First fly back to Toronto

I´m sitting in the Maple Leaf Lounge in Toronto´s Pearson International Airport, sipping some Canadian red wine, thinking about the past 8 days I spent in Toronto. Finding the right words to describe the trip is difficult.

In the last 7 months our lives have been completely disrupted; we moved half way across the world as a family, away from everything and everyone who is familiar to us. We had only ourselves to depend on. We started essentially new jobs and attended new schools, in a completely new language. We all have made new friends and are well underway in building a support network. As a result, I feel like a fundamentally different person than I was when I was in this airport lounge back on September 10^th, 2010 when we left Toronto for Santiago.

As it turns out, 7 months is not a long time in the real world. 7 months is shorter than many of my projects at Deloitte. It is not uncommon to go without seeing close friends for more than 7 months, even though we always promise to get together more frequently. Often I go 7 months without seeing many of my colleagues. So, after an intense week reconnecting with friends and colleagues, I realize that even though the last 7 months have been transformative and seemed more like years to me, it is really not a big deal for everyone else. I also realized that within a few days I can fall back into my old life and function like it never really actually happened… like moving to Chile was some sort of bizarre dream.

It has been an awesome week visiting with the family, friends and colleagues that I´ve missed so much. I was ready to come back to Toronto and face my old life head-on, with the confidence that I feel like we´re now settled and well adjusted in Santiago. I already have no regrets about making the move that we did and know that we will look back on this experience fondly for the rest of our lives. I´m excited about the promise of bi/trilingualism. I also know that my boys are growing up nurturing their adventurous spirit and have already seen so much that makes them realize how large the world really is and how lucky they are to be born into relative privilege. As for us, I know that Jeremy and I will learn and grow in different ways than if we stayed on the “fast but boring track” of our careers in Toronto, but I am confident that this unique experience will pay off over the long term. We wanted a change and we got more than we bargained for, but I can confidently say that we would not have it any other way.

I am now savoring the thought of embracing my three incredible boys in just over 12 hours… I can´t wait to get home to Santiago…

Road trip to Mendoza, Argentina

Our third group of visitors, Chris and Sarah from Pemberton, BC, arrived for a visit a couple weeks after Jeremy's parents left. After spending the first weekend touring around to our favourite haunts near Santiago, we decided to spend the second weekend together by taking a road trip to Mendoza, Argentina.

For the first time we left our kids with our wonderful nanny Angelica for the weekend. Angelica brought her son over for a sleepover and the three boys enjoyed a weekend filled with pizza parties, movies, bike riding and a trip to the airplane exhibit at a nearby park. Meanwhile, the four adults took an 8 hour road trip through the mountains to wine country in Mendoza, Argentina.

The journey to Mendoza was by far the most impressive part of the trip. There were harrowing upward climbs (33 zig zags, to be exact) before reaching the very disorganized Argentinian boarder, where we waited about 2 hours to enter the country. Once past the boarder the mountain pass opened up to impressive views on both sides and a giant cavern formed by an ancient river that once cut through the mountains. The largest mountain outside of the Himalayas, Aconcagua, is an impressive sight that lies directly on the boarder and is a popular trekking destination. We did some walking in the national park near Aconcagua on the way back and it was inspirational.

Mendoza is a small but pretty city surrounded by wineries that are famous for Argentinian malbec. After some searching and a few disappointments, we joined a last minute English tour at the Norton winery, which is the biggest winery in Mendoza. Incidentally the other four people on the tour were also Canadians and we had a wonderful time with them. Two middle aged ladies (sisters, on a "girls trip" to Argentina) were on their third tour of the day and spectacularly tipsy, which made the tour that much more amusing! The tour itself was impressive - we spent about 2 hours going through various parts of the facility and tasting wine at each stage of the process. The tour ended in the cellar where we saw the owner's personal collection of aged wines, some of which were 80-100 years old.

The food in Argentina is spectacular and we indulged in some great meals the two nights we stayed in Mendoza, as well as "a few" really great glasses of wine. I made the mistake of letting Jeremy and Chris take charge of selecting the hotel without supervision, which resulted in us staying in the Ritz (which was not at all ritzy like its name implied). This error necessitated us staying OUT of the hotel as much as possible, so we made sure we explored and took in the night life of Mendoza while there!!!

Overall, Mendoza is a wine lover's paradise and a definite must see, but driving there is certainly the best part! A side benefit is that it is much easier to import a case of malbec when you take your car instead of the plane :)

A visit to Pucon in the Lake District

Yes, yes, yes, I am WAY behind on my blog! I am playing catch-up now and have a few blogs that are ready to post.

About 1 week after Alison's parents left after a 5 week visit, Jeremy's parents arrived! Keeping with our short little tradition with visitors, we decided to rent another fabulous house for a few days, this time in the South within Chile's lake district in a town called Pucon.

The most notable feature about Pucon is the fact that it lies just beneath an active volcano - Volcan Villarrica. Our only other experience with volcanos was in Indonesia (Agung and Batur, in Bali - both of which we climbed), which were like smallish mountains with the tops cut off and only when you get really close to the crater at the center do you see a tiny bit of smoke rising upwards. Villarrica is quite different than this. First of all, it is massive and covered with snow all year round. Also, it features a large plume of smoke. Most importantly, the volcano is so active that it glows red at night. The house we rented had great views from the front and the back, of both the volcano and the lake. On the second night Jeremy awoke in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and ended up dragging me to the window to see the glowing volcano. I'm pretty much blind without contacts so I fumbled for my glasses in the dark so that I could get a look at what he was talking about, because I didn't believe it. But it was true - the volcano glows red at night. This startling amount of activity explains why Pucon has a sign in the town that reports how active the volcano is each day! What a place!

Along with volcanos come hot springs. On our first full day in Pucon it poured rain. We decided to pick the most remote hot springs that were on the map (just about 5 km from the Argentinian boarder, way up in the mountains) and dragged Jeremy's parents along on the quest. Pretty soon we were on dirt, washed out roads and crossing rivers on log bridges, thinking we would never find the illusive hot springs we were looking for. Eventually we came to a retreat nestled in the middle of the forest on the mountain and were greeted by an Austrian volunteer (very strange, but she enjoyed speaking German with Jeremy's Dad). The hot springs was basically a bunch of cabins in the woods, with 5 different pools in various locations in the woods, along rivers and streams. In the pouring rain, we enjoyed each and every pool, picking raspberries along the paths in between. If you are going to be wet, you might as well be really wet and in warm water, we reasoned! It was a perfect way to spend a miserable rainy day!

Jeremy and I also had the opportunity to sneak away for an awesome 16 km hike at the base of the volcano, which had stunning views and a wide variety of terrain that varied from lava trails from the last eruption in 1971, to forests, to alpine fields. There is a small ski hill (closed for the summer season) within the national park that scales the side of the volcano. Among other things, we enjoyed old fashioned kuchen from a local bakery, star gazing from the roof top hot tub, homemade pizza from the house pizza oven, fresh raspberries from the garden, a traditional Mapuchu meal and a brisk dip in the glacier fed lake at playa blanca.

We are big fans of BBC Earth in our house - it is one of the kids' favourite DVD box sets - and incidentally there are several parts that feature various areas of Chile, including Pucon. One of the scenes from the video is the ancient forests near the base of Villarrica (posted in this blog).

Overall, although Pucon is absolutely packed with vacationers in the summer months, it is a beautiful area of Chile to visit, particularly if you avoid the town itself and spend your time in the surrounding areas. We're eager to return to the South and head much further South next time into Patagonia, but that will need to wait until next summer!

Weekend getaway in Buenos Aires, Argentina

This blog post is about our two-night getaway to Buenos Aires, Argentina - the first trip without our kids since we arrived in Chile.

When my parents were staying with us, they offered to take care of William and Jackson for a weekend so Jeremy and I could get away on our own. We jumped at the opportunity and booked a 2-day retreat in Buenos Aires, which is about a two-hour flight from Santiago.

Upon arriving in Buenos Aires we knew we were in a different kind of place - even men greeted other men with a kiss on the cheek, mothers were breast feeding their babies in public (just like back home) and there was a huge undercurrent of creativity that you just don't see in Santiago, with many design houses and unique boutiques boasting Argentinean-made goods. In general, people seemed so relaxed and liberated!

We elected to stay in a hip part of the city, called Palermo Soho - which actually did remind me a little bit of Soho in New York City. We stayed in a small boutique hotel that was a private residence until about 5 years ago. The hotel was definitely not kid-friendly, which was part of the appeal. The hotel had a network of internal courtyards, with quiet places for reading or enjoying an espresso, with a Jacuzzi and a gorgeous dining room where we enjoyed breakfast each morning.

Even though we were only in Buenos Aires for 2 days, we managed to see a whole lot of the city by taking city tours and hitting the hotspots recommended by friends. The architecture in the city is breathtaking and has a real European feel (with a twist) - living up to the claim that it is the Paris of South America. Our favorite spots included strolling through the famous cemetery in Recoleta, attending a tradition tango show, experiencing the night life in Palermo and eating tons of Argentinean beef (which certainly can not be accomplished without a few too many glasses of malbec).

There were lots of unique sights to see, like a giant metal flower sculpture that opens during the daytime and closes at night - a gift to Argentina during the latest economic crisis to help "cheer them up". We also got to experience our first thunderstorm since leaving Canada - as we enjoyed a lunch on a covered terrace in Peurto Manera a dramatic storm blew in, which started off by violently rattling all the sail boats in the harbor and followed with torrential rain, thunder and lightening (note: electrical storms don't happen in Chile, so this was a real treat). To our surprise, once it started to rain it became impossible to convince a taxi to pick us up - it seems the Argentinean cab drivers suddenly become entrepreneurs when it rains and only select fares that meet their strict criteria. Soaked to the bone and worried we would miss our flight back to Santiago, Jeremy eventually cornered a taxi and convinced him to take us if we paid him double the fare (since he claimed the distance we wanted to go wasn't far enough). Despite the slight headache and getting wet, we had no issues getting to our flight with time to spare. If nothing else, I was left slightly impressed by the taxi drivers' ability to adapt their strategy to the sudden spike in demand. Who said the Argentineans don't have a knack for business?!! :)

While flying back to Chile over the impressive yet narrow stretch of the Andes, I noted a slight twinge of nostalgia that I had not felt before. As we descended into the green basin of Santiago, with the sun low in the sky and the gorgeous mountains all around us, it felt good to be "coming home"... back to William and Jackson, back to the eager grandparents, back to our small army of pets, back to our bungalow in Vitacura. It was nice to getaway for a crazy weekend but even better to come back to the things that matter most to us. The good news is that Chile is finally starting to feel like home.

Now it is time to "dry out" - no more red meat and wine for me for a while!

New Years in Los Vilos

Just getting caught up on blog posts…

On Boxing Day we packed up 4 adults, 2 kids, 1 dog, 1 cat and 1 bunny, plus all our related necessities, and headed out to Los Vilos on the coast for 7 nights of vacation. Given the large group of us we decided to take both the Kombi bus (driven by Jeremy, who had to leave over an hour earlier since it only goes a maximum of 85 km/hr) and the Subaru.

Los Vilos is located about 280 km from Santiago, on the coast about half way between Valparaiso and La Serena. The house we rented was in Bahia Azul, a small community of beautiful homes perched on the ragged coastal cliffs, just South of the city of Los Vilos.

Los Vilos itself is a blue-collar town – fairly poor and non-descript, with a lovely beach that is overshadowed by a large industrial conveyor from a nearby chemical processing plant. The best thing about Los Vilos is the seafood. Near the Northern most end of the town along the water’s edge there is a street lined with small restaurants, where enthusiastic waitresses run out and try to wave cars full of people down and convince them to come to their restaurant. During our stay in Los Vilos, Jeremy and I were privileged to go out for dinner at two of these restaurants (with grandparents babysitting the boys) and enjoy the freshest, most delicious seafood we’ve ever tasted. Locos, rieneta, jieva and muscles were our favorite treats, and of course they were paired with delicious home made pisco sours and lots of fresh avocado and tomato.

The house we rented in Los Vilos was spectacular. The house was located on the top of a cliff overlooking the ocean, with gorgeous mature gardens filled with flowers and cactus, and a winding path that leads down the rock to the sea, where there was an abundance of tidal pools filled with sea anemones, star fish, crabs and other interesting finds. William and Jackson enjoyed many walks down to the water’s edge, with Nana and Grandpa as well as us, to explore tidal pools, watch for seals and herons, throw rocks (every boy’s favorite past time) and collect various treasures. On New Years Eve, despite the skepticism of my parents, Jeremy and I collected sea salt from the rock faces below and used it as a rub on a wonderful roast destined for the charcoal barbeque – the results were delicious! New Years Eve was spent sipping champagne on the deck overlooking the ocean and watching red lanterns float up into the sky, with the thunder of fireworks in red, white and blue (colours of Chile) bursting over Los Vilos in the distance.

The house was mostly glass and every room boasted a spectacular view, and contained beautiful art objects and collectables, along with all the cultured amenities of home. The couple who owns the house are French (retired from the UN and spending time between Chile and France) and invested so much attention to detail in designing and building their home – it was the first time we really felt comfortable and at home since moving to Chile.

The week in Los Vilos was spent enjoying the views and local walks around Bahia Azul, but also visiting a different beach almost every day in the Kombi, to eat picnic lunches, build sand castles, enjoy long walks and take the occasional wade in the chilly Pacific. One day we ventured northward to Parque Nacional de Fray George, which boasts the only cloud forest North of Valdivia – which is remarkable since it is surrounded by near desert. Unfortunately we sprang a leak in one of our tires on the Subaru while driving the dusty roads of Fray George, but Jeremy impressed us all by changing the tire and getting us all safely to La Serena (about 2.5 hours North of Los Vilos at this point) to get the tire fixed and reinstalled for the equivalent of $6. La Serena is a lovely city with a beautiful historical center filled with squares, cobblestone streets and quaint cafes and restaurants. We enjoyed a seafood dinner there before heading back to Los Vilos and promising ourselves that we’d rent a house in La Serena at some point the near future (especially because there is a Humboldt penguin colony about 1 hour North of La Serena, which would be spectacular to visit). Speaking of wild life, one day we commandeered a fishing boat out of Los Vilos to visit Isla de Lobos to see a healthy colony of 1,400 sea lions. The trip was an adventure in the rough water, but it was worth it seeing the sea lions cuddling, fighting, and jumping in and out of the water as the waves hammered their rocky home. It amazed us how large the male sea lions become and we decided that it was best to keep our distance – although cute from afar, we were not disillusioned. Both William and Jackson loved the visit to the sea lions – the excitement wore Jackson out so much that he took a long yet awkward nap on the way back to port.

It was wonderful to have my parents visiting us over Christmas and New Years. They stayed with us in Santiago until Jan. 19 (last week), so it was lots of fun touring around the surrounding areas and showing them our favorite spots. They toured pretty much every possible destination in Santiago (and now know the city better than we do)… always making it home in time for the kids to wake up from their naps and enjoy a swim with their grandparents. Swimming every day with grandparents has resulted in both William and Jackson growing hugely confident in the water. William can now swim the full length of the pool without water wings and jumps in confidently, always finding his way to the side to hold on when he’s tired. Jackson is the water baby extraordinaire doing summersaults into the water (with water wings), floating on his back and cruising around at top speed with vigorous kicks. William has also mastered riding his bike in the last few weeks and races around the yard without a problem. Jackson is not yet coordinated enough to pedal his bike, but he’s starting to figure it out, as he eagerly wants to keep up with his big brother!

Christmas in Chile

This holiday season we celebrated our first Christmas away from home AND our first Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere. Everything about the lead up to Christmas and Christmas itself was a cultural experience.

1) Christmas Hype: Relative to home, there is very little hype leading up to Christmas - sparse and modest decorations (except in the malls), little if any Christmas music on the radio, an absence of the usual Christmas movies and specials on TV, etc. Also, at home we are accustomed to an endless stream of parties on the weekends throughout December and without friends/family nearby it was very quiet. Combine this with warm weather and it didn't feel like Christmas at all, until Christmas was actually upon us!

2) Work Parties: Our work parties were also very different than in Canada. Jeremy didn't really have an office party and I didn't attend Deloitte's party - long story, but essentially it was late (10 PM-5 AM), far (not actually in the city) and we were not allowed to bring spouses, so I opted out this year - getting lost in the middle of the night in the countryside by myself was something I didn't feel up to risking! Jeremy took William and Jackson to the Kinross kids' party - which was held on two days notice and occurred during the afternoon, on a weekday, in the office. Deloitte had a kids party, but similar to Kinross, it was held on a Friday morning at a theme park and everyone was expected to take their kids for a couple hours, return them to their homes and go to work for 1 PM. Again, I opted out - I couldn't fathom the logistics of doing this for a few hours of benefit and getting myself to work in one piece. Put it this way - we will have a whole new level of appreciation for the Christmas parties when we return to Toronto!

3) Christmas Feast: We surveyed friends and colleagues in an attempt to determine what a traditional Chilean Christmas dinner consists of. As it turns out, there is no typical feast - everyone does something different. We settled on a compromise; a traditional Canadian turkey dinner on Christmas Eve and Chilean BBQ on Christmas Day. Our turkey dinner was somewhat sabotoged by the fact that we couldn't locate a fresh turkey on Christmas Eve (despite earlier assurances that they were common), so we settled on a pre-cooked turkey.

Alison's parents arrived a week before Christmas, so it was wonderful celebrating with family in a different setting. We also hosted some friends who recently relocated to Santiago on Christmas day, which also made it special. Despite the worries of the boys, Santa made it safely from the North Pole to deliver gifts, including a cute black bunny rabbit who William named "Nightmare" - we're hoping he doesn't live up to his name! Santa enjoyed the Crystal (beer) that William left with him along with milk and cookies, figuring that Santa would need extra fuel for his long ride.

We hope you all had a safe and Merry Christmas, where ever you may have been! Although we enjoyed our Chilean Christmas, our thoughts and hearts were with you.

Our New Kombi

I decided that I would surprise the family with a VW Kombi for Christmas – there are tons of them on the road here because they were made in Brazil until very recently and they’re a common workhorse. I looked around, did my research and finally found a ’92, former Church bus, but was subsequently owned by a Yoga teacher (from whom I bought it). He hauled his family thousands of km in it from the deserts of the North to the glaciers of the South. It’s in great shape – all accessories work and it’s cleaner than most houses here, and came with lots of good karma. As soon as I picked it up on Tuesday, I couldn’t contain my own excitement, so I put the kids in the back and picked up Alison from the bus stop. I don’t think she expected it.

Wednesday was a national holiday – Conception Day - so I decide it was an auspicious day to take the Kombi for it's first family road trip. We headed for a colleague’s family ranch about 120km away.

Cruising in the Kombi is a great sensation – the kids love it, you go slow, you have a panoramic view out of the windows and seated right at the front. Plus you have to dig the rattle of the mechanically simple, air-cooled engine. The sun was out, the sky was clear and it was the perfect day for a trip to the country.

Well, here is what happened on the roadtrip. I had to take the highway transponder out of my Subaru, but it didn't work in the Kombi; I think the nice people who own the highways are going to track me down for a big fine. Then, I was pulled over in a routine police inspection (they seem to target old cars) and as it turned out, my emissions test is overdue. The cop confiscated my license and gave me 9 days to get the car certified. Ouch! Well, that wasn’t going to kill my Kombi buzz. I'm back in my groove. Cruising at 85km/h I came to a big hill as we were crossing a valley, so I needed to drop it down to third gear. Wow big hill, I say …does she need a lower gear? Okay down to 2 - the engine is at high RPM, and I wonder how much that air cooled powerhouse can put out. Suddenly, something doesn't sound quite right - and the battery light comes on. Smoke starts pouring in from the vents - light at first, enough to convince myself it's from oil on the outside of the crank case burning because the engine got hot on the climb- but then I look back and William is holding his stuffed animal to filter the smoke...I think, uh oh, better pull over. Alison was also freaking out because she was convinced to Kombi was on fire and that it was going to blow up.

Okay okay, I say, I will pull over and take a look. I go around back and open the engine hatch and think, hmm, I think there was a belt between those pulleys...and I look down and by coincidence, there is a perfect belt lying under the engine. How, I ask, does that happen, I don't know. Kombi Gods? The Kombi still could start and run, but the smoooke, the smooooke!

I waited for the engine to cool down, and said, well to hell with this, I'm gonna put that belt back on. And I did, with nothing but a key as a lever (felt like McGyver). But I go to start it and the battery is drained – while the belt was off, the alternator wasn’t charging the battery. Damn.

We sit on the side of the highway, waiting for my buddy to show up (he was going to back to get his truck and some rope to tow me). But he was way ahead, and I was anxious about sitting at the side of the road, so I pushed the Kombi (with the family inside) up a slight hill in the hopes of getting some momentum for a jump start. I almost got there but go too tired.

Well, I did manage to get her started again with the momentum of the tow. We got to the ranch, had a nice day with the horses and barbeque, but I was anxious about getting back to Santiago…would I have more problems on the way home? Would I get back today?

The Kombi started, and I managed to get us on our way. But something happened to the carburator setting because at low idle, it'd stall out. Everything was fine until we had to stop at a toll booth....she conked out about 3m from the payment window. I had to run up to the lady at the booth, pay my money, and say "lo siento, mi Kombi no va, uno momento por favor" and a couple people came out to give it a push and got me through the gate. I got it started, but had to learn to manage the clutch, gas and break at every stop.

We got home safe, and earned about 10 friendly beeps, a bunch of thumbs-up and the kindness of strangers. What a day it was.

Now, off to the Kombi doctor for a Revision Buena and a trip to the Planta Tecnica for my emissions check - I can't wait to have her back. Whoever comes to visit can have the keys to their own Kombi adventure.