Family

Basking in family at the height of the holidays is something we’ve been very happy to do.  Though Christmas was different in our little cabana it was full of holiday cheer.  

Of course Kate always makes the little efforts that make the most difference!

Then my parents flew and drove over 4 thousand miles and 30 plus hours to visit us.  We were stoked to see them.  You never know just how important family is, until you aren’t able to see them or call them whenever you want.  

We had a great time with our family, sharing Jaden, exploring and sitting around the beach and cabana talking and laughing.

Of course, with visitors, Kate and I were able to get away a bit to do some of our own exploring.  

We climbed Volcan Villa Rica.  It was amazing to climb a volcano that was smoking, occasionally shedding rocks and making the most incredible rumbles.  

From the summit, we could see at least 4 other volcanoes, one of which was spewing endless amounts of ash into the sky.  Mother Earth is so powerful. 

I also went white water kayaking, a first!  A cross between surfing, skiing, and flying, kayaking is such a fun sport. I can’t wait to get back out there to do it again.  (sorry no picts)!

It was great spending the time with my family.  

We’ll have a few more days my Mom, then we have a few weeks to ourselves and then our luck is up again.  The Aldworths (Kate’s parents) are coming to visit.  When Kate finishes her job here in Pucon, we’re picking up and heading south again, this time into the reaches of Patagonia.  We are very excited by the prospect of more travel and adventure.  We might even find some more work.

Anyway, we love our families and are enjoying our time with them.  It’s been hard to do anything else, like update this blog. 

Here are some more photos that I thought I’d share too.

We've been to a handful of waterfalls that look just like this!  They are cold but absolutely refreshing to swim in.

We went to get honey from our local bee guy!  It was definitely organic.

Jaden loved his wrapping paper....the presents not so much.

His first finger painting experience.  

It's been really hot here.  Hose and sprinkler time is important.

The little details make it so much fun.

This water is actually warm, that's why my mom's swimming in it.  The water is snow melt, but runs through really shallow black, volcanic rock.  On the occasion that it pools, we jump right in and enjoy.  

These puppies were born under the cabana that my parents were staying in.  After several nights of living under there, the cabana owner and I pulled them out.  My parents slept a little bit better that night.

Jaden loves his Grandma "Kiko!"

mountains!

Many of you know that we have a place in our heart for the mountains.  We sadly said farewell to our beach side cabanas and lifestyle, packed the surfboard and towels into the shwarma karma mobile and hit the road southeast toward the Andes Mountains with excitement in our hearts.  Traveling can be like that….excitement typically has a death grip on all other emotions. 

We landed well in our wonderful little meadow cabana about 5 minutes walk from a big, refreshing lake (notice that the attennae is attached to a ten-foot stick).

Pucon is a wonderful little lakeside mountain, tourist destination.  The Germans settled here in the mid 1800s after Spain finally defeated the local indigenous population.  You see the German touch all over the place.  But obviously the most striking part of the town is the 10,000 foot smoking volcano that rises up and looms over the city.   It erupts on occasion and sends whoever’s here running for high ground (to get away from lava flow, glacial melt and mudslides). 

We’ve enjoyed making the walk down from the cabin in the afternoon to enjoy the hot black sand and cool mountain water.

We’ve been trying to hit the road in the mornings to see what beauty mother-nature has turned up in this area of the world.  This is a pretty strikingly beautiful landscape.

There are many rivers in the area.  We haven’t visited half of them yet and we’ve been here about a week.

But what we’ve seen thus far is amazing.

The Chileans are amazing people.  Their space etiquette is much different than ours in the US.  You could be sitting on an empty beach miles long and another group might show up and make camp right next to you.  This might bother you, except they are also very generous in their spirit:  smiling, laughing and offering you food and drink.  There is a wonderful vibe in the most crowded of places, like the main beach of Pucon.

We were invited to our first kayak race.  It was pretty awesome.  I think I know my next sport.

One of the things I love about the mountains is getting lost in the shear size and immensity of a place, yet appreciating the small details as well: the flowers on a small ledge, a tree growing up out of a crack in the rock, etc…

Jaden and I have been spending a lot more time together recently.  The time I’ve spent with him is paying off, as he wants to spend more and more time with me.  He’s also getting really heavy, so carrying him is harder and harder.

Nature is truly the ultimate classroom.  Today’s lesson: sink or float.  Jaden learned that rocks sink and splash, sticks float and unfortunately flowers float upstream??.  Oh well, there are more where that came from.

I love this photo.  It remind me of Where’s Waldo.  Hey, where’s Kate?  She is pretty camouflaged for this environment.

Anyway, as I’m sure you can tell, we’re having a great time.  We love and miss all of you in SB.  For those of you that are reading the blog, thank you.  I love getting those notes too, even if there only a sentence or two, keep them coming.

If you were to compare our trip to riding a wave, the last few weeks we've been fully barreled! Stoked!  Everything has been working out as well or better than we could have imagined.  Jaden has friends a touch older than him, that he runs around with constantly.  Kate's been working intermittently teaching English, she also has some girlfriends to spend time with.  While she's away and I'm at work, Jaden has been cared for by a lovely Spanish lady, Daisy.  Jaden is becoming bilingual.  His Spanish vocab is growing by leaps and bounds.  I've been surfing with friends and working everyday.  It's been the perfect scenario.  But the tube ride is almost over and it's almost time to get off this wave and do some paddling to get out again.

Four days ago we bought a new car!  YEEAAHHHH!  I've never had so much joy in a purchase.  This car will give us new options and freedoms that the bus schedule doesn't permit.  That's to say if it doesn't break down.

'95 Puegeot 505 (Estate Car) The ultimate rural mobile

In some countries it's used for a hurst or ambulance!

We call it the shwarma carma mobile!

We've also left Pichilemu and driven south on this amazing coast line to a quaint fishing village, Curanipe.  We're staying in some beautiful cabanas on the hill overlooking the ocean with our new British friends Lisa, Ossian and young Leo.  I don't want to say too much about this part of the coast, as it seems to be a hidden gem.  I'd like it to remain more or less secret and quiet around these parts.

One of many abandoned beaches

Jaden's starting to run, mostly away...

love this beach

Check out baby J's new swimsuit!  A one piece.

A few perks of our new place, pool, bbq, view, aaahhhhh.....

Hangin with the brits has been great!

We're still riding the wave that's been so wonderful, hanging with the brits, surfing and playing on the beach.  I need a few days to rest my body after the construction job.  Soon enough we're going to make our play for the mountains and a new wave/adventure.  Can't wait!

Chile does NOT disappoint!

With a coastline that is almost 2,700 miles long, you've got to expect that there are some quiet, serene and secluded beaches in which to explore.  If you're a surfer, you might find yourself wondering if there are secret point breaks, either unknown or rarely surfed, along this dramatic coastline.  From our experience, in the central region of this country, Chile does not disappoint...

Picture Big Sur stretched out for hundreds of miles in both directions without the tourism and paved roads.

Long, secluded sandy beaches,

dramatic headlands, morros sticking out the water,

lone, long point breaks,

rugged coastline in every direction.  It's got it all.

The best part is, no people either.  We've found ourselves on beaches with absolutely nobody around us in any direction.

Are there secret spots?  Sure!  But I'm good at keeping a secret....  These picts are from our weekend jaunts into the unknown.

Hmmmm!

YESSSS!

Penguins and Porpoises

Yesterday morning I was out surfing Punta de Lobos.  That's nothing new.  I've been surfing that spot almost everyday for the last month.  The great part about yesterday and the reason I'm writing about it today is two fold.  First, I had an incredible surf session.  I paddled out with two friends and we were the only ones out on a world class break for almost one and a half hours.  It was incredible conditions too.  The water was glassy, the sun was breaking through the morning clouds and the waves were 2 -3 feet over my head and consistent.  It was kind of like a dream come true.

Then the whole morning took a turn toward the sensational.  I saw my first South American porpoises.  They were cute, very small dolphins.  They looked more like channel dolphins but even smaller.

A wave or two later the penguins showed up.  You know the water's cold when you're surfing with penguins!

I haven't mentioned much on the wildlife here in Chile.  It's pretty great.  We've seen many animals.  Lately I've been taken by the large flocks of birds flying south for the summer.  Sometimes I feel like I'm on a Discovery Channel show.  I'm also impressed by the colorful insects and beetles that fly around everywhere.

I've also had a run in with a beautiful snake and an extremely small scorpion.  The snake was cool, the only problem was that it lived in a roof that we were trying to take off.  We were as gentle as we could be, as snake sightings seem to be fairly uncommon in this part of Chile these days.  Unfortunately, one of my Chilean colleagues got a little overzealous and the snake didn't fair too well.

As in most places, the ocean life has dwindled around civilization.  Punta de Lobos means point of sea lions (Sea Lion Point).  I've only seen a handful of them since I've been here.  Apparently they disappeared when the fishermen overfished the area.  This seems to be a common problem everywhere in Chile.  They have rules against this but it's hard to police such a long stretch of coast.

Anyway, the beauty and grandeur of this place never ceases to amaze.

The techie traveller

Kate and I have gone on numerous trips in the last ten years.  This is the first trip that we decided to bring along our computer.  The are numerous advantages and disadvantages to being a techie traveller.  

The advantages are obvious, we can tap into wireless networks and use our computer for all sorts of things.  We skype with our family, letting them see Jaden grow up.  In fact, they probably see him more now than they would if we were in Santa Barbara.  We email and call friends (gmail phone is awesome, 1 cent a minute to call the US from Chile).  We check Facebook and we stay up to date on world and US news.  Kate stays on top of her picture album projects and I update this blog when I can.  We also use the internet to study Spanish and learn about the Chilean culture.  Overall it's a wonderful thing right?

As great as it is, there are some pitfalls traveling with technology.  On previous trips, Kate and I spent a lot of time talking, reading, playing games and exploring.  We still spend a lot of time exploring but we find we spend a lot less time reading and playing games.  Why?  We have the ability to connect with friends and family, watch TV, movies, etcetera at our finger tips, all the time.  We found that after the first week or so of traveling that we really wanted to watch our favorite and only tv show (not to be revealed due to embarrassment).  We accessed www.hulu.com and realized that due to copyright issues we couldn't watch that show or any show on hulu out of the country.  Did that stop us? I don't think so.  I went to the Chile forum, which is a forum for foreigners in Chile.  I queried how to watch US shows in the Chile.  I quickly found that I could download a program that would route my Chilean IP address to a US IP address before accessing any US Internet sites.  10 minutes later we were watching our favorite show.  Two nights later, after a long day of traveling, we thought we'd watch a movie.  Easy!  

Recently, two days ago, I realized that I was watching more TV here than we ever watched in the US.  That coupled with the easy access to the internet and all the wonderful connections we make in email, skype, facebook, etc... we weren't talking as much, playing games, or reading like we use to or would like to.  That said, we've decided to make more of a concerted effort to stay away from the pitfalls of the computer.  We'll still skype, email, blog and facebook.  But we won't be watching TV or downloading movies from the internet near as often.  It will be a tasty treat to relax to on occasion, once a week, but not a staple of our daily diet.  

Hopefully with that in mind, the computer will only enrich our adventures, not take away from them.  We're here to do something different and immerse ourselves in a different culture, not that of the good ol' USA.

As promised here's a little treat from Jaden to you...

In a country where we saw a man cut a sizable lawn with scissors, you've got to suspect that a construction site might not be using all the latest technology to build a house.  I'm learning first hand how to build a house the old fashion way.  We leveled the foundation with a hose, we cut wood with a handsaw and we recycle as many nails as possible, straightening them against the ground.  It's been a backbreaking and entertaining experience.  I'm learning some spanish and fine tuning some of my carpentry skills.  The Chileans that I'm working with are ingenious, problem solving in ways I couldn't imagine.  They are used to making things work without the right material or tools.

I'm not belittling the way in which things are done here.  In fact, I think the house that we are building will be strong, last a lifetime and withstand any earthquake.  They do things really well here.  I'm interested in seeing how the finer details of the house, the finish work, turns out.

Speaking of work, it turns out that Chile's normal work week is 45 hours, rather than our 40 hour work week.  They work 6 days a week for 7.5 hours or 9 hours a day for 5 days, rather than 5 days a week for 8 hours.  Maybe that's one reason their economy continues to grow while ours has stagnated and even lessened of late.

That's all for now.  I've got to get back to work!