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.

Andres took an afternoon nap. One of our last in this house. Taxo joined him.

We will move in less than 2 weeks. Packing is a pain. It is not something that gets easier the more times you do it. It’s still a headache the 10th time I’m pretty sure. The cat does not get to come with us, at least not for the time being. Maybe next year we will ship him to Chile with the in-laws. He will be greatly missed, along with a number of things. It’s been a good 12 months.

My nephew Mo graduated from preschool this week. I wish I could have been there. He is really such a cool kid.

He’s the bright eyed one. I just love the “I Love Jesus!” sign behind them. Ridiculously cute.

And the Rest of the family; Christine, Kali, Jo and Grandpa Phil.

What a crazy bunch.

Thanks Dad for supplying the pictures.

What a wonderful birthday I had. My last 365 days of my 20s. Time does fly doesn’t it?

I’m off of work for 8 days due to the swine flu. Two students at Colegio Menor were diagnosed with it after returning from a trip. So Andres and I took off Friday a little after lunch and came to Baños to stay at Luna Runtun and relax for a few nights. On our way we were given a spectacular show of a full rainbow. It was hard to do it justice in photos, but I tried. 

The 4 hour car trip was good practice for what is to come in our lives for the next 6 months and really, just good times…

We checked into our room at Luna Runtun and chilled before dinner.

We enjoyed a wonderful meal orchestrated by Rodrigo. I didn’t get good pictures of the food yet, but I do have the chef. 

Roberto and Mercedes are on their way to join us here for a night, to celebrate June 6, 2009. What a cool gift. 

If only the rest of my family and friends could join me.

This is the second time in a year that we are selling off our worldly items and moving on. I think that is too much for one year. Luckily it’s the last time….then 6 months without a house. Which is worse? 

I’m posting the items we are selling here. It will all be available as of June 30th. 

Refrigerator
1 yr. old
Electrolux
$425

Durex stove 4-top
$35

Indorama Toaster Oven
$50

Glass Blender
$30
Osterizer

Chaide & Chaide Mattress-1 yr
Full 2×2
$130

Andres was out running errands today and managed to pass under one very heavy storm cloud. Being 8,500 ft. in the air causes the clouds to do strange things. One cloud passing managed to dump a lot of hail in a very small area. Look behind at the nice blue sky. My father-in-law Roberto works barely a mile away and didn’t get touched. 

Crazy Andes.

From record heat in California to mega-droughts in Africa I think by now it is clear that the heating of the Earth is eminent and will be painful for us who will see it. It is unfortunate that if only we each made daily choices that were pro-earth and stopped looking at our surroundings as linear we could likely begin to start healing the vast damage that we’ve done.

Today, for Earth Day I shared with my students the image of the earth being like a large cruise ship. If the captain of the ship wants to turn the ship to the left he can turn the wheel, but it takes awhile for the large ship to react and begin to turn itself. It is the same with the brakes. It takes 3-5 miles for a large ship to fully stop. The Earth is the same. Once we begin to make changes in our lives and begin to live in tune with the Earth understanding that it is not at our disposal, it will take time for Earth to feel the change and begin to heal. Unfortunately, if we don’t begin to change until we feel the true effects of the damage we have done, we will have to live years of pain until nature can begin to renew itself. 

I am a proponent of Earth and I hope you will join me and begin now to make daily pro-Earth choices.

We are traveling in the south of Chile and visited the island of Chiloe. Incredible place. We slept in a palafito, which is a house hanging over the water. The place was called Hostel Palafitos and it was wonderful. Great service, great breakfast, quiet and just so cool sleeping over the water. Here is the view from our place.

We also visited the coast and hiked to the water. The water was completely red as they are suffering from red tide. But it was still beautiful. On our way there we came across the most amazing mushrooms I’ve ever seen. They are called amanita muscaria and although they are poisonous you’d have to eat about 13 caps to die. They are also eaten for nutrition as you can cook them and then they are eatable. They are also hallucinogenic when eaten raw. We passed that up, but couldn’t help but take 1 million pictures of them.

I also followed Andres around taking pictures of him taking pictures.

Tomorrow we head to Buenos Aires for 2 days 3 nights of eating and shopping, yum yum.