Traveling Outlaws

So it’s been cold – in the 68-72F range – at the beach – which largely we were expecting to be hotter.  It’s not humid at all – very comfortable.  We’ve been wearing sweatshirts and shorts – it’s nice but not 100% of what we were thinking.  When we were walking yesterday I asked everyone – hey – if we were in the US where do you think we would be?  Answers were San Francisco, Maryland (Cindy), Oregon (me), etc.    When Gavin was on Skype with his class they wanted to know where he was – it’s hard to explain.  it’s also hard to visualize why we are 4 hours ahead of Colorado, etc.

So here ya go – the red pin in the map is our coordinates if we were in the Northern Hemisphere vs Southern.  You can see the ‘blue dot’ in Chile – that’s us.   It looks like we are about the same Latitude as South/North Carolina Border.  Having been in South Carolina in the summer I can tell you that this is not South Carolina – much cooler, no humidity, etc.  Anyway this will give you a greater sense of where we are…  What’s interesting is that I want to map the tip of south america to see where it is against North America – doesn’t seem like it would be close to Alaska even – given our coordinates.

our Lat/Lon moved to Northern Hemishphere

Well I wanted to get some photos off the Nikon camera to share as well and figured a quick post might help.  We went for a walk to the beach last night as it was one of the best evenings we have had (no cloud cover and warmer).  Now that we are here on a Tuesday things are much quieter than on the weekend.  Gavin is highly interested in the ships at sea – Hayden was more interested in using the camera and some of these photos are his.  Got my chicken out this a.m. for fajitas and prepped it for marinade.  In the store you literally goto the meat counter and ask for a chicken – they have whole chickens and just the breasts or the thigh/leg connnected together.  When you get home you get to cut up the chicken and prep it.  Food seems to take much longer to prepare and cook – but it is all made from scratch and I like to cook so there you go…  The pictures of the food are from our first night of BBQing pork.  Hayden made the pico sauce – tomatoes, red-onion, cucumber, fresh lemon, cilantro, olive-oil and sea-salt – it was very tasty on top of our grilled pork.  There is a brown building here – it’s part of the university research branch – pretty interesting.    Here are some photos of what’s been happening… and we are going to make some lunch, goto the store and maybe the beach…

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Day 9 – yikes can’t believe we are at day 9 already.  If you were on a two week vacation you’d already be slipping back into re-entry mode probably – at least that’s how it seems to work with us when we travel.  We continue to work with the kids on their schoolwork.  We’ve found using Kahn Academy also helps as the boys get to watch videos and take tests in their subject area then we work with them on the homework.  Gavin suprise Skype called his fifth grade class last Friday and he got to video-link/chat/talk with his class friends.  They too got to ask questions and get interesting Gavin-ized answers.  It’s amazing how using a simple tool like Skype though can bring a far away place into a classroom and bring interest into where we are, what we are doing and what it’s like.  Most people from the US will ever really come this far – especially with their kiddos – so hopefully our experience can help others see that it’s ok and fun to do.  Overall teaching the kids is turning out to be really good.  The other day we went and did Tide Pool exploration at the beach – today they had to write a paper about tide-pools and what it would be like to live in one.  Gavin’s turned into a tide-pool meets earthquake story and hayden’s was very brief – so we gave Hayden a research paper on what happened in the 1960 earthquake here (the largest earthquake recorded ever – anywhere) and what geology aspects make this area so prone to earthquakes.

The weather has been a bit crummy for the beach (cold/cloudy) but we are making the most of it.  Our swimming pool is great – but it’s extremely cold so no one has been in except the boys.  When the sun comes out we are like cats on a sofa – laying in the sun and relaxing/reading/laughing and hanging out.  Last night I BBQ’d chicken on the outdoor grill.  I had to take a whole chicken, cut it up, marinade it then cook it on ‘Carbon’ – which is basically pre-burned wood that burns down to coals for your fire.  But boy was it good – it’s like cooking over a Boy Scout fire – open flame and all.  We’ve even used some of our scout skills to get it going…   It took 1.5 hours to cook, but it was well worth it.  We have fresh herbs in our garden so you just go and cut what you want.  Things like tomatoes, lemons, etc. are excellent here – buy local and you’re in for a real treat.

Home Schooling in Las Cruces

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The dirt road that we took here gave me a vague idea of the town we were going to. Run down, not maintained, little to no population…I was wrong….

From Vina Del Mar, skyscrapers and fancy buildings to Las Cruces, small, one story houses and rural buildings. A big change from city life to country life. Once your settled in though, it feels like home. Family run businesses, typical families, and all the little side streets makes it feel like your right back home. Anyways, Las Cruces is a small town with a population of about 5,000. All of the smaller streets revolve around the main drag, called Las Salinas. With three small grocery stores and plenty of smaller fruit and meat stands, most things you eat are made right here in the city. Not imported in from places like Mexico and other countries. The only real problem is that there are one or two restaurants. That means almost everything you eat you have to make by yourself. Driving here can be precarious in most places because most of the roads aren’t paved, and even if they are, they aren’t paved very well. That’s why most places we go here, we walk.   Read More

Vina Del Mar! The wonder of it all. It seems like a South American San Francisco. With all the ships in the cove and all the steep hillside streets, I’m reminded of California. The thing is, from my perspective, the three cities that are sharing the cove, Valparaiso, Vina Del Mar, and Colcon,  since they’re so close to each other it seems bigger than Santiago, although it’s not… a shame. Beaches that are packed from one end to another that stretch for miles, shops that are set up on the street by the ocean boardwalk, and all the apartment high rises, it gives me that San Diego feeling.  Trolley buses that go from Vina Del Mar to Valparaiso and vise versa gives you how far the cities span. Even outside city limits, huge high rises and mansions cover the ground. No agriculture for miles these three cities are so big. When your on the streets, the traffic is CRAZY. Personally, I think walking is better around here. Every day, if I look out to sea, I can see at least two big container or oil or some type of cargo ships. Santiago was arid to the last bit, Vina Del Mar however, is more of a greener city. At least it isn’t 95 degrees fahrenheit here in Vina Del Mar. Culture wise, this city is unique in its own ways. different music, entertainment, different everything !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a big change for me, but unfortunately, my time here is very short. Next stop, Las Cruces, Chile

It’s hot!  95F during the day – and in the city.  Going from 10F (denver) to 95F (santiago) is a real change.  The boys are handling it ok – although I can tell it’s taking it’s toll.  We woke up at 9 am by alarm  – which is 5 a.m colorado time – promptly turned that off and woke up at a proper 12:15 to go have lunch.

Yesterday we found some guys sailing remote control sail boats on a small lake – walked around a bunch and generally got acclimated to our new location.  Hayden is doing great with his language skills –  Gavin is working on it and will soon get the hang of it.  I honestly think Hayden is doing better than I am – as I was asked if I wanted a beer today and answered “medium” – not thinking she was asking for a beer – but rather how I wanted my hamburger cooked.

I was telling the boys how interesting it was that we haven’t seen things like Starbucks, etc. here – then turned the corner – and there was… Starbucks, Crocks, GMC vitamins – yuck.

Cindy is leaving in a couple of hours for her all night flight adventure – then she will be here and we will move to the coast – where it should be 80F and comfortable.  The hotel is great – very nice, clean and comfortable – it’s a new Hyatt and hotels.com had a great deal.  I’ve been playing with UBER a lot trying to figure out if we should use it as a driver to take us to Vina del mar tomorrow as it’s cheaper – but with all of our stuff and 4 people might be a stretch to have a UBER driver take us – so will probably take a normal van.  There is the bus, but taking bags, boys, tired cindy traveller, etc. in taxi to bus station, bus tickets, bus ride, another taxi, etc. might be pushing it for us.

Ok – off to work on some reading and math with the boys…