Join the Adventure!
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 …
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 …
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 more challenging ones were on Asher’s second grade spelling test last week.
Asher attends Mackay, a bilingual – Spanish & English – all boys school in Reñaca, Chile.
Here is a glimpse of last weeks spelling list for Asher’s second grade class. Asher is doing a whole segment on Animal Classifications. So, his spelling list paired nicely with his science class curriculum.
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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 …
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 …
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 everyone! Little kids are served coke late at night. Temple goers are served coke on high holidays. At fancy dinners, people are served Coke. The vending machines at Aliya’s school even has Coke (but no bottled water without gas)!
In addition to Coca Cola, Chileans LOVE sweets! Every home has a container of little chocolates or candies. Chocolates and candies are often given out to the kids at school.
One of the treats Chileans love is a type of caramel called “manjar”, which is a bit like dulce de leche but sweeter and thicker (and often served in greater quantities). It is commonly found in “alfajores” – circular cookies with manjar in the middle often coated completely in chocolate.
Or in “cuchuflis” – tubular wafer cookies filled with manjar (also often coated in chocolate). Asher took a box of cuchuflis to school on one of the many days the kids are asked to bring a snack to share with the whole class (very different from the no sharing policy in the US).
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 …
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 …
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 day entailed 2-3 adventures including boat rides, walks on land and lava, and snorkeling trips.
Among the many animals we saw were: giant tortoises, penguins, iguanas (marine and land), sea lions, and many kinds of birds (including the famous blue footed boobies as well as frigate birds, mockingbirds, finches, and gulls). In the water, we saw (and swam with) sea turtles, sharks, barracudas, rays, and many other kinds of colorful fish. The amazing thing about the Galapagos is that you can walk among the animals and they ignore you; in fact, it is like you are invisible. You see nature from birth to death in its own habitat. Check out our post on Galapagos Animals to see more pix of the amazing animals indigenous to the Galapagos!
The guides on the ship emphasized ecology, conservation, and sustainability as well as history (Darwin and his historic voyage in 1836). We visited the Darwin Research Center where they are preserving native plants and breeding tortoises to ensure their survival and stability.
We met lots of wonderful people on board from all over the world: England, South Africa, Israel, Peru, Canada, and Argentina. Although there were no other children on board, there was a great family (the McLeans) from New Zealand in our expedition group–which was named the Gulls. Asher and Aliya loved being with their three kids and niece, all in their 20’s and early 30’s.
Highlights of the week included Asher snorkeling with a sea lion and having access to unlimited hot chocolate on board; Aliya doing karaoke, snorkeling, and being with the “big girls”; Raquel swimming with the penguins and taking great photos with her new camera; and Ben jumping off the ship (a planned activity) and open-sea snorkeling.
We also visited a sugar can plantation where the kids tried new fruits, squeezed the sugar from the cane, saw how “moonshine” is made, and leaned about roasting coffee.
We were there in the “winter” (dry season) which was a bit cooler, windier, and rougher–thank goodness for the larger boat which provided some stability. Nevertheless, we did have one night of very heavy seas. Due to the benefits of Dramamine, Asher and Aliya slept through the night; Raquel and Ben slept through most of it…..the positive side of the heavy seas–the Humbolt current–was the sea was full of plankton and other nutrients which allowed us to see whales one evening.
We had a wonderful view from our cabin:
Asher even had a chance to perform with the captain!
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 …