Trip to Chile

When Tom and Lorna were called to serve in Chile on their mission, Joe and I talked about how much we'd love to go visit them. I'd never been south of the border at all and Joe had only been to Mexico. South America sounded awesome. Then, two years went by in a flash and suddenly their mission was almost over. We talked to Mary and Andrew to see if they would be willing to babysit our kids for a trip like this (since we had watched theirs for a couple of short trips). We knew it would be a big undertaking but they were willing and so we booked the trip for September--just out of Chile's winter and coming into spring so we hoped for good weather. It ended up being a great trip!

Mary and Andrew (and Luke and Nora) came to stay at our house and Andrew was able to work remotely. We left while the kids were at school one day and took a Lyft to the airport. We flew out of SFO to Houston to Santiago. The flights went well. The long one down to Chile was tough since it was through the night and I couldn't sleep. I ended up just watching movies and playing Sudoku. Joe slept a little bit but not too well either. 

The Andes were amazing to see from the air:

We arrived in the morning in Santiago and got through customs pretty quickly. We're pretty sure we saw the US ski team in line. Then we found Tom and Lorna outside. It was so good to see them again! They drove us back to their apartment and we put our stuff away. We went out that morning to see some of the sights. We walked from their apartment to the temple and the CCM (MTC). Tom had an appointment with a missionary so Joe and I set off to explore and get lunch. We walked quite a ways through the nice downtown area and found some delicious gelato and split a salad. 

On the way home with Tom and Lorna, they showed us the municipal buildings:

All decked out for the Chilean independence day--Sept. 18:

We crashed pretty hard and napped for like 4 hours after that and then they fed us dinner. It was a good first day. 

Saturday we slept in and took our time getting ready. Then we walked over to the CCM for lunch at the cafeteria there. It was fun to see all the cute missionaries. After that, we took Lorna to visit a sick sister missionary and then went to big grocery store there. They had some good samples of sausages--a favorite food there. We got some game day food and came back to their apartment to watch the BYU/Wisconsin game. The CCM president came over to watch it too. What a great game! I don't think any of us thought they'd win.

Sunday, we went to church. I tried my best to catch anything at all during sacrament meeting. I was quite proud when I figured out someone was talking about the title of liberty. It was fun to sing in Spanish, too. We went to the English Sunday school class with the other senior missionaries and had a great lesson. Then we headed back to their apartment. They had some calls and things to handle so Joe and I went out on our own that day. We walked to some sights. I loved these street performers that come out at red lights and do tricks for money:

We went to Santa Lucia--a small hill in the middle of the city that has this old fort built on it.

We also visited La Moneda, the presidential palace

On Monday, Tom and Lorna took us to Maipu, which is where they used to live. It was more middle-class and felt a little more like real Chile. We visited the chuch there--Templo Maipu--which was huge and beautiful inside:

I loved the stained glass:

We ate a delicious Peruvian restaurant they'd found when they lived there (Chilean food isn't the best :).

A mural in Maipu:

Another day, we visited Los Domincos, a really cool place where tons of local artists have shops. They had some traditional dancing in the main square, too:

The Cueca is their national dance and we got to see that a lot.

Beautiful view from their apartment:

We went to San Cristobal one day--this is a much bigger hill just outside of Santiago that you can take a gondola ride up.

An actual llama at the bottom. We didn't want to pay for pictures so this is the best I got:

On the gondola ride:

Inside the chapel at the top:

The view was amazing at the top:

 

I loved this area where people could leave prayers:

There are lots of street dogs in Chile but they seem pretty well taken care of. It cracked me up the way they just lie down in the middle of somewhere to sleep:

We got some traditional mote con huesillo at the top, too. It's like a peach drink with wheat berries. It wasn't bad!

We spent the last couple of days looking for Independence Day celebrations. We were excited when our trip coincided with Sept. 18th but unfortunately it rained and so that meant everything was postponed. It was funny how everyone else seemed to know that but us. Eventually, they held the celebrations, but I guess not as grandly as they had been the year before. Still, it was cool to see the military parade:

The kids did great with Mary and Andrew. I think it tough on them not being in their own home (and taking care of 6 kids!) but they rocked it and we were so grateful to know they were in good hands. We got this picture from them after they'd taken them to a farmers market and let them pick one thing to get. Surprise, surprise--they all picked bread! :)

They even sent us a video of Natalie accepting a challenge to eat a habanero to win free veggies. We were so impressed and so was everyone there in the video!

It was a great trip but we were so glad to come home to our kids again!