How can it be May already?? Where did the last eight weeks go??
Life has just been happenin’ for us. In March, we had our last two visitors, Megan, Zach’s sis, and Joanna, my dear friend from Raleigh. Those two wonderful guests made the month fly by! We went to the beach, hung around Santiago, went to Cajon del Maipo, and enjoyed each other’s company!
When Megan was here, we went to Viña del Mar, a cute little town by the beach. This was just a few weeks after the major earthquake in the South of Chile, so we were still experiencing some aftershocks and new smaller earthquakes. The first morning we were there, there was an earthquake just south of Santiago that we felt in Viña. Megan and I both thought it was cool to feel the little shakes, nothing too scary. However, about three minutes later the man from our hostel came running up the stairs and pounding on our door screaming, “Sube! (Climb!) Sube! Sube! Tsunami! Tsunami!” He said it with such urgency, it seemed as if water might be pouring in the hostel at any moment. We all grabbed as many things as we could and ran for the hills! Really. People were running everywhere, little kids were crying, it was pretty much awful. Once we felt like we got high enough we stopped and took some moments to calm down. Over the period of about three hours, we learned that there never was a tsunami, but the Chilean government had just called it out of precaution. Better safe than sorry. Still not fun! This happened to be on Zach and I’s fourth wedding anniversary, so at least it was one we’ll never forget.
When Joanna was here, things were much calmer thankfully. We didn’t feel any quakes. Actually the day she left, we had a pretty creepy one, but thankfully she missed it. While she was here, we toured the famous Concha y Toro winery again. This time we met some americans in the Air Force who were down in Chile for the South American air show that was just outside Santiago. We had a really fun time with them and had some pretty interesting conversations. The highlight of meeting them was at the end of our visit to the winery. They invited us to have one more glass of wine with them. We decided to, and they bought us each a $20 glass of wine! It was DE-licious! I’ll never forget them or that glass of wine. :)
Jo and I tasting some Cab Sav grapes at the winery
Lately, we’re back to our schedules. Teaching, trying to learn Spanish, and enjoying our Santiago life. Winter is on it’s way. We’ve had our first rainy day since October, and the mountains have a fresh coat of snow on them. Zach and I are really excited about the ski season. The World Cup is coming soon and Zach is THRILLED to be in South America for it. It should be a cool time.
It has dawned on us that we only have about 10 weeks left in Chile. While it will be hard to say goodbye, we are also looking forward to our return to the States and reuniting with our friends, family, and life there. We’ll keep you posted as we know more about our exact plans. We think we’ll be returning around the 22nd of July.
More updates soon! Thanks so much for reading! We miss and love you all.
