Watch Your Step!
Be thankful the next time you walk down a sidewalk and don’t find a gaping hole for you to fall into. Or that you don’t stub your toe on a piece of the sidewalk that has buckled up. Dodging broken sidewalks (and gifts that the …
Author: Raquel
Invertebrates, Crustaceans, & More Easy 2nd Grade Spelling Words!
Have you ever wondered what would be on a Second Grade spelling test if you had to learn English as a second language? I’m not sure if “miscellaneous”,”molluscs”, or “vertebrates” would have been at the top of your list. But all those words and some …
Ben’s Escuela
So instead of being at the front of the class teaching, Ben has spent the last 6 weeks on the other side of the desk, learning what it is like to be a student again. Ben has had a great experience at the Escuela Spanish in Vina del Mar.
Feliz Fiestas Patrias!
September 18th is Fiestas Patrias, the national Chilean holiday to celebrate Chile’s independence from Spain in 1810. In good Chilean fashion, the holiday is celebrated for weeks! With lots of dancing, pisco sour, and yummy empanadas . . . Both Aliya and Asher enjoyed a …
Chocolate, Manjar, & Coke! Oh, my!
So, we can’t figure out if it is the most amazing marketing ever or if Chileans just have an insatiable sweet tooth, but we have never seen Coca Cola penetrate a market like it has in Chile. Everyone, everywhere serves Coke . . . to …
Loving the Beach Life!
We live just 2 blocks from the beach in Vina del Mar. There are so many amazingly fun activities to do at the beach. When Asher was asked what is his favorite thing to do at the beach, he said “There are so many fun things that it is hard to choose.”
So, here are pix of the fun things that we have done. Come visit and you can do them too!
Flying Kites:
Rolling in the giant ball
Jumping on the trampoline:
Playing on the structures:
Playing soccer and a new Chilean game we learned called “Tomatoes”:
Climbing trees:
And, of course, playing in the sand:
Spectacular Sunsets!
One of the unexpected pleasures of our apartment in Vina del Mar is watching the amazing sunsets from our balcony. Enormous container ships, suspended on the horizon, float between the buildings. Here are a few of our favorite pix of the sunsets in Vina del …
Galapagos Adventure!
We just returned from an incredible week in the Galapagos Islands preceded and followed by a few days in Quito, Ecuador–the Galápagos Islands are an Ecuadorian National Park. We spent six days on board the M/V Santa Cruz, an expedition ship with 81 passengers. Each …
Amazing Galapagos Animals
The animals in the Galapagos are truly unique, from Darwin’s finches (which were the basis for his theory on Natural Selection) to the blue footed boobies, penguins, sea lions, cormorants, frigates, and more.
Aliya’s favorite was the baby sea lion
while Asher loved the blue footed boobie!
And we were all amazed by the giant tortugas
Not those ones . . . these ones!
Here are some of the animals we saw:
Waterfalls & Chocolate in the Cloudforest!
We could have spent days exploring the wonderful area near Mindo, Ecuador! But we only had a day to hike the waterfalls and learn all about the process of making chocolate. From growing the cacao pods, to drying and sorting the beans . . . …