Emerson's 8th Birthday and Mother's Day

 I think we've been celebrating Emerson's birthday for about two weeks now. It started on the 8th, a Friday, when Emerson brought in donut holes to share with his classmates, and he got to wear street clothes to school. Drew actually got to go into the classroom on that day and give a 15-min talk about what life is like in the United States, as the class was doing a social studies lesson on immigration and family origins. So it was nice he got to be there in person while they sang Happy Birthday to Emerson. That evening we had Emerson's chosen dinner menu of spaghetti, green apples, and red peppers, followed by a chocolate torte with whipped cream frosting. Then, he opened his presents. I unfortunately didn't get pictures of any of that, but it was a nice evening. 

On Saturday, which was his actual birthday, we had chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, as is tradition. 

That afternoon we were going over to a classmate's house for an asado with other school parents and kids (mostly boys) from class. The Dad hosting thought it would be fun to surprise Emerson with a cake, since it was his literal birthday, so he graciously got one. The candles were also trick candles, so all the boys there got to help blow them out, and they had alot of fun. Emerson was surprised for sure. 

Sunday was Mother's Day. The morning started with breakfast in bed: the highlights being hand squeezed orange juice by Emerson and a card from Avery. A few weeks ago, we had a BBQ with Avery's class at this privately owned nature park called El Sanctuario de la Naturaleza de Arrayán. It is a very lovely little park, only 20 min from the house. It's tucked in a valley and has a creek running through it, so it's perfect for the kids. So, I decided this is where I wanted to spend Mother's Day. Drew organized the day with 5 other families from our friend group, mostly expat families who work in either the German or Austrian embassies here. It was a lovely day: perfect weather and everyone had a nice relaxing time. We had 10 parents and 14 kids. 

Then on Saturday the 16th, we had a joint birthday party with Sebas, Emerson's best friend, and Agustina, a girl from class who all have May birthdays. We went to Mampato, a little amusement park that is the perfect size for the kids. They can ride all of the rides, and the park isn't so big that they are going to get lost. Emerson was running amuck with his friends, so I actually don't have many photos of him, but Avery and I went around and rode rides together, so I have a few more of him. Almost the whole class came, and yes, we did the piñata with the resulting candy scramble. And Emerson got a giant bag of presents that we've been opening up 4 at a time. Overall, it was a fun day, and minimal work for me, which was a win. 

Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay

Friday, May 1st was Labor Day in Chile, a public holiday, so the boys had it off from school. We took advantage of the long weekend and drove 4 hours south to a National Reserve called Altos de Lircay, hoping to see some fall colors. The city of Santiago itself gets some fall colors, but not a ton. Maybe half of the trees change; the other half are varieties that stay green even during the winter, so more tropical I suppose. By going south, we were going to areas with colder winters, so most of the trees would be changing, and we weren't disappointed. I also did not realize that grape leaves change color as well, so all the vineyards we passed were spectacular. And so many different shades! Yellows, oranges, reds, deep maroons. Very lovely. 

On the drive into the valley, we got a really nice view of some rocky cliff faces. My two goals on this trip were to see some colors and to get a view of this valley. 

The first afternoon, we took a short hike on some private land (which is for sale if anyone is interested!) to the two lagunas or lakes. The hike was fun because it through some impressive, old growth forest. 

The lagunas themselves were lovely. They are much bigger and deeper than they appear in these photos. You could easily cliff jump into them. And so pristine! We saw a handful of other people on the hike. 

Saturday was the day we had tickets to go into the National Reserve itself. The day started a bit rough, as Emerson didn't want to go hiking; he wanted to stay at the wild camping spot we had and play. But, after realizing the goal of the day was to just spend time in nature and not do a forced march, he acquiesced. Our first mirador was everything I was hoping for, a lovely view across the valley. The hike to this mirador is very family friendly. The reserve was technically sold out, but we hardly saw anyone all day. I think alot of people do much longer, multi-day hikes through this valley, so for us, it felt like we had the place to ourselves. 

One surprise of this area is it was chock full of little lizards. They were everywhere, of all different sizes and colors. The boys had fun making "habitats" for them, aka creating little water pools to see if they'd come drink. And they did!

Since spending time in nature was the only goal, there was lots of time for things like tree climbing!

Another surprise of this National Reserve was the old growth forests, which had some HUGE Coihue or Dombey's Southern Beech trees that were hundreds of years old. The one in the picture below was 500 years old! If you ever need a mental reset, give a tree a hug. It does wonders. 

Our last exploration was along a hiking route that goes up to a rock outcropping. We weren't going to make it all the way today, but for adults, it looked very nice. 

We found a perfect climbing rock, so we spent most of our time pretending to be animals living in caves amongst the rocks. 

The view back across the valley was lovely. It kinda reminded me of the Smoky Mountains, as the cool clouds were getting trapped amongst all the nooks and crannies. 

We ended up staying out in the Reserve the entire day, and the boys had a great time. Adventure's out there!

We were wild camping at this flat pullout along the main road into the reserve. Every morning, we'd see the Caballeros walk the tourist horses up to the places you could go to rent them for the day, and every night they'd walk them back down to their fields. 

Also, as we cooked bacon for breakfast two days in a row, all of the nearby dogs came to visit to check out the smells. They were very cute.

Sister Trip: Cozumel, Mexico

April 9-13, Steph, Leah, Steph's best friend Thea, and I went on a girls' trip to Cozumel, Mexico. The journey for them coming from Denver was pretty straightforward. They had layovers in Houston, but then could fly directly into the airport on the island of Cozumel. For me coming from Santiago, it was a bit more complicated. For whatever reason, it was stupid expensive to fly into Cozumel. But, I could fly into Cancun, and it wasn't too bad. So, I flew on Copa Airlines 7 hours from Santiago to Panama City (same flight we had just taken to get to Costa Rica a few weeks before), and then from Panama City to Cancun, which was only 2.5 hours. From the Cancun Airport, I took a $15 bus to the bus depot in Playa del Carmen which was two blocks from the ferry terminal. From Playa del Carmen, there are ferries that run every 30 min to the island of Cozumel, $18 one way. So it extended the trip by a few hours, but it saved probably $1,000 in flight costs. And I felt completely safe 100% of the time, even as a blonde lady traveling alone. Granted, I had researched the steps I would be taking, so I knew exactly where to go, and what each step would cost. So I knew I wasn't being scammed. All in all, the trip to Cozumel was very smooth for me. I even splurged a bit by spending some credit card points to upgrade my flights to business class. This was particularly because the flights between Santiago and Panama City were overnight flights, and I wanted to try to get some semblance of sleep, especially since I had no kids to keep an eye on. 

The beach in Playa del Carmen right next to the ferry terminal. Look at that water!

My ferry to Cozumel!

We stayed at an All-Inclusive called Fiesta Americana. I had never stayed at an all-inclusive before, and it was certainly nice to do for a girls trip. No cooking, no grocery shopping. Coffees every day that I was able to drink in one sitting. Breakfast had an omelette station, a taco station with handmade tortillas, and a smoothie bar. Not too shabby. They had both pools and an oceanfront area where you could snorkel, which we did one day. Lots of pretty reef fish. And we saw two sting rays cruising around.  

I tried to eat as much guacamole as possible, which was easy to do. Nothing beats Mexican guac. I appreciate how much Chileans love avocados, but most of the time they just add it to things, burgers, hotdogs, toast, etc., and they don't flavor it at all. Let's add a little spice people! We had some salsa verdes on this trip that were no joke. Definitely nice to be in the land of picante again. 

It was also nice to have some uninterrupted beach and pool time, where the only needs I had to worry about were my own. My sunscreen. My water bottle. My beach towel. My snacks. My sandiness. And that's it. Very refreshing.

We even got to sit and watch an entire tennis match from start to finish! I can't tell you the last time I've had the space to do that. 

We definitely picked a good time of year to go. The place was pretty empty, as we went post Easter. So no spring break crowds. We didn't have to fight anyone for a lounge chairs or dinner reservations. If you're single and ready to mingle, it probably would have been a bit disappointing, as most of our cohorts were older folks without school calendars to live by. But for us, it was perfect. 

On our last full day, we decided to be adventurous and rented some bikes to ride into town and check out the northwestern side of the island. We made it there with no problems. On the way home though, Thea's bike pedal and crank arm (had to look that up), came loose and literally fell off. It wasn't broken, it just needed to be tightened properly with a wrench. The bikes we were riding were brand new, and it was like someone took them out of the box and said good to go, without testing anything. So we were the guinea pigs for sure, and the result was us waiting in town for 30 min for some guy to show up on a scooter with the tool we needed. We made it home, eventually, and now we have a good story to laugh about. Adventure's out there!

The last night, the hotel had karaoke, so Leah and I took full advantage. There were like 3 other people there, so nothing to be shy about. We sang probably a dozen songs. Some worked, some did not! But now we're seasoned pros, ready for the real thing!

While we were relaxing kid free, Drew took the boys to Playa Matanzas which is about 3 hours southeast of Santiago to car camp at the beach. He went with two other families, dads and kids only, and it looks like they had a blast. Thanks babe for watching the boys so I could take this trip. Very needed and very appreciated.