I have not updated this blog for a little while as I have started a new one for our travels. Check it out at: www.southamericabyland.wordpress.com. I hope to pick this back up once we are settled again in the south of Chile. Maybe around December. Until then see you at our other blog!
With temperatures between 60 and 115 Fahrenheit, endless amounts of peaches, nectarines, excellent Mexican food and health food grocery stores galore, California has to be one of the coolest states the northern part of America has to offer. Arriving in the southern part of the state on the Forth of July to fireworks and constant Michael Jackson music and news, I was reminded that returning to the United States is a challenge, but always an entertaining one. I began the adjustment with five days in Los Angeles before heading north 4 hours to Morro Bay for Grandpa’s 95th birthday. I stayed with family (see picture of totally cute nephew above) and enjoyed the incredible vacation.
From Morro Bay I continued traveling north and met up with friends. We hung out in Santa Cruz and once again I had awesome weather and incredible company.
We played frisbee (see pictures above), checked out the boardwalk including rides (below), ate lots of Mexican food (the national food of California I’m sure) and chilled on the beach.
I also visited a farmers market in Santa Cruz. What incredible produce that state has.
Fresh blueberries were in abundance….for $10 a cup.
After reaching the most northern part of the world I will visit in the next 2 years, I ended my trip with an exceptionally long drive back to LA and another few moments with my parents. I then set out for a journey south through Atlanta and on to Santiago…where I am currently chilling on the 7th floor of Mar del Plata, Providencia with a glass of Chilean (of course) Cabernet Sauvignon. From here it’s on to finding our traveling vehicle, getting our things together and setting out for six months of traveling.
Thanks to all who made the past 17 days possible. To good friends and family who made the time to hang with me, drive me places, laugh like fools together and catch up on lost time. And to the beautiful state of California for it’s incredibly dry, hot and clear weather (a complete contrast to where I am now) and its sunsets after 8 p.m., I couldn’t have asked for more.
Lastly to the California Kittens who surely have a home on earth or in kitty afterlife today. You made me laugh harder than I had in years and gave me yet another tragic animal story for the year.
A special thanks to Mom and Dad. They make it all possible.
We traveled to Mindo last weekend, a two hour trip by private vehicle and really worth the time. We visited a butterfly arboretum and went on an awesome hike to a waterfall.
While viewing butterflies we found a two headed one.
Wandering around our yard yesterday I found the most interesting nest; actually, one of the only nests I have ever found. It is 3 inches by 3 inches and has a beautiful, tiny egg in it. I think the nest is abandoned, but it seems that there were other eggs and this one didn’t make it until the end; which would have been her beginning. The egg is in a blackberry bush. It has such a beautiful, peaceful, tranquil home, exactly what I am looking for.
To give you an idea of the size of the nest, check it out next to a blackberry.
The yard here is incredible. It is full of fruits and vegetables; avocados, lemons, passion fruit, tree tomatoes, blackberries, corn, cilantro, and figs. Below you can see a picture of a fig from our tree.
I am hoping that when we move to Chile we will have even more fruits and vegetables in our yard.
Stay tuned for the launch of our travel site.
The south of Ecuador was just awesome. We spent 3 nights in Cuenca where we got to see the children’s parade on Christmas day. From there we traveled 5 hours south to Loja and then another hour to Vilcabamba. We were able to enjoy an irate drunk man who sat at the back of our bus the last hour, strangely entertaining in a nerve racking way. We checked into a really cool lodge called Rumi Wilco on the outskirts of the small town of Vilcabamba. Our place was super rustic, but very comfortable and fully equipped. It was awesome. We were able to relax for five days where we read, hiked, cooked, drew, painted rocks and sat in the hammock and let the hours pass us by. The days were fully enjoyed and passed so fast despite our pace of life.
From there we checked into a hotel called Madre Tierra. This was an unfortunate mistake as the place recently changed ownership and took a complete dive. So now you pay for a 4 star hotel and receive -2 star service. It was bad. I won’t go into it, but if you are interested sent me a note and NEVER go there.
The one good thing about the place we choose to stay for New Years were the friends that we happen to meet just after our dinner that last night of the year. We were enjoying nice music and good company and began to talk to some other guests from the hotel who were sitting nearby. We ended up not only spending the start of the New Year and the following days at the hotel together, but we have been able to hang out with our new friends since that time as they have been stranded here in Quito due to the heavy travel season and not many flights. It’s worked out ok for us though as we’ve all had such a great time. We’ve cooked together, eaten together, traveled together, hung out for days and just enjoyed each other’s company. They really feel like they could be family.
We are sad to see them go, but are hoping that they can get their university classes that they were supposed to attend yesterday.
We already miss you Shani, Shira and Aviv.
I returned to the United States to get some sort of visa that allows me to stay here. You would have thought that after years working in US immigration I would have thought that it may have possibly been difficult to enter Ecuador on a tourist visa and switch to some more permanent form of staying here legally. That didn’t happen. I had to go back to get some paperwork. I could drag this out long, with my many stories of immigration crap that I have had to go through over the past couple months, but I won’t. I will leave it at that.
I had a good time despite the hassle. Being with friends and family is always good.
I was able to enjoy a picnic with my family, including my grandpa Egon, but without Andres as he was in another country. A good time was had by all.
Three generations.
I like the vehicles you find here.
This was taken on our way to the beach a few weeks ago.
We spent a long weekend at the beach in the province of Esmeraldes. We took the scenic route there and stopped by grandma and grandpa Erazo’s house. On our drive to the beach we found my store, if only my life had been a little different:
We arrived late in the afternoon at the beach and found a great place called Playa Escondito. The site was awesome with electricity, a great fireplace and beach front view. Best of all there were no other people camping. Although it is high season for travelers in Ecuador, camping is not very popular.
We cooked our own food including excellent langostinos, or big shrimp. We cooked them two ways, one with curry and another grilled with pineapple. They were just excellent.
The best part of the long weekend was the relaxing. I finished a good book, took some nice walks and swam in the warm ocean water. We cooked great food, went to bed early and slept in late. It was vacation at is finest. I am getting ready to start a job tomorrow that I did not previously expect to be doing. I will begin teaching 6th and 7th grade social studies and English. I am excited about this and grateful that I got a couple really good vacations in before starting back to official work.
I loved this place.
This picture comes a little late, but I couldn’t resist posting it. It was taken in Duluth, Minnesota, the location of our last family reunion. My father rented a car and was given an upgrade to this convertible. My Grandpa, Egon Hofer turns 94 this year. It is amazing the joy he brings to so many people’s lives. I love him and miss him dearly as we are so far from him now. Picture by Brad Hofer.
My girlfriend Erin and I traveled around Ecuador for about 1 week. We visited hot springs called Papallacta, where Andres came with us. We also went to the cloud forest and stayed in a small city called Mindo and then traveled to Otavalo where there is a great indian market. We had a great time together and I will be sad tomorrow when she gets on a plane and begins another adventure in Toucuman, Argentina, where she will be with her boyfriend Daniel.
We spent two nights sleeping in hammocks in the national park, Tayrona about 45 minutes from Santa Marta, Columbia. We hiked in about 1 hour and paid our 10,000 pesos (about $5) for our hammocks. We were grateful for a roof over our heads as it rained both nights we were there. The day was spent laying on the beach, reading, drinking cold Aguilas and swimming in the warm water. Other than the constant wetness, lack of cleanliness and constant mosquitos it was a blast! Two nights seemed like just enough time though. Gayle’s boyfriend Walter met us there for the second night. We spent our evenings enjoying natural juices and playing scrabble. On our way out we opted for horses to carry us.
We visited a volcano mud bath about 45 minutes outside of Cartagena, Columbia. It was quite an experience. We immersed ourselves in the mud, which was so deep we could not touch the ground. After soaking for around 30 minutes we were led down to the lake were ladies scrubbed us clean. They even made sure to get the insides of our ears! They washed our bathing suits out and we were as soft as babies. We then enjoyed a cold Aguila by the side of the lake.
I spent my last days in the United States with family in Duluth. The family is from my Father’s, Mother’s side, the Tschetter family. We have been getting together every 3 years to reunite and catch up on all that has happened. We have all gotten older and better. We share our stories, make new stories and experience a great vacation together. I really appreciate these events and hope that they continue in the future. It was also great to have the last few days to hang out with my Mom and Dad and my 93 year-old father, Egon. It was a sad good-bye to all of them.
We arrived in Temuco, 13 hours south of Santiago early yesterday morning. So early that the guard at the airport where we were picking up our rental car offered to open the airport so that we could sit somewhere warm. We were the only ones in the entire airport. I wondered what homeland security would think of that. After a 3 hour wait at the airport the Avis rent a car worker decided it was time to show up to work and we were able to get our car. From there we drove about an hour to Pucon. What an amazing drive and an incredible city. It’s very relaxed and feels more like a vacation town in the mountains of California than any South American city I have ever visited. After a day of walking around, laying by the lake and eating good food we took a drive out to some hot springs about an hour away. On our way we picked up a couple of hitchhikers as seen in the photo above. It turned out we were passing right by their destination and we offered to even take then the extra mile directly to their doorstep. They were very grateful and we asked to take a picture with them. We soaked in the hot springs for a couple hours before we headed back to the town for a dinner of pizza and beer. Today we went rafting in level 3 rapids. It was a wonderful experience with lots of laughter. Hopefully I’ll be able to post a picture of that soon. Tomorrow we are going to wake early and take a drive a few hours more to the south to see more of the countryside. I have to say, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.
It has been 5 years since we got married. Time really goes fast, but we feel the way our life together has changed and improved. We are celebrating this occasion in Chile, enjoying the summer and getting to know each other better. We specifically celebrated on the 27th at a rotating restaurant on the top of a building in Santiago. It was a nice and we spent almost 5 hours at this place, turning around several times, reminding ourselves about our changing lives. Cheers to all of you who have been with us these years. We love you all.
We are getting ready for our Christmas trip to Chile. We will be flying out of Los Angeles on December 24th and arriving in Santiago on December 25th at 6am. From there we will be spending a few days with Grandma Pacheco and then heading to Valparaiso for New Years. After that we will take a bus 13 hours south to relax and take in some outdoors in the Lake District in the town of Pucon. We’re hoping to do some rafting, biking, hiking and soak in hot springs. We will try to update this site with some pictures and stories of our adventures.
Happy Holidays!
This is the table where we gathered together to share wonderful food and great company. Our families are such a part of who we are. We are so glad they can come together on vacations like this one to enjoy the good things in life.
Emily: In October Andres and I traveled to France with our families. We stayed two hours outside of Paris at a chateau big enough for the 10 of us. We cooked great food, took daily excursions to towns close by and had time at the beginning and end of our trip to explore a little bit of Paris. It was such a great trip. Not even the exchange rate of the dollar to Euro could put us in a bad mood. The two weeks went too fast and left us wanting more. Now we are working on our plans for our trip to Chile in December and hope to make it even more relaxing.
