Happy holidays everyone!

The last week has been a great one because my family has been around - my sister flew in about a week and a half ago and my parents flew in on Christmas Day. Tomorrow we meet my brother at the airport in Santiago and then fly directly to Temuco. From there we rent a mini-van, and for about a week the six of us will drive around what is called the Lakes Region of Chile for a week. We're very excited, and we're hoping to have some pretty spectacular pictures for our next post. There should be some amazing hiking to be done and we are really excited.

We've spent the last few days exploring around Santiago. On Friday we drove to the coast and visited Valparaiso. One of the coolest things about Valparaiso is that there is some really intricate graffiti and murals. Lots to look at as you aimlessly wander.


Valpo is full of cool street art. Here's a particularly interesting piece:


Here we are in front of Pablo Neruda's Valpo house (beloved Chilean poet/politician/collector). Very cool house - built overlooking the harbor, and designed to be like a boat. He was of extremely eccentric tastes and his houses are amazing.


Here's my sis and mom hanging out with Neruda in a park after the visit:



On Saturday we got back in the car and checked out some vineyards about 60km west of Santiago. We toured an organic winery and it was very cool to learn about how they are able to keep the growing chemical-free (llamas were part of the process!). Amazing wine and amazing food. I guess the family knows how to deal with a generous wine tasting...



We spent today around Santiago - here we are with my dad, checking out the view from San Cristobal (the hill that has the huge statue of Mary on top).


We miss everyone back at home, especially now that it's the holidays! It was great getting to check in via skype with Justin's fam over Christmas, and we're looking forward to seeing more of our nephew Jacob's army-crawl! We'll be traveling for much of the next month and a half but we'll blog when we can!

Chillin' in Chillan

Hola amigos!

Last weekend we headed south to Chillan with our friends Ian and Lissa. We couldn't make the whole 400 km on Friday night, so we stopped and camped along the way. The site was right along a river, so one of the first things we did while it was still light out was take a quick swim. Because it's Chile, there was a dog hanging out at the site that followed us around (even into the water):


The campsite had a cat too, and Claire was pretty delighted at its moustache (the complete opposite reaction, in fact, that she had to my Top Gun moustache in October):


We found marshmallows at a store a couple of months ago and were excited to roast them around the campfire, but it is HOT here these days and by the time we pulled the bag out of the car it had become one giant marshmallow. We were undeterred.


We also made the most out of the campfire by using a long-exposure to write a message in fire to everyone at home...


On Saturday morning we made it to Chillan, a city about 6 hours south of Santiago and surrounded by a chain of volcanoes. We stayed further into the mountains, but on Saturday we stopped in Chillan to check out their market. Lots of stuff (fruits, vegetables, alpaca sweaters, zubaz/hippie pants that tons of people wear around here, and a muppets "Animal and the Electric Mayhem Band" t-shirt that fits Claire perfectly).


The Plaza de Armas in Chillan also has what I'm pretty sure is a statue to fist-pounding (which, by the looks of this guy's hat and sideburns, people have been doing here for a couple of hundred years):


We stayed at what ended up to be a pretty great hostel in the mountains. Here's the view we had from our bedroom:


The landscape was really incredible - the town was in a valley that looked like it had been carved out by a glacier, and on both sides there were volcanoes with very visible lava flows. On Saturday we hiked a mountain one side of the valley. In the background you can see the mountain range that we hiked the next day.


When we got back to the hostel we took advantage of their pool (and wood-powered hot tub!). The days are getting long here in Santiago, and they were even longer in Chillan. It's probably around 8:45pm in this picture, and you can see how bright out it still is.


Sunday morning we got up and headed to the other side of the valley for another hike. This one took us right along a lava flow from about thirty years ago. It was like being on another planet or something - everything was black lava rock, and there weren't any plants anywhere near us.


The lava rock was incredibly porous and so even big rocks were really light (the one below is probably only about 2,000 pounds).


Eventually we parked the car and hiked the rest of the way.


The flow stopped really abruptly right at an old, abandoned ski lodge.


There was another family hiking around the lodge and the son was particularly proud of a catch he had just made:


We started up a climb that ended up being about 1,500 meters in elevation gain. Chileans don't seem to be big fans of switchbacks on paths, so a lot of the climb was pretty steep.


Lots of really great views along the way up:


A pretty cool lagoon at the top of the mountain:


Finally, to the very top...


Right near the peak we found a really weird-looking grasshopper/scorpion/thing that probably only a biology nerd would find cool (I thought it was awesome):


The way back down:


We had Monday off for a Catholic holiday, and so we had time to investigate some waterfalls we had spotted on Saturday's hike. Here they are:


Then... back to work on Tuesday.

You'll notice that I am NOT including a mullet shot in this blog installment. This was done intentionally to build up anticipation for the next mullet. It will possibly be the best one yet: the mullet I will have after school gets out this Friday.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Happy Holidays!

Hi everyone! I am sorry that it has been a while. It is all my fault. It was my turn and I've been delinquent. We are about to embark on another long weekend trip. We are headed south to Chillan for some camping, hiking, and hopefully sitting in thermal springs of a scalding temperature.

Justin last wrote when I was off on the Week Without Walls trip to surf camp. There were goods and bads on this trip. The bads: bratty-ness, being a chaperone, 18 year olds making shockingly stupid decisions, surf guides acting like surfers...a lot of stuff that wasn't at all surprising. I was hoping that I would find the students very endearing after this trip. The reality? Not so much. It is hard to like kids to whom it doesn't occur that no one is going to put their bags on the bus for them or cry when they don't like their room assignments. The goods: surfing, some kids who are wonderful and fun and helpful, some excellent new friends in the other chaperones, surfing, finding out that when a wetsuit fits it actually does keep you warm, feeling sufficiently beat up by surfing but having no significant damage to my face (like last time...many of you remember my attractive chin at Stasi and Bob's wedding).

I got back at 7:30 on Saturday night and went straight to the open mic. Below is a picture of the all-woman bluegrass band I played with. Yes, that is me playing the bass and it wasn't half bad! And I kinda liked it! It was really fun to play with the girls. Having had some experience being the only girl playing at the show, it was fun to not be.


I wish I had pictures of Justin and my set (or a recording for that matter). We were quite happy with our performance and if I do say so, we were a big-time crowd pleaser. Our song selection worked out really well and we got lots of positive feedback. We were even complemented on our "showmanship." Those of you who know us as "artists" know that we consider this a much bigger compliment than "you sounded good." But I think we did that too. All in a all it was a successful night. Justin sang leads for the first time on the Avett Brothers' song "The Fall" and kicked some major butt. He also provided high pitched harmonies on "Paradise City" and "Don't Stop Believing" and sang during "Take On Me." I also did my first public falsetto (those of you that know "Take On Me," it was during "..in a day or TWOOOOOOOOOOOOO"). The night on the whole was really fun and we work with lots of talented people.

The weekend following was pretty uneventful. Thanksgiving here was a 150 person potluck hosted by my gracious principal. It was pretty amazing and very delicious. We only got a half day off of school. That, combined with the weather, really didn't make it feel like Thanksgiving. I'm pretty grateful for this fact. With Christmas decorations in stores having gone up in October, I completely ignore them now. As sad as it sounds, I'm glad I don't know that it is Christmas because it would make me very sad and miss people, sounds, smells and the rest of it an unbearable amount. As a person that annually experiences intense Christmas nostalgia even as Christmas is going on, I would be a homesick mess. Things like the first "Christmas Happy Fun Day" in DC in 2001, rule-laden Chicago gift exchanges, all Finn-Lee family Christmas Eves...I need to stop now.

Last weekend on Sunday we went on a mission to find a good swimming spot. Our friends Ian and Lissa, our usual accomplices, joined us. Through a bizarre twist of events we ended up at a ski resort 10k from the Argentina border. Justin was determined to swim, however. The picture below is of Justin swimming in a lake that was absolutely GLACIAL. And because we were so high up it wasn't warm at all. I am a friend of cold water, but this was ridiculous. Justin later told us that as he was swimming back he would have liked to yell something to us but he physically couldn't do it because he couldn't really breathe.
There were lots of beautiful waterfalls on this drive from all of the snow melt. The scenery never fails to blow us away.
The day ended where it began as we jumped, resignedly, into the pool at our apartment building. Only 300k and 6 hours later. Not a bad way to kill a Sunday. We are about 2 weeks from the end of school and are anxiously awaiting our summer break. I can't believe we have been here for 5 months! Meg arrives in a week and a half and the rest of the Finn clan about a week later. We can't wait!

We miss you all and send lots of love! There will be many more pictures of mountains (are you sick of them yet? we aren't) from this weekend's trip. Besos!

The Return of El Presidente

Hi everybody!

Yesterday we went on a hike in Yerba Loca, a nature preserve about a 25 minute drive east of our apartment. Right as we pulled in there was an ENORMOUS tarantula crossing the dirt road (so big that we almost stopped the car to let it cross in front of us), and I'm pretty disappointed I didn't get a good picture of it - we've heard from a few of our friends who live outside the city that they see big ones around their houses sometimes, but this was the first that we've seen. Sorry, no tarantula picture. But here's the beginning of our hike...

...the middle...


...and the end:


Last weekend our school had an annual festival called Kermess, where international students and their families set up booths to sell traditional food from their country. About thirty-five countries were represented - some favorites were falafel (Israel), capirinias (Brazil), crepes (France), sushi (Japan), and waffles (Sweden). Plus Canada had really good rice krispie treats. Argentina's booth gives a pretty good idea of what things were like:

There were some cultural demonstrations as well - here's a pretty great picture from a group that was representing Easter Island. A lot of similarities to the Maori (although maybe Maori guys wear less revealing outfits):


Way back during our spring break trip we took a picture of a newspaper cover that had a dude with ridiculous blond hair who was rumored to be running for president. Well... that guy was at Kermess last weekend. I would like to take this opportunity to resurrect, in all of its glory... EL MULLET DEL PRESIDENTE!


Awesome.

And here's a parting shot of a hilarious rock band of 10 year olds that oddly "opened" for the Easter Island demonstration. Hopefully when we play at the fund-raiser next weekend Claire and I can manage to match their performance.

Claire left for surf camp this morning in La Serena with a group of students. Hopefully in the time you've taken to read this she has become an expert surfer (although I think she'll be satisfied with just avoiding any bruised chins or black eyes - unlike the last surfing venture in Costa Rica...).

Take care - I hope everyone is doing well!

Hello family and friends (and bored U.Wisconsin students). Chile is getting warmer. We're getting antsy for summer and visitors. I predict the next month is going to fly. At the risk of losing valuable readership, I have to say that we're moved, elated, hopeful, sad we couldn't be in Chicago on Tuesday but thrilled to see our city represent, and really proud about what our country did. I'm also deriving some personal pleasure from watching the Republican Party self-destruct before my very eyes. When Fox News is reporting on how dumb Sarah Palin is..well...just sit back, watch the show, and try to keep your hands away from the mouth of the mother that is eating her young!!

We've had some good adventures in the last two weeks. Again, seeing new stuff around Santiago, getting into nature and this time, getting into the local wine scene as well. Our friends Ian and Lissa live up near school in Lo Barnechea/LoBa (aka "the country") so we like to do city-country exchanges. They came down for the gourmet food fest, so we went up there for a different kind of food fest--a choripan taste test. Choripan is the basic staple of Chilean asados. It is a nubby chorizo sausage in an above average bun (chorizo+pan=choripan). There are approximately 73 brands of choripan. We tried to make a dent by taste-testing 3. We also went for a great hike basically out of Ian and Lissa's backyard. I should note that Ian has built a cornhole set. This is a strictly midwestern game that involves skill and focus (and beer). You throw beanbags in a hole. It is excellent backyard entertainment. I hated it when people played it in our neighborhood at all hours and whenever the temperature broke 40 (thereby obnoxiously blocking the sidewalk). In Chile, I love it.

This afternoon of backyard entertainment was followed by a scrutinizing screening of "Top Gun." This included taking notes and pausing scenes and rewinding them. Why you ask? Because of THIS:

[Above: Viper, Ice Man, Maverick, and Goose--Happy Halloween!]

Last weekend was a long weekend. Why you ask? I again, refer you to the picture above. That's right. Halloween is a holiday in Chile. So we had a long weekend which means lots of time to explore. Again, we teamed up with Ian and Lissa and headed south into wine country. We met up with some other folks once we got down there. An amazing part about Santiago is that you can get out of the city very quickly. We were well within wine country in about an hour. It was beautiful and very cool.
For whatever reason, I love taking tours of wineries. I find it very exciting (kinda like those segments on Sesame Street where they show you how orange crayons are made--it's so cool!). This was the pre-wine tour picnic...

And the tasting!

The next day we went to a beach town called Pichilemu. This is supposedly one of the premier surfing spots in the world. The day we were there there were 8-10 meter waves!! There weren't that many surfers who braved the waves but those that did were pretty amazing. The weather was pretty crappy--totally clouded over. There was one hour where the clouds cleared and our picnic got totally awesome. One of the best parts about going to the winery in the beginning of the weekend was that we had a ready stash of wine at a moment's notice. So even though we didn't have total sunshine, we did have good wine. Picnic pics below...
You might have noticed from the pictures above that, unlike Ian, Justin did not shave his mustache after Halloween. So I got to wake up to that for the rest of the weekend. Kinda like the spooky Halloween trick that keeps on giving (or tricking).

There was another break in the clouds later in the day that provided a new opportunity for wine and a great sunset.
Our night in Pichilemu was lots of fun and included finding our friend Chad's friend's house and bonfire for some sing-a-long, followed by latenight empanadas ricas y fantasicas.

Pichilemu has an interesting Boston connection...
And a bizarre food specialty...look carefully.
We had a beautiful drive home. With fields upon fields like the one's below:
We're feeling really lucky to have some fun, adventurous friends in Ian and Lissa (we stayed in some kinda nasty places and everyone was still in a good mood) and keep loving all of the cool things we see. I will leave you with one final oddity about Pichilemu. They sell these in their local markets...
Used school folders from the 1980s and 1990s featuring various metal bands. Go figure. We might have been too distracted by the pretty stuff to take mullet pictures. Please believe that mullets did abound. We are continuing to work on our setlist for the upcoming acoustic show. We have been given a somewhat featured spot on the lineup which makes us nervous. Who do they think we are? Beardog?

Much love to everyone!