Mom and Dad in CHILE!!!

The day that Kristina's sister left Chile, the Wednesday after our weekend in Pucón, my parents arrived....December 3rd!!! It was the best birthday present in the whole world, really all I wanted. (And they brought me Christmas - I had no english Christmas music, but they brought me the perfect CDs, which I have listened to like every morning since!) There they were, in the oh-so-familiar Santiago airport.....in CHILE! Life IS amazing. We had a whirlwind of a week together. I tried to plan a trip where they could take advantage of their short time to see alot, but also have time to show them the perhaps less touristy-amazing-normal attractions of Chile, but the parts I've fallen in love with: the people, the shrines, the masses, our home, my friends. My parents were wonderful guests, completely open to looking at whatever I wanted to show them, just like true moms and dads who still turn their eyes even though their little girl has said "Look Mommy! Look Daddy! Watch this! Watch me!" for the umpteenth trillion time. Sharing my life here with them was a gift in itself. They left happy, which is the best thing they could have given me. Now I know when I go home and am full of stories to tell my family, they'll be helping me tell the stories.

The first day we just stayed around Santiago and took it easy, since they'd just come off flying for a day and a half. My host mother Ma. Teresa received them with a lovely Chilean breakfast (prepared by the most fantastic nanny in the world, Irma!). The bilingual conversation, with my amazing mother translating between my Dad who speaks no spanish and Ma. Teresa who speaks only a little english, was really entertaining, and surprisingly communication still flowed pretty easy. It was great to have us all around the table, my Chilean family with Femi and Kristina, and my family family!

After resting a bit at the hotel, we went to Cerro Santa Lucia, where we saw old Spanish ruins and climbed to the top of a look out to see all of Santiago. I forget sometimes how HUGE this city really is! And yet how small, wouldn't you know that at the Cerro we ran into a friend I'd made at the airport that morning while waiting for my parents! We had lunch at a favorite spot of mine, Emporium de las Rosas, and swung by for a quick look at the Casa Central of La Catolica.

We made it back just in time for evening mass at Campanario. I hadn't been to mass with my parents in maybe 5 months...it was a treasure to see them there, to sit with them as part of the congregation of this church that has become my home. How amazing to say the mass responses in spanish with my mother!






That night we went out for my birthday dinner with Femi and Kristina to a very nice italian restaurant near their hotel. The food was amazing, the drinks were delicious, and of course, being together was the best. My 22nd birthday....in Chile!

The next day we woke up early and were picked up by a tour company for our trekking trip! They drove us out of the city towards Argentina, to the Cajon de los Olivares (Valley of the Olives). There with two wonderful guides, we trekked up the side of the mountain in the bright, bright sun, past cactuc, flowering plants, billows of dust, and a cool, cool breeze. On the way back down we were treated to an asado, with choripan (sausage in bread), fresh veggies and grilled pork.



I absolutely love trekking with my parents...it reminds me of all the times we went camping when I was a little girl, and of all my dad's trips to Big Bend in Texas. There is nothing so sweet as being lost between the grandest mountains, where the sky touches the horizon without being obstructed by any buildings or highways, being totally exhausted from the exertion of the climb, and collapsing at the top with people you know are drinking it all in too. Being out in nature is part of being a part of my family for me, I feel like we see it through similar eyes, and experience it with similar hearts.


That night we were of course super tired, so we just had sushi for dinner at a place I go to often with friends, and called it a night.

The next day, Friday, our wine tour plans got a little mixed up, so we spent the day around Santiago. But we really needed the rest! We saw Cerro San Cristobal, the main hill that rises out of the flat city from which the giant statue of the Virgin overlooks everything. You can see atop the hill from many places throughout the city, and at night she is lit up in the dark. The only sort of fast way up when you don't have a car, is the teleferico (little cars strung on wires that cart you up the hill over the tree tops!). It is great for a view, but pretty awful for ventilation or height scares. But my parents were brave, and up we went. It was especially nice that day since the next day was Dec 8, the fest of the Immaculate Conception, so preparations were in full swing to make everything extra nice. It was beautiful.


On the way back to the hotel, we ate at a typical Chilean hotdog place. After a little rest, we went to the shrine at Campanario to meet Andrea for tea. My parents really got to see the generous Chilean hosptality that I think the Ladies of Schoenstatt have more of a knack for than anyone - they were impressed by how lovely everything was set up (just like I was when I first came, but now I'm used to the Chilean formality). We had ice cream, coffee and pie while we talked the time away. Then Andrea took us to an artist's market that had just opened up - it had really nice crafts from all over South America. As the sun set, we called it a day. My parents and I went out for dinner at a really nice parilla (like a steak house, but better!) that had both Argentinian and Chilean cuts of meat. Soooo delicious, and a perfect way to slowly unwind. These are my favorite times with my parents, when we relax into each other's company and talk around a good meal and a good glass of wine.

The next day, Saturday, a differenet tour company picked us up and took us to a vineyard in the Aconcagua Valley, a little over an hour north of Santiago. We drove past hills covered in avocado and valleys full of grapes. We had a great guide that knew everything we could think to ask about Chile. The vineyard he showed us was beautiful, a small vineyard known for producing a very particular type of wine, and has been recently receiving awards for it. The tour was interesting and the wine was tasty, but the best part was just the atmosphere of the whole place.


Then our driver took us an hour or so more north to our hotel in Papudo, a tiny (and I mean tiny) little beach town on the coast. I had wanted to give my parents the more rural, not touristy, experience of Chilean beaches....hehe and that's what it was indeed! There was only one ATM in the whole town...and it was broken! And of course we'd left without cash...but, the lady at the hotel desk saved us with her kindness, and lent us the money to take the local buses to the next
over, Zapallar, to find an ATM.

It ended up being a good adventure in retrospect, since we got to spend the afternoon in Zapallar - a ritzy beach town with lots of huge nice houses and a perfectly pretty beach. We finally relaxed at a little bar over looking the beach, and my parents could take in the Pacific ocean. We headed back to Papudo for dinner, and had some super rich sea food at a little place overlooking the sea.

The next morning, Sunday, we spent a while on the beach, and then took a Turbus (like a charter bus) back into Santiago. We were all pretty tired, I know I slept the whole three hours back!




In Santiago, we had lunch at the Pueblito de los Dominicos, a little artist's community market that sprung up next to the dominican church, and then made it back to Campanario for Sunday mass, the second week of Advent! We spent a while after mass meeting some of my Chilean friends, and then after resting at the house for a bit, went out to dinner with Femi, Kristina, Mark and two of my Chilean friends, Daniel and Joaquin. How amazing to be with my parents, here in Chile, as they talked in english with the first two Chileans I was ever friends with, yet whom I met in the states! Life is crazy....



The next day was their last day here, Monday. We spent the morning at the Bellavista shrine with Andrea. I'm running out of words about how amazing and impactful all this was! But there were my beloved parents, walking through the gardens and chapels where I've been so often, taking it all in...what a gift.

Then we headed back to my house for a brunch with my host mother. Irma prepared a delicious cazuela (Chilean stew), with the best fresh fruit for desert. Then after a few more hours of shopping at the Pueblito de los Dominicos, we took a cab back to the hotel to pick up my parents suitcases...and there we said goodbye! At least, for a few weeks anyways....but even knowing I'd see them in two more weeks, I was still sad to see them go.