We had an interesting weekend.  It started with Fiesta Huasa which is a party that happens in September every year that celebrates Chilean history and culture.  My mom said it is part of Fiestas Patrias which is part of the Chilean Independence Celebration.  It is kind of like one of the festivals in Piedmont Park except different.

There were games that you might find at a festival in the United States such as sack races or games where you try and get the ring on the bottle.

Jack and I doing Sack Races

There were also games that were not common in the United States.  One game had a circle of what looked like bunny houses with numbers on them.  In the middle of the circle was something that looked like a cage.  A man in a festive colored poncho sold tickets with all the numbers of the bunny houses.  After he sold all the numbers, he would open the cage and a scared little guinea pig would come out, look around, and skitter into one of the little bunny houses.  We didn’t win, but I didn’t really care.  The prizes were barbies and dinosaur figurines. (You have to watch the video below.  It is Hilarious!)

Guinea Pig Game

Selling Tickets for Guinea Pig Game

Next we ate some food for lunch.  They had a booth for hotdogs, a booth for anticucho, a booth for empanadas.  Jack said he was in the hotdog line and they asked if he wanted avocado (palta) on his hotdog.  I had no idea that hotdog toppings would be any different in Chile.

Food Menu at Fiesta Huasa

Horses are a big part of Fiesta Huasa,. The Vice Principal of Nido was riding a horse as part of a parade, he fell off his horse and his horse fell on his leg.  I saw him a day later with a cast. (Don’t worry, he is okay.)  He and his family also just moved here from Oregon.  His wife is Jack’s teacher.

The Horses at Fiesta Huasa

During Fiesta Huasa, I noticed that I was one of the only people wearing jeans and a t-shirt.  Many girls were wearing flouncy dresses that didn’t think even existed anymore.  There were also women and men in equally elaborate outfits doing traditional Chilean dances on a stage.

Girls in their traditional Chilean party dresses.

A tradition in Chile around this time of year is to fly kites.  It looked like there were thousands of kites in the air during the fiesta.

Kites for sale at Fiesta Huasa

On Sunday, my mom found this little church with a Mass in english.  She suggested that we go on a short hike after church.  The church happens to be located next to the largest park in Chile and one of the largest in the world.  Parque Metropolitano de Santiago is also where the zoo and the madonna are located.

Directional Sign in Parque Metropolitano

We began the hike thinking we were only going to go to a lookout post we could see on the horizon.  We ended up just taking a break there because we realized we could walk all the way to the zoo.  We were not sure how long it would take but it looked like it was about seven kilometers.  We knew we couldn’t walk 14 kilometers (7 there, 7 back) so we decided we would take a taxi back to our car after the hike.

Map of Parque Metropolitano

A park ranger on his caballo

Top of San Cristobol

Our plan was to walk to the Madonna at San Cristobal  and take the funicular down the mountain.  After three hours of hiking we arrived at the top of the mountain only to find the funicular was closed.

Sign posted saying that the funicular is closed

So, after three hours of hiking, we found out we had another hour and a half hike to go – this time down the mountain that we had just climbed.

At first it seemed okay.  The path was really steep so I was glad we were going down instead of up. We kept saying to each other that our legs felt like jello but there was really nothing we could do about it since we had to get down the mountain. Eventually we got to the bottom.

Once out of the hiking trail area, we landed in Barrio Bellavista and we found a great pizza place in Patio Bellavista called Pizzeria Constitution and sat outside.  We celebrated the end of our weekend (and our incredibly long hike) with the best pizza in Santiago.

This week we realized one of the only benefits to the school bus arriving at 6:50 a.m.:   John and I headed out on a hike at 7 a.m.  Knowing we didn’t want to get stuck in morning traffic, we decide to try a hike right in our “gated community” (hate writing that term).  We thought it might not be a great hike but would be good to check out.

Turns out the hike was amazing.  Most of hike was off trail but at the top of the mountain were beautiful meadows.  We saw many birds, some bunnies and a few lizards.  It will be interesting to see how the terrain changes as we progress into Spring soon.

Santiago is a hotbed of outdoor adventure sports.  And, hiking is taken very seriously around here.  At Nido de Aguilas Madie is taking an after-school activity called climbing and trekking.  And, I just learned that there is a parent hiking group that selects a new trail every other week and meets for a two to four hour hike.

The resources for hiking are amazing too.  You can find great Web sites that map out hundreds of trail options such as Andeshandbook.org and Fundacion Sendero de Chile.  The project Sendero de Chile is attempting to connect and create a major trail system all across the Chilean territory stretching from North to South.  

And, all of this is just hiking in Santiago.  Also popular are mountain biking, skiing (see skiing in August), and more extreme adventures across the country.  Obviously trekking in Patagonia should be amazing.

I came across a great blog post from Madador Trips which talks about Reserva Ecológica Contrafuertes Cordillerano in Santiago.  I really want to check this one out. It says there is an incredible waterfall at the end.

John and I enjoyed out trip so much we took the kids back this morning.  We decided it would make for a great weekend activity.  We can try and see how many hikes we can do before we head home.  This one was literally in our backyard.  In fact, we took this picture that shows our house just to the left off the golf course.

View of Av. Golf Los Lomas 9956

We ended up hiking for two hours and the kids did great.

We tried to keep on the lookout for animals.  Madie and Jack made up signs we could use to alert each other to any animal sighting as we stayed quiet looking for rabbits.

After about an hour we made it to the top and had a little snack.

You could see all around Santiago, including the city.  We tried to see if we could find the W hotel in El Golf downtown, the hotel we stayed at when we came to visit our first time.

Looking out with the City of Santiago in the distance.

After two hours, we made it back to the bottom.  Kids were proud of the long hike they accomplished.  What a great way to spend a Sunday morning.

Even with our success at Clinica Alemana, we still needed a new nebulizer for Jack.  The following day I head out in search of the medical supply store. Now, even the most basic interactions are challenging in a country where no one speaks English. Add driving and a medical supply store and you know things are not going to go smoothly. As I make it to the highway, a bit panicky about the aggressive driving approach of Chileans, I realize that the gas light is on in our rental car. Not only am I the one stuck roaming Santiago for a medical supply store, John left me a car with no gas. He could have at least mentioned the car needed gas 🙂

In chile, you can’t fill up your own tank of gas (not that I would be able to do it, nor would I know if our rental is diseal or gasoline -both are options here). You must pull up, communicate with the attendant, understand what the amount is he says to you (most purchases I simply hand over the largest denomination I have in my wallet and trust in honesty) and then tip him appropriately.

As I get off the highway and contemplate the task ahead, I give myself a pep talk and scroll through my small phrase book for an “automobile” section and find how to say, “fill it up.” I manage to make my way through the whole awkward interaction, and leaving I’m incredibly proud of myself for such a relatively easy task.  I find I’m often congratulating myself for relatively easy tasks.

My success at the gas tank ushers in a series of successes.  I find the medical supply store and get the nebulizer. I had left nothing to chance.  I had brought our old nebulizer that we burned to be sure I could show what I needed.  I find my way back to Lo Barnechea, the area we live in Santiago. I stop at the Papa John’s Pizza shop and successfully order a pizza ( thanks to big pictures on the menu board and knowing the words “solamente” and “queso”) and I even manage to get to the pharmacy and find the cold medicine Jack needed.   Feeling like a rock star, I head home.

Our dog Redding, who is 13 years old, arrived this morning to our house in Santiago.  We debated and debated about whether to bring him or leave him with my mom in Florida.  We decided to bring him but I was incredibly nervous about him making the trip.  He was picked up in Cocoa Beach Florida yesterday, driven in a car to Miami and then put on an overnight LAN flight to Santiago.

We are so happy to have him here.  He is a bit confused, but otherwise doing fine.

It is flu season in Santiago and the entire family got hit.  Monday afternoon, Jack’s nebulizer came out because his asthma always flares up when he is sick. We plugged it in to give him a treatment, started a movie and next thing you know, the machine is ON FIRE, billowing smoke across the living room. We absent-mindedly plugged it in with only an adaptor and not a converter! Good news: we didn’t burn the house down. Bad news: we had to find a way to get Jack his medicine and buy a new nebulizer in Santiago Chile.

We had the name of an asthma specialist John had visited at Clinica Alemana as we were contemplating the decision of moving to Santiago. John called her office and they explained they had medical equipment at the clinic and he should come down to the clinic. What luck!  Relieved, John headed to the clinic to purchase a new nebulizer.

John returned a short time later empty-handed. Turns out, they literally meant the equipment was at the clinic – they said to bring Jack in and they could give him his treatment at the clinic. So we all loaded into the car and headed out.

No one in the clinic spoke English (no surprise). I muddled my way through with the receptionist saying “Mi Hermoso,” “Daniella,” (the name of the nurse we were supposed to ask for) and pointed to Jack and sat down.  We were basically in a fancy ER that looked more like a high-end doctor’s office than an emergency room. They had a woman selling espresso, football on the television and we sat among all the beautiful Chilean mothers decked out in the right boots and fashionable dark winter layers. After more than an hour,  the nurse came into the waiting room and we were ushered back into an exam room.

The kind nurse greeted us with no English. She took Jack’s temperature and shared the reading in Celsius  in Spanish. We all stared at one another with polite smiles but no ability to credibly exchange information and she left the room.

Next came in our lovely English-speaking nurse the doctor had suggested we visit. She  asked us for the vial of medicine to give Jack his treatment. We never thought to actually BRING the medicine to a hospital. A hospital has medicine. But, they literally intended for John to bring Jack AND his medicine. So the doctor explained they don’t have the same medicine in Chile and they could use “the equivalent.”

What exactly do you do with that information as a parent? Do you say, “Yes, please do give my sick seven-year old (who is allergic to everything) a random steroid that I have never heard of.” And, as you are making that insane statement, do so in a new language where miscommunication is inevitable. But, there was no better option, so we tried it, and thankfully, all was fine.

Next, the nurse came back in and said that Jack should go ahead and start taking his “stronger steroid” given his medical history. This “stronger steroid” is a medicine I try to avoid at all costs, but I also know that when he is very sick, he should take it. We nod and agree to do it. Once again, they don’t have the exact “stronger steroid” but they have one that is given in only two doses, equivalent of ten doses in the States. Do we say, “sure, give my sick seven-year old this even stronger version of the “stronger steroid?” Assuming of course that it was not a mistranslation. But, there was no better option, so we tried it, and thankfully, all was fine.

As we were ready to leave, I claimed the visit a success and Jack stopped me to say, “not quite yet mom, we still need to figure out how to pay.”  It cracked me up.  Truly every step has its challenges.  And, he was right, American Express has put a hold on my card because they believe our purchases in Chile might be fraud. I have called three times to get it resolved, they have even sent me a new card, insisting my card does not have a hold. But once again, I can tell by the expression of the cashier, that it is not approved.  Thankfully my ATM card worked and we head home.