Getting the boot?

I'm feeling a little anxious.  Our landlord called the other day (which in of itself is unusual) asking how long we were planning on being in the area.  He then proceeded to tell us that the owner wanted his daughter, who will be a senior at Duke next year, to move into the apartment.  Although the conversation ended with the idea that he was just touching base and getting an idea of our plans, he called again not too long after asking if he could stop by and see the place since he hadn't been in a while (like last two+ years).  He made an appointment to stop by today (Friday), so we made sure we had everything looking top-notch to show how well we take care of the apartment and how much better it looks than when we moved in.  It turns out that he showed up WITH the owner's daughter!  Had we known she was coming we may have tried to make it look a little more dumpy.  And as luck would have it,  it seems that she was quite taken with the place.  I think it's just a matter of time before we get that phone call saying we need to be out by such-and-such date.

So, I'm feeling a little heart-sick about it all.  No one had rented the apartment for 2-3 years before Clark moved in August 2007, so we didn't think there was any pressure or competition.  Clark and I are rather fond of our semi-ghetto, slightly older town home.  We love the rent, the layout, and while it's not perfect, it is our first home.  Not to mention that moving is awful.  I know I'm jumping the gun a little since nothing is certain but I can't kick the subtle dread that we could quite likely be getting kicked out of our home in just a few months.
Here's to browsing craigslist in my free time...

It's all fun and games...

 

and Saturday morning snow,

and improvising, 

  

and uncovering, 

 

  and eating delicious breakfasts because there is no church and no primary to plan...

...until you start to lose your spring break.

Then it's not so fun anymore. 
Can we PLEASE just go back to school???

Our Chilean Adventure, Part III; Paillaco, Osorno, Villarrica, Pucón

After our few days in Puerto Varas and Puerto Montt (areas 3 and 4 of my mission) we drove an hour north to Paillaco (Similar to Orderville, Utah- tiny, dusty and donkey basketball is the favorite pasttime) and then down to Osorno (areas 1 and 2 respectively).  It was Sunday morning in Paillaco, so we attended church with the small branch pictured above.  There are a few people missing from the picture, but that really is the majority of the active members in the area!  When the meeting started we were two of 6 people, including two missionaries.  By the end of the meeting there were between 15 and 20 there.  It was fast and testimony meeting, and both Clark and I were able to share our testimonies.  I was especially proud of Clark who spoke very understandable Spanish.  It was sweet.

I was surprised at how poorly I remembered how to get around in my first area.  The missionaries were nice enough to provide us with a map which helped.  We dropped in to visit the Aravena family (above).  I lived with them the first 4 and a half months of my mission.  They are a fun family and immediately ran out to by some food for us. Amy had sent them a letter telling them that we were showing up and what day we would be there.  Johnny, the dad, didn't believe Amy's letter and so he was sort of embarrassed that we did show up and had to make up for it by buying some delicious empanadas and pepsi.  I have yet to point out that while Chile was amazing, they do not have Dr. Pepper there.  You are losing points for that one, Chile.  You could've scored really highly in my book.   That was the start of us eating WAY too much in one day.  We ate twice (yes, twice.  both before and after church) with the Johnny and Ruth and kids, then ate lunch with Antonio and Laura and then ate again when we arrived in Osorno.   It was yummy but a little painful.  Painful is an understatement.  Neither of us could move and I don't think we ate again until about 4 pm on Monday.

Hermana Silvia and her daughter Susana were two of my favorite members from the area.  Susana told me when I was first being transferred that all the missionaries say they will come back to visit but rarely do.  I was glad to be able to keep my promise to come back and visit. Susana was really sweet and I was glad that Amy could visit her, but it was a difficult visit for me.  Susana lives on a farm out in the country and she feeds calves bottles of milk for a living.  I have horrible hay fever and about 5 minutes into the visit, I couldn't even see because my eyes were watering and swelling up a bit.  They wondered what was wrong with me, but I was just having allergies.  I had to leave the house and sit in the car.  I probably looked like a huge jerk.

 

Susana's little boy, Mateo.  Can you believe the color of his hair?  

Antonio was about 18 when my companion and I worked on getting him to come back to church.  Since then he served a mission to Colombia where he met his now wife, Laura.  They were sweet enough to feed us lunch (It was delicious) and Antonio even played us a few original tunes on his piano. Antonio is a Pink Floyd fan but he had never heard about being able to listen to the "Dark Side of the Moon" album along with The Wizard of Oz.  I explained it to him in the best Spanish I could and he said he would look into it. 

 

We made it past all the toll booths (Warning: big tangent approaching.  All of the tollbooths and the tollbooth talk reminded me of one of my favorite childhood movies, The Phantom Tollbooth.  It is a really weird story and I am not sure I can even explain what the movie is about.  Did anyone else ever watch that show as a kid?  Help me out here.  I am feeling like my childhood was weird.  Back to the Chile stuff)  and managed to get to Osorno where our first visit was with Ernesto and Maria.  As a missionary, it's always a relief when those that were baptized are still active churchgoers.  Maria is a little "floja" (lazy) to get to church regularly, but Ernesto is amazing.  You honestly wouldn't guess it by looking at him (Amy has never heard the saying, "never judge a man's level of interest in the conversation, by his non-eye contact and preferring to watch news on the television while you are telling him about your life"), but he was one of the investigators that was immediately ready to accept the gospel (I take no credit in Ernesto's conversion since he was baptized the weekend I got to the area).  He is currently the Elders Quorum president and very active in making sure everything is organized and gets done.  It was a sweet little visit, and I was glad to see them again.  Oh, and yes, they fed us food as well.  For those keeping score at home, that is 4 full meals in about a 3 hour period at this point.

 

We stayed the night with the Cárcamo family.  They are a family dear to my heart.  They never joined the church, but I keep in touch with Chelo, the older son, via facebook.  They are such a sweet and generous family.  And how time flies!  Maximiliano (the boy in the green top that continually poked me in my belly and called me "Gordito") was just a toddler when I last saw him!

They are all pretty much professional Cueca (pronounced Kway-kuh) dancers (Chile's national dance).  Juana and Chelo gave us a little performance before we left.  We and the boys spent a little time the next morning in Osorno's downtown area. 

 

Clark got to experience his first colectivo ride.  A colectivo is essentially a cross between a bus and a taxi; it's a car that you flag down when you need a ride, but it follows a specific route.  And what an authentic experience it was! Colectivo drivers are a brave (not the right word) and aggressive (better word) sort yet skilled enough that I've never seen one in an accident (doesn't mean they don't, all of the time.  Just means they probably do it when Amy isn't watching.  And just for the record, "I should be allowed to drive as aggressively as I want, because I haven't ever been in a crash", is not a good excuse. That comment wasn't necessarily aimed at my lovely wife)  We pretty much covered all types of transportation on this trip:  colectivos, taxis, large buses, normal buses, mini buses, planes, cars, boats.  Just forgot to travel by train.

 

Our next stop was the lovely Villarrica.  We stayed two nights in a well-recommended hotel called Hostería de las Colinas run by two Americans.  It was a lovely place to stay with nice rooms, yummy full breakfasts and gorgeous gardens.   Their restaurant also had delicious homemade ice cream. 

 

Our view from the hotel.  It was a gorgeous morning that gave way to some scattered rain in the afternoon.  The clouds made it impossible to see the famous active volcano that sits nearby.

 

We spent the morning riding bikes around the lake and the city and even stalked (We just waited outside of their apartment and church building for a couple of hours, I wouldn't call that "stalking") the missionaries for a while in search of my sister-in-law's brother.  

 

What can I say?  Biking can be exhausting.  Especially when riding uphill.  I can be pretty dramatic, but I wasn't acting that much in this picture.  i am nearing 30 years old and I am not in my best physical shape.  We were riding up a pretty steep hill and half of my gears on my bicycle were broken, so I probably overdid it a little bit.  My legs started cramping really badly and I had to get off my bike and stretch them out.  I was in genuine pain. 

You can see the dark clouds rolling in.  We did end up riding our bikes home in the rain.  It was very missionary-esque.

We saw many sites as we rode through town.  Local bands (those guys pictured are the Chilean equivalent of Hall & Oates), nativities, and be sure to notice the stop light above the nativity indicating the activity level of the volcano!

 

After a nap to recover from our bike ride, we took a 15 minute bus ride to the neighboring city of Pucón (the Chilean equivelant of Park City, Utah- super touristy, more outlet shops and strip malls than residences and a huge Casino in the middle of town.  Well, a lot like Park City.) where we visited a family that used to live in one of my areas.  We spent the afternoon exploring the town and then had "once" (pronounced "own-say") together.  All of it was fun and delicious, although rather chilly.

 

 

We went to the lake, fed the ducks (including weird black ones with florescent yellow feet), walked around town and shopped at one of the many markets. We also chatted with Cristobal, the 12 year old in the family.  He knew a little bit of English.  He told me about his favorite musical artists, Black Eyed Peas and Katie Perry.  Interesting choices, I thought.

 

We wrapped up the day by soaking in the hotel's firewood heated hot tub and sipping creamy hot chocolate and gazing at the stars in the then clear skies.  It was delightful.

 

And in good form, the morning we left Villarrica and the southern region, the skies were bright, clear and sunny allowing us at least a quick glimpse at the town's volcano.  Next time we travel here we will be sure to have a rental car so we can access all the neat hiking trails, waterfalls, lava flows, thermal pools and other natural beauties the area has to offer.  

**Can anyone tell me why some of my pictures are side by side when I am editing the post, but when I publish they all change?**

Puerto Varas & Puerto Montt

Yes my friends.  That massive, majestic, mountain is actually a volcano right on the edge of a lake in the Chilean city of Puerto Varas.  And no, this isn't a product of google images.  I (Clark) took this picture while standing in the sands of the lakeside.  Puerto Varas is beautiful.  {Amy's comments in blue.}  Actually, I am pretty sure I took this picture; but yes, Pto Varas is a darling little town.  Very picturesque.  We were so happy when the clouds cleared up to give us the view of Lake Llanquihue with Volcan Osorno.

This is the main plaza of Puerto Varas.  That small figure you see is Amy. I think.  I tried to convince her to stand closer to the camera, but she insisted that I get her and the whole scene in the shot.  Well there you go, Amy.  Once again, here is another Plaza de Armas. And for the record, he wasn't that convincing.

This is the main road in Puerto Varas.  Those lampposts are dressed up like candy canes.  They look like they belong in a Dr. Seuss story.  The candy cane them would have made more sense if it was Christmas and not New Year's day.

We were walking down by the lake and who did we bump into?  David Hyde Pierce, the actor who plays Frasier Crane's balding brother on the television show Frasier (copyrighted).  Oh wait.  That's me.  Nevermind. 

This was the cottage that we stayed in while in Puerto Varas.  It was over a hundred years old and very quaint.  It was a really nice place to stay, except for the "watchdogs" that guarded the house: a labrador and a german shepherd.  Apparently they were trained to bark anytime the wind blew a little, or a leaf fell off a tree, or somewhere off in the distance a car drove by.  It was hard for me to get some sleep with them "watching over us" so well.  So, one of my student's dad is from Chile and his parents happen to live just outside of Puerto Varas and just happen to have a couple of cabins that they rent out.  It turned out to be a great connection and he got us a great deal on the house.  It was surrounded by gorgeous gardens and fields and sat right near the lake.  After spending 3 very busy, packed days in Patagonia, it was really nice to be in a quiet location where we could relax a bit more.  We couldn't even muster up the energy to stay up til midnight on New Year's Eve!

Our master bedroom.

Our master kitchen.  Do they call it that?  It was actually super nice for the area.  It had a stereo and a satellite TV and a couple of bathrooms.  And this was just the upstairs.  We had the entire cottage just to ourselves.  It was quite fun to make some of our own meals, use the wood-burning stove and stay in the same place for a few days.  And no, they don't call it a master kitchen...ever.  Unless maybe there are multiple kitchens and there is one that only the "masters" of the house use.

This is the surrounding area of the cottage we stayed in.  The picture was taken from the view of our upstairs window.  Looks similar to the Garden of Eden.  Just fewer animals.  And we didn't walk around in the buff.  Except once.  But the best part of our stay here was when Amy said, "lets walk down the really busy road with a 65 MPH speed limit for a mile or two and find a place to eat some Kuchen (German cake)."  As a supportive husband I went along with it.  Seven miles later we decided to turn around and walk home in the pitch black with no sidewalk on the road.  I rated the danger factor of that stroll at an 8 out of 10, just safer than being a watermelon at a Gallagher comedy show and just barely more dangerous than being two teenagers making out in a cabin in a Friday the 13th movie.  In my defense, the walk was initially Clark's idea; I just gave our walk an unreachable destination. 

Another view just outside our cabin.  These are some plants that are indigenous to Chile.  Probably something expensive.  These are pretty much just raspberry bushes.

Here is my beautiful wife standing in front of a beautiful vista by the lake shortly before our leisurely stroll became a Death March..  You can tell that it is getting dark and we are about 7 kms away from our cottage on foot.  Luckily Amy was wearing really good clothing for walking by a busy road in the dark.  Oh, I forgot to tell you that we never found the restaurant or kuchen.

The Cardenas family.  A really sweet family that fed us Lamb on New Year's Day.

This is us eating once (a small meal before dinner) at the Cardenas Family's casa.  I know things look pretty calm in this picture, but the day before (New Year's) was full of drama!  There were lots of people and random relatives in and out of the house while María Teresa was preparing the meal and one of them wanted to discuss religion with me.  He had definitely been drinking and wasn't making too much sense. I tried to answer his questions simply and then just started avoiding/re-directing the conversation.  After a while he started to become pretty rude and belligerent and I started thinking "Hello!  I am a visitor here! When is someone going to do something about this crazy person who is attacking me?!"  At one point he had his finger 2 inches from my face and was shouting "Who is your God?  Defend yourself!"  Finally, the mom told him to get out and when he refused another random relative got up and decked him right in the face about 2 feet from the dinner table we were sitting at.  I looked at Clark with big eyes as a brawl went down right there in the living room.  The drunk guy was definitely losing and they eventually dragged him outside.  The chaos continued outside and I became very nervous for my rental car that was parked in front of the house.  So the carabineros (Chilean police) showed up and María Teresa had to go explain what had happened and things started to calm down.  For a few minutes.  Shortly after another cousin visiting for the week started feeling sick, passed out, was carried to the couch, came to, and then had some sort of panic attack where she was having a hard time breathing.  Then she started having contractions.  Did I mention she was seven months pregnant?  Yep.  They called an ambulance and when it didn't come fast enough, they loaded her up in our rental car and we drove her to the hospital.  It was quite the way to kick off the New Year.  (She turned out to be just fine, by the way).  

This is Puerto Montt.  It is a city about 10 miles away from Puerto Varas and is also by water.  Ocean Water, in fact.  Not as beautiful as Puerto Varas, but still a lot of fun.  This is the view I saw each day as I left my apartment in this area.  We did a drive-by just for fun.

Also, this was my first experience driving a car in Chile.  When we finally found an available rental car at the airport, it was a rainy, busy day, we had no map and the car was a stick-shift.  I was a little nervous (it had been a few year since I'd driven a manual).  I only stalled a few times over the course of 4 days and by the end of our stay we started to get an okay feel for the streets.  Driving them is so much different than walking them like in the mission!

The Pacific Ocean overlooked by Puerto Montt.  And there is a rock in the picture.

This is a family that Amy met while serving a church mission in Chile.  They are fantastic people.  José Miguel and Marisol.  They strolled around the city with us and I was able to have a 15 minute or so conversation with Jose Miguel.  He spoke a few sentences in English and he was really patient with me. They are two of the sweetest, most amazing people.  We spent such a fun day with them.  And for the record, Clark did a great job doing his best to speak Spanish.  He made a great impression on my Chilean friends.   

Bad Boys III

Amy and Marisol by the ocean.

This is a famous set of statues in Puerto Montt.  It is a depiction of the first German settler telling other German settlers where they can go, which apparently is to Falabella, a local department store just out of the picture.  Notice that the first German settler had a dog.  And that dog had 3 dogs and then those dogs had 3 dogs and then those dogs had 3 dogs.  You get the picture.

This is Angelmo, a local strip mall (an artisan market) in Puerto Montt.  We just bought some Coca-Colas and a scarf.

These are some boats in Angelmo.  Pretty views down by the docks.

Angelmo also had a fish market.  These are some of the fish that would be sold at said fish market. 

They also sell other stuff at the fish market.  Here Amy does one of her favorite poses by said other stuff.

We went back to Jose Miguel and Marisol's house and they fed us lunch.  Hamburgers with avocados and Mayonaise.  Delicious.  Did I mention that Chileans put avocados on almost everything and it makes it really tasty?  One of my favorite things about Chile.  That and banana milk.

What can I say about this guy?  His name is Armando and he is a sweet, kind, old man.  He started to cry like I was cutting onions when he saw Amy.  He was a little intoxicated and he didn't have any teeth.  I thought I had been learning Spanish until I listened to Armando speak and realized I couldn't understand a word he said.  Amy informed me that she didn't understand half of what he said either.  I love this man, but he really is hard to understand at times!  But he was super sweet and he gathered his whole family around.  My description wouldn't do it justice, but let me just say that you haven't truly lived until you have seen Armando gumming a piece of chewing gum that we brought him from America.  That is what Mel Gibson meant in Braveheart.  "Every man dies, but not every man has seen Armando chewing on gum without any teeth."  That was in one of the edited scenes of Braveheart.

Here Armando is sporting the unbuttoned shirt look made famous by my grandpa Don Carlos.

More dusky pictures of the Volcano in Puerto Varas.  If I look bloated in this picture, it is because we had just eaten tons of food and drank tons of carbonated soda right before this picture.

And that's all of the pictures.  Hope you enjoyed Puertos Montt and Puerto Varas as much as Amy and I did. 

Sights of the southern hemisphere

(Clark's comments in weird red color) In my opinion (Amy's opinion), the official Day 1 of our trip kicked off once we arrived in Punta Arenas. We spent the morning seeing the penguins and spent the afternoon exploring the city. We walked all over, visiting a random museum, the coast, the plaza, the cathedral, and more. It was windy, but there were blue, sunny skies, so we were grateful.
This was the hostel where we stayed called La Estancia (That's Spanish for "The Estancia"). It doesn't look like much, but our bed was comfy, sharing a bathroom wasn't bad and the owners were very kind and helpful.

We made friends with a couple from France during our penguin excursion earlier that morning. Ben and Anne Sophie are both great and we had a fun time with them. After the penguins we walked around the plaza together and enjoyed some tasty hot chocolate (That's English for "Chocolate Caliente). We don't speak French, but their English was pretty good, though Ben added lots of expression and animation to his in order to get across his point. (The guy was awesome.  He made Pee Wee Herman look like Lurch from The Addams Family.)  Clark and I didn't mean to both wear Duke apparel, but Anne Sophie did poke fun at us saying it was "so American" to wear clothing sporting one's university on it. Don't worry, I told her it was "so French" to wear berets and smoke long cigarettes.  I was embarrassed to find out that those are stereotypes and that most French people don't do that. I hadn't ever thought of that before, but she makes a good point.
Clark wasn't very convinced about me dragging him to explore the cemetery, but it really is pretty cool to see how they vary among cultures. Look.  If you spent one year's salary to take your spouse to the end of the world and they said, "I just really can't wait to go see the cemetery," wouldn't you feel a little apprehensive?  It would be like me taking Amy to Australia and then telling her, "I can't wait to stay in my room and watch Australian rules football."  Wait, I would totally do that.


That evening we hopped on a bus that took us 3 hours north to the town of Puerto Natales where we stayed at the hostel Las Carretas.  Las Carretas was run by two twenty-something boys.  I was a little weirded out by the fact that our night's comfort was in the hands of two guys who had probably just graduated high school.  Sure enough, the next morning we were served Frosted Flakes and burnt brownies.  Oh well.  Our room was the one on the second floor. It was a pretty decent set up though we certainly didn't spend too much time sleeping (much to Clark's dismay).  Look.  I worked a night shift the day before we left and didn't sleep.  And then I couldn't sleep on the plane and then we only slept for about 5 hours our first night in Punta Arenas.  So I think I slept like 8 total hours in about 3 and a half days.  I was tired.  And I didn't even complain about it that much.  One of the cool things about being so far south is that it doesn't get dark until 11:00 p.m. or so. And once it is dark, it doesn't stay that way very long. Each morning I woke up panicked that I had overslept when in reality the sun just rises way early, so it looks like it's late in the morning when it's only 6 a.m.!

From the comfort of our room, we did enjoy a little Spanish cable. Clark was thrilled (thrilled is a strong word.  More like pleasantly amused) to watch ESPN in Spanish and we both laughed a lot when we turned on the TV in the middle of an episode of Alf--voice-overs and all!  Alf is way funnier in Spanish.  And his voice sounded just the same.
Day 2 we jumped into a passenger van with about 13 other tourists (A driver named Gabriel that listened to Chile's version of NPR way too loud, 3 hippie guys from California, a set of Korean twins, a hispanic couple that looked like brother and sister, but were making out a lot, an Italian born Australian named Vincenzo and his Chilean girlfriend and our tour guide.  Amy kept calling Vincenzo Vincente and it made things awkward) to make the LONG drive (5 hours) into Argentina to El Calafate and the Perito Moreno Glacier. The glacier was pretty incredible though. This is one of our first views which shows some of the expanse of the glacier.
A boat took us up close to the 200 ft tall walls of ice. Due to the way the ice reflects the light waves, on cloudy days it looks more blue and on clear days it looks white.  Now when I go to the pool or the beach, I have an excuse.  "Guys, it's clear outside.  That's why I look so white.  I'm like a glacier."

We didn't catch it on camera but we did see a few chunks of ice fall off which was pretty cool. The sound is even more impressive (sounded like a crack of lightning), in my opinion. No worries about global warming though; this glacier is self-sustaining.

After spending an hour on the boat we walked around to get some different views of the glacier. Surprise!  Even from the side it still looked like a glacier.
And yes, it was a little cold. I wore long underwear all three of our days in the southern most part of Chile.  Which was awesome for me.  Nothing sexier than long underwear.
On Day 3 we took full-day tour of the National Park Los Torres del Paine. The park has amazing mountain peaks and various different colored lakes (I'm pretty sure they were all lake-colored). I've wanted to go there almost as long as I've wanted to see the penguins! It was a relatively warm, wind-free day and each view point (there were 7 or so) was more and more beautiful.
Los Torres (the towers)
My good-looking husband and my favorite traveling companion.  Can't argue with that.  I like Amy too.  And she's good looking.



Los Cuernos (the horns). We were so fortunate to have clear skies. Cloudy days are much more common that clear ones in this part of the world, and the clouds can easily ruin any views of the mountain peaks.
Mt. Paine

A view of Mt. Paine, Los Cuernos and Lake Petrohue. There is even a hotel on the island that you can stay on in you have mucho dinero.
We enjoyed our picnic lunch of cheese, crackers, yogurt, chocolate milk and gummy bears on the shore of the lake making for a picturesque view. No one was around to take our picture, so we worked our magic with the camera timer, hanging the camera from the branch of the tree and taking a few before we got a shot that worked. The only interruption during our quiet meal was entertainment provided by a 70-year-old man who stripped down to his boxers and took a dip in this VERY cold lake. It didn't look like very much fun. Amy didn't mention that the old man had bright blue tape on his knees.
Another stop in the park was at Lake Grey, which meets up with Glacier Grey. You can't see the glacier here, but you can see the huge chunks of ice that have fall off it and are now floating in the late. We took a bite of ice from a small piece that we got out of the lake. It tasted pretty much like ice. The piece of glacier was brought to us by our extremely handsome tour guide.  Amy couldn't stop ogling him and saying things like, "I wish he were my husband."  She didn't actually say that, but I think she thought it.  Did I mention that his name was Danton?  As in the magician.
Our guide told us that it is very rare for the day and the lakes to be so calm. It was so quiet, and beautiful and invigorating.  The lake or our guide?
In order to see some of the lake and views we had to walk along trails and bridges. This particular bridge has an occupancy limit of 6 people. You can see that Clark is checking it out skeptically.  Look.  It had an occupancy of SIX PEOPLE!  What is that, 500 pounds?  It didn't help that it swayed a lot when you walked across it.  And it didn't help that I have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Our last stop was at a large cave made by a melting glacier ages ago. Supposedly it housed the long-extinct milodon. Milodons are like bears with horse faces.


That's my husband making friends with a milodon.
And this is a mediocre picture of our rather attractive tour-guide, Dantón. He was a little bit of Chilean George Clooney. Clark's words, not mine.  Amy agreed with it.  And she said, "It's true.  I'm glad you noticed it."  And George Clooney is Amy's favorite hot celebrity.  For the record, I met no Chilean women who resembled Salma Hayak.  And Amy drooled a little bit every time she looked at Danton. 

And that is how we spent the first few days of our Chilean adventure. Each day was jam packed (like our backpacks) and exhausting (like running 7 miles in four feet of snow) but full of beauty (like my wifey)  and excitement (like seeing reruns of Alf in Spanish).

Will you be my pinguino?

(Clark's comments in Purple)
It is only fitting that our first post about our fantastic Chilean adventure is about penguins (Los Pinguinos for those who hablan Espanol) . They are, after all, one of the main reasons we went (I went because Amy told me to). I have wanted to see the penguins ever since I got my call to serve in the Chile Osorno Mission and found out that penguins lived there. Our boat ride through the Straights of Magellan to Isla Magdalena was our first excursion in Chile. It was nearly breath-taking to see the vast number of black dots (over 200,000 to be exact) everywhere as we got closer and closer to the island. We spent an hour (though I could have been content there for much longer) (one hour was about right) walking among the penguins. They were an active bunch and we saw penguins swimming, jumping, waddling, running, "beaking," sleeping, calling, grooming, exploring and more (plotting to leave the zoo in NYC and get to Madagascar). The penguins themselves claimed over 100 photos on our memory card.
There was a "path" that we had to stay on, but it certainly wasn't limited to people. Penguins crossed and walked along the path at will. Can you really look at this picture and not smile?
Happy penguin people.
What is this fellow doing?

Joy.
On the boat trip.

This photo showed you that you can't smoke, be a giant in the olympic event hurdles, or take penguin eggs.

Now this is what I call seeing penguins up close.

Babies and all.
While Clark was busy squinting, this guy gave him a little peck. Not a love peck, mind you.

At the top of the island with our new-found, french friends. Penguins really do bring people close together. :) Amy believes that if every family in the world owned a penguin, world peace would be achieved.

Our boat.
We also drove by another nearby island that was home to many sea lions. Most of these are the elephant seals that are huge, ugly, smelly (breathtakingly smelly) and quite mesmerizing to watch.

Christmas for Two

Well, Christmas 2009 was our first Christmas away from family, home and snow. I really did my best to not dwell on any of this too often and stay busy with other holiday festivities and overseas travel plans. And while I can't speak for Clark who had to work the overnight shift both on Christmas Eve and Christmas causing him to miss 3 holiday gatherings with friends, for me it's been a very nice Christmasy day and week.
We went virtual for our Christmas Eve gift exchange with the Schmutz family. It was lots of fun being able to see everyone even if it was a little tricky to hear with all the echoing. The four squares represent the states of North Carolina, Georgia, Utah and New York. You can tell that everyone seems to be having a good time!
I spent Christmas Eve with the Mudricks. We ate yummy food, played Disney memory and read lots of great Christmas stories. I'm lucky to have a darn good replacement family nearby!

Christmas morning I slept in late due to my attempt to make and deliver cinnamon rolls to Clark's floor at 2 a.m. During this time I dreamed that it snowed the absolute most beautiful snowflakes ever imagined and that my family showed up at my house to open gifts Christmas morning. Even baby Boyd was there and like his aunt Amy so much! If those weren't dreams of the heart I don't know what is! Anyway, none of those came true, but I did get to sit in with my family while everyone took turns unwrapping gifts. I sure do love my family and it was fun to still be a part of Christmas morning despite being on the other side of the country. Thanks to Stephen, I learned how to get my computer to take a picture of the screen and thus avoided the awkward camera in the picture.

We made the most of the few hours Clark was not sleeping or working on Christmas day. It was a sweet, quiet, cozy afternoon. Having a great husband sure helps make up for not being with family.

But alas, I must move on from Christmas. I really should be taking off ornaments instead of blogging. Will the city still come pick up my tree if I don't put it out until mid-January? At this rate I may not have it ready by tomorrow...

Until next time...Viva Chile!