Perros at the Granja and other various perros in Southern Chile

Guest post by Max:

Here are some of the perros the one Isaac is petting is either Lily or  nasha

the one sitting is Capitan .THE TWO Playing are either Lily or Nasha and Copper the other one is loca/daisy

the perro is darka la blanca with dad

boooooooooo! boo is her name

perro on hike 

peeerrrrrrrroooosssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
yyyaaaayyyy!! the perros are coming with us on a hike

max the lab enjoying a bath!

cooper hurray 😀

perros on da porch of our cabaña

max petting max😀😀🐶🐶🌯

🐶🐶🐶

chocolate very sweet 🐶🐶😀😀😀😀😀😀🐶🐶

the two perritas sleeping later stole stole moms shoes

gorda near our cabaña

gorda back. chola front

Hiking conversations

One might be asking what we talk about while hiking. The boys have gotten to be pretty good hikers, and have tolerated 3-4 hour hikes. It's not always easy to get them going, as they'd rather sit and read books most of the time, but usually once we get on the trail they are pretty good. Max, being the youngest, sometimes is harder to get going or needs more distractions to keep him going. Sometimes he'll just SIT DOWN mid trail if he's done or tired. We've worked out that he can sit anytime he needs to and count to 10, then get back up and keep going. On some hikes now, he is often at the head of the line for a good period of time! We encourage him to use walking sticks, too, and that helps.

The boys often get into familiar conversations that we hear on many of our hikes. The main topics revolve around 1) food/food memories 2) animals/pets 3) video games. 4) Sometimes they talk about books they've read, too. This trip they can get into hour + conversations about the video games they are playing (I never know what they are talking about) and they go off on their own in deep conversation. Yesterday they talked about Harry Potter and Max gave us all the review of the newest book. Sometimes they review the stories we hear on audio book Wayside School. 5)TV shows/movies. Usually this involves singing songs from Phineas and Ferb or reviewing favorite movie titles. There is ALWAYS talk about food. This week they talked longingly about a visit to the Cheesecake factory with Gigi and what kinds of cheesecake they got. I often get reminded that my attempt to make baked Alaska didn't turn out! We always hear about various pets, our cat Charlie and our neighbor dog Addie as well as Emma, Hamilton, Ranger, etc. etc.

Hike in Parque Aguas de Ramón--Guest blogger: Max

Today we took a hike in high hills but not andes. Me and Isaac wanted to do a treetop thing but parents wouldn't allow so we went hiking like originally planned.it was very close and it was nice weather. here are some photos.

north hills

view of hill 

picture of dad on rock

rocky hillside

dirtiness of shoes and feet at the end of the hike

cool suspension bridge over water 

sign for tree like poison ivy

picture of awesome boys

beginning of hike

valley between hills

cool cactuses with red stuff

creak near end

cool waterfall

Awesome children on rock

after  hike we went to a grocery store

Street Art

I like the street art around the city. Everywhere there is a wall or gate, so it's nice to see some color and art to break up the concrete. Here are some of the scenes from around the city so far

School visit

Isaac and Max are going to Montessori school in the foothills when school starts in March. We applied last year in the spring to get them in. Our friends' children go here and highly recommend it. The school wanted to meet the boys and administer some "tests" in math and english. We drove there our first week and the English teacher met us to administer the exams and show them around the school. They sent Chris and I away for a couple hours, so we found a market nearby to buy frutas y verduras.

Drive to the school 

At the feria (market)

New school! 

New school Epullay! 

The next week we went back again for the "parent interview" with the director. Thankfully he speaks English well and it was a fairly informal meeting. He showed us around and connected us with the people who could tell us about uniforms, payment, and class selection.

Assembly space/theater 

Checking out the school fish

Fish watching with the director

More of the school 

Fotball pitch! 

Looking up to the mountains from the schoolyard

Play court 

Play space

After we visited the school we found a spot for lunch. We were looking for a stand for "completos" (hot dogs with everything on them), but didn't have any luck finding someplace and there wasn't any parking to be found to look around. We drove around awhile and food a spot to park near a cafeteria that was serving almuerzo, a set lunch. Looked like mostly workers came here for lunch. It was a big meal and cheap. Boys got lasagna and Chris and I got pork chops and salad.

Big lunch! Working man's lunch

Add caption

After lunch we found "Granjadventura", which was close by. It is an adventure farm with lots of goats (cabras), sheep (ovejos), un vaca, un cedro, and lots of climbing in  tree forts. It was pretty hot there and fortunately there was some water boys could play in to keep us cool.

random dog petting at the market

feeding cabras

feeding cabras

Finding some water

Cabras

Isaac milks a goat

Cedro grande

That night we got home and walked to Plaza Ñuñoa to get a drink and dinner. First Pisco Sours of the trip! And tried out a good sandwich place--unfortunately boys thought the hot sauce bottle was ketchup. Ooopss!

pisco sours

boys reading

menu

chris got the grande

yum!!!

fuente suiza

park workout machines

playground at plaza nunoa

magic show