But what did we do this past week in Santiago??
Well, the 21 hour bus ride to Tacna, Peru, which, while being the most comfortable bus we've ridden on thus far and included dinner/breakfast, was not as advertised and didn't have wifi, made stops in the middle of the night, had minimal air conditioning, and a rude waitstaff. It was a very, very long 21 hours but the boys were outstanding as usual. They slept through the night with no issues (in a single seat, crammed together) and with the help of a few movies, we made it with minimal complaining. We arrived in Tacna around 2:30pm and a very nice Peruvian girl who was traveling with us offered to help us get our bags and through the two terminals to the international collectivo taxi terminal. She walked us through and then, as she was traveling to Arica, Chile, as well, offered to share the taxi with us and help us through customs as well. The collectivo taxis (there are also collectivo buses but we chose to pay a bit more (20 Peruvian soles per person) and go private for the sake of the kids) are international taxis that specialize in taking you and your belongings across the border and help you out with the customs and immigration. Our driver took our passports, helped us fill out the paperwork, and got everything organized before we left the Tacna terminal. When we got to the border, he walked us inside immigration where we got our passports stamped and then had the cab waiting for us on the other side. Then we stopped a few miles down on the Chilean side of the border and shuffled our bags through security to check for illegal vegetables and fruits. This, of course, is where Gabe decided to have a blowout poop and where the customs agents died laughing when I took off the Ergo and found that it was filled with poop. I had to wrap up the poop-covered baby (and Mommy!) and push the disgusting baby carrier through the x-ray machine, while everyone was good-naturedly laughing at me, all while watching the two other kids and our bags at the same time! It was an adventure, but it always has been while traveling with kiddos! After all of the border crossing business, we drove the remaining few minutes into Arica, where normally the driver would drop you off at the taxi terminal, but where we got very lucky and happened to see our hotel and just have him let us off right there! Our hotel was very small but really nice and this is the first place we've had air conditioning since we've been in South America...what a treat! It was late (and we had changed two time zones) so we elected to eat in the hotel's restaurant downstairs, shower, and head to bed. Our room rate included breakfast so after eating our fill of made-to-order eggs, toast with cheese and salami, and a jelly-roll type pastry filled with dulce de leche and covered with shredded coconut, we ordered a taxi to the Arica airport. It was very small but very clean and modern. We checked in with SkyAirlines, SkyChile with no problems and within a couple hours were flying to Santiago! SkyAirlines was amazing and offered coloring books and colored pencils for the boys, an infant-in-arms seatbelt for Gabe (haven't seen that before!), and a free, hot lunch on our two hour flight! We were very pleased and glad that we spent the extra money for flights instead of an additional 30 hours on a bus.
When we were planning this trip a year ago, we asked friends for any contacts they might have in South America and an Aggie friend, Stacey, told us that she had an uncle in Santiago who might help us out. When we emailed him, he was more than happy to share information and even offered to pick us up from the airport and take us to our apartment! We happily agreed and when we landed, there he was, waiting with a sign and a van he had borrowed from his work! Mr. Rodrigo, as the boys call him, has been a lovely friend and speaks perfect English and while driving us from the airport, showed us all the sights and gave us a little info on the city. He saw us inside and upstairs to our very nice and renovated apartment, overlooking the city.
It's small but efficient and is within walking distance (about 1/2 hour) to Santiago's Plaza de Armas, the main heart of the city. It has a little market and a pizza place about a block away. I say a "little market" but actually since Santiago is by far the most Westernized city we've been to, to date, it has all the amenities that you would find in a typical US grocery store. The apartment is on the 20th floor and has an excellent view of Santiago's skyline and we see the sunrise (at 8am!) every morning over the snow capped mountains. Like most of the Air B&B homes we've booked, this one comes fully furnished and equipped with basics like pots, pans, utensils, and sugar and spices. This makes traveling that much easier...when you are traveling for this long (and especially with kids), it can be expensive to eat out 3 meals/day for the entire journey. So, we shop at local markets and cook at home whenever we can. This helps the kids with homesickness if you can make their favorite meals and saves a lot of money. Plus, for us, it's always fun to have a native dish out and then try to recreate it at our house!
The first day we were here, we walked down to an indigenous market and shopped around for souvenirs and presents like copper or lapis lazuli, a beautiful blue stone mined here in Chile. We didn't find anything that we just had to bring home so we headed to the nearby Santa Lucia Hill. Santa Lucia is a small hill in the center of Santiago, Chile, and is the remnant of a volcano 15 million years old. The hill comprises a large park adorned with ornate facades, stairways and fountains. At the highest point there is a viewpoint very popular with tourists visiting the city. It was originally called Huelén by the pre-colonization inhabitants, however, the current name comes from the day in which Pedro de Valdivia conquered the hill, on December 13, 1541. That day celebrates "Santa Lucía." Its first use by its conquerors was as a point of reconnaissance, or a lookout in the years of the Conquista. In 1816, the Brigadier of the Royal Engineers, proceeded to draw and build on the Santa Lucía Hill, two forts or castles, one north and another south of the hill, built of stone and lime and able to put eight or twelve cannons each. A few years ago, Fort Hidalgo was restored and reopened to the public. Traditionally, a cannon shot is fired exactly at noon. It is a gorgeous place and the boys enjoyed climbing all over the park as the sun was setting.
The next day, we walked down to the Plaza de Armas and visited Metropolitan Cathedral of Santiago, Central Post Office Building, and the Palacio de la Real Audiencia de Santiago. All of the buildings are just stunning and surround the park with central fountains. The high-rises around the plaza reflect the old architecture in their plate glass windows which makes for a stunning scene on a sunny day. The cathedral is neo-classical in style and begun in 1748 and completed in 1800. It's actually not all that old because of the area's many earthquakes, but it is just beautiful, inside and out. After picking up a bouquet of fresh flowers, we were picked up at our door by Rodrigo and driven to his lovely home to meet his wife, Pia, and children, Maria and Rodrigo. They are a wonderful family and we were shown every courtesy as Pia served homemade pisco sours and appetizers as we chatted in their art-filled living room. She even had toys out for the baby and crackers and juice for the boys. South America is similar to Europe in that dinners are usually served after 8pm, so as I was putting Gabe to sleep in an extra bedroom, our boys ate their dinner first while we sipped our drinks out of crystal aperitif glasses. Then the younger Rodrigo found an English version of Curious George and the boys were set for the rest of the evening while the adults had a delicious four course dinner including lasanga, pascualina (a spinach and ricotta pie), salad, and three desserts and we talked about their travels to the US and our travels to South America. Maria is a veterinarian and will get her Master's in vaccination studies this year and Rodrigo studied in Canada for awhile last year. They both speak perfect English and by the end of the evening, we had invited them to Texas! We have definitely made life-long friends with the Bravo family!
Yesterday, Mike had plans to take a bus down to Talca, Chile, about four hours south, to view a piece of property. As luck would have it, while we were telling the Bravo family about our plans, Rodrigo laughed and told us that he and Pia grew up in Talca and would be more than happy to drive us down there and show us around. The boys and especially Gabe had coughs and runny noses from the changing climates, so I stayed here with the boys and Mike went with Rodrigo and Pia. The boys and I did some homeschooling, laundry, grocery shopping for our week in the country, played at the playground, and generally had a relaxing day, while Mike explored further south in Chile. He saw a 6.7 acre property with a three-bedroom house. It was covered with grapevines, blackberry brambles, two streams, four cows, and fig trees! Talca itself is a small town but this land was getting up into the Andes mountains to the east of Talca and was stunning.
Today, for Mother's Day, Mike made us all scrambled eggs and chocolate chips muffins and later today, our WWOOFer host family will pick us up and we'll be off the the farm for the week! Wish us luck and we'll be back online on Saturday, ready to regale you with our adventures on a working farm!
Love this post! Gorgeous pictures (as always) and a great narrative. I'm still chuckling about the Ergo blowout 😂. That will make a great family story for the history books!
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