Join the Adventure!
Here is Asher’s view of the big Temblor that we experienced our first month in Chile: This is what it says: “THERE WAS AN EARTHQUAKE! Hear the story? On the ipad, we were watching YouTube Matty B. The earth started making sounds. We turned up …
Tired of waiting for traffic lights to turn green? Bored of sitting in traffic? Come to Vina del Mar, where there is always some fun entertainment while you wait for the light to turn green! Check out this guy who is juggling pins while balanced …
So what is one of the most important professions in Vina del Mar, Chile?
Being an electrician! As you can see from these photos, it is not an easy job to keep the power on.
The scary thing is that even little kids can get close to the live wires!
One of Ben’s favorite past times is taking photos of the crazy collection of dangerous wires strung together, layered on top of each other, or dangling down within arms reach. Check out some of these tangled wires!
Want to know how to get someone to pay their condo fees? Let the whole condo know exactly who is behind on their condo fees and exactly where they live by posting it in the most prominent place in the building – in all of …
So, if you had some problems with Asher’s last spelling list of “Crustaceans” and “Invertebrates”, try spelling some of these easy second grade words. Keep in mind, that most of the kids in Asher’s class are learning to spell these English words as a second …
Often Ben and I go out for lunch—it is the Chilean tradition to have a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner. Most restaurants have a “menu del dia” or “Menu Ejecutivo” (menu of the day) which offers a 3-course meal at a discounted price ($4,500 pesos = US$7.65). Here is one of our favorite restaurants called Colores Santos (“Holy Colors” at 12 Norte). Most have a blackboard in front with the options for the day—this day had some very local specialties:
We had the Saquitos Gratinados as an appetizer: a tortilla shell holding roasted vegetables—zucchini, carrots, and palmitos (Raquel’s favorite)—and cheese.
To drink, we had fresh fruit juice made from chiramoya, a delicious Chilean fruit. Then we had the Charquican con Huevo Frito (a stew with a fried egg on top). It had a base made out of pumpkin squash with carrots, peas potatoes, corn, zucchini, spinach, palmitos, and some ground beef.
And finally, for dessert (el postre), we had Helado Artesenal Manjar & Coco. It was homemade ice cream with manjar (a sweet, creamy spread that is similar to caramel) and coconut. A VERY sweet ice cream in the Chilean tradition.
And because it is Chile. We got a receipt for the meal.
Although the local Chileans didn’t even notice, it was a big night for earthquakes. We had four of them on Thursday night ranging from 4.1 to 5.2. Vinamarinos (the local term for people from Vina) don’t notice or mention earthquakes until they reach 7.0 or …
At first, they look like child locks—cabinet locks designed to keep children from playing with (breaking?) cups, glasses, and dishes. But then you notice they are on all the cabinets even the ones that are five feet off the ground…where children can’t reach them. What …
One of our favorite quick weekends away took place in the lush wine growing area of Colchagua, Chile and the town of Santa Cruz.
The adventure began as we drove through the strawberry growing area. (Of course, we had to buy a punnet of strawberries and a bag of palta – avocados – on our way back to Vina!)
After about a 4 hour drive, we arrived at our wonderfully rustic yet elegant hotel, Residencia Historica de Marchihue.
The next day, we visited the eclectic Colchagua Museum – the largest museum in Chile which is owned by the controversial arms dealer, Carlos Cardoen.
The museum had everything Chilean from Mapuche silver, weapons, and cowboy gear
to a recreation of the old Colchagua Railroad station and the 33 miners who were trapped in a copper mine in San Jose.
After a yummy lunch at the Viu Manent vineyard restaurant,
we went to two very local Rodeos, where we saw a show of Sau Sau/ Haka dancers
and Huasos playing musical chairs on horses!
Ben’s favorite part of the Rodeo was the station next to the kid bouncy houses where anyone could step right up and shoot a loaded BB gun in a crowd full of people to win a liquor bottle dangling from a string!
They had lots of BBQ
And my favorite was the huge wine-tasting tent! We were in the major wine region of Chile, of course!!!
The next day, we took a private tour of Viu Manent vineyards
on a horse drawn carriage.
We were given a tour of the facilities,
where we tasted wine out of the barrels
And from the glass.
The grounds were stunningly beautiful with horse back riding next to the vineyards and the Andes in the background.
What a great place for a playground!
Before leaving Colchagua, we had a delicious lunch at Pan Pan Vino Vino
‘
With one of the best desserts that we had in Chile: a papaya stuffed with blueberry ice cream! Yum!
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 …