Navigating Santiago: June 11, 2016

"You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose." From Oh The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss.

This quote came to mind as I was thinking about this day. I think we can all agree that Dr Seuss was a profound philosopher! The world of house trading has been so random and exciting. Each trip begins as an adventure, not knowing what it will be like, what we will do and see. Whereas with a shorter trip we would be planning down to the minute details to fit everything in, having a month to work with lets us be more spontaneous. 

Although exhausted from a day of travel, going only slightly east and mostly south, we are on east coast time so we were able to sleep and wake up Saturday feeling rested and ready to venture out. Our first stop was to pick up groceries. The Jumbo is a large, modern grocery chain and we managed to find what we needed and get through the checkout line doing our best to figure out what the checker was trying to say - apparently we were supposed to add a sticker to the avacodo and onion so that they could be scanned. Now we know. 

I think Jim is getting annoyed with me because I keep stopping for pictures of the Andes. They are stunning and I am in awe of the contrast of massive mountains so close to urban structures. Here they are, peaking out near the store:

So about Spanish. We don't speak it. I should say that Jim speaks a little bit. We added the Google Translate app to our phones which is very helpful because we have found that while some people speak a little English, many (including the doorman to the building) do not. Between Jim's minimal Spanish, the app and hand gestures, we are getting by. 

After unloading the groceries we were off in the car - Jim's preferred way to figure out a city. Always makes me a little (a lot) nervous but at least with this trip we are in the right side of the road. Streets were crazy busy and many blocked off  for pedestrians only on the weekends. Tons of people out strolling and shopping. It is a huge city of  7 million people and I think they were all outside enjoying another warm winter day. We managed to maneuver, slowly, to a parking garage and then walked to Plaza de Armas which was the start of a free 4-hour walking tour. 

We met up with our English speaking tour guide, Omar. He grew up in the Santiago and is in college pursuing his degree in Physical Therapy. Other interesting people on the tour included two attorneys working on Yugoslavian trials at the international court in Amsterdam, and two young women who had just completed their MSWs. 

Behind our tour guide is the Catedral Metropolitana. It is the fourth church to be built on the site, after previous structures were destroyed by earthquakes. Omar explained how prepared Chile is for earthquakes and tsunamis.

Inside the Catedral, praying for no big earthquakes while we are here!

Out tour continued through the city center, stopping at various sites and buildings to learn more about the history and culture. 

Statue honoring the Mapuche people

This building houses the central post office, built in 1882 on the site of what was the residence of Pedro de Valdivia,who came from Spain in search of gold.

You can see the variety of architecture in one small square.

The Opera House - Chile wants the cultural arts to be accessible, so tickets are only about $7.

This sculpture was a gift from Argentina, signifying the friendship of the four neighboring countries of  Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina.

Stopped for lunch in Barrio Lastarria.

Gave us an opportunity to get to know our tour guide, and also ask more about some of the politics NOT being discussed on the tour, particularly when we stopped in front of the Presidential headquarters.  He explained that sentiments are still intense on both sides of the Pinochet regime, what came before and then after.  He shared that another tourguide had been in trouble for "saying too much" and upsetting somebody on the tour who believed differently.  So he remains neutral and doesn't include it as part of the tour.  He suggested visiting the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos (The Museum of Memory and Human Rights) which we will add to the "must see" list.

Empanadas and yes, another Pisco Sour

Bouncy house at twilight at Parque  Forestal

and the Andes in the background

Some local crafts

and tiled sidewalks

And, at the end of the tour, we noticed that the guide for the Spanish speaking tour bore an eerie resemblance to our son Alex.

He was gracious enough to pose for this photo which Jim captioned:

"The real reason we came to Chile was to find Alex's twin we gave up at birth.  We only wanted two children so one of them had to go..."

Getting Settled in Santiago: June 10,2016

We are here! We arrived in Santiago early Friday morning and have been on the go, so this is my first chance to sit down and figure out how to blog from my iPad. So will start with a short post to keep you interested and to keep me from getting too frustrated with technology!

We arrived to a sunny, clear, and warm day. Above you can see the view from the apartment where we are staying. It is located in Barrio Vitacura in the northeast section of the city. Named for a Mapuche chief - the indigenous people - it is an affluent area with tree lined streets. The condo is block from the grocery store and many restaurants. We have yet to explore the nearby posh shopping area, but I am sure that will be on the agenda at some point. We left some room in our suitcases...

Our partners in trade, Axel and Patricia, spent the day with us before they left for the airport in the evening. What a treat to finally meet the people we trade with. Usually we just hear how wonderful they were from our neighbors when we return home. After touring us around the area, we all went to lunch at a nearby seafood restaurant, Miraolas. Easy choice for our first meal: Chilean sea bass and the national cocktail, Pisco Sour. 

They are a delightful couple and we had fun getting to know each other. This will be their first home exchange so we were filling them in on our history of trades. We found that we have a lot in common, including we had each left recommendactions for the same favorite Peruvian restaurant, La Mar - ours on the Embarcadero in SF and theirs is just down the street - Google has confirmed they are both one of six international locations. 

Our overlap time also involved Axel helping me book our side trips. We will be in the Lake District (south) for 4 nights (June 16-21) and to San Pedro de Atacama (northern high desert) for five nights (June 23-28). We have already explored the city, hiked in the Parque Metropolitano, taken a day trip to the coast and consumed more Pisco Sours. So, more details will be on the way!

Will leave you with some photos of "our" beautiful home for the next month. 

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!

Howth, Hubcaps and Heading Home

There were no fireworks, just a tremendous view and a bit of a drizzle as we spent our July 4th with cousins Andrea and John doing another cliff walk around Howth Head.  Howth is a fishing town on the most northern edge of Dublin Bay.  In the past it was the main harbor for Dublin.  Seemed like a good opportunity to say some goodbyes as well as to get some much needed exercise.  John has been doing hill/cliff walks for the past 20 years.  He was a wonderful leader in spite of not having done this trail in about 5 years.  

Putting my hiking faith in John 

The Howth trail winds in a loop around the whole peninsula, starting near the calm waters of the town and rising to rocky cliffs above crashing waves

On the trail Andrea spotted a sign indicating that Yeats had lived in this house from 1880-83  No doubt he was inspired by sweeping views of the coast.

Bailey Lighthouse (1814)

At times the trail became very narrow and dense with ferns.   A machete would have been helpful.  Not sure if it was due to it being a weekday, or the bit of drizzle, but we had the trail mostly to ourselves.  John and Andrea did say that during the weekends the area is packed with people.

The town itself did seem to be a tourist stop - we noticed some tour buses and student groups.  Apparently, the area is also a very exclusive place to live for the Irish rich and famous.  We did pass a few very large homes - quite secluded and with spectacular views.

Wild flowers were also present in abundance.

Irish Thistle

As at Cliffs of Moher, these coastal cliffs were also filled with nesting birds.

It occurred to Jim while we were on this 4 hour hike, that the day (July 4th) would have been his mom's 85th birthday.  Quite special that we were spending it with her maternal first cousins.

Andrea, John and Jim (in Ireland, he is James)

Break time

Jim was appropriately cautious at the Cliffs of Moher, but now he had his opportunity to climb some coastal rocks and up he scrambled.

The trail continued around and we had views of Dublin and Dun Loagharie (where we had been at the start of the trip to visit the James Joyce Tower).









After 4 hours we were back to the town, passing by this field of daisies and poppies.

The other discovery made at the end of the hike was Jim's "find" of these three hubcaps buried behind the shrubs.

Significant in that our primary task for the next day was to try and replace a hubcap on the car.  In one of those moments when I had to lean away from the left side of the car as Jim made a too-tight left turn (one of my "Jim, you are veering left" warnings), he had clipped the curb.  As he would tell you himself, he does the same thing at home on left turns - its about the peripheral vision...Anyway, he made the too-close turn and off popped the hubcap and rolled down the street!  We were able to put it back on, but it looked pretty banged up.  With the house-trade/car trade, you want to  do the right thing and replace things you use, and deal with anything that you damage.  Unfortunately, none of these abandoned hubcaps would do the trick!  So, without hubcap in hand, we settled on a lovely, well-deserved lunch in Howth, and more conversation and laughs with Andrea and John.  

We headed back to Skerries with Andrea to have a last visit and dinner with everybody - almost all.  Mick had headed back to England earlier in the day as he needed to deal with the sale of their house there; Eimer and crew couldn't make it over as kids had gone to bed early.  But Barnie was visiting from Longford, and Dee and the two little ones put together a dinner of salad and pizza.  James and Chloe kept running into the room asking us about each item we might like on our pizza - so cute.

On Saturday, we headed off to order the hubcap, but to no avail.  The dealership did not have an open service department.  So, we are setting aside the 50 Euro to leave here to cover the expense.  With the day free, we decided to head back in to Dublin one last time: visit a few museums, eat boxty, and shop on Grafton Street.

It was a good day for in-door stuff as it was drizzling on and off, which had not been predicted by Accuweather, so we were in the city without jackets or umbrellas.  

I had decided that we needed to give modern art in Dublin another chance after the "hanging turd" display at the Museum of Modern Art.  

The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art was SO much better.  The design and architecture of the inside of the building (a former town house) was as interesting as the collection.  A very bright/light museum.  The collection rotates between here and the National Gallery in London.  One of the more interesting exhibits was the recreation of  Francis Bacon's London studio - in all its chaotic mess.  A video-taped interview played continuously providing first person insight into his creative, if not chaotic process: “This mess here around us is rather like my mind; it may be a good image of what goes on inside me, that’s what it’s like, my life is like that.” We also enjoyed a visiting exhibit of Eva Rothschild sculptures.  Yes, there is a good modern art museum in Dublin!

Early in the trip, Jim had noticed "The Gallagher Boxty House" restaurant in the Temple Bar section of Dublin and had wanted to go there.  Boxty is a traditional Irish potato pancake - and one of  Jim's favorite Irish foods in his mother's repertoire.  

Boxty appetizer - not as good as "mom used to make"

Not quite how Jim's mom used to make it, but still good.

Some of you may have seen Jim's comments on Facebook about the "shopping" part of the day, but will post here as well:

Travel Tip #86: Don't shop at the END of
a four week diet of bread, butter, potatoes,
stout and NO gym

Travel Tip #87: Console yourself with the best
Gelato in Dublin.  Thanks Deirdre Walls
for the suggestion

Travel Tip #88:  Find an exclusive, classy
upscale men's clothier to accommodate
one's newly acquired regal bearing

Heading back to the bus stop, we passed the National Museum (Archeology) and decided this would be our FINAL tourist stop of the trip.  Another beautiful building - domed rotunda, marble pillars, mosaic tile floors.  It housed mostly items found in Ireland as well as an Egyptian collection.  What was most interesting was the "Bog Bodies".  When we were in the gardens at Kylemore Abbey, we had noticed some piles of peat.  Then, driving around the Connemara, we had passed many "peat" farms.  While our understanding was that the value of peat its use as a fuel, it apparently is quite a preservative as well. The museum had several Iron Age (600BC) bodies that were found in bogs very recently.  The level of details preserved (finger nails, hair) made them both fascinating and creepy.  Many other items in the museum were taken from bogs - including clothing.  

That brings us to the end of our trip.  We head out tomorrow morning (Monday), so today has been about getting organized, packing, etc.  I had booked a cab to take us to the airport, but Andrea texted this morning and insists on taking us even though it is not at all convenient.  But we cherish another hour of these wonderful cousins.

On Friday the cousins were asking what has been the high point of the trip.  That is too impossible to answer.  It has been filled with such special moments, incredible sights, impressive views, absorbing history, warm and friendly people, and connecting with family and culture.  We didn't do everything on our Ireland bucket list - we didn't make it to Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains, or travel to the north beyond New Grange or Connemara, or go to the Aran Island, or....Ah...next time!

Bye for now ... 

"Slan abhaile!" (means "safe home" in Irish)