Few days in

Got a lay of the land, yesterday we slept in as needed from changing with the time zones, got a late start and set off for Vina Del Mar, the mall was the destination where we would be meeting with Tia "Aunt" Margery to escort us to her house. It was my first adventure onto a Chilean bus and was not bad at all, crazy amounts of hills and a little nervous since hearing a few stories, one of which LuAnn"s mom was once in a bus that lost it's brakes and rolled over. But all was well and great success! We had a nice lunch and got to meet LuAnn"s very sweet Grandma and Nicolas LuAnn"s cousin. Not many pictures were taken there but they will be since we will see them two more times before we leave. The days have been kind of overcast in the mornings and then burning sun by the afternoon, I caught some sunburn Thursday but not too bad. We had finally had some time to ourselves yesterday evening, we walked the beach and watched the ocean and all the things people were busy doing. It was very nice to have my beautiful wife all to myself for just a little bit. The spanish has been plentiful and since I unfortunately am an lazy Gringo I have very little conversation to join but that's ok. The dogs are everywhere in the streets, the beaches, it's terribly sad, they're completely wild and if you catch eye with one they will loyally follow you, it took nearly 30 minutes to shake a mini black lab away from us yesterday, he snuck up behind LuAnn and licked her hand and he fell in love with her no matter how much we told him to go away. Obviously we wanted to pet him and embrace his joy for the random strangers he had just met but we held back and ignored even though he warmed our hearts. There is a serious epidemic here with dogs, they are everywhere, while its fun to see them everywhere some are in very bad condition and some even play with others at many times which is fun at first but the reality is sad. It is so nice to be on the coast, the breeze is plentiful and the waves and oceanside are a warming atmosphere. I still haven't got into photo mode so I am not thrilled by my pics but so be it. We leave ona 12 hour red eye bus for Pucon tomorrow night and am looking forward to it. Happy New Year everybody!

24 Hours Of Traveling

Headed to the airport 6:00pm tuesday night, flew to ecuador, peru and then Santiago Chile arrived into the house at about 9:00 pm the next day clst time which is 2 hours ahead of eastern. That adds up to over 24 hours of traveling, really wasn't bad at all, Lan airlines is great and got to watch alot of movies and watch the Andies out my window. Flying was a breeze, the food was even good on the planes. The ride down from Santiago last night was pretty naked, lots of farms and tons of tall familiar mountains everywhere. There is the Andes and then a valley and then more smaller mountains all the way to the coast and those were the ones I was checking out. The place looked extremely familiar just like Utah as far as the mouantins. As for the towns they are bustling with really fast traffic and very unfamiliar. I saw a few mountain bikers decked out on some nice bikes so it leads be to believe there may be hope,I still don't have a bike but I am almsot positive Pucon will be where I will certainly be hitting the trail. Left my camera cord home, will be buying one today to get some pics. Hasta Luego!

Typical American........