Out and About in Ñuñoa

Saturday morning Henry and I took my parents down to our old neighborhood. We were headed to see the feria (veggie market) that I so loved, our old apartment and one of our favorite places in Santiago- Barrio Italia. 

 

 I stopped in to see my favorite vendor. I always bought my veggies from her. She was so so sweet.

  

Good old Gato Sucio. ('Dirty Cat' -for whatever reason that was the name of our apartment.)

Down to Barrio Italia. 

Dad found a new toy. Yes it worked and yes it was loud. 

If only we had a ship to bring all these cool finds back with us.  

    

After our stroll through Ñuñoa we met Gonzalo and Pamela (our new flatmates) for lunch. The best part was the cotton candy for dessert. 

Hooray for more visitors!

Mama & Pops arrived Friday morning. So the first thing on the agenda was Cerro San Cristobal.   

We took the funincular up to the top.Honestly I was happy to say that was my last trip via the funincular. I just don't trust the wobbly rickety mechanics of the whole operation. 

 We visited Opa.

And Mary - but she was getting a facial. 

We went to lunch at a great vegetarian restaurant and then headed back to the hotel. The rents were a bit exhausted from the long flight so we relaxed and enjoyed pisco sours by the pool.  It was fab!

Makin' Moves

About a week after our Christmas vacation we moved out of Ñuñoa and into Vitacura with some very good chilean friends of ours. We’re in a neighborhood on the north east side of Santiago now which puts us a little closer to the Andes. We wake up to a beautiful view and this furry feline. 

His name is Pelayo and he is awesome. Even though he tries to eat to the plants. 

Last Day in the Lake District

 

We spent our last morning at the beach and were so sad to go.

We dropped Chris(my brother not Henry) off in Temuco where he headed south for a week of fly fishing in Patagonia. We headed to the airport only to find that all of the ash floating through the air that week was causing flight delays. Unfortunately our flight was cancelled so we had a seven hour road trip through the night to Santiago which turned out to be not too bad. 

It all seemed like a whirlwind trip but it was wonderful and packed with great memories. Thank you John, Michelle, Axel and Chris for coming to visit us!!!

Gimme pizza & beer for dinner everyday of the year

After our hike through el cañi we were ready to devour some grub. A bit burnt out from typical Chilean fare we found a pizza joint with some excellent pie. 

yum.

El Cañi

El Cañi is a 1500 acre forest preserve. It is home to the worlds oldest tree species - the giant conifer - Araucaria. 

John and Michelle took the day off to relax while Axel, Chris, Henry and I decided to torture our sore muscles one last time on yet another seven hour hike. And as it always seems to turn out - so worth it. 

Just knew it was going to be a good day. 

  

We hardly saw anyone on the trail as we hiked first through the primary forest filled with the coihue and lenga trees. 

 Then we came upon the araucaria. 

While hiking along the trail we stirred up a few of these guys interrupting their afternoon sunbathing.

 Almost there!

 Once at the top we had a 360 degree view of the surrounding landscape. It was absolutely beautiful. 

In the distance you can see Volcan Villarrica that we had conquered two days before. (We are quite proud of that in case you can't tell.)  

 On our decent we stopped at a small lagoon where Chris tossed in  his line and Axel caught a few zzzz's.

We owe our thanks for an awesome day to Ecole, the group behind preserving this beautiful place.