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.
