The hail was not tiny....
But after the storm there was this.......
The truck Jake can drive!
Fountain in Valparaiso
In Which it Seemed Like the Right Bus
8 years ago
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Saturday
This morning we took a trip out to Lake Caburgua. We took a trip out there when we were here this past February. That was the trip where Jake took a wrong turn and we got lost. This trip was much better. Since it isn’t quit summer here yet there was almost no one there today. It was beautiful! The water there is the clearest I have ever seen. When we were there the last time there was this concrete bridge that extends out far into the lake. This time the water was so high the bridge was almost completely underwater. Since the water was so clear you could see the bridge under the water. It was scary cool to see it.
It has been an enjoyable lazy Saturday. This has been the first day where we haven’t had to get something done. Not much else to report right now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
Mandy & Jake
It has been an enjoyable lazy Saturday. This has been the first day where we haven’t had to get something done. Not much else to report right now. Hope everyone is having a good weekend!
Mandy & Jake
Trips
Yesterday morning we headed to Puren for Jake to pick up some of his advisor’s tools. Tom is letting Jake use his tools, which is VERY nice of him. Tom has worked in Peru and Chile for over 30 years and has had a lot of funding from the NSF (National Science Foundation) and he has tools stashed all over the place. He also had a truck, which would have been great if he let Jake use it, but no dice. Tom will be visiting in January just to check and see how things are going.
It took us about 3 hours to drive to Puren from Pucon. Puren is a very small town. You could blink and you would miss it. The place where Tom keeps his tools in a house owned by a man named Don Fernando. His house is an old hotel that Jake thinks was built in at least the 1920’s. The house was, “leaning”. You could see how the frames had shifted from some of the doors and windows. It was really dark inside and it smelled like mold and wet… Yuck. Jake said he stayed there once in 2006 when Tom was doing a project there. I was happy to leave after 10 minutes; I don’t think I could have stayed there an entire night.
After we got the tools we picked up some bread, yogurt, and some Mankekes (basically a yellow cupcake with Manjar in the middle of it). Outside the store a woman was selling some Merken, which is a kind of chili powder. It is really good. We brought some back with us last trip and we bought 2 bags to bring home this time. If we are lucky we won’t have used it all before we come home!
So, we spent a total of about 6 hours in the car yesterday. Ugh. We had to get up at 6:30 this morning to leave Pucon in time to get to Valdivia (2 hours away) so that Jake could talk to Mario Pino. Mario is the Professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile that is giving Jake the adjunct Professor position. He is a pretty funny guy. Mario has worked with Tom for almost the entire 30 years he has worked here.
After we left Mario’s office we went down the street to the museum where Leonor (Jake’s counterpart Archeologist for the project) works. She wasn’t there today, so we walked around the museum until one of the people in charge could get out of their meeting. Leonor also keeps some of Tom’s tools, so we were stopping to get them and also for Jake to update her on how things are going. The museum is the old house of Van de Maele, who was some rich guy who moved there from Germany in the 1800’s. His house was huge! The bottom level is set up with the furniture and portraits that have been there since the house was built. The upper level is more like a modern museum with glass cases full of artifacts and things. We weren’t allowed to take any photos, stink. After walking around the museum we went outside to wait for the meeting to be over.
When we were there last year there was a group of sea lions that were chillin on a floating dock thing. This year they had migrated down river just a bit to right in front of the museum. There was this huge sea lion that had a face that looked like one of the creatures from “Where the Wild Things Are”. He apparently didn’t like the one of the other sea lions touching him because he let out a roar and tried to bite him until he moved over.
A bit later we were able to get the tools and we put them in the truck. We walked a little ways to across the river. We had lunch at McDonalds before getting back in the truck and driving the two hours back to Pucon. When we got back to the cabin it was cold enough for a fire and some hot chocolate that I had packed for us. It was quite cozy sitting by the fire, sipping hot cocoa.
Jake bought an internet card USB thing for us to be able to use the internet in the cabin. It is very slow and apparently doesn’t work with Skye so we will have to try and see if we can figure out how to get that to work. I tried calling Jennifer last night, I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me. Normally a 20 minute call to the states has cost about $0.10. Trying to call Jennifer and talking probably about 2 minutes cost more than $0.20. I wasn’t able to try Google talk so that may still work, hopefully.
Anyway, hope all is well at home. Heard it was 48 degrees in Nashville today, bet you are glad to be driving my car Jennifer :)
Mandy & Jake
It took us about 3 hours to drive to Puren from Pucon. Puren is a very small town. You could blink and you would miss it. The place where Tom keeps his tools in a house owned by a man named Don Fernando. His house is an old hotel that Jake thinks was built in at least the 1920’s. The house was, “leaning”. You could see how the frames had shifted from some of the doors and windows. It was really dark inside and it smelled like mold and wet… Yuck. Jake said he stayed there once in 2006 when Tom was doing a project there. I was happy to leave after 10 minutes; I don’t think I could have stayed there an entire night.
After we got the tools we picked up some bread, yogurt, and some Mankekes (basically a yellow cupcake with Manjar in the middle of it). Outside the store a woman was selling some Merken, which is a kind of chili powder. It is really good. We brought some back with us last trip and we bought 2 bags to bring home this time. If we are lucky we won’t have used it all before we come home!
So, we spent a total of about 6 hours in the car yesterday. Ugh. We had to get up at 6:30 this morning to leave Pucon in time to get to Valdivia (2 hours away) so that Jake could talk to Mario Pino. Mario is the Professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile that is giving Jake the adjunct Professor position. He is a pretty funny guy. Mario has worked with Tom for almost the entire 30 years he has worked here.
After we left Mario’s office we went down the street to the museum where Leonor (Jake’s counterpart Archeologist for the project) works. She wasn’t there today, so we walked around the museum until one of the people in charge could get out of their meeting. Leonor also keeps some of Tom’s tools, so we were stopping to get them and also for Jake to update her on how things are going. The museum is the old house of Van de Maele, who was some rich guy who moved there from Germany in the 1800’s. His house was huge! The bottom level is set up with the furniture and portraits that have been there since the house was built. The upper level is more like a modern museum with glass cases full of artifacts and things. We weren’t allowed to take any photos, stink. After walking around the museum we went outside to wait for the meeting to be over.
When we were there last year there was a group of sea lions that were chillin on a floating dock thing. This year they had migrated down river just a bit to right in front of the museum. There was this huge sea lion that had a face that looked like one of the creatures from “Where the Wild Things Are”. He apparently didn’t like the one of the other sea lions touching him because he let out a roar and tried to bite him until he moved over.
A bit later we were able to get the tools and we put them in the truck. We walked a little ways to across the river. We had lunch at McDonalds before getting back in the truck and driving the two hours back to Pucon. When we got back to the cabin it was cold enough for a fire and some hot chocolate that I had packed for us. It was quite cozy sitting by the fire, sipping hot cocoa.
Jake bought an internet card USB thing for us to be able to use the internet in the cabin. It is very slow and apparently doesn’t work with Skye so we will have to try and see if we can figure out how to get that to work. I tried calling Jennifer last night, I could hear her but she couldn’t hear me. Normally a 20 minute call to the states has cost about $0.10. Trying to call Jennifer and talking probably about 2 minutes cost more than $0.20. I wasn’t able to try Google talk so that may still work, hopefully.
Anyway, hope all is well at home. Heard it was 48 degrees in Nashville today, bet you are glad to be driving my car Jennifer :)
Mandy & Jake
Pucon
Well, we made it to Pucon in one piece! Through much nashing of teeth, sweat, & tears we were able to rent a vehicle in Temuco for the next two months. We were very hopeful as we walked through the car lot to find not one, but TWO automatic vehicles. There was a Jeep and a Kia, both would have worked beautifully. They both had space in the backs to carry the tools and luggage. We were tempted to try and buy one of them and then return it when we were done here in April-May ish. The monthly payments would only have been about $300-$350. There was hope in that Jeep, there really was. Jake talked to the man working at the car place and that hope was shot DOWN! The Jeep and Kia were cars that they were sealing for individuals who couldn’t sell their cars on their own and the car would have to be financed through a bank in order for us to buy it. In Chile they have a Route Number which is basically like our Social Security number, if you don’t have one you can’t buy anything like a car. You can’t even have a bank account here without one. So, we had to go talk to the manager of the company. They have two locations in the city of Temuco, so the manager was coming to pick us up and takes us to the main office. I felt like the mafia was coming to grab us and takes us to some empty lot outside of town to steal all our money and just leave us there. She and Jake were talking in Spanish the whole time so I really had NO idea what was going on.
She was going to let Jake rent a Truck, and not just a little truck, but a 4 door, diesel, Chevy truck. This made Jake just about cry out with joy. The only downsides were that it was a manual transmission and it would cost about $1000 a month to rent it! I couldn’t believe it would be that much to rent a vehicle. The cabin we are staying at costs less than half what the car is costing us. Jake assured me that it was a deal to be able to rent a TRUCK for that much. The other companies he had been in contact with were going to let him rent a car for about the same amount. After Jake filled out all the information they wanted him to take it for a test drive before he signed anything. The only place to take it for a test drive would be to pull right into the busy highway where the office was located. I think I held my breath for two full minutes. One of the mechanics was in the front seat and I could just feel Jake’s nervousness seeping through the seat and back to me. Jake has had issues in the past with Manual transmissions. Anyone who has ever learned to drive a stick knows the frustration of killing the car, over and over, and over again. This happened many times on our last trip here. I believe I mentioned that I feared for our lives, so having Jake pull into traffic right off the bat made me want to pee my pants.
He did wonderfully! Apparently Jake has no trouble with a manual car, he just doesn’t have the leg room to be able to drive it! The truck has made a significant amount of difference! He was able to ease right out onto the road and turn the truck back again. He stopped a few times and didn’t kill it! He signed on the dotted line and we were off! He headed back to Juanita’s where we packed up all our stuff and we headed to Pucon. Over the past two days he has only killed it twice, and that was because he had to stop on a hill, which is not easy! The last time we were here it took him a good 10 minutes to get the little car out of the rental parking lot! He has done a great job this go round. He had no problem driving the truck around. YAY! I do not fear that we will be pulling into busy traffic and the car will die and then we will too! I am very proud of him!
We have also been waiting for the Chilean Government to give Jake his permits so that we can start working on Monday. They have been emailing him asking for this and that, all things they could have told him about 3 months ago! Anyway, they said on Tuesday that they needed a letter from one of the Universities here stating that they are supporting the project. They didn’t tell Jake that he needed this when he started so Jake just about had a heart attack. He emailed him advisor (Tom) at Vandy who quickly got to work to get him the letter. Jake got news yesterday that not only were his permits approved but he had been made an adjunct professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile! He will be able to teach a few lectures there during our time here and he can continue that for as long as he wants! He could continue for the rest of his career if he wanted. He would have to renew the position each year by giving a few lectures or even teaching a class. YAY! He was jumping up and down and dancing to the “Song of Joy”!
The cabin we are staying at in Pucon is very nice. It has high ceilings so Jake won’t bonk his head on anything. (He ran into a road sign Tuesday) There is a stove, refrigerator, sink, and microwave, HOT water for baths and to clean dishes! This area is usually only busy in the summer months, so there is only a little wood burning stove to heat the great room area. In the bedrooms and bathroom you are on your own for heat. It is still quite cold here at night; it hasn’t made it to the warm spring and hot summer nights yet. We sat by the fire last night and watched some “Flight of the Concords” before going to bed. This morning it was cold enough to see your breath, and that was even before getting out of bed!
I will write more tomorrow about our trip to Puren today, it is very late and we have to get up early and head out to Valdivia tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well at home!
Photos of everything to come later!
Mandy & Jake
She was going to let Jake rent a Truck, and not just a little truck, but a 4 door, diesel, Chevy truck. This made Jake just about cry out with joy. The only downsides were that it was a manual transmission and it would cost about $1000 a month to rent it! I couldn’t believe it would be that much to rent a vehicle. The cabin we are staying at costs less than half what the car is costing us. Jake assured me that it was a deal to be able to rent a TRUCK for that much. The other companies he had been in contact with were going to let him rent a car for about the same amount. After Jake filled out all the information they wanted him to take it for a test drive before he signed anything. The only place to take it for a test drive would be to pull right into the busy highway where the office was located. I think I held my breath for two full minutes. One of the mechanics was in the front seat and I could just feel Jake’s nervousness seeping through the seat and back to me. Jake has had issues in the past with Manual transmissions. Anyone who has ever learned to drive a stick knows the frustration of killing the car, over and over, and over again. This happened many times on our last trip here. I believe I mentioned that I feared for our lives, so having Jake pull into traffic right off the bat made me want to pee my pants.
He did wonderfully! Apparently Jake has no trouble with a manual car, he just doesn’t have the leg room to be able to drive it! The truck has made a significant amount of difference! He was able to ease right out onto the road and turn the truck back again. He stopped a few times and didn’t kill it! He signed on the dotted line and we were off! He headed back to Juanita’s where we packed up all our stuff and we headed to Pucon. Over the past two days he has only killed it twice, and that was because he had to stop on a hill, which is not easy! The last time we were here it took him a good 10 minutes to get the little car out of the rental parking lot! He has done a great job this go round. He had no problem driving the truck around. YAY! I do not fear that we will be pulling into busy traffic and the car will die and then we will too! I am very proud of him!
We have also been waiting for the Chilean Government to give Jake his permits so that we can start working on Monday. They have been emailing him asking for this and that, all things they could have told him about 3 months ago! Anyway, they said on Tuesday that they needed a letter from one of the Universities here stating that they are supporting the project. They didn’t tell Jake that he needed this when he started so Jake just about had a heart attack. He emailed him advisor (Tom) at Vandy who quickly got to work to get him the letter. Jake got news yesterday that not only were his permits approved but he had been made an adjunct professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile! He will be able to teach a few lectures there during our time here and he can continue that for as long as he wants! He could continue for the rest of his career if he wanted. He would have to renew the position each year by giving a few lectures or even teaching a class. YAY! He was jumping up and down and dancing to the “Song of Joy”!
The cabin we are staying at in Pucon is very nice. It has high ceilings so Jake won’t bonk his head on anything. (He ran into a road sign Tuesday) There is a stove, refrigerator, sink, and microwave, HOT water for baths and to clean dishes! This area is usually only busy in the summer months, so there is only a little wood burning stove to heat the great room area. In the bedrooms and bathroom you are on your own for heat. It is still quite cold here at night; it hasn’t made it to the warm spring and hot summer nights yet. We sat by the fire last night and watched some “Flight of the Concords” before going to bed. This morning it was cold enough to see your breath, and that was even before getting out of bed!
I will write more tomorrow about our trip to Puren today, it is very late and we have to get up early and head out to Valdivia tomorrow. Hope everyone is doing well at home!
Photos of everything to come later!
Mandy & Jake
Monday, October 12, 2009
Temuco
This morning we left our room in Hostel del Rio to go down stairs to get some breakfast. The lights in the breakfast room were out, but the door was open. We went inside and turned on the lights. All the tables were set, one of the hotel people came in and said that someone had to got and get the bread. Breakfast at EVERY hotel here consists of some sort of bread, butter, jam, gouda cheese, coffee or tea, and juice. Since we don't drink coffee or tea they always bring us hot milk and we put sugar in it to sweeten it up a bit.
Anyway, back to this morning, we were waiting and this guys comes in and asks if he can sit with us. There is no one else in the room and there are plenty of other tables, but OK. So he sits down and then asks if we are from The States, in English. This guy totally looked Chilean but he was to tall to be Chilean. Turns out he is from Germany and he is doing research for his Thesis to get his Bachelor's degree back in Germany. He will be in Chile for 6 months studying the effects of sun burns on apples. He said that he was studying about agriculture and wines, etc. His name was Martin and he was a very nice fellow. He said he was from Stuttgart in the south. He is 25 and has 3 sisters back home.
The hotel woman came back in with this kind of pie (Jake and I are only guessing it was a "pie") that was the color pink that doesn't occur in nature. It was kind of a pink gelatin filling in a think crust. I don't really know what it was. It has almost no flavor, but she wanted us to have something to eat while we were waiting. Soon after the bread arrived and we ate and chatted with Martin. We mostly talked about the Soccer game that took place on Saturday. Chile won the game and they are going to be able to place to possibly go to the world cup. After they won the game on Saturday night they entire town went crazy. From our hotel room we could hear people honking their car horns, yelling, whooping, & hollering for a least 3 hours after the game was over. On Sunday morning the plaza was covered in trash and bottles from the party the night before. South America and their football :)
After we left the hotel we headed to the bus station to caught a bus to Temuco that was supposed to leave at 11:00, or so the website said. It was a liar. The bus didn't leave until 12:15 and we had to cross the street and go to the other bus terminal. The "other terminal" didn't have many places to sit and was much dirtier. It smelled more like a meat market than a bus station, but we only had to wait an hour.
Our bus was just a little bit late, and our sets were in the back of the bus right next to the bathroom. IT actually gave us a bit of entertainment because someone got themselves locked in :) It took a few minutes of them trying to lock and unlock the door and someone on the outside to pull on the door really hard to get them out. I will never be using one of those bathrooms any time soon. The bus ride was about 6 hours, so we were really excited to get off the bus.
We arrived in Temuco about 6:00 and we went straight to La Casa de Juanita. This is still the greatest place in all of Chile. She was building new cabins when we were here last and they are all complete now. They are clean, and have private bathroom. Each room has its own wood burning stove, which is wonderful for tonight. It is quite cold here right now. The farther we move south the colder it is getting. It will only last til the end of the month or so, and then we will be wishing for the cool weather. What is also great about this place is the Juanita lets us use her washer and dryer! We will have clean clothes tomorrow! Juanita is a really nice lady. She lets us use the kitchen when we want and she invites us into her home to sit and talk. La Casa de Juanita is my home away from home here in Chile. We will be here just a few days for us to get a car and then we will be heading to Pucon!
Everyone here is telling Jake to just buy an car and then sell it when he leaves instead of renting a car. This might work out better in the long run but Jake is only given a certain amount of the money at a time and buying a car for $6000 and then selling it back when we leave will only work if Jake can spare the $6000 up front with the grant money. We will be walking around Temuco tomorrow trying to see what the best deal will be. Wish us luck!
We will be praying for Trent so that he will get better soon! Hope everyone at home is doing well!
Mandy & Jake
Anyway, back to this morning, we were waiting and this guys comes in and asks if he can sit with us. There is no one else in the room and there are plenty of other tables, but OK. So he sits down and then asks if we are from The States, in English. This guy totally looked Chilean but he was to tall to be Chilean. Turns out he is from Germany and he is doing research for his Thesis to get his Bachelor's degree back in Germany. He will be in Chile for 6 months studying the effects of sun burns on apples. He said that he was studying about agriculture and wines, etc. His name was Martin and he was a very nice fellow. He said he was from Stuttgart in the south. He is 25 and has 3 sisters back home.
The hotel woman came back in with this kind of pie (Jake and I are only guessing it was a "pie") that was the color pink that doesn't occur in nature. It was kind of a pink gelatin filling in a think crust. I don't really know what it was. It has almost no flavor, but she wanted us to have something to eat while we were waiting. Soon after the bread arrived and we ate and chatted with Martin. We mostly talked about the Soccer game that took place on Saturday. Chile won the game and they are going to be able to place to possibly go to the world cup. After they won the game on Saturday night they entire town went crazy. From our hotel room we could hear people honking their car horns, yelling, whooping, & hollering for a least 3 hours after the game was over. On Sunday morning the plaza was covered in trash and bottles from the party the night before. South America and their football :)
After we left the hotel we headed to the bus station to caught a bus to Temuco that was supposed to leave at 11:00, or so the website said. It was a liar. The bus didn't leave until 12:15 and we had to cross the street and go to the other bus terminal. The "other terminal" didn't have many places to sit and was much dirtier. It smelled more like a meat market than a bus station, but we only had to wait an hour.
Our bus was just a little bit late, and our sets were in the back of the bus right next to the bathroom. IT actually gave us a bit of entertainment because someone got themselves locked in :) It took a few minutes of them trying to lock and unlock the door and someone on the outside to pull on the door really hard to get them out. I will never be using one of those bathrooms any time soon. The bus ride was about 6 hours, so we were really excited to get off the bus.
We arrived in Temuco about 6:00 and we went straight to La Casa de Juanita. This is still the greatest place in all of Chile. She was building new cabins when we were here last and they are all complete now. They are clean, and have private bathroom. Each room has its own wood burning stove, which is wonderful for tonight. It is quite cold here right now. The farther we move south the colder it is getting. It will only last til the end of the month or so, and then we will be wishing for the cool weather. What is also great about this place is the Juanita lets us use her washer and dryer! We will have clean clothes tomorrow! Juanita is a really nice lady. She lets us use the kitchen when we want and she invites us into her home to sit and talk. La Casa de Juanita is my home away from home here in Chile. We will be here just a few days for us to get a car and then we will be heading to Pucon!
Everyone here is telling Jake to just buy an car and then sell it when he leaves instead of renting a car. This might work out better in the long run but Jake is only given a certain amount of the money at a time and buying a car for $6000 and then selling it back when we leave will only work if Jake can spare the $6000 up front with the grant money. We will be walking around Temuco tomorrow trying to see what the best deal will be. Wish us luck!
We will be praying for Trent so that he will get better soon! Hope everyone at home is doing well!
Mandy & Jake
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Visiting....no one
Well,
When we got to the hotel last night we were pretty tired from being on the bus all day. We had to lug our suitcases up to the second floor, but it was all worth it. This room has a queen size bed and an immaculate shower that has no right to be in this country. I enjoyed a HOT shower :) We came to Talca to visit with some of Jake's friends, but when we got to church they were either out town or sick. This was kind of sad on one hand because we didn't get to see any of them, but good on the other hand because I wasn't feed any meat that I couldn't identify.
We had our first McDonald's last night when we got to town. Still the same. It was the first meat I have had since I got here, if you can count a McDonald's hamburger as meat. We will be heading to Temuco in the morning. We will be renting a car there and then heading out to Pucon to where we will be staying until we leave. We will be taking a few day trips this next week to gathering the tools Jake will be using from the various places they are being stored here. Jake's advisor is allowing him to use his tools which will save Jake a lot of money and hassle of having to bring his own tools.
Hope everyone is safe home.
Mandy & Jake
Friday, October 9, 2009
Oh joy
During my last semester of school I took a swimming class. During that swimming class I pulled a muscle in my neck. I didn't pull it while actually swimming, I sadly pulled it while I was putting on my very tight Speedo swim suit. Go on a laugh. The reason I am telling everyone this that every now and then, when I am doing strenuous activities, it acts up and feels like I have pulled it again. These strenuous activities I mentioned have been brushing my teeth, drying my hair, or sleeping which was the case of last night. I awoke this morning to the lovely felling in my neck and shoulder. Oh joy. Jake went down to breakfast while I took a very short hot shower.
After breakfast Jake headed out to his conference and I sat outside our room in a sitting area on our floor. The room was cleaned after an hour and then I went back inside. Even though my neck is not very happy with me, Jake and I needed to do some laundry. Laundry, until we get to the cabin, is washing our clothes in the sink or bathtub and hanging them up to dry. I filled up the bath tub and washed some clothes with a bit of Tide sink detergent and they are hanging up on a line in the bath room, hanging up by the window and other various places in the room. Hopefully everything will be dry by tomorrow morning in time for us to leave. I also hope that my neck is better by the time we need to leave or it will make and interesting walk with all our bags to get to the train station. I see a taxi trip for us in the morning.
Nothing else much going on. I am happy to get out of this town. There just isn't much for me to do here while Jake is in his conference so I have been a little bored this week. What with the homeless stares and even some one taking a photograph of me, I will be happy to be in a different place. Yesterday morning while I was sitting in the plaza waiting for Jake to come back a group of teenagers was walking around the plaza taking photographs of each other. One of the boys was sitting on the fountain in front of me pretending to take a photo of something behind me, and then used his hand to hide the camera as he took a photo of me. I don't get the fascination with Americans in this country. Oh well, anyway, I hope everyone at home is doing well.
Mandy & Jake
After breakfast Jake headed out to his conference and I sat outside our room in a sitting area on our floor. The room was cleaned after an hour and then I went back inside. Even though my neck is not very happy with me, Jake and I needed to do some laundry. Laundry, until we get to the cabin, is washing our clothes in the sink or bathtub and hanging them up to dry. I filled up the bath tub and washed some clothes with a bit of Tide sink detergent and they are hanging up on a line in the bath room, hanging up by the window and other various places in the room. Hopefully everything will be dry by tomorrow morning in time for us to leave. I also hope that my neck is better by the time we need to leave or it will make and interesting walk with all our bags to get to the train station. I see a taxi trip for us in the morning.
Nothing else much going on. I am happy to get out of this town. There just isn't much for me to do here while Jake is in his conference so I have been a little bored this week. What with the homeless stares and even some one taking a photograph of me, I will be happy to be in a different place. Yesterday morning while I was sitting in the plaza waiting for Jake to come back a group of teenagers was walking around the plaza taking photographs of each other. One of the boys was sitting on the fountain in front of me pretending to take a photo of something behind me, and then used his hand to hide the camera as he took a photo of me. I don't get the fascination with Americans in this country. Oh well, anyway, I hope everyone at home is doing well.
Mandy & Jake
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Not much going on
Hello everyone, Well, we are in Valparaiso until Saturday morning. Since I can't go with Jake to the conference I have to sit in the near by plaza for a few hours until I can go back to the hotel. They have to have time to clean the room so in the mornings I sit and draw, read, or listen to music.
Yesterday morning I was sitting listening to Harry Potter 3 on my Ipod when this homeless man who was wearing a bright orange Gator's sweat shirt came up to me. He stood less than a foot away from me and just stared at me. It was a little unnerving. He stood there for about a minute, then he walked off. I grabbed my bag and headed back to the hotel. Ugh, creepy.
Not much more to tell, we will leave on Saturday morning and head out and travel to the site. We will stop and visit a few friends along the way and pick up the rental car/truck. We may be able to rent a truck this time, but we will see.
It was cold enough this morning that I could see my breath. I decided that was enough cause to bust out two of the hot chocolate packs that I brought. Man I miss having my coco motion. Hope everything at home it going well.
Mandy & Jake
Yesterday morning I was sitting listening to Harry Potter 3 on my Ipod when this homeless man who was wearing a bright orange Gator's sweat shirt came up to me. He stood less than a foot away from me and just stared at me. It was a little unnerving. He stood there for about a minute, then he walked off. I grabbed my bag and headed back to the hotel. Ugh, creepy.
Not much more to tell, we will leave on Saturday morning and head out and travel to the site. We will stop and visit a few friends along the way and pick up the rental car/truck. We may be able to rent a truck this time, but we will see.
It was cold enough this morning that I could see my breath. I decided that was enough cause to bust out two of the hot chocolate packs that I brought. Man I miss having my coco motion. Hope everything at home it going well.
Mandy & Jake
Monday, October 5, 2009
Breakfast of Champions
This morning we went downstairs to have our free breakfast from the hotel. I got the “Light Breakfast” which was fresh juice, a bowl of seasonal fruit, and toasts with cream cheese and jam. Well, the juice was really good and was actually fresh there were strawberry seeds in it. The “toasts” was bread that wasn’t crunchy and get was burnt. The cream cheese wasn’t cream cheese. I don’t know what it was; it had the consistency of tofu. The jam was good, I think it was apricot. I actually never got the fruit bowl. Jake got the “Continental Breakfast” which was toasts, scrambled eggs with ham & cheese, and fresh juice. His “scrambled” eggs were in a little white bowl and where sunny side scrambled…..looked like a bowl of snot.
After breakfast we walked the three blocks from the hotel to where Jake’s conference is being held. I wasn’t allowed in so I sat in the plaza that was across the street. I sat and sketched for a little bit. It was too cold to sit for longer than an hour and a half. It didn’t seem that cold when we left, but I really needed to have my jacket. I walked back to the hotel and sketched some more from the view our of our hotel window.
Jake was back to the hotel at about 12:30 for a lunch break. We walked a little ways from the Hotel and stopped in a place called “el guaton” which means “The Fatty”. Jake had a hot dog with mayonnaise, avocado, tomato, and sour kraut. I had a “grilled cheese” with Gouda and was on an oversized hamburger bun. We split some fires…they were a little greasy. Jake will be heading back to the conference in a bit. After he is done we will take a walk around the city and find a grocery store. There is a little fridge in our room so we are going to get some milk and some cereal to eat for the next week. Hope everyone is doing well at home.
Mandy & Jake
After breakfast we walked the three blocks from the hotel to where Jake’s conference is being held. I wasn’t allowed in so I sat in the plaza that was across the street. I sat and sketched for a little bit. It was too cold to sit for longer than an hour and a half. It didn’t seem that cold when we left, but I really needed to have my jacket. I walked back to the hotel and sketched some more from the view our of our hotel window.
Jake was back to the hotel at about 12:30 for a lunch break. We walked a little ways from the Hotel and stopped in a place called “el guaton” which means “The Fatty”. Jake had a hot dog with mayonnaise, avocado, tomato, and sour kraut. I had a “grilled cheese” with Gouda and was on an oversized hamburger bun. We split some fires…they were a little greasy. Jake will be heading back to the conference in a bit. After he is done we will take a walk around the city and find a grocery store. There is a little fridge in our room so we are going to get some milk and some cereal to eat for the next week. Hope everyone is doing well at home.
Mandy & Jake
Sunday, October 4, 2009
We Made It
Hello everyone,
We made it safely to Chile on Friday morning. We haven't really been able to get to an internet cafe.
We took a bus from Santiago to Valparioso this morning. This is a tourist town and is very expensive......It is a pretty town but it is definitely more than it would be in any other place. We are going to be here until Saturday for Jake to go to a conference that is being held here for all the archaeologist in Chile. He has to go and make nice with all the Chilean Archaeologists because they don't like Gringos very much. The hotel we are staying in is nice, meaning clean and has wifi. With the wifi we will be able to talk more easily this week.
While we were in Santiago we stayed in the Hotel Los Arcos, which is they one we stayed in the last two times we were there. While we were in Santiago Jake was able to find a Chilean book he really needed for his dissertation that he had been unable to find the last few times he had been here. We also bought a cheap pay as you go phone for me so that we can call each other while we are here if we need to. If you need to get a hold of us quickly you can call me on this number
First you have to dial 01156
followed by the number
7964 9964
There is also a voice mail set up so if I don't answer you can leave a message. I don't know if you will be able to get through but you can try if you need to.
Yesterday after we had been walking around...ALL....DAY....LONG we had to wait a few minutes when we got back to the hotel for the cleaning lady to be done with our room. We sat in some chairs by a little table down the hallway. Jake was playing with the new phone and I was looking at the magazines and books that were on the table. There was an English copy of the "The Road". I picked it up and read the whole thing last night. If you have never read that book, you need to. Tracie has been telling both Jake and I to read it for months. Oh it was great, disturbing, and will mess you up at first. I have never been so creeped out and enthralled at the same time.
We hope that everyone is doing well at home. We have been praying for Autumn and are glad to hear that she is doing better. We will email more updates later.
Mandy & Jake
We made it safely to Chile on Friday morning. We haven't really been able to get to an internet cafe.
We took a bus from Santiago to Valparioso this morning. This is a tourist town and is very expensive......It is a pretty town but it is definitely more than it would be in any other place. We are going to be here until Saturday for Jake to go to a conference that is being held here for all the archaeologist in Chile. He has to go and make nice with all the Chilean Archaeologists because they don't like Gringos very much. The hotel we are staying in is nice, meaning clean and has wifi. With the wifi we will be able to talk more easily this week.
While we were in Santiago we stayed in the Hotel Los Arcos, which is they one we stayed in the last two times we were there. While we were in Santiago Jake was able to find a Chilean book he really needed for his dissertation that he had been unable to find the last few times he had been here. We also bought a cheap pay as you go phone for me so that we can call each other while we are here if we need to. If you need to get a hold of us quickly you can call me on this number
First you have to dial 01156
followed by the number
7964 9964
There is also a voice mail set up so if I don't answer you can leave a message. I don't know if you will be able to get through but you can try if you need to.
Yesterday after we had been walking around...ALL....DAY....LONG we had to wait a few minutes when we got back to the hotel for the cleaning lady to be done with our room. We sat in some chairs by a little table down the hallway. Jake was playing with the new phone and I was looking at the magazines and books that were on the table. There was an English copy of the "The Road". I picked it up and read the whole thing last night. If you have never read that book, you need to. Tracie has been telling both Jake and I to read it for months. Oh it was great, disturbing, and will mess you up at first. I have never been so creeped out and enthralled at the same time.
We hope that everyone is doing well at home. We have been praying for Autumn and are glad to hear that she is doing better. We will email more updates later.
Mandy & Jake
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