We’ve had a bit of a lull in activity on the blog, but it’s only because we have had such a flurry of activity in our travels (speaking of flurries, are any of you guys getting snow for a white Christmas? We are most definitely not!). I am currently writing this from a very small airport in Iguazu, Argentina, home to one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. We have TONS of pictures from that, and I will post about that soon. For now, let’s go back in time by 10 days to my parents’ arrival in Santiago.
On Monday 12/10, they arrived at the airport very late at night. Caroline and I went to meet them at the airport, and it was so wonderful to see some familiar faces! They are staying in another apartment in our same building that we were able to rent by the day, which has made things very convenient.
Tuesday
Their first day in Santiago, we went to visit Caroline’s workplace, the Museo Interactivo Mirador. I will post pictures from this later (my parents have them), but it was really fun! We saw tons of little school kids playing on the exhibits, and Caroline helped steer us towards the best ones. My favorite was the new Earthquake exhibit, called “The Earth…and it moves!” Caroline has written about this before – it has a cool model of the inside of the Earth that uses heat lamps so you feel how the core is very hot. There is a Tsunami wave generator. There was a cool animation of how the tectonic plates have shifted over geological history to shape the continents.
(Did you know that the Indian subcontinent broke off from the landmass of Antarctica and moved VERY quickly to ram into the south of Asia? We saw it fly across the ocean waaaay faster than anything else moved in the animation. I guess that explains why the Himilayas are such a huge and tall mountain range.)
That evening, we went out to the nightlife area to a restaurant called Like Water for Chocolate. It had been highly recommended to us by another American friend, and the place looked beautiful. In the end, it was fine but I don’t think we’d go back there.
After spending only 1 day with us, my parents went right back to the airport and flew to the north of Chile to visit the Atacama desert. Caroline and I went back to our normal routine for a few more days – she was working at the museum, and I finished up my last few tutoring sessions before my students went to summer break.
Friday
My parents arrived back to Santiago, and we had a very nice Friday night dinner and Hanukah on the roof of our building.
Saturday
The next morning, my dad and I woke up early and went to synagogue at a place that I had been to before. We had a really nice time. The people were friendly and many spoke English. There was a lunch after services with some pretty good vegetarian food too!
From there, we met up with the ladies at an area in Las Condes called Pueblito Los Dominicos, an area of crafts shops. It was a perfect beautiful day, and we had an excellent time checking out all the little stores. I would definitely recommend it to anyone in Santiago, and I think we will go back there. It’s located near an old church that looked gorgeous in the nice summer weather.
Lunch was a bit of a hassle – first I suggested we go to a metro stop which turned out to have very few restaurant options, then we tried to go to a sushi place we knew but it was closed. We were pretty tired out by the end of the whole day, so that evening for dinner we went to a favorite restaurant called El Huerto. It’s a vegetarian place and has big portions. Check out my delicious mexican platter in this picture!
Coming up next with my parents: our visit to Valparaiso, more time in Santiago, then off to Iguazu to see the falls. More posts coming soon. We are so glad that my parents decided to make a trip down here, and can’t wait for the pals to come visit next week.
Anyone else have fun plans for the holidays? Any vacations to new places? Getting together with friends? We love hearing what’s going on with all of you! Send an email or leave a comment to keep in touch.
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