The past month has brought the arrival of the infamous Andrea Bowie.. our predecessor. She returned one friday in the dead of night.. disturbed from my slumber by the flashing lights outside I ran around the house looking for Ella in excitement/worry as to why the carabineros were on our doorstep... followed by the excited screams from Maria.. "ANDREA BOWIE" well that's an entrance. Turns out she was looking a little lost in Calera and a crazy lady insisted the police drive her to the house, so one confused looking Andrea later we settle in for the night with pan and cafe and stories of the rest of South America.
The next morning we head over to vina with our new playmate to lay in the sunshine for a few hours on the beach, followed by fajitas and exiting smoothies and very rushed bus trip back to Calera to get to Sole´s wedding in time. Ahh 5 minutes to get changed a lot frantic running around the house to get ready 3 girls appear in dresses at the bottom of the stairs, to then be informed we´re not actually leaving for another half an hour. Well in that case, lets start swapping dresses and actually do our make up properly.
Wedding time. ooooh yeah. upon arrival we´re informed we will be singing a duet during the ceremony.. ok.. hold on a second during the actual ceremony?.. not later on when everyones had a few glasses of champagne and wont be listening intently. no no you´ll be singing as a close to the ceremony. Oh brilliant. Im glad im a really good singer and that we took the time to learn these words on the bus back. oh dear. "and now Kerry and Ella will be singing"... shit. so up we go. sing our hearts out and smash another fear off the list. singing in public. done. now wheres that champagne. The wedding continued with lots of dancing, more singing, a slideshow a bouquet throw at 3 in the morning.. wow these chileans know how to party.. cake cutting at 4 in the morning!! Both Andrea and Ella got to dance with the hottie at the party.. an old man with one tooth who initally thought andrea was Ella's mum. I escaped with a trip to the toilet timed perfectly with the end of a song so he couldn't run over and whisk me off my feet. We rock back up to the big Chile house at 5.00 for early morning sandwich making and then to sleeeep to dream of one toothed men.
In an even shorter summary, we've hit the beach a lot been working on our tans most weekends ella's bikini bottoms are creeping higher and higher in an attempt to rid all white tan lines, we may have an indecent exposure claim on our hands soon. Beach time was interrupted for a necessary trip out of our beloved chile to see some more of South america. So we chose mendoza after dreams of peru became unrealistic.
Mendoza
Off we hop on the bus all excited about a trip to the big city, 6 hours you say, easy time for a film and nap brilliant. and what a delightful sandwich you have provided us with. (this is not sarcasm it really was a delightful sandwich.) So we leave Calera behind and set off into the heat of the day up to the mountains, where we encounter the first problem, an oil carrying lorry has over turned and lost its tank of oil down the side of the big hill, traffic slows as it creeps past to get a good look of the crane pulling up the tank.. and off we go again, up through the mountains, past portillo and the scary feeling in my stomach feeling like i was about to try and get off the ski lift again and ceremoniously hit the floor. but no on we go up to the border. wahoo 4 hours down at the border, piece of cake...... 3 hours later we're still at the border. 3 whole hours!!!! and still not through. Let me take you through the process, you need at exit stamp from chile then an entrance stamp from argentina in a different queue, then back on the bus to collect bags and have them scanned, and your done and on your merry way. but no apparantly this takes hours. after this we're back on the road into argentina and arrive in mendoza bus station about 10.5 hours after we left. brilliant. we wave andrea off on her way to find her next bus onto Buenos Aires, then went from hostel to hostel looking for somewhere to stay. no beds. even better. Finally we stumble upon another hostel with a whole room free, six beds to ourselves. brillo. We change then head out to see what mendoza has to offer after walking around town taking it in turns to decide whether to go left or right at roads with no real plan of where we're heading I spot an andrea shaped figure up in the distance... could this be? yes in fact it was, and really what are the chances of bumping into her in this huge city. Turns out she missed the bus and was staying in the first hostel we tried. So off we all trot onto a bbq at a hostel. We danced and met lots of other tourists, but where are the locals? We somehow make it back to our hostel, me having completely forgotten the name of it. Next day we spend napping in the park under a tree, really taking in the sights. And I should really add that mendoza is possibly the smelliest city ive been too. it smells of sewage everywhere. andrea then suggests we go to the indoor market, ...ah lovely hanging animal corpses everywhere. Ella desperately wants lasagne so we stop in the first place we see with lasagne on the menu. we probably should have thought more about this. picture the scene, Mendoza's sewagey streets, a cafe with hideous food pictures on its sign. The food appears... mmm your lasagne has a delightful after taste...of well feet. Our next day was slightly more successful we hit the aquapark where we get a chance to do our favourite activity, tan and we can swim here too! brilliant, although the pools are quite shallow and i manage to scrap my hands along the bottom of the pool causing injuries that make me look like ive been in a fight. Monday morning we get moving to the bus station. Please take us back to chile we miss it too much. We hop on a bus to santiago, another ten hours down with some questioning at the border as to why we want another 3 month holiday in chile. Because we friggin love chile ok. why wouldnt we want to go back. I miss Calera, and more importantly Maria.
We return from Mendoza to find the house is getting ready for christmas, up goes the tree and various other christmas related items. I lovingly make advent calendars for the classrooms and kitchen with chocolates in for everyone.. im still not sure everyone entirely understands what these are though.
And then it was abuelitas birthday.. which we took charge off. We want everyone here, no excuses. and my my was everyone there, that'll be fourty chicken legs, a million potatoes and lot of salad. and possibly a harry potteresque table that we can get everyone sat at. Dinner went down a treat, follwed by a talent show!!! oh yes! now this is a family who knows how to entertain. We had Fernando and his magic tricks, Cyntia, maria pas and chinga dancing, camila singing with Fresia rolling around on a chair much to everyones amusement. Some more singing, followed by jaimes lot singing and playing guitar. and then it was our turn.. erm ok.. well we have actually made up a routine.. ha. (id like to point out that we have a dance routine on account of having to start camilas party when her friends were too cool to dance. in this time filling stage we made up a 30 second piece that got the crowd moving.) We performed our dance routine much to the delight of the family, followed by a short burst of happy birthday on the ocarinas.
This was followed by a much postponed trip up North to Andres' house by the "world class waves" So midnight arrives on grandma's birthday, but the party doesn't stop so we slip out to catch the bus up to Coquimbo and later hear the party didn't come to a finish until 2.30am what a party animal abuelita turns out to be! Five hours later we arrive in Coquimbo and take a trip to the beach.... world class waves you say.. well that was a lie. But yes it is a nice beach. I take up my position on a rock for the next 3 days camera in hand ready to take some world class photos of the guys and ella in the water. We have a funfilled few days, broken up with a car break down where we pass the time doing pilates in the middle of a dirt track. but all in all a very chilled and beneficial surf training weekend. Good work team, lets go again soon.
On our return to the casa grande the container arrived!! this was a very fun day with lots and lots of boxes filled with everyones generous donations. Obviously we claimed all the good stuff first! ha jokes. The house has been kitted out and there are still many boxes to be unpacked. Kids we're all delighted with all the new toys they can now play with. And then the durans arrived, with much talk around school with many a kid muttering to themselves about mr duran arriving, local celebs or what! So schools finished the big pool is up in the garden with a slide going in to it, we spent yesterday on the teacher/family trip, (minus the teachers, as they're too sad) and had a lot of fun in the swimming pools all day. Today is the orphanage christmas party and everyone is busy planning games to play, myself and ella have a fairground type coconut stall to construct and its christmas on thursday!! So all in all a busy week ahead but lots of fun to be had.
Feliz Navidad!! (Happy christmas!!)
Christmas love to everyone
x x x x
