Winter Vacation, Part II

Hi Everyone!

Ok, so after about 5 days or so of "Staycation" Anna and I got a call from Jaime and Rossi letting us know that they were traveling down south that night at 8pm. We had been planning on going down south to stay at Jaime and Rossi´s house and had known that their car was in the shop, but getting a call about leaving that night was not planned! But, that is how Chileans plan...last minute so Anna and I went home and packed in a flurry (we had 5 hours to get ready but we had clothes drying on the line, had just gone grocery shopping and had a lot of fruit to eat so it didn´t go bad, etc.). You just have to laugh about how last minute things are here :) ha ha. Anyways, we took a bus bound for Santiago around 9 P.M. Thursday night with Jamie, Rossi, and their four kids. It was pretty amazing how the whole trip down, around 23 hours of so, their kids behaved super well. I thought they were crazy to travel with all of their kids, but obviously it is possible because not only did we make it down in one piece, but we didn´t go crazy!

So, after arriving in one of Santiago´s main bus terminals we bought tickets for Concepción where a lot of Jaime´s family lives. That bus trip lasted around 6 hours or so and once we arrived we all crammed into one small Nissan Taxi. Below is a picture of what that looked like.

Anna had little Jean (just turned 3 years old) on her lap so that we could all fit.

Here is a picture of Stefan (yellow hood), Ania (7 or 8), Jaime (behind Stefan), and Rossi (back right).
I am not sure on the spelling of all of the kids names because they are all German names (Rossi is the daughter of German-Chilean parents-her grandparents came to Chile from Germany around 1910 or so).

A Chilean Estufa (stove or space heater)

This was a new sight for us northerners who don´t use estufas. Down in the southern part of Chile where it is cold everyone uses these. This picture is from Jorge´s house (Jaime´s younger brother). We stayed at Jorge the first night we arrived.

Me trying to warm up!

Me sipping a Café cortado downtown Concepción

The next day Anna and I took a bus to the downtown of Concepción. Well, actually what happened was Jaime told the Micro bus driver to take us to the university which once we arrived we had no idea why he said that. We wanted to go downtown and when I asked a person on the street they told us we were 30 blocks from the downtown!! So, we took another bus downtown but had to look for a public phone to call Jaime since I forgot my cell phone and Anna´s was almost out of batter. After running around like chickens with their heads cut off Anna and I finally got to grab a quick coffee.

Here is a picture of the Café that we went to.
Unfortunately we never had lunch and shortly after getting coffee we had to meet Jaime plus family at the bus station to take another long bus to Temuco where Rossi´s family lives. So, no lunch combined with lots of travel took its toll and that night I got sick with the flu :(. I was out for two days and even after my stomach was a bit ginger. Here are a couple of pictures of Jaime and Rossi´s house with their kids.

Jean and Stefan playing at the kitchen table.

These little guys are close in age and reminded me a lot of Tyler and I playing together when we were little.

The living room with Anna taking care of Felipe (6 months old).

After a day of being sick I still wasn´t 100 % so we hung out at the house playing with the kids and eating good food.

A picture of the countryside outside of Jaime and Rossi´s house.

Their house is located on the 70 or so hectacres that Rossi´s dad owns. It is located near a German settled town called Faja Meisen which is a good hour away from Petrufguen (half hour from Temuco). They literally live in the middle of no-where, but it is beautiful and there are green things (something we lack in Copaipó). It was really interesting seeing a family that looks european and speaks German, but also speaks Chilean spanish. The food we ate was all natural and a mix of German and Chilean cuisine. Very unique experience.

Jaime and Rossi´s country house.

Jaime and Rossi lived in this house for years and worked in the local area, but with the economy crisis and work hard to find they had to move to Copiapó for work. That is how we met them, Jaime works at the same High School as another volunteer who introduced us.

Even though I got sick our time with Jaime and his family was amazing. When I was sick they took great care of me and once better we toured their farm, ate lots, and explored the surrounding area. Overall a very relaxing time and a unique experience to see a German founded colony that, along with the other German colonies, have been an important influence in forming Chile.

Ok, well there are more pictures to come! I promised Ann that I will let her share the next and final part of our winter vacation. Until next time!