Day 9-30 Goliath-Tomorrow (Goliat Alba)

So we bought the Land Rover. we named it Tomorrow, because everyone kept telling us that it would be fixed... tomorrow... or that the paperwork would be done...tomorrow. Rarely was that the case. Anyway Mañana isn't too appealing of a name so we decided on Alba, which is like Morning... the other part of the name is Goliath, because on one of the Wednesdays when Felisa Vera, (the mom of the family we stayed with) fed the elders they shared a message about overcoming trials, no matter how big or complicated like David did with Goliath or Goliat in Spanish, so Goliat Alba.

Actual picture of our Land Rover, and us 4 wheeling in it!

First day driving we broke down, luckily we were close to friends and got it to a shop. The water pump failed, taking with it the fan and the serpentine belt.

This is the other part of the fan, its missing a spring in the middle that makes it work right.

We had to pay a pretty penny for Land Rover genuine parts, but the whole front end of the engine is new! It also got an oil change and transmission oil change and filter, idle advance sensor and the injectors cleaned, a new thermostat, sensor, exhaust gaskets, fuel filter and radiator cleaned. I am sure there are other things. The cool part is that the mechanic we found was a LR trained mechanic and he let me tinker on it, so I know it pretty well. 

A funny thing that happened was that I had to leave the Land Rover with the mechanic overnight and when I cam back the next day, after taking a bus to the subway and the subway to the station closest to the mechanics house, and then walking 6 blocks to get there, I round the corner and I see this...

Its a 2005 Land Rover with a Diesel, just a slight upgrade, I told Octavio Martinez, the mechanic, that he was a miracle worker, to be able to take off 10 years and change the motor in just one day! Ours is actually in the back of the picture with the hood up! Anyway, no matter of dreaming or hoping could really make that one ours, I even offered to trade ours for it, but the owner wasn't too impressed.

Niki was also busy with Felisa, the mom of the family that let us stay at their house during repairs and she made 2 scarves by hand!

They are so pretty and they do good work with the scarves!

Day 8- Cerro San Cristobal

We took avantage of the rain from the previous day, cleaning up the air slightly, so we could take a trip up the biggest hill in the city with the nicest view to see more.

Looking south with Niki!

Looking south again.

Niki liked this tree.

Looking West towards the coast.

This guy is playing the guitar and the pipes as the tram ascends the hill. you can kinda see the route, its straight up, behind the green car.

Looking South East ... ish.

Looking East.

Looking North.

Day 7- Pedreros Family

We had a sweet reunion tonight with José, Solange and their daughters María José and Millie.

                                                    Niki, María José, Millie, Solange

                                              Bret, Niki, María José, Millie, Solange, José

                                                                    Ha ha Candid!

Day 6- Fish and Shirts

Today we did a quite a bit of walking, we are getting better acquainted with the central part of the city and so have ventured further and further from our home called a Hostal. Today we even managed to get lost on the way home! Being lost allowed us to do some more shopping however!

We are trying to find a way to get the money from our bank account to Chile to buy a car, so the big reveal will have to wait while we figure it out, we thought that Western Union had a nifty online money transfer option, but it would be like next week before the money would even show up, so we had my Mom send us some cash, OUR cash! NOT hers! Still have to wait for the money to be available at a location to pick it up, apparently 5k is hard to come by at the end of the day!

Anyway back to walking...we went to the central market, where they sell a whole lot of fish... This is just one side of one stand...

This is just one of the 4 halls full of fish vendors... pretty impressive the assortment they have!

Niki was fascinated with the assortment and insisted that I take a picture...or two... We found a gut selling jerseys, so I bought an updated (just for you Matt Funk!) Seleccion Chilena camiseta (The National Chilean All-Star team) and looked for presents for others...no luck. We then walked by the ComicCon, walked to an outdoor mall ate lunch and saw a llama...

They were charging money to take a picture with it, we just took one of it without us!

Just as we were getting close to the Hostal, I spotted this awesome sign... Its a little mix of Back to the Future, Spanish and Philosophy all in one shiny, nifty package!

"There is more Future than Past"

A little food for thought! This is going to have to be a background on a computer or FB or something!

Day 4- Rain and vehicle choices

It started raining today, I forgot how much rain they get here. We have no pictures because we didn’t want to ruin the camera my parents gave us. We were hoping to buy a car today so we were at the Notario (Notary Public) and the apartment of the seller of one of the vehicles in our soaking clothes. Our shoes were soaking through, our pants most of the way and my jacket was dripping wet, Niki at least had her small umbrella. To put it in perspective everything I was wearing was wet except the very top of my pants, luckily, because that is where my documentation and money was.

The premise of our trip has been to fly into Chile and drive back to the States. We sold both our vehicles in the states so that we could buy one here in Chile, the truth is that I want a 4x4 and Niki wants an efficient vehicle. The good part is that diesel vehicles abound in Santiago, its less expensive here. My dream was a Jeep Wrangler Unlimited with a diesel engine. Unfortunately the price is pretty much equal between the two countries. So looking online for Todo terreno (All terrain) SUV's in our price range we found a couple decent candidates. The following are NOT actual pictures of the subjects being considered, but are the same color. I am going to try to not get into too much detail and bore anyone who isn't a gear head. 

95 Jeep Grand Cherokee

 95 Land Rover Discovery

 2000 Hyundai Galloper (diesel)

Driving each vehicle was a good indicator, the Galloper was downright scary but its a diesel. The Jeep has some electrical issues but is in pretty good shape and the Land Rover has a few cosmetic imperfections but is pretty smooth for an SUV. If you wish you can suggest which you would buy and vote. Tune in next time for the announcement for which candidate will be carrying us home!

Day 2- Communication and food

Got the phone charged and started calling and looking for cars. Apparently when you get the chip you also have to pay for the minutes to use the phone, we weren’t told that so we were trying to make calls and had very limited usage. Slightly frustrating. The phone was loaned to us (thanks Valora) which was cool not to have to buy one, but it has some idiosyncrasies (touch screen doesn't always work, buttons are easily pushed wrong), slightly frustrating. Apparently the pharmacists have power to heal phones too, since we were directed to them. Sure enough, they fixed the phone, it only took $ 4.000 Chilean pesos, its only about $8 USD.

It has also been funny to see the dogs, and the hierarchy of dogs. You have street dogs, the community dogs that people kinda take care of, personal dogs that live outside with owners and dogs that live inside. A sure sign that a dog has an owner is the doggie sweater, not just limited to little dogs and not just limited to the winter.

We were walking around and decided to get some food. We stopped in a restaurant and ordered some typical Chilean fast food (that took forever to arrive at our table, we are used to it, every restaurant serves us last). On the bright side, their french fries are the absolute best!

                                         My question is which bottle is the ketchup? 

                                                   Niki loves this picture of her!

On the topic of food, what we love the most here is the bread. It is absolutely the best. There are two types, Maraqueta (mar-ah-ket-ah) and Hahulla (ah-you-yah). Its made fresh daily and eaten for once (oh-say) their dinner usually after 8 pm and desayuno (breakfast) with meat and cheese or jams.

Day 1- South America Trip

This blog has officially been dubbed the travel blog and or family blog so we will update you on our trip here... I 

We arrived in Chile the morning of May 21, 2013 around 9 am. We took awhile to get through customs etc. because there are no clear signs or help, (in fact the person who “helped” us told us the wrong way to go and the wrong thing to do). 

We took a taxi to a hotel, that was very nice bytheway, and took a nap, sleeping on a plane isn’t very restful. We also didn’t have too much to do since May 21st is a Holiday in Chile, we couldn’t activate our phone or do anything except walk around and eat dinner. 

 You can't really see the mountains behind us because of the clouds, well, pollution, santiago is pretty much a valley surrounded by mountains, so there isn't any wind to push it away like we are used to. Later we got some pics of another hill after it rained so the mountains are seen.

We did walk to Cerro Santa Lucia (Saint Lucia Hill) went to the top, took pictures and tried some Mote con Huesillos (I don’t know the translation). It’s a drink with a cooked nectarine, juice and pieces of boiled wheat grain (I think). 

We also went to la Plaza de Armas, (Plaza of Arms/guns) and we saw Iron Man, kind of a fitting place... So apparently Iron Man is Chilean.

We forgot that its winter here, or approaching winter, so it gets dark around 6. I thought this was a nice picture looking down Providencia (Providence) a main road, westward.