Our Visas Arrived!!!

 We got tremendous news on Monday, Drew finally received his Pensioner's Visa, a breezy 10 months after applying. HOORAY!!! We get to officially stay!!!! This is a bit of an epic drama, and I want to document it for my own sanity, but it probably won't be the most exciting post to date. You've been warned.

Being the more detail oriented one in our relationship, I took on the task of applying for our visas. We decided to apply for a Pensioner's Visa, which means we needed to prove we had enough passive income from the various sources in the US that we could support ourselves in Chile without assistance or a job. This makes sense, right; they want to make sure we won't be a drain to their social network, living there for years, which is designed for local citizens or people with jobs who are contributing to the system. A pensioner's visa would last two years, with an option to extend an extra year if needed, so it fit our timeline perfectly. And the income threshold we needed to prove for a family of 4 was only $36,000 per year. A work visa wouldn't apply for us, as we were not working for any Chilean companies and had no work contract to speak of. The tourist visa, on the other hand, allows you to stay in the country for only 3 months, after which you need to leave the country. You can come back in immediately and restart the 3-month clock, which is actually quite kind. Many countries don't let you do that, or they put bounds on it: you can only be here 90 days out of 180 days, that sort of thing. So entering on a tourist visa and doing the back and forth thing was our backup plan if our visas didn't come through. Turns out that's exactly what we had to do when we arrived in January because the process took so stinking long. 

To apply for a Pensioner's Visa, we needed to get many documents together, which took me about 3 months of work, literally. I am so glad I wasn't trying to juggle this and working a full-time job at the same time; that would have been almost impossible. Most of the documents were no brainers: marriage license, birth certificates, passports etc. However, in 1961, a whole bunch of countries got together and said, "How am I, Chile, supposed to know if any of these documents that come from you, U.S., are accurate and valid? It's impossible for me to be an expert in every state's licensing procedure, and there is no way for me to verify any of this. So we need a system to handle this." The convention was called the Hague Convention Treaty of 1961, and the system they came up with is to have documents apostilled, aka stamped with a special stamp that proves that the document was verified by the issuing government body and that it can be trusted by this foreign country. The system makes sense. But, what it meant for me personally was that every document I had needed to be apostilled by the issuing state's Secretary of State. So for instance, Drew and I were married in Michigan, so we needed to have our marriage license apostilled by the Michigan Secretary of State. Luckily, they have a system where you can order the document online, and it gets mailed to you without needing to go there in person. The boys, however, were born in Colorado, so their birth certificates needed to be apostilled by the Colorado Secretary of State, which required an in-person appointment, but since we lived in Denver, that was no big deal. Below is what the Apostille looks like. That gold stamp is actually a sticker that wraps around onto the actual document you are verifying. 

And finally, Drew and I needed to get FBI background checks, which required us to get fingerprinted at the post office. Once we got the background checks back, we had to mail them to the Federal Secretary of State to get apostilled, and we had to hope and pray that they did this and sent it back in a timely manner, because we needed to submit our application with all the documents within 45 days of our background checks being issued. Again, makes sense as they don't want a newly minted felon to be allowed into their country, but that meant the timeline to get everything apostilled and submitted was very tight. Finally, we had a whole bunch of unofficial documents, our leases, our budget (they wanted an estimate of what we planned to spend every month, so they could make sure our passive income covered it), the boys' academic transcripts, etc., that we needed to get notarized first before taking them to the Colorado Secretary of State to get apostilled. Myself and the boys needed to get our passports renewed, as they would all expire within a year of us being in Chile. It really was an incredible amount of work. I began gathering all the documents in March, and I officially applied in June. I naively assumed that 6 months would be plenty of time for them to process our paperwork, online it says 3-4 months is normal, but I was very wrong on that. 

After we submitted our application, we wait until we get one of two things. Either they say "No, something is wrong, please fix this and resubmit," or you receive a summons to one of the Chilean consulates scattered around the U.S., where they are supposed to check over your paperwork in person and verify the paperwork is real and that the human is real. Drew received his consular summons in early August, so I was thinking everything was on track. We had been working with the Houston consulate during this whole process for a couple reasons. One, that was the only consulate that when I called I could get someone on the phone. Two, it was the closest one to Denver, so I figured it would be the cheapest/easiest one to travel to when the time came. We showed them Drew's summons, and the consulate general there said, "No need to come in person, FedEx us the documents, and I'll check them over, and FedEx them back to you." We did all that in August, receiving the thumbs up right before we left for Burning Man. At this point, Drew's online status was updated to "Final Resolution In Process," but myself and the boys remained at "Consular Analysis." That threw up a red flag in my brain, but for a month I let it lie, thinking that since the boys and I were dependents of Drew, his status was the only one that mattered. And his summons was the only one we had received, the boys and I didn't receive anything, so.... shoulder shrug? I began to get antsy, this was end of September, so I began calling the Houston consulate on an almost daily basis, asking if something was wrong. "No, nothing is wrong." I also submitted help tickets to the official online platform, but only received the same automated responses, "You can check your application status online." Thank you, so helpful. During this time, we were meeting with Juan Manual and his wife Vanessa weekly to practice our Spanish. I'll have another blog post of Juan Manual and that entire coincidence, but the short story is Juan Manual was a Chilean, an immigration lawyer no less, living in our neighborhood that we had met when the wife, Vanessa, rear-ended Brian (Drew's Dad) who was driving our car while we were in Burning Man. We were sharing our visa troubles with him, and he assured us that he knew this guy and that guy in this department and that department, and that our visas would get approved by the end of October. We couldn't believe our good luck! Our problems were solved! Well, Drew had the faith, as is his nature. I had the doubt, which is mine. Needless to say, October came and went, and there was no change in anyone's statuses. This entire "over promise, under deliver" phenomenon is inherent in Chilean culture, we've now discovered, as they are essentially anti-confrontational and don't share bad news. But, again, more on that in another post. 

At this point, I'm getting desperate. I begin calling and then emailing every Chilean consulate in the US (there are half a dozen), asking for help. Praise the Gods that one kind Gen Zer at the Chilean consulate in Chicago emailed me back, saying I could call her direct line and explain what was going on. I do, and she immediately says that it was unusual that only Drew received a Consular Summons, that myself and the boys should have each received one as well. WTF! Why didn't myself and the boys receive ours? All spam folders were scoured, and nothing. It seems this is a glitch in the Chilean online platform, the dependents' emails aren't sent out appropriately. But why didn't the Houston consulate say anything? They processed Drew's paperwork, for God's sake, why didn't they ask where my and the boys' summons was? Why didn't the immigration office tell me that this is what was holding things up when I was submitting help ticket after help ticket? The signs were there, (our application status online), and I should have pushed harder  and sooner from the registered red flag in my brain, but I didn't, I trusted the system. Fail. At this point, the kind Gen Zer said we could FedEx all of the needed documents to her in Chicago, including our passports, and she would perform a second, expedited consular analysis the same day. This was two weeks before we were supposed to leave for Chile, so I was freaking out that our passports wouldn't come back in time before we needed to leave. Plus, Drew was, at this exact moment, actually in Mexico on his last guys surf/vball trip for a while, so I had to wait 3 days until he got home from his trip before sending in everything. This was right before Christmas too, so I was sure something was going to go wrong: the package would get lost in the holiday shuffle, my Gen Zer would take PTO the entire week around Christmas and not deliver on her same day turn around, who knows. But, she was the all star in this saga, as most Gen Zers are, and I got the call on Dec. 26th that she had performed our consular analysis, and everything looked good, and she was getting our documents in the mail that afternoon. We received them on Dec. 28th, and we flew on Jan. 8th. 

At this point, all of our statuses were in "Final Resolution in Process" phase, but nothing changed before we flew on the 8th. So, we were officially moving onto Plan B. We'd enter on a tourist visa, and do the 3 month back and forth boogie while continuing to try to move our Pensioner visas forward. There was a chance that by entering the country as a tourist, our application for a temporary resident would be jeopardized. When I asked my Gen Zer about this, her automated response was "it is highly recommended not to enter the country while your application is still in process," but that was all she could say. So, we took the risk, knowing that even if our Pensioner's visa never materialized, we could survive on a tourist visa. One morning about a week after we arrived, I was checking our application status, and I noticed that myself and the boys had been flagged as having some kind of error. More help ticket submissions, more calls to my Gen Zer, "I know nothing about the process beyond the consular analysis, sorry." At this point, I research that there are two immigration offices in Santiago, one you can make in-person appointments for and one you can't; it's admin only and not public facing. However, every time I check over multiple days, the in-person appointment slots were completely booked. We try contacting Juan Manual again, and he says there is a friend who works at the admin only office that would meet us and help us. So, one morning we travel to this office, and find a long line of refugees waiting to be seen. Apparently there are so many refugees from Venezuela and other countries that this second office has been commandeered as a refugee help center. We wait in this line for 15 min, while we speak to a kind non-profit type person who is there to help the refugees with their paperwork. She tells us her boss can help us, for a small fee, of course, and when it becomes clear that the person we were supposed to meet wasn't going to materialize, we very warily follow this lady to her non-profit's office two blocks away and meet with her boss. He says he can't help us, but he does share that the in-person appointments become available on Friday mornings at 8am for the following week, and that's when you have to sign up immediately or they are gone. We paid him $10 for this cheat code, but it seemed like a small victory at the time. Friday morning, I go online and was able to book an appointment for the following week. We go, the lady there says everything is fine, this error message is actually another glitch in their system, and we just need to wait. Great. Two days after this, my and the boys' error messages so away, not sure if that was because of our in-person visit or not.

But since then, we were waiting for an additional 6 weeks when on Monday, Drew received his Electronic Stamp, and myself and the boys received ours on Wednesday. Whew, what a process. We still have one last thing to do; we need to leave the country and then reenter showing our Electronic Stamps which officially starts the clock on our two years allowed in the country, and presumably they stamp our visa into our passports. The timing is actually good, our 90 days on our tourist visa runs out on April 8th, so we needed to leave just before then anyways. So we will be taking a camping trip April 5th and 6th to Argentina, just across the Chile/Argentina border that goes through the mountains and then on to Mendoza. 

All in all, the process took 10 months, with 3 months of prep before that. Now, there was arguably 3 months in there that likely could have been shaved off if we had received our consular summons all at the same time. But we still would have blown the 6 month window I had given us originally. I am proud of ourselves for making it through this on our own; almost everyone we talked to recommended using a relocation company and/or an immigration lawyer. Would it have been a smoother, easier process with hired help? I am sure. But hell, if anyone should be able to figure this out, it's me, right? I'm intelligent, detail oriented, and diligent; I can do this! Well, I emerged on the other side battered, bruised, frazzled, and 4 months late, but I did it! Time to celebrate.  

Book Club and Code Switching

 

I joined an English speaking book club a few weeks ago. I figured it would be a nice way to meet people and get out of the house, and it encourages me to read books that are a tad more thought provoking than the Elin Hilderbrand beach reads I've been into as of late. Not to discredit Elin Hilderbrand; her books are well written with high levels of imagery and drama, perfect for when you want something light and fun. But, I figured it was time to expand my horizons a bit. The book club was a super fun group. It consisted of Americans, Brits, and a Russian lady. The oldest lady was 80 (reminded me of GG!, she was sharing how she's trying out using AI for research paper inspiration, ja!), with the majority of ladies ranging in their 50s and 60s. I was the youngest, and there was one other younger mom, probably 40, and another mom who was 45ish. There were 8 ladies in total, and none of them were native Chileans. But the really interesting thing about the group was that all of them have been living in Santiago for 10 years or longer, with the 80-year-old having lived there for over 50 years! 5 out of the 8 women had married a local Chilean, so Chile is their home now. But, they said they would never be considered "Chilean" to a local, which, I'm sure they have mixed feelings about. They had incredible perspectives on what living in Santiago as a "foreigner" is like, across a vast array of political and social climates. I hope to learn more about them as the book club continues. They meet once a month at a different lady's house every time. I was excited by this, to be able to see how other folks live in Santiago. They also bring dishes to share that are in theme with the book. Yummy. 

The first book we read was James, by Everett Percival, which is a remake of the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn except from the perspective of James, the enslaved person. I have to admit, I read Huck Finn in high school, but it's been so long, I didn't remember much about it, so I used AI to give me a plot summary, themes, etc. I normally prefer to read on my kindle, but as I joined the book club late, I only had 4 days to read the book, so I was trying to squeeze in reading while walking to pick up the boys from school, doing laundry, etc.) So I actually listened to James as an audiobook, and it was actually a great way to do it, because, within the book, James switches the way that he talks depending on whether he's talking to white people or other Black folks. When he's talking with white people, he uses worse grammar and vocabulary to ensure he comes off as illiterate. The book talks about how this was a defense mechanism used by enslaved people, as white people became scared and prone to violence if they thought they were dealing with an intelligent Black person. However, when James spoke with his fellow enslaved people, he spoke with better grammar and vocabulary, as he is actually literate. I was floored by this, as I always assumed that people speak in certain ways due to a lack of access to education. I didn't realize that some people choose to speak in other ways to placate white people, which is on example of "code switching." Code switching is where a person changes their speech patterns and possibly even their mannerisms and clothing depending on the social situation they are in. Everybody does this to a degree, whether they realize it or not. I would do this back home, switching between very formal language and clothes at work and using more casual language and clothes when at home with family and friends. 

But, I was making a very minor change, so much so that I didn't realize it was a thing. But, that is because of my privilege and upbringing as one of the majority as a middle class, white person, I've never had to code switch substantially to keep myself or my family safe. Some Black folks in the US have chosen to do it for numerous reasons literally since slavery. Even now, some Black people in the US code may choose to switch between AAVE (African American Vernacular English) or other ways of speaking and "proper" English. I realize now that the following assumption is racist, and I didn't even realize I was doing it before thinking deeply on this topic. It goes to show that we can all do better. There is always more to learn and more to ways to grow. I always assumed Black people who spoke in AAVE were doing so because of a lack of access to education. However, there are many incredibly well educated Black people who speak in "proper" English while in more formal settings, and then speak in AAVE or some other way of speaking with friends and family, not because they don't know better, but because they want to honor their ancestry and history when speaking with friends and family. And who am I to label "proper" English as "good" or "correct?" Language is how we communicate to others through words and sounds. If the other person understands me perfectly, then isn't the language I am using perfect? 

I have become keenly aware of code switching now that I am trying to speak Spanish on a daily basis. This is code switching on a very basic level. However, going one level deeper on the ties between racism and code switching, when I speak very poorly in Spanish, because I am white, most people I interact with give me the benefit of the doubt; she's probably an intelligent, hard working person, she's just a beginner in Spanish. But, if a Black person were to speak "proper" English and make mistakes like I am when I speak in Spanish, some white people see them as unintelligent and lazy. 

I have also never had to use code switching to keep myself or my family safe. Imagine if I needed to speak in perfect Spanish at the border crossing into Chile; otherwise, I could potentially be beaten up for no little to no reason. This thought experiment seems absurd, doesn't it? I can tell you, it was not on my list of worries when we entered this country. It wasn't a worry because I am a white, middle class American, and I get to take advantage of the safety and security that provides me. There are many people every day who do have to worry about how their accent labels them as from a disrespected country or race, and that their safety is in jeopardy because of this. Chilling isn't it. 

The topic of code switching goes very deep, and I'm so thankful that this book and our move has brought this idea to the forefront for me. But that's the point of all this, isn't it? There is a podcast on NPR called Code Switch that goes into alot of race topics. I haven't listened to any of them yet, but it looks interesting, so I thought I'd share: https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510312/codeswitch Also, thanks to Leah for editing this blog post for me. Working in the DEI field, she has always has valuable insight. 

Birthdays

 We just wrapped up the second week of school and have started getting into our groove. The boys attended their first Chilean birthday party, and that was a trip. First of all, it was for the entire class, and the numbers add up quite quickly: 30 kids + 10 siblings + 1.5 parents on average per kid, that's 85 people!

 This particular party was held at the communal event space of their apartment building, which was very nice and designed for exactly this purpose. It had a lounge area, a bar area, a giant outdoor table, a grassy lawn, and finally a little playground. The parents had hired face painters/activity doers/animal balloon makers for the kids. Emerson chose to be a "tigre," and Avery chose just to watch. 

We noticed a couple of interesting differences between a Chilean party and a US birthday party. First, when we showed up with our present and handed it to the little girl and her Mom, instead of putting it in the pile of presents to open later, the little girl opened it on the spot! I also noticed that while most everyone seemed to bring a present, most of the presents were very minimally wrapped, as in "here's the paper bag it came in from the store with Happy Birthday written on it" minimal. Which makes some sense because when I was looking for wrapping paper for our January Christmas, it was slim pickings. Second, the cake was not the gigantic decorated monstrosity it is in the US. For the 85 people that were at the party, the cake was about the size of a loaf of bread, and it was very adult looking, a dulce de leche something.  It had candles but no kiddy decor: no sprinkles, no unicorn colors, no Pokemon decals. And the slices they cut were microscopic. I might have been a bit miffed at this, as were the kids because I made all four of us share one slice of cake. I DON'T GET MY OWN PIECE OF CAKE AT A BIRTHDAY PARTY? WHY THE HELL AM I HERE THEN? was the boys' attitudes. But their feelings quickly flip flopped when they learned there would be a piñata. Difference number 3, all the parties here have a piñata. Except they don't do the whacking with sticks routine, too many kids I guess, the parents just pull a cord and it opens. One good idea this Mom had was she had her hired helpers have other bags of candy that they threw around the outer edges of the child mob pit, so they weren't clawing over each other and got to spread out a bit and there was enough to go around. 

The kids had a good time I think. It was for Emerson's class, so he was running around playing with the kids he knew. 

Avery found a toy motorcycle and zoomed it around the whole time. 

Drew and I managed to converse in Spanish the majority of the time, but it's amazing how exhausting it is to be trying to speak in another language for an extended period of time. Mentally it feels like you've just taken 3 finals in one day, every day. More on this exhaustion in the next blog.

Last Tuesday it was actually my birthday, the very benign 37. Drew curated a very lovely day for me. The night prior I got to skip bed time and attend a new book club, more on that later too. Then I got to sleep in, which is always a treat. After school drop off, we went and had coffee at a new coffee shop that just opened around the corner from us. Drew and I returned home and saunaed for 20 min or so. Yes, our building has a sauna, and only Drew and I seem to use it. Maybe that will change in the winter, but right now we have it to ourselves. Then I got to read my book on our lovely patio (for those of you who are waffling on whether to visit, our patio in the morning will make it worth the trip, I promise) for a bit before heading to a 90-min massage from a wonderful Filipina lady that Brian found, and it only costs $35. After that, I returned home while Drew got the boys from school. Then a couple we meet in the building of our Airbnb came over to sing happy birthday real quick and eat a delicious chocolate torte Drew picked up from a bakery down the street. All in all, a lovely day.

First Day of School

Today's the day! The sun is shining, the tank is clean! The boys officially started school at Bradford School, a bilingual British school, on Tuesday, and so far it's going as well as it could go. School starting was the last big thing on the horizon before we settle into normal life here. I am personally very excited to get into more of a routine, and I know the boys are excited to play with kids other than each other. Don't get me wrong, I think they've grown alot as brothers in the last few months, and I think they will continue to learn to depend on each other through this journey. But a variety of playmates is a good thing too. On Monday, we had a 1st grade orientation as well as a new family orientation. It basically meant we got to meet the teachers, tour the classrooms, see where their desks were, where they hang up their backpacks, etc. Prior to this, the boys were feeling a bit anxious, mostly just dealing with the unknown. But once they saw it all, and they could visualize it in their heads, they felt much better. The anxiousness was now only about "how will I make friends when I can't speak Spanish with my classmates?" But, we kept reiterating that they will find a way to communicate and that we do hard things, and the boys seemed to accept this. So Tuesday morning was actually very easy. They were excited to go, and there weren't any tears or battles. Now, as most parents know, the first day can be easier; it's exciting and new. It's the start of week 2 when they realize that this is their new normal for the foreseeable future that they start pushing back. So, I'm well aware their feelings about school will fluctuate, as most things do. But, so far, everyone has been extremely kind to us, and teachers seem amazing. The boys will be speaking 70% English/30% Spanish in actual classes, but most of the kids are native Spanish speakers, so they will default to Spanish at breaks, lunch, etc. This is exactly what we wanted, so hopefully the boys don't feel underwater with too much Spanish in class, but they still get exposed at a level that they become conversational if not fluent after the two years. I'll keep you posted!

Because March is considered a warm weather month, they boys are allowed to wear their shorts, so, so far, we haven't had any pushback on wearing uniforms. But, I know I need to start getting Emerson used to the idea of wearing his dress pants once we get to April, and the weather cools off. And we need to practice wearing a belt. But luckily two days a week, he gets to wear his "sports uniform" which consists of a dry fit shirt and either shorts or sweat pants, so he'll be all about that. 

School is an easy 12 min walk from our apartment, and I'm very grateful we chose to live within walking distance, because the drop-off traffic is impressive and is not something I would have enjoyed dealing with every day. 

After dropping Avery off at his classroom, there were building blocks on his table that I think he had at his old school. He grabbed them immediately and started building. I could see his brain going "I recognize these! I know what to do with these! Yes!" And away he went.

Emerson chose his desk right at the front when we had our tour on Monday. He came home saying he had a twin at school. When he said he had a twin, I assumed he meant someone that looked like him, and I wasn't sure how that was possible, because I had seen the class photo, and he's the only blonde boy in the class. Is this an imaginary friend? But that was a misconception on my part, he just meant they have the same interests. He's just like me! His birthday is May 8th, and mine is May 9th! We both like building with legos and playing football (soccer!). He lives in our building! (not actually true). Duh, Mom. You don't have to look like another person for them to be similar to you. Isn't that the whole point of this? Emerson was talking about the kid sitting right next to him, his name is Matias.

As expected, Emerson came home saying he had made 3 friends, and it was great. Avery came home saying it was a 3/5 day, and he didn't make any new friends, but he wasn't upset or sad. For those of you who know the boys well, you'll know this is spot on for these two. Emerson is my more outgoing friend maker. Avery is more reserved and an independent player. So, it was not surprising whatsoever that Emerson came home with friends and Avery didn't. But Avery will in time, he just takes it slow. And he also always has more friends than he lets on. One little girl ran over and rubbed his hair while saying goodbye at the end of the first day, so he was clearly interacting to some degree. Also, funny coincidence, Avery is in the Kinder "B" class, and their class mascot is the Ballena (whale!). As is also normal for the first week of school, the boys hold it together at school and then release all of the pent up emotions, frustration, and tiredness at home, so we've had a couple tantrums and early bedtimes. But, about what I expected.

In addition to the boys getting to make new friends, Drew and I have been ingratiated into the parent world at Bradford. During the 1st grade tour, all of the parents were sitting the classroom listening to a presentation by the teachers, where they named us as the new family, and we got to wave to everyone. I didn't know this, but, apparently, when all of the families join the school in pre-kinder, the school keeps that class and the families together all the way through 3rd grade. They don't mix up the classes each year like the did back at McKinley-Thatcher. So these parents have all known each other for two years already. This will be both nice and not so nice. Nice because as the "new family," Drew and I are getting alot of attention, I suppose because we are shiny and interesting in our newness (and foreignness). But, the kids also all know each other really well, and there might be cliques. I'm hopeful they will include the boys, but you never know. Only time will tell. The main form of communication is through Whatsapp, there are groups for both of the boys' classes, which his very helpful for us. We are also getting thrown into the world of birthday parties. These are "the entire class gets invited" birthday parties, which is actually great for us, because they will be obligated to invite the boys regardless of how close the kids are. We already have 4 on the books for March and April! And I need to take some notes, because we'll be needing to do the same thing for Emerson in May! The last interesting thing about the parent world is that the parents dress way more formally than I am used to. But, this is actually not a Bradford phenomenon, but a Santiago one. They just dress way nicer than we do in Colorado. My plan is to continue my yoga pants and exercise shirt routine, because 1. I just can't wear nice clothes all the time. I don't enjoy it; it's uncomfortable, and I don't have a good sense of style anyways, so why bother. (I see now where Emerson gets it from.) 2. I don't care if they judge me for being too casual. I'm going to stick out as the foreigner anyways, so trying to "fit in" is a losing battle. This is partly a self-esteem preservation tactic, but I'm changing enough in this process, I don't need to change my wardrobe too. :) 

Baños Morales

Last week, we took the Adventure Van, aka the Ballena Blanca (BB), aka White Whale, we're still trying it out, for her first journey out! The seat belts and A/C installation was complete, so it was time to hit the road before school started the following week. We mostly wanted to spend time in the Van itself and get a feel for her, figure out what organizational improvements could be made, test out the systems inside, etc. So we stayed relatively close to home, just in case things went sideways. We drove up the Cajón del Maipo, which is a beautiful valley about 2 hours southwest of the city, to the tiny town of Baño Morales. It's about an hour of city driving as we live on the north edge of town, and an hour of windy, mountain driving where you follow a glacier melt river. We learned two lessons quite quick on our trip out. 1. We needed a latch on the fridge door. One tight turn about 3/4 up led to my milk and a few other items falling out onto the floor and making a mess. 2. Emerson gets car sick when he's facing backwards for a long period of time on windy roads. Luckily he gave us enough warning, and we had a trashcan in close proximity, so the meses was thankfully contained. So for now, Avery gets the backwards facing seat, but we might have to switch them back and forth depending on how windy the road is, or squeeze them both on the same bench to get them both looking forward. So, the trip started with a few bumps. But once we arrived at our destination, which was a parking lot at the entrance to a private park towards the top of the valley just outside of Baño Morales, things started looking up. First, we were the only people parking/camping in that lot the entire 3 days/2 nights we were there. The SUV you see actually belonged to a local villager in Baño Morales, and it didn't run, so we literally had the place to ourselves. Granted, we were there mid-week, and apparently in the height of summer on a weekend, there can be 100 people a day coming to this park to hike. But not this time. Second, the park is staffed by a private park ranger 24/7, and the ranger on duty while we were there is our new favorite person. His name is Nico, and he was staying in a little hut right next to us. The hut was great as it provided shade (the van doesn't have an awning or anything so you have to go inside for substantial shade), and it had bathrooms. We might be on the look out for a shade tent of some sort, as we're realizing the mountains here are very exposed, and poor, fair Emerson can only take so much of that. Nico was very kind with great English, and he put up with the boys endlessly asking him questions about his job and the valley and the mine and the rocks and the dinosaurs (we did see lots of fossils in this area). When we weren't exploring the town, going for little hikes, or visiting the pools, we hung out with Nico in the shade, and he put up with Drew and I asking him endless questions about his job and the valley and the mine and the rocks and the dinosaurs. He works 7 days on, 7 days off. His partner also works for the same park at the second entrance, so they have the same schedule. He makes $600/month, or $7,200 USD per year, and somehow he lives on that. His rent is $550/month, which he splits with his partner. Perspective for sure. 

Here is the map of the route we took out of the city. 

The canyon we were in had two very interesting things going on in it. The rock walls were the craziest array of colors. The photo below doesn't do it justice, but one section of that rock wall is green, one is red, and another orange. It was most beautiful at sunset. At sunrise, the rock was almost backlight, so the colors weren't as vibrant, but sunset was another story. The other super interesting thing about this canyon is it's home to a huge gypsum mine. I had to google what gypsum is; apparently it's used in construction and cement. Now, we couldn't see the actual mine, which is at the base of the volcano that is right at the top of the valley. But we could see the white distribution pit ( I'm not sure what else to call it, you can see it in the lower right hand corner of the photo below) that was located along the main road just past the turn off for Baños Morales. And we could see dump trucks, thousand of dump trucks, going up and down the main road every day. The trucks apparently run well into the night, but kudos to the sound proofing inside BB, we couldn't hear or see them at all during the night. But they were definitely a part of the scenery during the day. We got to talk to a local family about the mine, and they were very divided about it. On one hand, mining is Chile's top industry and brings alot of wealth, jobs, etc. to the country. But gypsum mines are open pit mines, so they really mar the landscape, and this mine, in particular, is disturbing a million year old glacier in the process. It's also fascinating because this valley gets alot of snow in the winter time, so the road that you can see in the picture gets washed out almost every year from either an avalanche or a rockslide after a heavy rain. The entire mine closes in the winter, and, in the spring, they come back and reevaluate how much damage was done and what needs to be rebuilt to open the mine. Then they burn the candle at both ends all summer and fall. Fascinating economics at play here.

This picture shows the volcano, El Volcón de San José, at the end of the valley. The volcano itself is 19,213 ft tall. Shocking right? Because it doesn't even look that tall! And we were camping at only 6,000 ft. And basically on the other side of that is Argentina. In the map above, you can see the dark line on the right hand side, that's the Argentinian border! It really is nuts how narrow this country is. We can drive 2 hours east and be at the beach or an hour west and be in Argentina. The Andes really do shape this country.

Lunch time inside the van. The sunshades inside BB are amazing. The van was in full sun, and it's strong like Colorado sun, all day, and it never got hot inside. And it emulates blackout curtains at night so the boys got decent shuteye. That was a major win. The front passenger seat also swivels around, which is what I was sitting on.

The little town is called Baños Morales because it has thermal hot springs there. I wouldn't call them "hot" springs, more like thermal temperate springs. The water is the funny brown color because it has alot of minerals in it, and lots of people have been coming here for years for the medicinal/therapeutic benefits. But the water wasn't hot, it was luke warm at best. The bottom of the pool was a natural gravel bottom, which was nice. You could find areas that were extra bubbly and dig your feet in and make it warmer for yourself, like sitting in an Alka-seltzer bath. But having it not be super hot was actually nice because then we could stay in there for longer. As you can imagine, Emerson overheats very quickly in normal hot tub situations. We actually went to the hot springs twice in one day, as our tickets were good for the whole day. We went once when it first opened, and we had the place to ourselves, and then again an hour before closing time. The families we saw there, same as the Tupahue pool, were there ALL day, picnicking, etc.

A fun little surprise about this valley is it had some natural fruit trees: apples and plum trees that had teeny tiny, yellow (or sometimes red) plums or ciruelas that were half sour, half sweet. We, of course, checked with our resident park ranger that they were indeed edible and not someone's private trees, but they were fair game, and oh so delicious! We had to share them with the horses that were constantly roaming the valley. More on that down below.

The boys had lots of fun rock climbing and being independent. 

This last photo was taken by Nico the day after we left. The weather got much colder, and you can see snow fell on the volcano. You can also see the horses I mentioned before. There were 2 or 3 horse day-trip excursion outfitters in Baños Morales, and when the horses weren't in use, they just let them wander around the town and the surrounding countryside. So we saw horses every day at all hours; it was very charming. Most were quite small, and they loved the apple trees; that is actually how we noticed the trees in the first place. 

Piscina Tupahue

 A couple Sundays ago, Drew and the boys went on a hike with our first friend in Chile, Antonio, who is actually Venezuelan. We met him in Oct. 2023 when we were visiting Santiago for the first time to see if it would be a good fit. We met him playing volleyball, of course, and discovered he is a super nice guy who also loves to hike. So, last Oct., Antonio actually showed us the same hike to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, which is a very accessible hike with a great view of the city and some tourist attractions. We reconnected with Antonio since moving here, and so this time, Drew, the boys, and Antonio did the same hike but from the opposite direction. The boys had a great time, but because they went too early, alot of things at the summit were closed (church, statue of Maria, snack shops). So we said we'd go back.

We take public transit whenever we see things inside the city. The boys love riding the extra long buses that wiggle in the middle.

So, last Thursday, we decided to go back to Cerro San Cristobal, but with a different approach. We still took a city bus to get there. The boys wanted to sit together :)

But this time instead of hiking, we took the gondola up. Its about $4/person round trip, not bad as far as tourist traps go. We also had a buch of gear as we were planning on checking out Piscina Tupahue, which is a public pool located up there. Hiking with all the pool things would have been a bit much. The gondola was very fun, and because we were going on a Thursday, there were no lines. I can imagine though on a weekend in the middle of summer, it might get super busy. There is a designated stop for the Tupahue Pool, but we didn't stop there and instead went all the way to the summit first.

At the top of Cerro San Crisobal is a Catholic Church that we explored. Has Mass there every Sunday at 12pm!

The view from the top also shows you how expansive the city really is, and how small our Vitacura bubble really is. Definitely puts things into perspective. 

The main attraction at the top is a giant statue of Mary. The boys didn't get to see this on their hike, so that was fun to see with them. It's enormous, much larger than this picture makes it seem.

We then took the gondola back down to the Tupahue stop, and checked out the pool, which was $7/adult and $4/kid. The pool was built in 1966 and is considered a National Monument of Chile. It was originally a quarry, and the pool is built using stone from that exact quarry. It's huge, over 80 meters long and 25 meters wide, and apparently can fit 1,800 people. I decided I didn't want to experience the weekend crowds, hence why we went on a Thursday, and it was certainly busy, but not crazy. It had showers, a free bag check, grassy areas to lay out, a snack shack, and a cool center rock outcropping that the boys loved swimming around. The pool was actually quite deep, there really wasn't a shallow kiddie area, hence why the boys liked clinging to the rocks. They rediscovered their love of swimming, and overall it was a very fun day. Most Chilean families seem to spend the entire day at attractions like this; they bring packed lunches, coolers, chairs, etc. and make a day of it. I'm realizing that while the prices for these places seem very reasonable to us, a family making $100K every year, for a family making $510,000 Chilean pesos a month which is the national minimum wage, or about $531 USD, which equates to only $6,372 USD a year, these prices feel steep, so they get their money's worth. Again, definitely puts things into perspective. 

Valparaiso

 During our 5-day trip to Viña del Mar, we took a day trip to its sister city, Valparaiso (Valpo). Valparaiso is a port city, founded in 1536, so lots of history there. It's the third largest city in Chile, and has alot of universities. It has a cultural, hippy vibe, and I'm sure all of the universities aid in this. It is also very hilly, with all roads leading down to the port. There are a couple neighborhoods known for their beautifully painted historic homes, and lots and lots of murals and street art, Cerro Concepción and Cerro Alegre in particular, so that is what we went to explore. To be transparent, most online info suggests to stay exclusively in those neighborhoods, as they are the safest for tourists, and to be alert, especially at night. We felt perfectly safe all day, but we also took all the normal precautions. And we don't go out at night, because of the boys. :) So keep that in mind if you're traveling differently. 

There are many ways to travel from Viña del Mar to Valpo, but we decided to make it an adventure and take one of the local buses that zip around the two towns. Avery lovingly named these buses the "Putty Putt Buses" because they are all old, small, and seemingly on their last legs. He couldn't wait to ride one.  In Santiago, public transit is paid for with a refillable transit card, called a "Bip" card. Here, it was all cash/coins. It's cheap, but we needed to get our hands on some smaller denomination bills before beginning this journey. They will give you change on the bus, but not for large bills.  It was a 45min ride south from our Airbnb in Reñaca Beach (which is a tad north of downtown Viña del Mar), to Valpo, and for our family of 4 it cost $2.00 round trip.

A "Putty Putt Bus." 

They actually reminded me exactly of the minibuses in Hong Kong. They are smaller than a normal public bus, the drivers drive very fast (they get paid per ticket), and they are crowded, hence why the boys are sitting in our laps here.

Once we got to Valpo, we took the Ascensor Concepción which is a funicular (think small, old, tram/gondola/wooden box) that goes up/down a hillside. Drew and I generally shy away from "touristy" rides like this, but from an ease of exploration with the boys, it was 100% worth it. It took us directly from the lower sea-level streets of Valpo up to the exact artsy neighborhood we wanted to explore. If we didn't take it, we would have had to navigate up some very steep hills, and the boys would have been tuckered out before we even got to the good stuff, so it was completely worth it. It cost $0.30/person/ride, and is the oldest in the entire city, established in 1883. The turn style here was cast in 1887, you could see it stamped on there. Again, boys were in love. 

This is the view from the top of the funicular. Two cruise ships were docked while we were here, and there were definitely group tours from the cruise exploring the same neighborhoods we were. But I wouldn't say it was overrun. 

Once we got to Cerro Concepción, it was time to wander and explore. This neighborhood is one you could visit a dozen times and see/notice different things each and every time. I'm sure we missed stuff, especially with the boys, as going slowly and mindfully is not their forte, but these were some of our highlights. 

A fun staircase with a slide alongside it. Boys loved it.

As with lots of artsy things, alot went over our heads. My guess is that this tile mosaic is of Rasputin, but I could be totally wrong on that. And why would a mosaic of Rasputin be in Valpo, Chile? Don't know. There are lots of walking tours you can take that explain the art a bit better; maybe we'll try that next time but without the boys.  

Drew noticed there were small, white ants painted sporadically on the sidewalk throughout this neighborhood, and we decided to follow them. They keep growing in number until they eventually led to a candy store. Clever marketing. There was another set of fish that led to a seafood restaurant.

Think loudly, feel deeply, speak clearly. Words to live by.

One staircase had a saying written out in English, "Not hippies, but happies." And this store was called the "Happies" store.

This is actually another tile mosaic, not a mural. Very impressive.

Going to have to bring Leah back here when she visits!

At some point we needed to stop for a potty break, and, as is common in much of Chile, you have to pay (not alot, but something) to use the public restrooms. Or you can find a coffee shop, buy a coffee, and use their bathroom, which is what we tend to do. The courtyard outside our chosen coffee shop had an artist working on a mural, and the boys were fascinated. They actually wanted to stop by again at the end of the day to see how much progress was made. Little did we know, but this artist had several murals throughout the neighborhood. We noticed his distinct style right away. It was fun exploring and trying to find more of his work. His stuff was actually my favorite. @varasmackenzie 

Until next time, Valpo!