Advertisement
Published: December 20th 2006
We’re happy to say we have found a place to live, at least for now. Vina del Mar has many “second” homes. Since it is off-season, they are now vacant and for rent (furnished). We found a nice 3 bed, 3 bath apartment with a view and right on the beach. Something different for us, even if Vina del Mar is not very exotic to us in other ways. We moved in September 9th, but the rent will quadruple on December 31, so we will have to move on at some point.
Just up the beach from our apartment are several parks, and an amusement park that is open every weekend. The boys love doing the bungee-jump! The beach gets lots of weekend visitors and folks selling crafts on the boardwalk. There are lots of dogs here and they like to hang out with the folks at the beach, although they never seem to be a bother. Further up the beach is a military facility of some sort and they have a bunch of artillery lined up on the beach. We thought they were for display only, until we were startled one evening by gun fire and looked out the
window to see some of them going off. Ben and Ovie love it.
Our next task is to find schools for the boys. We have made contact with relatives (Jorge and Yoya) of some friends (Angely and Jorge) in Albuquerque. They have been gracious enough to make us feel welcome here and to introduce us to some of the schools. There are lots of private schools here, but school starts in late February and none are that excited about taking someone so late in the school year and with no Spanish capabilities. Some of the schools seem a bit rigid for our tastes also. September 18 is the big Chilean “4th of July” type celebration, so all the schools are closed in September for 2 weeks!! We finally happen upon a little preschool/kindergarten as a sort of temporary solution - the boys at least have friends to play with for some time each day. It is english immersion, so it is an easy transition for Ben and Ovie and they are picking up some spanish out on the playground.
We spent the September holidays with Jorge and Yoya and got to experience Chile cuisine first-hand - empanadas, meat
and more meat, and lots of avocados too. We’ve never felt more full!
Our friend, Paul, arrived from Montana. He is doing research here and will be living with us for a while. So now, we’ve found a home, found a school for the boys and we are starting to feel settled in. Unfortunately, we don’t know how long any of this will last, how much we can really settle into the community - on some level it all feels a bit temporary. Steve will be heading back to the states soon and will explore his job options which will help determine how long we are able to stay here.
But for now we are planning our first trip in South America - to La Serena!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.089s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 14; qc: 65; dbt: 0.053s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Adrienne
non-member comment
Hi guys!
Great to see your pics and hear more about your trip. We are fine and just hanging in NC. Boys are loving school; me too! There are rumors about your imminent return (Jan). Please report. Love A