Sweet Reunion in Santiago

This update covers late December 2019 to early January 2020 (we are not traveling right now).

We had been anticipating with great excitement our arrival in Santiago, Chile.  Here we would be reuniting with Sharon’s close friend Catalina (Cata) and meeting her husband and children for the first time!  Sharon and Cata met 18 years ago when Cata came to Jacksonville, Florida as a foreign exchange student to study Nursing. Sharon has always described Cata as having, “a heart of gold.”  Before we were married, Cata came to Honduras and lived and worked with us for six months which deepened our friendship even more. Ever since we began planning this trip 14 years ago we knew we would be going to Santiago to visit Cata and her family and they were very patient in waiting for us.  Upon our arrival we were showered with hugs and kisses. It was a thrill to finally meet her husband Cristobal and their three lovely children; Amalia, Clara, and Max! It was a dream come true for all of us.

Our first tourist foray was to visit some of the nearby sights, including the famous 40ft statue of theVirgin Mary built on top of a small mountain.  Fortunately, they had a cable car system to do the heavy climbing for us. The views from the top gave us an idea of just how massive and sprawling the city of Santiago is.  The population of the city is over 7 million people and 75% of the country lives within 60 miles of Santiago.

Three days after arriving, we flew to the Pucon area and stayed at an AirBNB owned by Cristobal’s aunt and uncle (Kris and Ivan).  Cata and Cristobal, who are incredibly generous, purchased our tickets and paid for our expenses! The location of the AirBNB was unreal, we had views of the active Pucon Volcano right from their property (at night we could see glowing lava!)  The grounds were covered in blooming vegetable, fruit and flower gardens. The daily breakfast was AMAZING, most of the ingredients coming fresh from their many gardens and everything cooked from scratch! We did several hikes; visiting waterfalls and hot springs while observing the wildlife along the way.  Ivan gave Sharon advice on what routes to take when we continued our trip on motorcycles later. We were sad to say goodbye, but Cristobal needed to return to work back in Santiago.

We were so fortunate to be able to celebrate Christmas with Catalina’s family!  Some of the hardest times to be traveling are during holidays, because you really feel the distance from family and friends.  The food and fellowship was so wonderful. We truly felt like we were with family. The open arms of welcome we have received into Cata’s family have been truly humbling. We also really enjoyed Cata’s 96 year old grandmother who was able to attend and is absolutely endearing.  We even received presents from Cata’s family; Chilean t-shirts, a keepsake and tickets for the city bus tour! We were overwhelmed.

Cata’s parents, Eduardo and Marta, took us on a fabulous day trip to visit Valparaiso.  It is a tourist area on the Pacific Coast famous for its steep funiculars (small railroad cars that climb up and descend the cliff sides using cables).  Most are still in operation and at least 100 years old. The first one opened in 1883 and was steam powered! The seaside town is also known for its colorfully painted houses and delicious seafood – to which we were treated!  And last, but not least (if you know Sharon), ice cream!

Cata’s brother, Eduardo Jr, was leaving for Spain for a month to study advanced medical practices in his doctoral field.  Such an event required another wonderful party to say goodbye. We were the happy benefactors of delicious homemade food and Chilean BBQ!

Our New Year’s celebration was enjoyable, tranquil and absolutely scrumptious.  Cristobal cooked an amazing dinner and Sharon baked her “famous” peanut butter pie dessert.

We finally used our Christmas gift and did the hop-on, hop-off city bus tour.  We were able to ride another funicular – they’re short and fun! We also saw the historic post office, still operational, which stunned us with its great architecture.  We kept saying, “this is a post office!” We also saw the tallest building in South America the Santiago Grand Tower at 984 feet high.

Sadly, after three weeks, we said our goodbyes to Cata and her family.  We would miss the fun and fellowship we had shared with them (including attending church regularly again).  We would also miss her home helpers, Sandra and Erika, who made us lunch every day and welcomed us so graciously.  Thank you ladies! The goodbyes weren’t that sad because we knew we would be back after our trip to the tip of South America (and we hope that is still true once things normalize again and the borders open up again).

Chris & Sharon