Amaya laughs!

My musings on Santiago, Chile

We have been in Santiago about 5 days now. So far the overall consensus is that we really like it here. Here are some things I've seen/felt/been surprised about in Santiago.


1. The mountains are beautiful, but the smog is ugly.
Santiago is surrounded by HUGE, beautiful, snowy mountains. Imagine the mountains surrounding Provo, UT only doubled. The Andes are gorgeous. They surround almost the entire city of Santiago. Unfortunately, we can't always see them because there is a nasty smog that clouds the city most days. Santiago has over 5 million people living in it and the major sources of emissions are unregulated. To make things worse, cold air inversions trap the smog in the city during the winter months. The mountains create a bowl effect, not unlike Salt Lake City, only worse because they surround all sides of the city. We did see a few days of clean air when it rained hard enough to lift the smog. The views from our hotel room on those days were spectacular. Here you can see the difference between the smoggy days and the clear days. All these pictures are taken from the 26th floor of our hotel room.

Non-smog days:

Smoggy days:

2. Are we in Spain?

Santiago has an uncanny resemblance to Madrid, Spain. Not necessarily the landscape but the culture, the people, the food, the attitude all make us feel like we're back in Spain. How so? Everyone dresses to the nines - I haven't noticed a single pair of tennis shoes on the street yet (although we're staying in one of the nicest parts of Santiago). The wardrobes are devoid of color. I'm told this is just a winter thing, but black and navy blue seem to be the staple around here. The people LOVE babies. Amaya is constantly cooed over. Everyone stares and many people stop us to ask about her - of course everyone thinks she's a boy because her ears aren't pierced, but what can you do? Apparently nothing because even when she's been dressed head to toe in pink she is constantly mistaken for a boy. That's just the culture though. No one assumes a baby without pierced ears could possibly be a girl :) The people are fairly reserved compared to other Latin cultures. They do not instantly embrace foreigners, but tend to be little standoff-ish. Of course, we've only been here 5 days but this has been our observation and other Americans have confirmed it. I have to admit though, the ward was very friendly and receptive to us. Another similarity to Spain? Unfortunately, the food. The typical Chilean food is pretty bland. And it's not because they're trying to preserve the true flavors of the food they make. They just aren't good cooks. Even restaurants serving foreign food seem pretty tasteless (not all of them, but more than we'd like). I'm pretty sad about this because I loved the food in Honduras and was hoping Chilean food would be equally good. The crazy thing is that the grocery stores are almost identical to Spanish grocery stores. You can find chorizo, jamon and a plethora of saltine crackers but if you're looking for cheddar cheese? Mozzarella? Decent cereals and breads? Standard ingredients? Forget about it. Cooking here will be interesting. The one redeeming quality about the food is the produce. There are TONS of ripe avocados, artichokes and other produce. Yum!

3. A modern city in South America.

Having previously been to a few places in Central America, I didn't expect Santiago to be a bunch of mud huts and worn down concrete buildings, but I was definitely a little surprised by how modern the city is. I know I have had misconceptions about our sister continent in the past, many of which have been replaced the more I have learned by a better understanding, but I didn't expect Santiago to feel so much like home. Despite some preferential cosmetic differences we could be in any big city USA. Things are well run, clean and very modern. Well, except for the lack of emissions regulations. Overall though, we have been very impressed by Santiago.

Obviously we still have a lot to learn about Santiago and the Chilean people, but I figured I should write down some of my first impressions. Right now we're living at the Boulevard Suites Hotel above the Marriott, which is very nice and even includes a kitchen, but we're looking for an apartment so we can have a little more room. We're also trying to find a school for Jay so he can start learning Spanish. Luckily, he's very excited about learning Spanish and when he watches cartoons in the mornings he's always telling me, "Mom! Mickey (or Curious George, or Sid etc.) can speak Spanish! I didn't know that." The other day he was eating a chocolate and he turned to me and said, "Mom, this is called a chocolate (said with a Spanish accent). I know that in Spanish!" I know once he's interacting with other kids his age daily he will pick it up very quickly. Amaya is doing well. She turned 3 months old a few days ago! She is still as happy as ever and we are loving every minute with our sweet little baby. She likes Santiago too. Both kids did great on the 9 1/2 hour plane ride down. We can't wait to settle in a little and go exploring! More posts to come soon. Ciao from Santiago!

Having dinner at TGI Fridays with our friend (Mike's co-worker) Milton.

Keeping warm in June.

Hanging out at the mall.

Pretty girl!

California

Why did I grow up in such a beautiful town? Now everywhere else pales in comparison :)

There's no place like home - especially when home is in Nevada City. We were blessed to be there at the same time my cousins were in town. Kristin came up from L.A. and Amy came down from Seattle with Matt and their adorable little Caleb for Lizzy's graduation from high school.

I cannot believe she's graduated! I still remember seeing her for the first time in the hospital after she was born. Now she is a beautiful young woman soon to be off to San Diego State for college. Cory also came up for the weekend, so the whole family was actually together in one place.

Unfortunately Brandy couldn't come up with Cory, but we hope to see her at Christmas time.

We spent a lot of time while we were home outside in the mountains. We took 2 beautiful hikes along the Independence Trail off Highway 49, about 15 minutes from my parent's house.

The trail has an interesting history. It is the very first wilderness trail in the entire nation to offer wheelchair accessibility. The trail originally was a set of canals and aqueducts hundreds of miles long used during the gold rush era as part of the hydraulic mining effort. Back then it was called Excelsior Canal. The water from the canal eventually led to water cannons used to blast away dirt and gold from the Sierra Nevada hillsides. It then ran into sluice boxes where the gold from the hills, heavier than the water and dirt, settled to the bottom making it easy to retrieve. Well, easy once the work of the canals were built. There were hundreds of miles of canals though - across steep terrain, along the ridges and across the gorges of the Sierra Nevada Foothills. Pretty amazing! The wonderful thing now is that those canals and bridges serve as a magnificent mountain trail open for all to enjoy. John Olmsted, the man who had the vision to create the trail said, "Please find me a level wilderness trail where I can reach out and touch the wildflowers from my wheel chair." Being wheelchair accessible, we were able to easily navigate Amaya's stroller through too.

It was truly enjoyable - enough to go twice the week we were home. The first time my mom, Mike, Jay and I took a picnic with us and ate at a beautiful little water hole (also accessible by wheelchair). There's a small waterfall there too. Here are some pictures from our hike.

The boys did some serious climbing.

Poor dad had jury duty and couldn't come. The second time we went we brought along Amy, Matt, Caleb and Lizzy. Mike and Matt explored down to the river and then up above the waterfall. I think they both enjoyed having some male company - our family is made up of a lot of women! It's so nice they get along so well and have such similar interests.

As you can probably see from the pictures, the trail was gorgeous. We had the opportunity to see many lizards and wild flowers along the way. We even saw some newts in the water!

We spent a lot of time together as a family. Amaya was able to meet everyone for the first time and we were able to celebrate Caleb's first birthday together. He is SOOOOOO cute!!!

 Just look at that face :)

Even though my cousins and my are "extended family" they feel like my sisters and I love being with them. Carol and Jeff are so wonderful too. We always have fun catching up with them. And of course the matriarch of our family, Grandma Erickson, is our favorite person to have around. She is so full of life at her ripe young age of 87 :)

Still working on scholarships for the Ghidotti Foundation, planting in her garden and creating delicious family dinners like the gnocchi and homemade spaghetti sauce she made this trip. Our family loves food. In fact, we realized that while eating at family gatherings we often talk about our next meal! Of course our trip wouldn't be complete without going to Asian Gardens for Chinese, so we headed there for Lizzy's graduation dinner.

It was so nice to see my brother. It was much too short a time, but we're so glad he made the trip up to meet his new niece!

Amaya was definitely a hit - everyone loved her and her constant smiles!

On our last day in California my friend Breanne threw me and another friend, Tisha, baby showers. Tisha had her little Tennyson 5 weeks ago. He is so sweet! It was wonderful to catch up with everyone. Jay had fun playing with all the kids. We love our Nevada City friends!

We had a wonderful trip and miss everyone already! Thanks to all who made it so special. We love you!!!