Coming Attraction: Bienvenidos a Chile!

In the past year we have given our house the following: a new back fence, replaced the deck around the spa, paint and stucco repair in the backyard, replaced dry rot on the fascias and various other places, fixed a leak in the dining room roof/skylight which meant all new sheetrock and painting of ceiling and walls, replaced a broken window, replaced some window panes, replaced a door knob. So, the least our house could do for us in return for our generosity is to gift us another house trade!

We will be in Santiago, Chile from June 10 (flying out on the 9th)  to (arriving home) July 7^th.  This will be our first time in South America and our first trade in to a winter climate.  But the owners have assured us that the winter weather in Santiago is similar to that of San Francisco in the winter. Many people have asked us “Why Chile?” or “Have you always wanted to go there?”  Frankly, it isn’t a place we had ever thought about going.  But we are lazy house-traders – waiting for people to contact us – and so far, that has worked well.  We are open to adventure and enjoy exploring new places. So, after a bit of research, we said “yes.”  We have had two lovely Face Time chats with the couple.  He is a retired engineer and she had a career in journalism and then went back to school to become a therapist, now working at an agency that helps homeless teens.  Their attorney daughter is just completing a PhD in public policy/social justice at UC Berkeley.  We had a chance to meet their daughter and her fiancé (an engineering doctoral student, also from Chile). They came over for lunch and filled us in on what to do/what to see during our trip.

This trade will be a little different, as the couple wants to be in Santiago to greet us and will then fly to the U.S. later that night.  With all these trades we have never met anybody face-to-face.  They have graciously offered to pick us up at the airport, which will be a welcome relief after 15+ hours of travel. 

While we will spend the bulk of our time in Santiago and doing day trips from there, we are planning to take two flights to extend our travel within Chile.  One trip will be north to the San Pedro de Atacama (high desert area) and the other to the south (to Puerto Montt and Chiloe).

Assuming we will have good Internet connections, we plan to post with travel stories and photos every few days.  We hope you will come along.  Just check in every couple of days.  You can also sign up by putting your email into the space below the blog title, clicking on "submit" and then following the directions (you need to do this on the web version of the site - if you are looking on a smart phone or iPad/tablet you are likely on the mobile version). If you are in a mobile version, you should be able to scroll to the bottom and click on "View web version" and then you will see the place to enter your email address.  If you sign up in this way, you should get an email when we add a new post. But, in case that doesn't work or you don't get the notifications, just go to the site when you have some free time and see what we've been up to.

Adios until we are in Santiago!