Chili Update and Pictures

NOTE: COOL VIDEOS TO COME TOMORROW!

We're here.

Whew. The final nail in the travel nightmare coffin was when the bus dropped us off at our hotel (Hotel Huincahue) and we discovered that they had no cribs. In a miscommunication, they had instead intended for our children to sleep in twin beds, which I think would blow the mind of a 9 month old boy.

So we were upgraded to a suite, where we designed a kind of makeshift cage from a couch and our big suitcase. It works perfectly, and I must brag that it was my idea and my memories of building forts as a kid served me well.

After spending most of Thursday sleeping (AKA passed out cold), we decided to get up and explore el ciudad de Pucon. It is a very quaint, kind of Bavarian-themed town - which seems somewhat wrong when you arrive at most restaurants to discover dark-eyed Hispanic-built waitresses dressed in Swedish attire that was intended for buxomy blondes. It's like a genetically altered St. Pauli beer girl is bringing your enchilada.

But enough about fashion faux pas. Here's some pics and videos...

Our trip, of course, began in Miami, with Grandma (feeding kids breakfast in this photo). My favorite part was when I walked into the kitchen and she's mashing up vegetables for River and Terran, and gourmet chef style, takes basically a whole stick of butter and stirs it into a tiny little vegetable cup "for flavor". I'm sure the boys thought they died and went to heaven.



We pushed them around Grandma's condo in her walker and they loved it. Next Christmas, we're going to buy our 1 year old boys some old people walkers.



Jessa patiently waiting me fight ticket agents in Lima, Peru for 10 hours...



Jessa feeds the kids in Santiago, Chile airport, where I paid more ticket agents cash in what amounted to be a series of ticket purchases at EVERY airport for River and Terran.



I'm walking up the stairs to the plane in Osorno, Chile. Like every flight of our ENTIRE trip, this one also was a fiasco, where I observed all our bags sitting on a truck on the tarmac as our flight was leaving, and had to run out waving my arms and telling them not to leave our bags behind. Oops. Sorry senor. Note that River likes to hang upside down, making it appear as if I am carrying a limp, spineless child onto the plane.



After a couple days, we're starting to get exhausted with jetting around South America.



But note the sign from the window of the bus...just 26km left to Pucon, Chile. Hooray!



Our little South American hotel, complete with aformentioned Bavarian twist.




View from the hotel room. Yes, that's a volcano on the right.



We discovered some woman from Connecticut selling gelato street-side. People here don't actually speak English very well, so I was glad for my 64 Spanish lessons (delivered in 15 minute podcast segments). Highly recommended. Thanks to the American public school system, the Connecticut lady was OK with her English.



And the prominent volcano makes another appearance as I push the stroller outside our hotel...



The lake and beach where the Sunday race will take place. The beach is more like gravel than sand, and the lake is about 70 degrees. This photo was taken at about 12pm. By 3pm, this beach was completely packed with umbrellas, sunbathers, and suprisingly, no little boys selling Chiclets.



Watching a Chilean sunset.



As we watched the sunset at 9:09pm and River and Terran "ooed" and "awed", I had a feeling wash over me that we really did make the right decision to press on and complete our trip to Pucon, Chile. The boys were very happy today and we simply relaxed and unwound.

Perhaps we've fooled them into the think they're in the Swiss Alps.

Until tomorrow...

Ben