Chile | Day 5

I can’t believe it is only day 5. I feel like we have been gone much longer and definitely feel a world away from home.

This morning we left the mountain town of Farellones and headed for the coast. A last minute overnight that we worked into our agenda. Because it was last minute, we just booked the #1 ranked place to stay in the city per Trip Advisor. And I love it. Probably doesn’t hurt that the two owners are architects :)

Valparaíso is known as an artsy place that was once filled with mansions when it was the only port city in the southern pacific (nicknamed ‘Little SanFrancisco’). We wandered the streets today checking out all the street art, cobblestone roads, a cafe and a restaurant, and enjoying the amazing view from our hotel’s rooftop.

To be honest, all the bars on the windows and the dilapidated condition of many of the exterior building facades kind of creep me out, but once you get past that (petty theft is a problem here, violent crimes are not), the people are all still super nice and you can see the beauty of the city. And we are in a tourist neighborhood so there were a bunch of walking tours out today and lots of people wandering around taking pictures just like us. The city also has a slow pace to it. Not a ton of cars, not a ton of traffic noise, people doing road work by hand, selling goods, maintaining their property. And even though you can’t tell from the outside, so many of the buildings are beautiful inside. This is also a UNESCO world heritage site.

My favorite part of the day was probably another amazing sunset - only this time over the coast instead of the mountains. That and the amazing espresso I had earlier :)

Coffe shop / cafe outside:

And inside:

Chile | Day 4

Today we rode La Parva. It was another awesome, sunny, groomer day on the mountain. I wore a hoodie and a tank and was the perfect temp. There was hardly anyone on the mountain - just like at El Colorado. Lots of poma lifts, but none as violent (fast) as the ones at Valle Nevado. We also rode for a while with this guy, Jim, from Mount Hood. 

Peak bar

La Parva town

Afterwards, we hit up our favorite local restaurant for dinner (Montañes). I had the best chicken I’ve ever had with a side of roasted veggies. This was my first real meal out since we got here. So I ate it up! (We have been cooking oatmeal, pasta, snacks at our hotel.) We also had a round of pisco sours at our hotel while doing a little planning for our random overnight in Valparaíso.

Daily hike down the hillside 

Our lodge

Very chill day soaking in the mountains, one last sunset from our room, one last fire, and a few more rounds of cribbage :)

Chile | Day 3

Adventures like this one give you a great opportunity to learn. To learn about other cultures, the places you’re visiting, the recreation you’re pursuing, the people you’re traveling with, and to learn about yourself. Instead of a play by play of our day, I thought I’d recap a few things I have learned. In no particular order...

1. Chileans, at least in this region, are much more conservative of their resources than Americans. The hand soap and shampoo have labels instructing you to turn of the water while using. TP goes in the trash, not in the septic pipes. No plastic bags in the trash cans. No individual trail maps handed out with your tickets. In fact, two of the three resorts we went to didn’t even have trail maps available. You were just supposed to reference the couple posted out on the mountain. Similarly, the mountains did not have a shop where you could buy stickers, tee shirts, etc - excessive stuff you don’t really need. They did have socks, mittens, and a couple other necessities. 

These eco toilets were basically like going to the bathroom right into a diaper genie - lol! No water.

2. Shawn is awesome - the way he can drive a stick shift up and down these crazy mountain roads, through the crazy cities with signs we can’t read, and into these teeny parking spots. It never stops impressing me. Same goes for his ability to have a conversation where he only speaks English and the other person speaks entirely Spanish, yet the results turn out favorable - such as when I blew the fuse from my hair straightener and our room smelled like smoke! Or when he chatted up the bar tenders and ended up selecting and putting in the next ski movie in the bar. Also, it amazes me how our banks can decline our cards, we can have trouble with cash, and the check engine light goes in in our rental car all at the same time and he remains completely calm. But if the kids don’t put their shoes in their cubbies at home - beware! I guess we balance each other out in these types of situations :)

3. According to our hotel hosts, 90% of the people that visit this region are from Brazil. And for every 10 that come here, only 2 can actually ski. The others just want their photo taken with the skis. But with Wednesday being a holiday and Valle Nevado offering 2 for 1 deals, it seemed all of the tourists ended up on the mountain. Either standing on the slopes taking pictures or renting a jacket, pants and gear with the attempt to learn to ski / board. This made for a sketchy day on the slopes. Dodging newbies and bystanders and also coping with their lack of skills on the lift...

4. Even when you’re hot, your ski gear is necessary for protection. I’m disappointed I didn’t learn this earlier, but it was so hot that I had my sleeves pushed up in one scenario and gloves off in another. I ended up getting scraped by the snow from a mean Poma lift at one point and catching my hand on a sharp edge in a chair lift on our last run. Nothing more than scratches but when my main objective is to not get hurt out here, this lesson will stick with me. 

5. The sunsets here are spectacular. As are the people. I think I elaborated I this previously, but it is a huge take away from the trip. 

6. When traveling out of the country, you need to be able to go with the flow. Regardless of how much panning you have done (about a year for Shawn on this trip!) you can’t anticipate everything. Also, while on the tarmac at MSP, we decided to add another city to our itinerary (Valparaíso). Shawn booked the hotel literally as our plane took off into the air. Time will tell if this was a good decision or not...but I think it will be incredible. 

7. Getting out of your comfort zone can be good for you. This is a tough one for me, but I always feel grateful for the experiences in the end. 

8. Live in and appreciate the moment. At home, there are a ton of distractions and as parents and homeowners there’s always a huge to-do list. One thing we do better when we travel is to unplug and soak in our surroundings. Pay attention. Notice the details. So many things here are hand made. I notice the buildings the most. Things are repaired, not replaced. 

9. We usually try to blend in (like in Europe) but the only other blondes I have seen on this trip (maybe 2?!) have been from the US or Canada. Blending in is not easy, but also doesn’t seem necessary.

Lastly, a few photos from our day at Valle Nevado...

Chile | Day 2

Today was much more relaxing than yesterday. We slept almost 12 hours last night! Then had a chill morning in our room before heading to the ski area. We had tunes, oatmeal, Starbucks Via coffee. Even though we had some issues when we arrived yesterday, I love this lodge we’re staying in. Feels like a rustic cabin. You kinda have hot water, you kinda have a stove, you kinda have WiFi, kinda have a wine opener, all those quirks of a rustic cabin. And an amazing staff. They’re always checking on us and helping us with things like opening our wine or starting our fire. 

We didn’t actually make it to El Colorado ski area until almost 11 (it opens at 9), but with zero lift lines and zero crowds on the mountain, we got a ton of runs in. Definitely felt like summer riding. Hot sun, no wind, beautiful soft groomed runs. 

After riding, we stopped at the base for a beer / fries. Pretty entertaining to watch everyone from kids to grown adults moving to the DJs beats :) Like a 50 year olds taking selfie videos while jamming to the music, another guy standing on a picnic bench dancing. Just goes to show how happy and friendly the people around here are.

Chile | Day 1

I think I said this before, but someone recently commented that we ‘vacation’ a lot. It struck me beacause in my head, we don’t vacation... Vacation is relaxing. It means sleeping in, knowing what’s going to happen and when, likely sitting on the beach with a book and maybe even a couple Coronas. When we go on trips, it is usually a ton of work. It requires a lot of planning, occupying kids on the plane, we sometimes sleep through the night, we don’t sleep in, we carry them on hikes, we rent bikes, see and do a ton hoping we’re making good memories but are doing things much more in line with the word ‘traveling’ than vacation - to me at least.

If we usually ‘travel,’ today was an ‘expedition!’ I am relaxed now that we have made it but it was a big day. A big 24 hour journey actually - to get from our house to Lodge Cordillera here in the Andes. I have to say, Shawn has earned some major kudos because I don’t think I could have made it past the airport without him! 

Starting at the beginning, it’s always hard to say goodbye to the kids. They all did great though. Probably better than I did.

We got to the airport way too early (expected delays with it being a Saturday and the international piece but it was speedy). We had a beer at the airport Stonearch microbrewery. We transferred to Atlanta, had dinner at another brewery, then hopped on the 9.5 hour flight to Santiago. 

The flight went fast - we watched our first movie (‘together’ - on our own screens) in quite some time. I was naive to think I was going to get 8 hours of sleep on our overnight flight. Turns out it’s tough to sleep sitting up - even for a sleep-deprived mom of three. But we did sleep on and off for most of the night.

We caught the sunrise over the Andes from the air. Spectacular. 

It got a little trickier from here. 

We tried the ATM at the airport to get cash (we didn’t travel with any) but most of the button prompts are in Spanish, so when it kept declining our transaction we couldn’t really figure out why. It said to call the bank, but of course, we don’t have cell service here. And only have the one ATM card. So we proceeded without cash.

We kinda understood the rental car folks but didn’t feel fully informed from that process. They gave the vehicle to us almost out of gas and the check engine light went on about 10 miles from the airport. But, our car blends in with the locals, fit all our gear, and got us where we needed to go. 

Our next stop was the Chilean version of Walmart to grab some groceries. I noticed a ton of shanty homes throughout the city, lots of bars on windows, lots of litter (or maybe fragments of shelters). So when we had to leave our gear in the car to go in and shop, I had a hard time not thinking about what could happen. But we didn’t really have a lot of options. There were signs in Spanish that I *think* said something like ‘don’t leave valuables in the car.’ The security inside the store was way more than I had seen anywhere else. Lots of shoplifting deterrents like staff standing in aisles watching people, electronic alarms, and three security guards at the checkout lanes with armored vests. I wasn’t nervous about us in the store one bit. Their tactics seemed to be effective as I didn’t see any shady activity or shady people in the store. And there were a ton of workers, it was brightly lit, and they had music playing. When we went back down to the parking garage, there was a security guard pacing the aisles and some people pulling in and polishing up their cars. Just odd. But our car was fine (whew!)

We also tried the ATM in the grocery store and finally got it to kick out some cash. We think we were putting in $200 and it was converting to $300 which exceeds the daily limit. When we selected $100, it gave us $150 in local currency. Another whew :)

Then we had to fill that empty gas tank. We (Shawn) navigated to a gas station and through hand motions (“me, you”), we figured out that they pump your gas for you. Or maybe you can do it either way. In our case, they pumped, and we paid via their handheld payment pad at the pump. Our card did’t work. At one point, they had 5 attendants working on it. They were all smiling, polite, and determined to get it to work. Eventually we got our other card to work. Which was good because we already filled the tank and knew it was hard to get cash! (We actually just heard from Amex that they denied the transaction because it was foreign even tho we told them we were traveling).

At this point, I was very ready to leave the city and get out into nature. Soak up that fresh air. See the amazing mountains. 

We had a crazy (39 hairpin turns) but beautiful drive up to our lodge. And while the weather isn’t as great for skiing (lots of sun, little snow), it sure made the drive easier / possible!

We were pretty tired upon arrival at our lodge and were thankful that the sweet staff let us check in early. They were also so patient with our crude language communication skills. We (Shawn) hauled our gear up to our room and we got settled. We lost power for a bit but it was light out so was not a big deal and don’t have heat, so need to build a fire to keep warm. But it’s pretty classic rustic accommodations up here. Feels good to get settled in for the week.

All of this to say, it was a good day, but certainly more of an adventure than a vacation ;) I think we (mostly Shawn) did a great job of staying persistent and positive with each challenge and being resourceful to keep things moving forward smoothly.

We thought we might ski today, but we have had enough fun. We’ll hit the slopes in the morning :)

We wrapped up the evening with a local’s recommendation to hike down to El Montañes for dinner. Great environment, incredible view, and our first pesco sour :) I can’t say enough about how nice the people are here. Our waiter left his personal phone at our table so we could use it as a WiFi hotspot. Back at the hotel, one of the staff saw we didn’t have a fire going, so he came in and built our fire, while also telling us all about the region. Looking forward to exploring a bit tomorrow :)