The Beach in Winter

Another good day in Chile. We woke up pretty early and then went to our new favorite bakery just a few blocks away for some fresh bread which we ate during the walk to the bus terminal. We didn't actually have a plan at this point, we just knew that we wanted to go somewhere; anywhere. At the station, Kareem randomly decided that a place called Maitencilla sounded awesome (I believe he used the throw-a-dart-at-the-map method), so we tried to get some tickets there. Unfortunately, they told us they didn't go there, but pointed us in the direction of a bus stop where we could catch a micro (bus) there. The stop was right next to an outdoor fruit market, so we bought 2 kg of clementines for like $1 and just ate them while we waited which was pretty awesome in itself. Two weeks ago, we would never have been able to do this, so I'm pretty proud of us. We're definately learning some Spanish!

By the way, I think it's funny all the odd little things we've been finding out about each other. For instance (no names to protect the innocent), one of us prefers his/her soda warm, one of us has a spot on his cheek that grows hair noticeably more dense than the rest of his face, and one of us wants to know what it would be like to kick a pidgeon, but the little angel on his/her shoulder prevents him/her from finding out.

The bus ride was uneventful except for the fact that it was long and winding and we weren't really sure where we were going to end up. But about 1.5 hours later, we arrived at Maitencilla! It's pretty much a really nice semi-remote beach with a lot of cool houses along the coast. For the next couple hours we just relaxed on the beach eating fresh bread and clementines and drinking a peach-flavored drink. We also walked along the surf and climbed up a little cliff to look at the view. We also took a lot of pictures which should be up tomorrow and made some videos. Around 5pm we realized that we probably should be heading back to Valparaiso and we had no idea when or if a bus was going to come, but we were so relaxed that we didn't really care and the worse case senario (staying forever at this place) didn't sound so bad. However, a bus did eventually come, so we went home, made dinner (pasta, veggies, grapes, and tea), and got ready for bed. Steve claims he saw a llama the size of an elephant during the ride back, but as he was the only witness, the validity of his statement is questionable.

I told you he was odd.

Check back tomorrow to see how Kareem's first day of school went and for pictures of the beach!

XOXO,
Janet, Steve, and Kareem

Adventure #1 Continued

A look into one of the trails.


Kareem and Steve posing for a picture in one of the hiking trails. Noice how deep the trail is.


The Three Explorers!


A great picture of the view from up in the mountain.



This is a picture of one of the trails we hiked up. Click on the picture to enlarge it.

Kareem is taking a break during our hike up the mountain La Compana.

Adventure #1 - Pictures from National Park La Campana

Janet and Steve are smiling for you!


This is a picture of Kareem and Steve outside the National Park La Campana.


This is a quick picture of Kareem in his new bedroom in ValParaiso, Chile.

Look for more pictures in a few hours.