We Made It to Santiago!

 We made it!  Amazingly, everything went remarkably well! We had no weather delays for any part of the journey, and by flying in Jan. this was definitely not guaranteed, (I think the Atlanta airport got snow two days later and a bunch of flights got cancelled, Yikes!)  The day we left Colorado (Jan. 8, 2025) it was actually stunning: a bluebird day with everything covered in a lovely, white dusting of snow.  That actually made our departure more bittersweet, because it's tough to beat gorgeous Colorado.

But, we piled on in Sergio, that's Leah and Osman's diesel pickup truck, the only vehicle that would fit all of our luggage as we drove to the airport; thanks, guys, for loaning him to us.

We flew from Denver to Atlanta; that was roughly a 3 hour flight. When we boarded our plane to Atlanta, the pilots let the boys hop in the cockpit. This was another first for the boys, and they were thrilled. They got to push buttons and move the joy-stick around and everything!

Then we had a 2 hour layover in Atlanta, where we met up with Brian and Karen (aka Grandma and Grandpa), who flew in from Grand Rapids, MI to meet us there. We got to spend a few minutes noshing in the Delta Sky Lounge.

Finally, we jumped aboard DL 147 to Santiago! It was an overnight flight that left at 8pm and landed in Santiago at 7:20am the following day. This was the first time the boys have flown this long ever or done an overnighter, so my expectations were very low. But they did awesome. 

It helped that both middle seats in our two rows were vacant, so we made cozy beds for the boys on the floor (yes, yes, it's gross, I know, but I was willing to sacrifice some germs for the opportunity for myself and Drew to lay down flat ourselves and actually sleep-ish. I'm selfish, I know. I'd do it again.)

We were traveling with 7 big suitcases, 6 carry-ons, a ski bag, a bike box, and 2 giant car seat bags stuffed to the brim plus backpacks, and somehow all of our luggage made it! Getting out of Denver was easy because thankfully Delta had curbside check-in for Drew and I to throw the luggage out of the back of Sergio and move it a few feet to the check-in line. In Santiago, they have those luggage carts available for free, so with all four adults wielding a cart, we made it! We booked 2 Transvip vans to take us from the airport to the Airbnb, and I would highly recommend them. They have a coordinator right outside the main doors, and, even though we were 45 min early than our booking, (wasn't sure how long it would take to get through immigration and customs) they got us our vans immediately, and off we went. It cost about $40 per van to take a 30min ride to the Airbnb. Wasn't the cheapest option, but it didn't break the bank, and it was very reliable. Would definitely use again. 

Finally, our Airbnb host was super accommodating and let us check-in super early, even though they weren't done cleaning the place yet. It wasn't like we could stash our mountain of luggage somewhere and go get lunch, we needed an early check-in, and he made it happen. Very grateful. We are staying on the 8th floor of a building off President Kennedy Avenue in Vitacura, which is the neighborhood we will be living in. Very nice building.

And it has a pool! Didn't actually realize the building had a pool, so that was a nice surprise. The seasons in Chile are opposite than in North America, so we went from single digit temps in wintery Colorado to high 80s, low 90s in summer filled Chile. The weather feels similar to Colorado though in that, while it's hot, the humidity is low, so if you're in the shade, you're fine. Definitely need sunscreen though. And limited bugs (yes!), and when the sun goes down it cools off quick, to like 60s. In general, Santiago has seasons, but the temperature extremes are a bit milder compared to Denver. This is the hottest time of the year, but it won't get above the low 90s. Not missing those 100 degree days, Denver! And the city won't ever get snow. Winter temps are more in the 40s/50s.

Those mountains still have snow though! Another similarity from Santiago to Colorado is the mountains, except here instead of the Rocky Mountains, we have the Andes! This is the view from our Airbnb balcony. Pretty gorgeous huh! The picture doesn't even really do them justice, they are really epic looking. Santiago is only at around 1,700 ft above sea level. But the Andes rise up to 16,000 ft around the city, with the tallest mountain in the Andes, Mt. Aconcagua, clocking in at 22,831 ft above sea level! It's actually the tallest mountain in the entire Western Hemisphere! By comparison, the tallest mountain in the Rockies is Mt. Elbert at 14,438 ft. 

However, the mountains in Santiago are to the east of the city, so I have to rewire my brain when processing directions. We get some nice sunsets bouncing off the mountains though. 

Overall, we're settling in nicely. Drew and I have started looking at apartments (more on that later). The kids are resetting their body clocks to be in the GMT-3 timezone, that's 4 hours later than Denver. So, when I was asking them to go to bed at 9pm the first night we were there, that was only 5pm Denver time. But, they were so tired from the trip, they did it, and now we're going to keep inching them back til we get back to our 7-7 schedule. This was actually another reason we picked South America as our destination. I didn't want to deal with super jet lagged kids who had their days and nights mixed up. 4 hours later is enough for me. Well, more next time, with hopefully an apartment update! 

PSA: The easiest way to message Drew and I now is through Whatsapp. What's Whatsapp you ask? It's the messaging platform that almost the entire rest of the world uses except the USA. So come on in, the water's fine! If you text us using the old ways, we're likely not to get it. So if you want to coordinate a trip to come visit us or simply to catch up, Whatsapp!

Mo's cell +1-615-975-5893

Drew's cell +1-303-726-7533