Bío-Bío and Our Last Hurrah

This morning we visited the Bío-Bío market, which was an interesting shopping adventure, as foreign markets often tend to be. It was both intensely fascinating and slightly disgusting, and we wandered around through the winding labyrinth gawking for the better part of an hour.

Bío- Bío Market

Afterwards, we headed back to the apartment to work on some laundry and to watch the World Cup game between France and Belgium.

Later, we decided to celebrate our last night in Santiago with a wonderful meal at the rooftop restaurant at the Sommelier Hotel. Every bite of every dish was absolutely wonderful! And, Clay caught the attention of last year's Miss Teen Venezuela while we were there!

Dinner at Antaño

We stopped for ice cream on our way back to our apartment and then rushed home to eat it in front of the heaters because we were so cold. I'm sure we'll find that laughable in a few days when we're roasting in the Texas heat!

Ice Cream from Mò

I can't believe our time in South America has come to an end! It has been a wonderful trip, and we have made so many fantastic memories! Thanks for following along!

Cultural Center, Ice Cream, and Other Fun in Santiago

Today, we visited the Cultural Center housed in the basement of the President's Palace. It contains a weaving and woodcraft gallery, a couple of photographic art galleries, and an activity room for kids. (There is also some sort of movie theater, but it was closed for a private event.) It was a great way to pass some time on a rainy day.

Centro Cultural La Moneda

When the museum closed for lunch at 2:00,  we walked over to Heladería Emporio La Rosa, seeing lots of interesting things along the way. The shop claims to be one of the 25 best in the world, and there were some unique flavors to choose from. I tried two new-to-me flavors: rose and honey made from the ulmo flowers that grow in Chile.

(Side story: Upon arrival at the ice cream shop, Clay decided he had never needed to go to the bathroom so badly in his life, and of course, the shop didn't have a bathroom. The nearest public bathroom was a block away, inside a museum. I trotted him over there and sent him into the restroom, and he promptly returned to tell me he wasn't tall enough for the urinals and that all the stalls were locked. I then took him into the women's restroom, and completely scandalized the janitor, who quickly kicked us out and told us we had to use the bathroom "para niños." That turned out to be a locked room, and we were supposed to call someone on an intercom to have it opened. My Spanish intentionally became very poor at that point because I wanted the lady to just let us in since Clay was hopping around doing a crazy potty dance. Instead, the janitor went to get the security guard, who went to the desk where there was supposed to be, but wasn't, someone to answer the intercom for the locked bathroom. The security guard gathered up the key, left his post, and finally opened the bathroom door for us. It was really a wild time, but thankfully Clay was able to hold it, and we didn't cause any more of a scene in the museum!)

Sights of Santiago:
The President's Palace,
Bandera del Bicentenario,
lovely street art, pop-up bookstore,
animated soldiers selling Moscow Mules,
the national library's columns covered in lifejackets
to honor refugees, the entrance to the museum where
I took Clay to the bathroom, and a graffitied sculpture

Heladería Emporio La Rosa

After eating our ice cream, Jeff and I wanted to go see the fish market. The kids weren't interested in that, so we brought them back to the apartment before heading out on our own. On our way to the market, we shared a Chilean "completa" (hot dog with "everything"), just to say we had tried one. We saw (and smelled!) the market, and then we wandered through a big park, catching sight of a beautiful rainbow. We stopped briefly at the National Museum of Fine Arts since it was right there in the park. Eventually we ended up in a very fun area, with lots of patio restaurants, and had a wonderful dinner at Quitral.

Completa, rainbow over a monument,
Mecado Cental--outside and inside

National Museum of Fine Arts

Date night at Quitral

Our last week in Mendoza

It's hard to believe we've already come to the end of our month in Mendoza. It has been amazing, and we are sad to leave. But new adventures awaits, so the sadness certainly won't linger, and we will always carry a fondness for this city in our hearts! Our goals while we were here were to eat beef and drink wine, and we were quite successful at both! But there was so much more to our time here--from the people we met, to the personal growth we each experienced, to the laid-back pace of life here, to being literally surrounded with nature's beauty. This was an important stop on our life's journey, and we are so glad we had the chance to be here! We hope to visit again.

This last week has mostly been about the World Cup. We have become super-fans and have watched as many matches as we've been able to work in. We've also set up a friendly intra-family bet, picking teams to support basically at random. I can tell you my teams are generally not doing very well, but it's been fun to cheer them on at various bars and restaurants around town. We also visited the Mercado Central, participated in a going-away dinner for one of our new friends, enjoyed time at the park, played at the house, experienced another national holiday (Flag Day), and ate some great food.

"Speed" Demon

Cheering for England

Our personal collection of wine bottles from our month here in wine country
--from least favorite to most favorite--

World Cup viewing at a sidewalk cafe
(The sign says, "Eat Healthy, Live Better, and
I can tell you we did one of those while in Mendoza!)

This little inventor made all sorts of gadgets this week

Mercado Central

Lerot was our favorite venue for World Cup watching
because of the big screen, but the decor was also pretty interesting.

Dinner at El Club de Milanesa

Many happy hours at the park

Our last night in Mendoza
--Sunset view from Mirador,
City view from El Faro Bistro,
Dinner at La Florencia--

Our first Saturday in Mendoza

Today was our first Saturday in Mendoza, and we packed it full of fun. Jeff didn't have class, but his school organized a tour out to Villavicencio, a natural oasis in the otherwise barren Andes. The natural springs there provide the water for one of the most popular bottled waters in the area and one of the best sparkling waters we've ever had. There is a lovely hotel that is in the process of being restored with the goal of reopening next year. And the grounds contain a lush garden and spa that is beautiful now but must have really been something in the former heyday of the hotel. Even though the whole tour was conducted in Spanish and was a little difficult for most of us to follow, we still had a wonderful time and enjoyed the experience.

A fun outing to Villavicenio

It was fun to visit the home of
one of our very favorite sparkling waters.

In the afternoon, Jeff and I took Clay to the main plaza and park in Mendoza, while the other kids stayed behind to rest. Clay was determined to make a friend and use as much Spanish as he could remember. He played hard on the playground and also had a chance to do some painting, buy a balloon sword, and see a mimi magic show. Jeff and I took turns watching him at the playground and strolling through the rest of the enormous park, where there were tons of craft vendors and interesting characters set up enjoying the beautiful day. We found one vendor selling wooden kitchen utensils and were able to add some unique pieces to our collection.

So many lovely wooden utensils to choose from

The great playground defender

This boy's happy place

A new friend

Deciding on a special treat on the way home

Since today was Weston's half-birthday, he got to drive the plans for the rest of the day, which included a dinner of chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy, and a trip out for gelato after dinner. We also decided to revisit Plaza Independencia so we could see what it was like after dark. The answer is "happening." There were so many people and vendors and the whole park was lit up and full of life.

You can take the kid out of Texas,
but you can't take the Texas out of the kid!

Half-birthday gelato party

Plaza Independencia

The Outskirts of Cusco

The AirBnB where we stayed last night was listed as "entire place," but the hostesses were actually staying in a room in the house, which was a little awkward but not terrible as they were very nice young ladies who stayed out of our business. Also awkward was the fact that the water went out completely after only two of us had had cold showers. The water, though still cold, was back on this morning, but the awkwardness continued when the next guests showed up while we were still on the premises. They were eager to shower and move into the rooms and just lingered while they waited for us to vacate. This was a very new AirBnB listing, and we feel sure they are still just working out the kinks. We just considered it a quirky travel experience and basically got a good chuckle out of it.

After breakfast, a driver picked us up for some sightseeing on the outskirts of Cusco. First we stopped at a wonderful little textile market. There were llamas and alpacas to feed, and we got to see a demonstration of how wool becomes textiles. It was fascinating, and we really loved it! Ruth and Weston even found some items to purchase in the market stalls, and I can tell you they got some really good deals.

Textile Market

When we left the market, we headed to a salt farm in the mountains. They harvest the salt that is formed from the natural minerals found in the mountain waters, and it is quite an impressive facility. The water is diverted to hundreds of different pools and several kinds of salt are formed and collected at the site.

Salt Farm

Later, we went over to a site called Moray, which is an agricultural area built in concentric circles at different elevations. Our driver suggested that we visit the restaurant at the top of the hill as he imagined it would be cheaper for us to purchase something there for lunch and then view the area from their perch on the hill than to purchase tickets to the actual site. He was very wrong about that as the set lunch menu, served in eight courses, was around $125 per person. The idea was that it was supposed to be an experience, but it was not worth the price tag to us, so we just ordered drinks, which was still about the same as buying tickets to the site, and moved on. It was a bizarre place but somewhat interesting, and there was a nice view of Moray.

Clockwise from top left: The restaurant, The coffee experience,
Hot chocolate, The chocolate experience, The distillery,
Distilled spirits containing local flora, Mata Cuy from distilled
sugar cane, Herbs hung up to dry

Moray

From there, we headed back to Cusco to catch a flight to Lima and then a connecting flight to Santiago, thus ending our time in Peru.

Santiago airport in the middle of the night

The Amazon

We arrived late last night in Iquitos and spent the day today exploring. Our day started with a delicious breakfast at our hotel. Then we had our first rides in motortaxis, which whisked us away to the Belena Market, the largest in the city. It was certainly a spectacle! We enjoyed (and didn't enjoy!) a vareity of experiences for all our senses. We got to try concha, an egg-based drink with boiled yuca, sweetened with sugar and vanilla. We all thought it was delicious! The bravest amongst us (Ruth and Weston) also tried a type of grilled worm. It was one of the more unique items for sale, but we saw plenty of other interesting things.

Hotel breakfast

Motortaxis

Balena Market

From bait to brunch

When we finished up in the market, we climbed aboard a couple of very small homemade boats in order to explore the floating village. For six months out of the year, the river overtakes the streets of the village and the area is only navigable by boat. I have never seen anything like it, and I truly cannot imagine living that way. However, the people seemed quite content, and we were told by our guide that they are a very happy people.

The floating village

Later, we boarded a larger boat for a tour of the Amazon and one of its tributaries. The tributary was especially beautiful and serene. We saw all kinds of birds and two varieties of river dolphins. The boys also got to fish for piranhas, but to their disappointment, they weren't successful. We had lunch aboard the boat, which included fresh fruits, cheese sandwiches, and juane, a local dish consisting of chicken, eggs, and olives wrapped up in a ball of rice and baked in some sort of leaf. It is a traditional dish of that region of the Amazon and it was very good.

An Amazon tributary

Fishing for piranhas

Juane

Pink dolphins playing in
the mighty Amazon

At the end of our tour, we visited a smaller market, where we tasted some roasted seeds from a plant related to cacao and some freshly shelled and peeled Brazil nuts. We enjoyed both.

The smaller market

Back at our hotel, we rested for a while before going out for dinner at a place recommended by the person working at the front desk, who, along with the rest of the staff, were very eager to please us. We suspect we may have been their first American visitors. Anyway, the dinner place turned out to be a sort of fast food place, which we think was recommended to keep us from having to wait long. Mother's Day is a huge deal here, and the restaurants were indeed packed. We got a good chuckle out of celebrating Mother's Day with fast food, which is typically forbidden by me when we're in the States. The food was good, though, and we had a great time.

A very happy Mother's Day indeed!

Local Tourists

January has been so much fun that I am just now getting caught up on all the going-ons here on the blog! If you want to know what we've been up to the rest of the month, scroll through the last few posts, which will walk you through our adventures of the new year so far.

As you no doubt know by now, travel is our passion and what Jeff and I wish we were still doing full-time. However, that isn't really possible at the moment, so we've determined to make "staycations" a priority. As time allows, we are trying to discover our immediate surrounding areas and to see them through travelers' eyes. We had a blast exploring in Denton and Dallas this past weekend.

On Saturday, after Ruth's riding lesson and Weston's buddy's birthday party, we headed over to Denton for a brewery tour and beer tasting at Audacity Brewery. We didn't love any of the beers, but we sure did have a good time! Later, we made our way to LSA Burger Co. where we enjoyed some very delicious burgers and chili cheese fries along with the funky atmosphere. Our day ended with a viewing of "Sing" at the theater, which was entertaining for all of us.

Our first stop on Sunday was the Dallas Farmer's Market, where shopped and laughed and indulged our senses. After that, we visited Reunion Tower and enjoyed a bird's eye view of the city. When it was time for lunch, the vote for sushi at Sushi Bayashi in Trinity Groves was unanimous. Afterwards we walked across the street for a beer tasting at Four Corners Brewing Co. Finally, we headed over to SMU to see the George W. Bush Presidential Museum. On the way home, the boys even worked in a playground visit, while Ruth and I did a little shopping. And back at the house, we watched a documentary about the JFK assassination to expand on some of the knowledge we had gained during the day.

It was such a fun weekend, and we truly had a great time being "tourists" in our own backyard. If any of you live in or have visited the DFW area, please share your recommendations of things to do or see, so we can keep growing our staycation master list. And for anyone living anywhere, I encourage you to get out and explore your immediate surroundings. You never know what kinds of gems you might find!

Audacity Brew House

LSA Burger Co. in downtown Denton

Watching "Sing" from cushy seats

Dallas Farmer's Market

Reunion Tower

Sushi at our favorite sushi place

Four Corners Brewing Co.

George W. Bush Presidential Museum