Maitencillo and Algarrobo

Since the boys got an entire week off from school, we decided to make the most of it.  We first went to Maitencillo, which is a hippy surf town about 2 hours northwest of Santiago. Our plan was to find a parking spot by the beach and camp in the van for a few days. When we shared our plan with a school parent friend, he said "Oh, I have a good friend from school (K-12 school, not university), who lives in Maitencillo. Let me give you her number." So we message this lady, Carito, and she says, "Oh, you're interested in surfing, I am good friends with the owner of this surf shop that's right on the beach, let me give you his number and you can park there." And so that's what we did, we parked right next to this surf school that was right on the beach, and Drew and the boys took lessons there. Carito, along with her  husband and young son, also came to hangout at the beach with us one afternoon. This is how all things happen in Chile. A friend of a friend of a friend opens their arms to you with all the warmth and hospitality of a long lost bestie. But only if someone can vouch for you. If noone can vouch for you, game over. Now, that being said, there was plenty of parking at this particular beach, so would we have been fine on our own? Yes, yes we would have been. Did we have a better time getting to know the locals and enjoying their hospitality? Yes, yes we did.  

As is typical for the entire Chilean coastline, the water was FREEZING. Not to mention, it's really only springtime here, so it wasn't hot outside either. So the boys lasted about 15 minutes in the water with wet suits on. Drew surfed several more times, and he claimed he was perfectly comfortable with his wet suit on, but I didn't try.  This particular beach had a nice sand bottom with no rocks, which was very nice. It also had quite a large break father out that the expert surfers would do which was fun to watch. The boys stayed much farther in, basically riding the white wash. Drew would go somewhere in between. Both boys got up on the boards a couple of times, with the help of either Drew or the instructor Sebas riding on the back to keep the board steady. 

Emerson catching a wave!

Avery's turn!

Can't complain about the view!

On the second day we took a walk from our beach to another beach called Playa Aguas Blancas that was about a 40 min walk north. It was a pretty walk along the coastline, with lots of little beaches and rock outcroppings sprinkled along the way. One beach we passed had more perfectly intact sea shells than I have ever seen. Scallop shells, mussel shells, clam shells, it was incredible. There is some serious seafood in them there waters. 

On day 3, it was a bit windy and chillier, so Emerson spent some of his birthday money on a kite. He was obsessed and flew that thing for many hours. Kites are apparently a very traditional toy for Fiestas Patrias, so we saw lots of kite flying that week.

On Wednesday, our original plan was to head back to Santiago, so we could experience the Fiestas Patrias celebrations in the city. However, that previous Sunday, we had been invited by a family from Emerson's class to come stay with them at their family's apartment in Algarrobo. So, we drove straight from Maitencillo to Algarrobo, which is about 2 hours farther south along the coast. This is the same friend who connected us with the folks in Maitencillo. They have one son named Pascual. The beach at Algarrobo had beautiful white sand that was perfect for volleyball. However, the currents at this beach are apparently super strong, so no one is allowed to swim there at all. So you  can look at the pretty view, but you can't get in, not even just a bit. 

On Thursday, which was the actual Sept. 18th Fiestas Patrias, we went to The Fonda, which is the Chilean version of a carnival. It was free to get in, but once you're there, they nickel and dime you hard. It had lots of kiddie games, and you paid $2 per game with cheap prizes galore. We gave the boys $10 each and told them that's all they would get, so think about what you want to spend it on. That was a hard decision, jaja.

There were lots of inflatable bouncy houses and slides with the largest one, the Extreme Rush, being the boys' favorite.  The fonda also had pony and ATV rides, but we did not partake. 

We did partake in Terremotos (Earthquakes) for the first and last time. This is the traditional cocktail for Fiestas Patrias, and it consists of sweet white wine, grenadine, and pineapple ice cream. Would not recommend, but we had to try it once. Felices Fiestas Patrias! 

Fiestas Patrias en Escuela y Chile Lindo

Sept. 18th is the celebration of Chile's Independence day, similar to the 4th of July, which they call Fiestas Patrias. Basically the entire month of September is a celebration, and you see Chilean flags and banners everywhere. The boys would be getting the entire week off from school. Leading up to that, the school had several celebrations that were honestly my favorite part of Fiestas Patrias. Every class learned a specific dance from various regions throughout Chile, as well as one song, and they dressed the part with traditional Chilean outfits. The infant school, which is Kinder, Pre-K, and PlayGroup, put on their production on Friday, Sept. 5th. The boys in Avery's class dressed up like huasos, which are Chilean cowboys. They wear a felt hat, ponchos, and black boots. The girls wore various floral dresses. Their dance was the cueca, which is a very popular dance from central Chile. Traditionally the boys dance next to the girls, and they both wave handkerchiefs at each other, basically flirting with each other.  For Avery's class, they separated the boys and girls so they danced to different songs. Not sure if that was because they didn't want kids so young putting the puzzle pieces together or if it was just easier to teach them that way. Regardless, it was super cute, and we've been singing the songs and dancing the dances around the house for weeks now. It's easy to see why people in Latin countries have such better rhythm than us two left-footed gringos. They all learn early!  

Also for the celebration, each class had a "Paya" competition. A paya is like a little poem or funny limerick  that, in this case, celebrates the school. Avery and I wrote one in English, because I didn't have it in me to spend the time required to figure out a cute poem in Spanish. Well, our poem won, so we got to recite it at the celebration in front off everyone, as well as the other winners from the other two Kinder classes. Not sure why they picked a poem in English, and afterwards the HeadMistress even laughed that is was funny that there was an English paya during Fiestas Patrias. Maybe it was for publicity since this is technically a bilingual school? Whateves, we were just doing what we were told. Jajaja

Avery's class also got to celebrate with some fun games and empanadas afterwards. 

Emerson's class performance was the following Friday. His class dressed up with an outfit from the North, and they danced to the Membrillazo, which was a fun brass band song with lots of jumping and pompom swinging. Luckily one mom bought the outfits for the entire class so that they were all the same, and we simply had to pay her back. This certainly made my life much easier, as I was already sweating thinking about how I was going to find and buy the correct outfits for this. 

You can see all three 1st grade classes in this picture, dancing at the same time, but each with a different color: green, red, and blue. 

On Saturday, Sept. 6th, there was Fiestas Patrias fair called Chile Lindo at one of the parks down the street from our house. It cost about $7 per adult, and the kids were free! There was lots of music and traditional dancing. Below you can see these two performers dancing the Cueca for real. After the professionals danced, they opened up the stage for anyone to go try to dance the cueca. Our friend Antonio who is from Venezuela, so he doesn't know this dance, went up and had a lesson!

There was also a petting zoo with lots of unusual birds and reptiles to look at. 

Finally, there were little amusement park rides that the boys loved, as well as little games they could play like ring toss and knock over the cans. We got there right when it opened, and that was key, as there were no lines at all for probably the first hour. But after that, it got much busier, with long waits for the rides. It pays to be early here. Overall a very fun day. 

Hike up Manquehue and Avery's Birthday

A couple of weeks ago, Drew and I hiked up Cerro Manquehue, which is a mountain we can see very clearly from our terrace. Drew has an itch, thanks to Andy Taylor, to hike all of the distinct mountains we can see from our house. Not sure he'll accomplish that, as there are alot of BIG mountains we can see from our apartment, but Cerro Manquehue was a good place to start. Drew had actually hiked it once before with some Dads from school. He also hiked about 3/4 of it with the boys last summer, but he smartly turned around before the summit, as Chileans don't seem to believe in switch backs, and the last half mile or so is basically straight up. It is only a 3 mile hike round trip, but it takes 3 hours to do and has an elevation gain of almost 2,000 ft, so that should give you a sense of the steepness. Sturdy hiking boots are a must, and I'm super glad we had hiking poles for the way down. Doing this hike in the spring was nice because a recent rain made the ground kinda hard packed. When Drew did it in the summer, it was dry and dusty, which made the trek much more slippery and therefore treacherous. There is another hill you can summit from this same trail head called Manquehuito, and it's much more family friendly. Drew and the kids hiked this once with school friends a few weekends ago as well. We tried to do it again just this last weekend, which was immediately after the biggest snowfall of the winter. That means it didn't snow in the city, but the surrounding hills got a good dusting, and the high peaks got alot. Anyways, we thought the snow would keep the people away, because it was bound to be a muddy mess, but, quite the opposite, the entire city turned out to frolic in the snow. I suppose it's kinda rare for snow to come that close to the city, so it's an easy access novelty thing. Anyways, there were so many people we couldn't find any parking anywhere, so we had to abandon our efforts. Luckily the trailhead is only 15 min away from our house, so no biggie there. In contrast, when Drew and I hiked Cerro Manquehue without the kids, it was on a Thursday, and we had the place to ourselves. So, lesson learned, anyone who comes to visit and wants to do some hiking, we will go on a weekday. And bring your serious hiking shoes or else you won't have a good time.

Avery's 6th birthday was on August 16th. We celebrated over two days, well actually 3. His birthday was on a Saturday, and, luckily at the last Mom's night out for the Kinder class, another Mom realized Avery also had an August birthday, so she offered for Avery to join an already joint birthday with two other boys from his class, Gaspar and Santi. This was the most amazing thing for me, as these other two moms basically planned EVERYTHING, and literally all we did was show up and pay them our share. And the party was great. It was at the event room in the apartment building of one of the boy's family. The event room was attached to a garden that had a playground and a basketball court, and the weather the perfect. About half of the class came; normally there's more, but that Friday before was actually a holiday, and there was no school, so alot of families left town. But I didn't mind; it still meant there was about 50 people there, which was PLENTY. The other moms hired a fitness trainer to take the kids through some funny, silly exercises and games, which they loved. And they also hired a magician to do a show, which was also great. Every birthday boy got to stand up and be the magician's assistant for a bit, which was adorable. During Avery's section, the magician asked him to put three handkerchiefs, one red, one blue, and one white, into a hat, wave his magic wand, and then pull out all the handkerchiefs put together into the Chilean flag. When Avery pulled out the "flag," all of the kids immediately started laughing and saying the flag was wrong, but I had no idea what they were talking about. Emerson, who was sitting on my lap, kindly explained that the colors were in the wrong place! The blue is supposed to be around the star and the red was supposed to be at the bottom, not the other way around! Duh, Mom! The magician apologized for his mistake, asked Avery to redo the wand waving, and out came the correct flag with the colors in the proper places. It made me giggle, because, as a foreigner, it was not immediately obvious to me what was wrong, but our boys got it right away. It's amazing what they are picking up here. All in all, it was a perfect party.

So with that excitement on Saturday, we decided to make Friday the family celebration day. So Avery got his chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast, followed by mac and cheese for lunch, and finally pizza and a chocolate cake with whipped cream for dessert. He actually wanted to decorate his own cake with an assortment of sprinkles and fruit, so he went to town. Thanks to everyone who called and messaged for his birthday; it was very special.

Finally, since Friday there was no school, he got to celebrate with his classmates in school on Monday, to which we brought donut holes, which are always a big hit. He also got to wear "street clothes" to school, which was also hit, of course. 

Our Carnets Have Arrived!

 Finally, finally, finally, our carnets, aka Chilean ID cards, have arrived. Our Chilean lives can now officially begin! This will be another post about our woes with the Chilean government, not a fun travel post; just a forewarning. Abort now if you so desire. 

The carnet journey begin as such. Back in March when we finally received our temporary residency visas, we traveled to Mendoza to close our tourist visas and reenter the country on our new residency visas. Once we cross the border, according to the immigration website, we have thirty days to visit a Civil Registry Office to apply for our carnets, or ID cards. I immediately went online to book our appointment, and the first one available at our district's office wasn't for 5 weeks later. Great. We went to the office anyways just to see if they did any walkup appointments, but no, that wasn't the case. Would the fact that our appointment was 5 weeks after our entry stamp when it needs to be within 30 days be a problem? No, as long as the appointment creation date is within the 30 days, you're fine. Ok. 

5 weeks go by and we arrive at the Civil Registry office bright eyed and bushy tailed, every possible document we had in hand. The appointment went super smooth and everything seemed to be in order. We could see the mock version of the ID cards on the computer screen with all our info and picture already entered in, and we could see our new RUT numbers as well, meaning they were already generated. The RUT is similar to a social security number. It's an unique identifier for life, and in Chile, you can't do much without it. Luckily I had the forethought to write our new RUTs down, because this next part gets a bit silly. 

At the end of the appointment, they give us a receipt with a date a month from then saying that is when our ID cards will be ready for pickup. I was a bit bummed they couldn't be printed on the spot. But ok. A month from then, we show up, again every hope in the world that our immigration process is complete. The guy at the pickup counter looks at our receipt blankly and tells us the "ready by date" on there is simply the earliest it could be ready. And, sorry, but they aren't ready yet. We will receive an email when they are. Optimism shattered. Any idea how much longer it will be? No.

A month after that, with still no email, Drew goes back to the office to try to rattle some cages. He speaks with some manager who adds us to a "Please process quickly" list. But still no promises. Why is it taking so long? The factory that makes them with the special chip is having production issues. Ok.... Two weeks after that, after our Buenos Aires trip, we get an email on Monday, July 28th that the boys' ID cards are ready. But not ours. Why the kids' ID cards would get finished before ours is a head scratcher. But Drew received his email that his was ready on that Wednesday afternoon. He immediately goes to the office, but the pickup office is already closed; it's only opened from 8am-2pm, of course.  Thursday morning, we show up, Drew collects his card and the boys'. Is mine ready? No. Regardless we go out to breakfast to celebrate, because since most things are in Drew's name, his ID card is the most useful. But that same afternoon, I get my email: Ready for Pickup. Friday, we go back, for the 3rd time that week, and finally pickup the last ID card. And we go out to breakfast to celebrate again because you have to celebrate these little wins in an adventure like this. 

Things we can do now that we have our RUTs. 1. We can shop at Mercado Libre, which is the Chilean version of Amazon. Why oh why would you need your Chilean ID card to shop at an online platform? Passports are not accepted. In the states, if a customer wants to give a vendor their money, the vendor takes it no questions asked. We wanted to give Mercado Libre our money, but as a foreigner, they would not accept it. The only thing I can think of is that their backend systems are designed with only Chileans in mind, and it would be too difficult to update them accordingly? But surely it must be worth the effort to do so, given what the immigration scene is like now with folks streaming in from Venezuela and Haiti. Or is it a legal thing dealing with taxes? Who knows. But we've spent about $1,000 in a week buying all sorts of random crap that we couldn't before. Consumerism has been restored.  

2. We can register our van in the toll road system and get an official toll pass. Before we could not do this, so we were either avoiding toll roads and using only surface streets, or, for our trip down to Chillan for example, we simply bit the bullet and paid about $100 to use the toll roads without a toll pass. 

3. The boys can officially register in the Chilean school system. Prior to this, the boys were attending their school in good faith that we would receive their ID cards at some point. But until we receive their RUTs, they essentially don't exist to the Chilean government, so there would be no record of them attending the school. Now their school transcripts will be official.

4. We can sign up for our Targeta Mi Vita, which is like a Vitacura Neighborhood Card proving we live in the neighborhood, which gets us discounts at the Rec Center, local pool, events at the local parks, etc. 

Lessons learned: Chile is a very hard country to immigrate into. Several expats have asked us this question: why did you choose to live in Chile with how difficult the immigration process is, if it wasn't a work related move? Honestly, we didn't know it would be this difficult. Everything on the government websites seems in order initially. But everything takes 10 times longer than it should, and there are lots of processing mistakes. And every government employee you talk to has a different answer to the same question. All of this stems from the fact that there wasn't alot of immigration to Chile 20 years ago, but now there is a ton, and their systems are not up to the task to handle this kind of volume. I probably could have done more research in chat groups, reddit threads, etc. to see how difficult the process actually is. Will definitely do this for any future moves we attempt. That being said, I'm not sure it would have changed our decision to move here. After visiting Buenos Aires, it's clear that Santiago is definitely the right place for us. The life in our middle class bubble here is very stable and safe. We love being close to both the mountains and the ocean. Our school has been the perfect fit for the boys, and we love our walkable neighborhood. So would we have picked a different country knowing how difficult this process was? Probably not. But maybe we would have girded our loins a bit more or maybe have thrown a bit more money at the issue with an immigration lawyer or something. But, at the end of the day, we did it! Hooray! Or as they say in Spanish, iuju! (The sound of those letters in Spanish sounds like yuhoo!) Time to celebrate.  

Buenos Aires: Day 5, 6, & 7: MIJU, Capital, ChoriFest

 

On Thursday, we visited a part of town called Puerto Madero or "Wood Port." It used to be one of the original shipping yards, but it has been completely renovated in the last 20 years and is now home to sparkling high rises and modern office buildings. 

The white suspension bridge here is called Puenta de la Mujer, or the Woman's Bridge. Couldn't tell you why it's called that, but it was pretty. Puerto Madero is an interesting little neighborhood because it is directly across the river from the Plaza de Mayo, so you have this very interesting dichotomy of old and new in one vantage point. We came to this neighborhood to visit a museum called the Museum of Imagination and Play, which was essentially a children's museum, which is a newer idea, in an older government mansion. The museum was on the smaller side, but it was a nice way to spend a morning. The one in Denver has it dead to rights though.  

No afternoon in Buenos Aires is complete without a trip to a new playground. This one was near the Planetarium, so it was aptly shaped like a space ship and planets. 

For dinner that night, I went out for Mexican with Lucia, the mom of the other family. Food prices in Argentina are higher than in Chile. Still not as high as they are in the States, but definitely higher than Chile. Much of this is due to the high inflation Argentina has been experiencing over the last few years. Argentina's inflation rate was at 134% in 2023 and 178% in 2024. Can you imagine that? Say a gallon of milk costs $2 one year, then it costs $4 the next year, then almost $8 the following year. The value of money becomes uncontrollable really quickly. In comparison, the US inflation rate in 2024 was 3%. So there certainly is extreme poverty in Argentina, but we were in neighborhoods where we couldn't see it. But this is one of the reasons our Argentinian friends moved to Chile. How can you afford anything with inflation like that? And the uncertainty of it all is hard to manage. Many of the restaurants we went to didn't have prices posted next to their products. They couldn't print the prices, because as soon as they did, they needed to raise the prices again to keep up with inflation, so the lovely menu they just printed instantly became obsolete. So no posted prices it is. Or else lots of stickers. When we went out for Mexican, it was the most expensive Mexican I've ever had, aside from Hong Kong I suppose. But the idea is the same. In countries far away from Mexico, Mexican food is considered rare and gourmet. In the U.S., it is not. But was it still delicious? Yes, of course it was.

Since Drew was solo dad-ing for dinner, he stopped by a gourmet sandwich shop down the street from our Airbnb. This gentleman has been hand slicing sandwich toppings for 40 years. Super tasty. 

Friday was a rainy day, but that didn't stop us from doing some final sightseeing. Our first stop was the Congress Building, which honestly looked very familiar. We also saw the outside of Teatro Colon, which is a super famous theatre, as well as their Supreme Court Building. We wanted to also go see the Recoletta Cemetery which is where Evita is buried, but it cost $20/person to go in, so we skipped it. Maybe next time. 

Lunch was a hole in the wall pizza place, which was super interesting. It was clearly an institution, one of those places where nothing has changed in 50 years. The pizza was amazing; we had a glazed pineapple and ham pizza. But some of the pizzas came with tomato sauce and some didn't. Our didn't, and it honestly didn't need it. But can't say I've ever had pizza with no sauce.

Our flight back home was Saturday night, but that didn't stop us from heading to ChoriFest Saturday afternoon to get our last Choripan fix. It was everything we hoped for and more. We tried 5 different variations of Choripan, and they were all delicious. 

The icing on the Buenos Aires cake was getting to see a Military Practice Parade on our walk home. Our Airbnb was close to the Military School, and apparently every Saturday they do these parades for hours all throughout the neighborhood. Almost everyone is on horseback, even the band. Could you imagine playing your instrument while riding a horse? I think they do this so often for the horses to practice just as much as the riders. They do this parade so often that they don't close the streets, so cars were going right alongside the horses in the other lanes. Good practice, I suppose!