Our Moving Home Plan

Drew and I have made the bittersweet decision to move back to the States sometime in late June/early July of next year, 2027. This was not an easy decision to make, as we really love our life here. The boys' school is a good fit for them, and we love the walkability of our apartment. We love the pace of life here. People actually make plans the weekend before, and people's calendars are so empty that, most of the time, they can make it! I am not looking forward to returning to the US where I have to schedule lunches with friends months in advance. Things are also much more affordable here, even in the upper class neighborhood where we live. I'm getting as many $40/90min massages as I can before we move back, that's for sure. And the natural beauty here is unbelievable! I think that's the part that surprised me the most. But the pull of family is very strong. We want to make sure the cousins form a strong bond, and spending time together is the best way to ensure that. Drew and I could definitely see us spending time here again once the boys are grown. 

Our plan was always to move home after 2.5 years, which is exactly when we will be coming back. What our last 6 months are going to look like though, I certainly didn't predict. I assumed we would put the boys in school here for their first semester, March - June, and then move back and have the boys repeat that semester at home starting in August. However, with the adventure van in our lives, we're going rogue. Our plan, at the moment, and I caveat this strongly because there are many things at play here, is we will be living/exploring in the van for the next 6 months, starting in mid-Dec. We will spend Jan-March in Patagonia with Drew's parents, similar to the previous summer, except that we will be sticking to Chile and not going over into Argentina. Our goal is to do the entire Carretera Austral down to Villa O'Higgins, but that is a very loose goal. At the very end of March, Courtney Maihi, her partner Franzi, and their new baby girl Keeva will be flying over from Australia to visit us. We will spend a week and a half in the lakes region near Puerto Varas, followed by a week in Santiago. Around April 20th, we will separate from them and start heading north. We'd like to go up along the coast, as the beaches in Northern Chile are supposed to be quite lovely with white sand and blue waters (still cold water though) and lots of good seafood. Then we'll cut inland to see the desert and the stars. There are many world famous observatories here because the desert is so dry the air quality is super clear. After that we are going to see the Bolivian Salt Flats, but probably with a proper tour, as you need a 4x4 to get to many of the locations. From there, we drive into Peru and head to Machu Picchu. We will have this booked relatively soon, but sometime in the end of May to the beginning of June we will go to Machu Picchu and the surrounding Sacred Valley. I can't wait for that; it's been on my bucket list for years. After Machu Picchu we will drive back towards the coast and make our way to Lima. I've been dying to go to Lima simply to eat the food. Lima will likely be my and the boys' final destination. We will fly back to the States from Lima toward the end of June. Drew will then need to drive from Lima back down to Santiago to sell the van in Chile. 

During this 6-month adventure we will be doing a condensed version of homeschooling with the boys. Our goal is 2 hours a day, with 4 four 25-min blocks in math, Spanish reading/writing, English reading/writing, and what I am calling academic Spanish (math in Spanish, science in Spanish, etc.). Our goal is to fill any holes the boys have both from their own understanding as well as from differences between Chilean and US curriculums. Wish us luck.

When we get back to the States, most likely I will stay with my parents in Fort Collins for a week or two while I set our house in Platt Park back up.  Then the boys will start school in August! We will be applying for them to attend the Denver Language School, which is an immersive public charter school. Not sure if there is space available for the boys, but we are going to try. The boys will need to pass a Spanish fluency exam, but I think they'll be ok. This is also one of the reasons why we are going to be keeping up with their Spanish on the road. The exam would be in March, so keeping things fresh will help them tremendously. 

Items that may throw a wrench in the plan: we have to sell the van, as it's not possible to import it into the States. So, our logistics may fluctuate somewhat depending on what offers we receive and what the buyers' timeline is. It is certainly possible that we sell the van in April, and end up doing the May and June travel vanless. But Machu Picchu will be booked with firm dates, so we are sticking around to do that whether we have a van or not. And our flights back home will not be easily moveable either. So while our timeline has some fixed points, lots of flexibility within that. 

So, open invitation to anyone who wants to join us at Machu Picchu. I will post the dates we pick here soon, so feel free to add on! Also, if anyone wants to road trip with Drew, I'm sure he'd love a driving partner from Lima to Santiago. Extra bonus points if you know how to drive stick. You'd be sharing a van and a bed, but it's a king, and, as Evan can attest, two grown men fit just fine. 

Next steps for us include selling all of our stuff, as we have to be out of our apartment by the end of Dec. Our current plan is that Drew, the boys, and the in-laws take off on Dec. 13th after school ends for the boys. I will stay behind until the 20th to finish selling all of the needed-til-the-end furniture. And then I will fly down to Puerto Montt where Drew picks me up and on we go. Drew has been having great fun trying to get the AI bots he built to help us with this selling process, whether it's by posting For Sale listings to a website he built or to Facebook Marketplace or by tracking the sales, receipts, and delivery info. Fun times. We're also going to use the bots to help us with homeschooling. This will be very useful for the Spanish lessons in particular. The bots can build us worksheets that we can then send to the Kindle Scribes we bought for this purpose. Again, wish us luck. 

Fiestas Patrias

Fiestas Patrias is celebrated on September 18th, and the boys get the entire week off from school. Spring is just beginning to be sprung, and you can feel the joy of the Chilean people building the entire month as they celebrate their country's independence from Spain but also the beauty of their country as it heads into spring. Everything is green. It really is a lovely time to be there. Festivities began on the Friday before, where at school each class performed a traditional dance from a different region of Chile. Avery's class was performing the membrillazo, which is what Emerson performed last year, so luckily we already had the outfit for that. 

Emerson's class performed a dance from Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, the place with the moai statues we were able to visit last May. That costume was a bit more complicated, but luckily the moms of the class helped me out. I did have to figure out where to buy skin colored leggings, and, did you know, there is a store for that here! Leggings of every color imaginable because you never know when you might need a specific color like I did. 

With our time off from school, we traveled the 6 hours back down south to Chillán to ski, the same place Drew was a week prior with Evan Carey. We arrived on Saturday and skied Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday.  It was definitely spring skiing conditions: icy and hard in the morning but warming up to almost uncomfortably hot in the afternoon, turning the snow to mashed potatoes. So, needless to say, we weren't getting early starts, but we'd ski til last chair every day. The boys also skied the Tres Marias run which is the longest ski run in South America! On Tuesday we took a day off from skiing, and we went to the Valle Hermosa hot springs for the day: 3 outdoor pools of varying temps with views of the ski slopes. I don't have any pictures from that, but it was a lovely break. Not cheap though. 

Marco, his wife, and 4 kids joined us skiing on Wednesday and Thursday, and the kids had a blast skiing together. The first half of the week we were parked outside of a hostel owned by one of the parents in Avery's class, but the later part of the week we camped outside the Airbnb in Las Trancas that Marco and fam had rented so the kids could more easily play. We also hung out together on Friday, the official Fiestas Patrias Day, and celebrated with an asado. Super chill.

One slightly disconcerting moment from that day was we got a text from a friend saying "Hey, you guys are in Chillán right? Are you ok? Just saw that the volcano there had a pulso (or pulse)." Uhhh, say what now? Apparently while we were having our asado in the woods in Las Trancas, a few miles beyond, the volcano just above the ski resort had a "pyroclastic" event, which, in volcano terms, means a spout of ash was spewed 400 feet into the air. But that was it. Nobody in the town seemed concerned; apparently this happens on a semi-regular basis. It did make the news though. And we didn't even notice because there was no noise that we heard, no smell as the wind carried the ash in another direction, no lava, no sirens, no evacuation, nothing. Life just continued on like normal. Huh. And they didn't even change the volcano's activity status after this event either, still yellow. I wonder if you can buy volcano home insurance in Chile. Is that a thing? People didn't even stop skiing. 

Drew's Birthday, Evan's Visit, and Costanera Center

 Drew wanted the same thing for his birthday that Avery wanted: to go skiing. Surprise, surprise. So, I stayed home with the kids while Drew took a mini vacay to nearby Valle Nevado for a couple of powder days. Happy 42nd Birthday, babe. You don't look a day over 25. 

The following week, our good friend Evan Carey flew in from Longmont to go skiing with Drew. Back in Colorado, the two had been backcountry ski buddies. And, skiing in South America was a bucket list item for Evan, a former Jackson Hole ski bum turned white collar math wiz and family man to the lovely Dani and their two adorable daughters Olli and Ella Ray. So he took advantage of our presence here to check that off his list. He and Drew went 6 hours south to the resort called Nevados de Chillán. They spent one day in bounds with a guide, as Chillán has alot of hidden terrain that only a local would know about. They followed this with a day out of bounds with the same guide to a place called Garganta del Diablo or Throat of the Devil. Few more days in bounds and a trip to the hot springs rounded out their trip. Sounds like they had a great time!

Chillan actually has two volcanoes right above the resort. The "new" volcano (the bump in the center in the photo below while the bump on the right is the "old" one) was actually fuming the entire time Drew and Evan were there, but that's apparently very normal for this volcano. Yikes.

Since Drew had been skiing/living the bachelor life for roughly the last week, you're welcome sweetie, we went out on a date night to reconnect. Date night included a trip to the top of the Costanera Center, the highest building in South America at 62 floors or 984 ft. It's comparable in height to the Chrysler Building, but since Santiago's skyline doesn't have a ton of height, it sticks out dramatically. We went for sunset, which was slightly more expensive, but worth the view. Was it worth doing once? Yes. Would I do it again? Probably not. The Costanera Center was followed by a lovely dinner at Cora's Bistro. This I would absolutely do again. Super yummy.

Avery's 7th Birthday

Avery's birthday fell on a Sunday this year. We did our main celebrating at home on the Friday before. Kick off with chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, of course of course. Avery got to wear "street clothes" to school instead of his uniform, so we let him open up one of his presents early, a Ronaldo jersey from Nana and Papa. The smiles abounded. I didn't even notice that the jersey number coincidentally matched his new age, but he picked up on that right away. He also took donut holes to school to share with the class. Don't mind the long hair. Avery is choosing not to cut it right now. We'll see how long it lasts.

Dinner was a menu of his choice, which is our tradition now, which included mac and cheese, but not the "healthy kind" that I normally make which is doctored up with peas and chicken. "Just the noodles and sauce, Mom." Lol, making my life easy kid, I appreciate that. Peppers and blue berries completed the menu. Avery was not as easy going with his cake request. I want a cake that is half chocolate and half vanilla. With blue frosting, the sugary kind that Dad likes. Topped with blueberries and chocolate chips. I did my best.

The rest of the presents included a World Cup album where the boys can officially stick in all of the stickers they have been collecting and a few packs of the stickers themselves. Avery was thrilled when one of the packs had Ronaldo in it, matching his jersey. I originally said I wouldn't be buying the album or packs and stickers, and yet here we are, but about 2 months too late. Boys were still over the moon about it though. 

The main birthday wish was that he wanted to ski on his literal birthday, as that is something impossible to do in the states. We could see a big snowstorm was due to hit on Saturday night. So, we drove up the 40 curves to La Parva, which is one of the 3 ski resorts up a valley just outside of the city. We got there around 11:30am, and by 1pm it was snowing HARD, so timed that perfectly. We camped in our van overnight, which luckily has a diesel heater, keeping us warm and more importantly, capable of drying all of our wet snow gear. We skied La Parva on Sunday, which was fun as another family was able to join as well, so all the kids could ski together. It was a powder day for sure, as they received around 8 inches overnight. Drew took off before sun-up to hike up and get in a few runs before the lifts officially opened. I brought the kids over around 10am, and we skied til around 3pm. Boys and I are still getting used to skiing on powder, but we had alot of fun trying.

On Monday, we kept the boys out of school and skied Valle Nevado, which is in the same valley but on the other side of the hill. By the time we packed up, drove the 45min over there, and got everyone geared up, we didn't hit the slopes until 11am. But it was a gorgeous blue bird day, so we skied literally all day til the lifts closed at 5pm. The ski resorts here are interesting because they are all above tree line. So there is so much skiable terrain, especially on a powder day, that we could still find fresh lines all day. Fun times.

On Sunday night we had a gorgeous sunset seen from the van!

One other fun item I'd like to mention is that after watching Drew and I play lots of euchre at Drummond, the boys are officially learning how to play. So we have two burgeoning euchre players here now, and we can actually play together as a family! Cue heart warming vibes.