Biking, Hiking, Tricking, Treating

The rain started almost 12 hours ago and hasn't stopped yet. And it is no drizzle. It is a spring-time drenching, and the perfect reason to stay in our pajamas all day and do NOTHING! At least me and the kids anyway. Fredy, on the other hand, decided to go to the stadium to watch the two rival teams of Santiago, University of Chile and Colo-Colo. It was a perfect relief from the generally hectic schedule that keeps us in constant motion.

Yesterday I joined up with a group of people to bike from Santiago to the coast. Considering that I haven't been on a road bike in countless years and had to borrow one from a friend, it was a bit of a crazy idea. We rode out of the city, and had an arrangement for the local authorities to shut down a lane in a really long tunnel through the mountains and give us a safety vehicle behind. Then there a crazy fast downhill that seemed to continue for miles. I felt like I was flying over the mountains. Then after riding for a bit on the highway, we got to some lovely country roads with flowers blooming in every direction and eucalyptus trees making it smell great.  We passed through farmlands, and vineyards, and little villages where the whole population was walking to church all dressed up with wide brimmed hats and all. I passed quite a few country gentleman on horseback, who each removed their hats to greet me as I passed. There were plenty of rolling hills to make the ride a challenge, but I have to admit that when I saw the big mountain with the switchbacks, I punked out and jumped in the support van until we got to the downhill on the other side. I made it about 61 miles, which I was really proud of considering I hadn't trained at all, but right around then it stopped being fun. We were on a major highway with trucks flying past, and it looked like it was uphill for miles and there was a strong headwind, so I decided the scenery would be much more pleasant from the van. The rest of the group made it a total of 82 miles to the coast. I am thrilled that the only damage done seems to be a very sore rear-end.  Overall the drivers here are quite respectful of cyclists, so I would do another trip in the future, but I might train a bit first!

The kids have also been quite busy - between the three of them they have soccer, gymnastics, photography club, climbing and trekking, field hockey, games and sports club, drama, and baseball. This week we also had some extra Halloween events. We were surprised that Halloween was celebrated here pretty much to the same extent as the US. The kids had a good time at a parade at school and at the embassy trick-or-treat event. They also do trick-or-treating in the neighborhoods here but it stays light out until almost 9 pm so the kids go in broad daylight at 7 or 8 and it's not very spooky. Athena made her costume and got rave reviews -- she dressed up as a carton of milk from the local grocery store - Jumbo. Dharma was a vampire and Appolo was Superman.

Last weekend I went on another outing with the trekking club Fredy and I joined - Los Malayos. It was about 17 miles roundtrip over very rocky terrain but it was so worth it. The area was very mineral rich and so the stones varied from shades of purple, green, red, and gold. And the destination was a beautiful semi-frozen waterfall. Surreal. Towards the end I somehow took a wrong turn on the supposedly one and only trail in the nature refuge, and ended up having to climb through a barbed wire fence with some other hikers to get back on track. We cut through some farmer's land and found ourselves a few yards away from a very big bull. The Chileans I was with seemed like it was perfectly natural so I just followed along, ready to run like a rodeo clown if I needed to.

More pics:
http://www1.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=2765103012/a=106700012_106700012/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/
 

We also went to the biggest, and probably only, themepark in Chile last weekend - Fantasilandia. It was quite impressive, with several rollercoasters rivaling anything I've seen in the US and a great Halloween program with scary characters chasing people around the park.

This coming week we are housing two teenage girls from Ecuador who are here for a soccer tournament at the kids school. Should be fun to have five hungry mouths in the house!