and the people are happy. There's great music and food and an endless variety of activities for whatever happens to suit your mood that day. Everyday at the end we were like ' What a great day!' We had no major problems throughout the entire trip- a few itchy bugbites and one day where we were not thrilled about the number of hours spent in a van travelling from Rio to Paraty but other than that smooth sailing. It was a great trip and one that I'm sure we'll remember for years to come with fond memories. I think returning there someday in the future is definitely something we will have to do. 

Now that we're back in Santiago, we're in the swing of things, teaching classes, riding buses, and renewing our visas (oh the beauraucracy!). Our good friends are having a baby and we're very much looking forward to meeting her when she arrives in November just in time for Ryan's birthday ( if he's lucky he might get a birthday buddy!). We're also hoping to make it out to the coast again and to a vineyard in the Cachagua Valley before the year ends. 

All for now! 

Back in Santiago

Hello All!
Its been a really long time! Sorry! In my defense, we have been trying to get internet installed in our apartment for 6 weeks sin exito (unsuccessfully). On the upside I've been getting a lot of opportunities to practice making complaints in Spanish.

We're back in Santiago and we've gotten mostly settled in a new apartment. We are now living in an awesome neighborhood called Ñuñoa. It is, as my Spanish professor says ´Barrio Barrio´. The look of it makes me think of what W. 32nd Avenue in the Highlands must have looked like in the 50s. There's a butcher, and a vegetable store and a French bakery ( where I am currently using the internet and drinking coffee while listening to La Vie en Rose)  near our house as well as several really good restaurants and coffee shops. There's a little old woman who sits outside her house and makes comments about the weather to passersby. And everyone is so friendly! Usually in Santiago the standard of customer service is fairly poor by American standards but down here in Ñuñoa people make eye contact and ask you how you are and the owners of cafes and restaurants drop by to ask how you are and to invite you to come back anytime you like. Even people on the metro are nicer, when you say excuse me to get out, they say ' of course! Go ahead and have a great day!'  Its awesome!

Last month we took a little anniversary trip for a couple of days to Lima, Peru. It was so nice to get away for a couple of days and we really enjoyed relaxing and partaking in the main activity of Lima- eating! Peruvian food is excellent. They have so many great flavors and use really good ingredients. We tried tons of new kinds of fruits ( my favorite was Lucuma in a milkshake!) and ate tons of fresh fish and tried Cuy (guinea pig) which is traditionally eaten in Peru.  A few photos for you!

Us at the biggest water fountain park in the world!

Ceviche we made at a cooking class we took. It was so good! Ceviche is fish that is soaked in lime juice with onions and cilantro and in this case, a spicy pepper, a sweet potato and 2 kinds of corn

Me making ceviche like a cooking boss:

Look at all the kinds of fruit! Peru has more kinds of fruit than you can possiby imagine and they're all delicious

And one of my favorites, the Lucuma milkshake! 

And last but not least, we got to meet up with Ryan's cousin Katrina on our last day! She was in Lima as part of a missions trip with her friends and we got to hang out for a few hours and have lunch before we had to head to the airport

Other than that, we've been very busy with work. Ryan is teaching and translating and I'm teaching and have a new job at a company that works with kids which is really fun and interesting. Our schedules are so full though! We're out the door everyday by 7 and we don't get home most days until 8 or 9. But we've still been making time to hang out with friends old and new.  

Right now we're getting ready for a big trip to Brazil. In September Chile has its big national holiday and things kind of shut down for about 2 weeks or so. Last year we only had 3 classes over the course of 2 weeks so this year we decided to take the time to travel! We are so excited! We're going to meet up with my good friend Morgan and travel around Rio, Ilha Grande, Paratay and take a quick run down to Iguazu Falls. Its going to be so nice and so warm and I can't wait to see Morgan- its been way too long!

All for now!  

Copiapo

Since early March we have been living in Copiapo, a city in the Atacama Region in northern Chile on a temporary teaching assignment with the company we work for. The Atacama Desert is very dry. The Copiapó valley only gets 18 mm (less than an inch) of precipitation a year, and the last time there was a significant rain storm was in 1997!

Hmmmmmm what to say about Copiapo itself........ Its in the desert. Its hot in the day and cold at night. Its really dusty. It's also quite dirty. There's nothing to do, although the city is growing rapidly. So we have been making our own fun. We go to the grocery store. Its called Jumbo. There's also a smaller version which locals oxymoronically refer to as "Jumbito (Mini-Jumbo)." They have their own store brand, including our favorite, the appropriately named "Jumbo Shrimp" which are in fact normally sized haha.  When we go it feels like we are there with the entire rest of the town- seriously every time I go there its like shopping on the day before Thanksgiving. I have been, however, really finding the contents of people's shopping carts interesting. Jumbo has really big carts and people typically fill them with a ton of sodas ( like 5 or more 2 liter bottles of Coke) and a ton of potato chips and sugary treats and lots of children's toys. Very few vegetables or fruits or anything healthy.

I have found some new favorite brands lately though:

Cif           (a cleaning product--sounds like a well-known disease)

Blem       (another line of cleaning products--where Flegm meets Blemish)

Mono Balls    ( breakfast cereal. Mono means monkey. What do you want for breakfast kids? Mono Balls!)

Maam NippleGel   ("Maam" is pronounced "Mom". For the expecting mother preparing to lactate.)

And a few favorite businesses such as a jardin infantil which is like a preschool or kindergarden but when translated directly into English becomes Infantile Garden. And deportes juveniles- Juvenile Sports (youth sports). Hilarious.

Also I have learned several valuable life lessons including that I shouldn't live in the middle of the desert and  that roosters do not only crow in the morning. They actually crow whenever they darn well want. Also they make delicious eggs and are entertaining to watch. We live right next door to a plot of land with 20 chickens 4 roosters, 6 geese, 2 German Shepherds and a rabbit.

Anyway, our classes are going ok, and our students are nice, we've made some friends at the church in Copiapó that we have connected with (through our friends in Santiago), and we've done some good exploring of the surrounding area.


Walking down the street outside of our apartment:

The view from our porch- that green spot is where the chickens live. At sunset, the hills all turn bright orange and pink.

The beautiful beach of Bahia Inglesa, just 1 hr from Copiapó.

Ryan petting an alpaca at a random zoo on the side of the freeway in the middle of nowhere approximately 30 minutes from Copiapó. Boy he needs some serious dental work (the alpaca, not Ryan): 

Us in a town called Freirina in the Huasco Valley, about 3 hours to the southwest of Copiapó:

And finally, Ryan and I at a huge dam in the Huasco Valley with our wonderful new friends Manuel, Ana, Carla (you can see her shadow) and Rodolfo (not pictured).

To the end of the earth and back again

Hello dear friends and family!

Let me tell you a bit about our epic January excursion! We traveled the entire month of January and went just about everywhere in the three furthest south regions of Chile (Patagonia, Los Lagos, Los Rios).

Part  1: Pata-Stinkin-Gonia!!!

Patagonia is legend in Chile. And in Boulder. And pretty much everywhere. Its as far south as you can get on this continent before reaching Antartica. Most of the year its unbelievably cold except for January and February which are tourist season and less cold- somewhere around 50 or 60 degrees during the day. The weather changes rapidly and without warning. It rains and there is strong wind. Its crazy. And incredible.

We left the house at 4am for our 6am flight to Punta Arenas (so early). We got settled into our hostel and then proceeded to go to Isla Magdalena, a 2 hour boat ride from Punta Arenas and home to 160,000 penguins!!! I love penguins, they´re my favorite animal, so this was pretty much one of the best things that I have ever seen. I could have touched one or taken one home because that´s how close we were but for some reason that is frowned upon so I refrained. Without further ado, pictures of penguins!!


Look at the babies!!!

Penguins in love:

He thinks he can fly, how adorable:

After we saw the penguins, we headed to Puerto Natales which is the starting base for Torres del Paine National Park. Usually when you see pictures of Patagonia, you are seeing Torres del Paine. We went and started on the Glacier Gray side, did the W and ended on the Torres side. It took us about 5 days 4 nights to complete the circuit. 

The glacier was Ryan´s favorite part. It was something that neither of us had ever seen before and if you're quiet enough you can actually hear the ice moving. Pretty awesome. 

On our second night we had an incident. The incident involved super high powered winds and our tent breaking. It stunk. Big time. Especially after hiking all day with packs that were too heavy (we didn´t anticipate the amount of infrastructure available and therefore overpacked). There was a meltdown and a long discussion about whether we should just forget it and go back to Puerto Natales. We rented a tent for the night and decided to press on in the morning. The good part about this was that Torres del Paine has an obscene amount of infrastructure. Like you could sleep in a bed every night if you wanted to (and happen to be willing to pay 50 bucks to sleep in a bunk bed with a bunch of other people). This sucks because it makes the park really easily accessible and therefore really crowded. But its also pretty awesome because people who normally couldn´t go because they are unable to camp for whatever reason can now access the park. And its awesome because they rent tents so we weren't forced to go home the second night. And I will admit that it's pretty awesome to have someone setting up your tent in the rain while you wait inside and have a pisco sour. On the other hand, you have to cook your food in a small space with a ton of people and wait an hour to use the bathroom, and sleep within like 5 feet of probably 100 other hikers. And you pay really high fees just to camp (like 12 bucks a night each). Honestly I´m glad we did it because its a bucket listy kind of thing but I wouldn't repeat the experience. 

A few photos:

Near the Cuernos, one of the more beautiful parts of the park

Getting water from the stream, you can drink it straight out of the river and its deliciously clean

This part made us homesick because it looks like Colorado

Ryan at the Torres

Part 2: On the Boat

After Torres del Paine we rested a couple of days in Puerto Natales and made friends and crepes with a group of French tourists at our hostel. Yum! Then we boarded the Navimag, a ferry that takes cargo and people from Puerto Natales to Puerto Montt. The trip was 4 nights and we really enjoyed the beautiful scenery, talking to other travelers, and relaxing for a few days. The boat goes through the channels and fjords of Patagonia and spends about 12 hours in the open sea. I did not enjoy the open sea and got really seasick but the rest of it was great. 

A few photos: 

Ryan enjoying the nice weather and the view:

Sunrise on the water:

Part 3: Chiloe

So. Pretty much every guidebook ever describes Chiloe as a misty, verdant, mystical island with a lot of rain and cold all year round. This was not our experience. When we arrived it was somewhere in the 90 degree range and a bunch of Tabanos (giant evil horseflies) had just hatched. You couldn't walk outside without immediately being attacked by at least 10 of them.  We went to a place called Chepu and stayed in an awesome hotel called Chepu Adventures. Their specialty is kayaking on the river at dawn. It was awesome! We also went on an adventure with some other Americans we met to find curanto a Chilote specialty consisting of Mussels, Oysters, Chicken and Pork cooked inside a pit in the ground for many hours. The rest of the time we read and swam in the river to escape the heat and the horseflies. 

A few photos:

We asked for directions to the place with curanto from some guys in a passing truck and they offered to take us part of the way. In Chepu there is only 1 bus that comes 2 times per week and there are only dirt roads. 

Eating curanto. Ryan finished his, I only managed about half of mine

Kayaking at dawn

Part 4: Los Lagos and Los Rios

After cutting our time in Chile short due to heat and horseflies, we headed up to the Los Lagos Region. Here we visited the towns of Puerto Varas, Frutillar, Valdivia and Coñaripe.  Puerto Varas and Frutillar were great and we finally found some good coffee!!!! YAY!!! We saw the volcano Osorno, the Saltos de Petrohue and swam in the lakes (cold!!). Valdivia was our favorite and we paid many visits to the colony of sealions living next to the fish market. Coñaripe was a small town but it is close to the Termas Geometricas which is a natural hot springs owned by an architect and a landscaper. It is amazing with 17 slate pools going up a canyon alongside a river and changing huts and pathways done in the Japanese style. 

And again, some photos:

Swimming in the lake next to the volcano. It was super cold so I didn´t want to put my head in:

Lago Todos los Santos:

Saltos de Petrohue:

Sea lions in Valdivia

Ryan made a friend. We really want a dog when we come back to the states.

Termas Geometricas

And the lake in Coñaripe

And we´re home again

We´ve been back in Santiago now for a month. When we got back we moved out of the house we were living in with the Chilean family and into our friend's apartment. Its been an awesome month living with them, they bless the socks off of us. We´ve had classes sporadically and just finished teaching a 2 week immersion program to 2 students from Colombia. They were great students and we´re sad to see them go. We´ve been given some really awesome opportunities at work this month. On March 9th we are being sent up to Copiapo in the north of Chile for a 3 month assignment to teach courses with a mining company. This is a great opportunity for us in a lot of ways, one of which being that our living expenses are going to be covered by the company. We´ve also been given another new opportunity which will be administering and creating coursework for an online program our company runs for a University here in Chile. So, lots of new things and lots of changes but they're good ones. We´re looking forward right now to the upcoming time change which will put us back to only 2 hours ahead of you making Skype dates a whole lot easier :)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

We hope that you all have had happy holidays! We celebrated Christmas here in Santiago with our host family.  It was fun but also very different. On Christmas Eve we had  turkey and beef and mashed potatoes (strange for me but not for Ryan) and then went to search for Santa Claus- but he came while we were gone! In Chile, presents are opened at midnight on Christmas Eve so we opened presents and then went to bed. On Christmas day we went to a friend of our family's house ( a British man married to a Peruvian woman) and swam in their pool and had Peruvian food (yum! Peruvian food is amazing).
It was really strange for us to have a warm weather Christmas- it didn't really feel like Christmas without cold weather. It was also strange to see all of the typical Christmas things in warm weather- Christmas trees and reindeer and Santas sweating their eyes out in full suits and hats ( in 90+ degree weather mind you). I feel like Santa needs a break- maybe a short sleeve shirt and some shorts with flip flops and a Santa hat or something like that. A Christmas photo of us and our host family:

After Christmas we wrapped up our classes. Our classes/jobs are still going well and I am still taking Spanish lessons which has been really helpful. I can now have a conversation in Spanish as long as I don't need any future tenses/ imperatives/ conditionals. I still definitely express myself more accurately in English and I'm tending to mix the two in an attempt to make myself clear. I'm mixing in less French than I was- I need to practice my French more because its starting to disappear with the acquisition of a third language.

We're still really enjoying Chile and enjoying learning more and more about the culture. In general, people are much more open than in the states and don't like spicy things. On Christmas one of the girls we live with accidentally got a tiny bit of yellow chile sauce on her fork and then cried b/c it was hot. We miss spicy food- or even food with spices like pepper. People continuously tell us how spicy plain ol black pepper is. I especially miss pico de gallo and sriracha sauce. The food here is good but simple. Things will randomly contain entire hard boiled eggs (always an unpleasant surprise). In general, people eat a lot of bread, ham, cheese, mashed potatoes, rice, chicken, mayonaise (on EVERYTHING) , and hot dogs. So many hot dogs! One of the most popular foods is definitely the hot dog with a variety of toppings- tomato, smooshed avocado, onions, cheese, sauerkraut, really vinegary relish, fried egg, mayo, you name it it goes on a hot dog. People also like empanadas a lot- which I refer to as hot pockets :) Its like a hot pocket but higher quality and different fillings like beef and onions ( with a hard boiled egg of course), ham and cheese, or seafood if you're close to the coast. The empanadas by the coast are definitely better than those in the city ( you can't really beat freshly made shrimp and cheese empanadas).   There are a variety of Peruvian sandwich shops in the center of town and those are the best- there is no sandwich better than a Peruvian sandwich. I cannot begin to explain how good these sandwiches are but its like really good quality bread with delicious spiced meat and yellow chile sauce and veggies (fried sweet potato anyone?) and its so giant you have to eat it with a knife and fork. Often they also have excellent fresh made juices to go with your awesome sandwich. So good. I think a trip to Peru is in order. Also Mexico because I miss tacos- when I'm homesick I want tacos. When I'm not homesick I want tacos. I basically always want tacos :)

A completo (aka hot dog with mayonaise, avocado, mustard, tomatoes, chucrut (sauerkraut), and salsa americana (vinagry relish thing ( i say its icky but ryan likes it)) :



After we finished our classes we went to Papudo on the coast for New Year's with some friends of ours. It was a wonderful weekend and we had such a good time with our friends! We went for walks along the beach and visited nearby Zapallar and Catchagua and swam in the ocean  (so cold!). It was beautiful there. We went down to the beach for fireworks and they were huge and there were so many of them. We didn't take part in many of the Chilean new year's traditions. Before we left my students told me I needed to wear yellow underwear (to bring money), pull out my luggage and walk it around the block ( to make sure I travel in the next year) and then sit on top of the luggage with a coin in one hand and a grain of rice in the other (to make sure you have money and food respectively). I really didn't feel the need to drag my luggage around the block at midnight- I'd rather watch the fireworks and have some champagne. Here's a few photos of the awesomeness:

Ryan at the beach- it was really cloudy the first 2 days we were there. Also, I can't get the photo to roatate- sorry!

Aloe vera plant- so big! 

Having delicious seafood with our friends Renan and Vero:

On an adventure through the rocks along the shore:

Ryan playing paddles with Cristobal at the beach:

Beautiful beach at Zapallar:

On Friday we are off to Patagonia for a month long epic adventure! We are going to Punta Arenas where we will see some penguins (100,000 penguins to be more specific) and then to Torres del Paine National Park (said to be one of the best national parks in the world). and then we will take a boat trip from Puerto Natales to Puerto Mont and visit Chiloe. We're going to Parque Tantauco which is said to have the best hiking in Chile and sea otters and hiking and all sorts of other awesomeness. We'll be out of touch for a while so  we'll look forward to talking to you all again sometime in February!