Although the local Chileans didn’t even notice, it was a big night for earthquakes. We had four of them on Thursday night ranging from 4.1 to 5.2. Vinamarinos (the local term for people from Vina) don’t notice or mention earthquakes…
Cruisin’ Santa Cruz!
One of our favorite quick weekends away took place in the lush wine growing area of Colchagua, Chile and the town of Santa Cruz. The adventure began as we drove through the strawberry growing area. (Of course, we had to…
Feliz Fiestas Patrias!
September 18th is Fiestas Patrias, the national Chilean holiday to celebrate Chile’s independence from Spain in 1810. In good Chilean fashion, the holiday is celebrated for weeks! With lots of dancing, pisco sour, and yummy empanadas . . . Both…
Loving the Beach Life!
We live just 2 blocks from the beach in Vina del Mar. There are so many amazingly fun activities to do at the beach. When Asher was asked what is his favorite thing to do at the beach, he said…
Spectacular Sunsets!
One of the unexpected pleasures of our apartment in Vina del Mar is watching the amazing sunsets from our balcony. Enormous container ships, suspended on the horizon, float between the buildings. Here are a few of our favorite pix of…
Galapagos Adventure!
We just returned from an incredible week in the Galapagos Islands preceded and followed by a few days in Quito, Ecuador–the Galápagos Islands are an Ecuadorian National Park. We spent six days on board the M/V Santa Cruz, an expedition…
Amazing Galapagos Animals
The animals in the Galapagos are truly unique, from Darwin’s finches (which were the basis for his theory on Natural Selection) to the blue footed boobies, penguins, sea lions, cormorants, frigates, and more. Aliya’s favorite was the baby sea lion…
Waterfalls & Chocolate in the Cloudforest!
We could have spent days exploring the wonderful area near Mindo, Ecuador! But we only had a day to hike the waterfalls and learn all about the process of making chocolate. From growing the cacao pods, to drying and sorting…
The Center of the World!
Here we are at the Center of the World: 0 Latitude! Where we did experiments with water to see the Coriolis Effect: water whirled clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, counter-clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, and just went straight down on…
Graffiti Artists
We never realized how beautiful graffiti could be until we visited Valparaiso, the graffiti capital of the world! Sunday we went on a Graffiti tour of Valpo with graffiti artist, Al Ramirez, who explained the evolution of graffiti, with its…