Life in Tigard = AMAZING!

Our hopes of having before and after pictures of the new car have been pushed aside by reality. We have found that cosmetic damage is a lot more difficult to fix than internal yuckiness. So, without further ado, here is our new vehicle -

The happy side

The sad side

As for life, we are loving living in Tigard. It has been so nice to stop by friends houses to visit or actually be able to make it to social functions. A big thank you to all our friends who have stuck through all the changes with us. It is good to see you again!

Angelique is also loving the new nanny job in Lake Oswego. With all the crazy corporate hubub taking place in Portland, it is nice to be in a simple job for now. She is working with 2 families, one with a 4 and 7 year old and the other with a 3, 6 and 8 year old. Her family of three attends an international school in Portland which gives Angelique the opportunity to practice all the Spanish she learned. It is really cute to hear the kids speak Spanish in the car or intertwine Spanish in the middle of their sentences at home. She has also got to enjoy the amazing weather since the kids are always up for going to the park or playing outside. Sweet!

We hope your weeks have been filled with many blessings! Send us an update on life if you get a moment, we would love to hear from you! (henderson.angelique@gmail.com and calehenderson@gmail.com)

All our love!

C&A

Roseburg and beyond!

After a month of crazy happenings, we decided it was well beyond time to update the blog-a-rooney. Our first three weeks back from South America were non-stop visits with friends and family with a lot of travel in borrowed vehicles. This may sound like a normal, every day type statement, but my friends you do not  understand how amazing it feels to be in a car that will go exactly where you need to go until until you have been without it for awhile. We both felt as though the speed limit was fast enough and felt overwhelmingly privileged to listen to the radio with just the two of us together. Amazing!

After all our visits, we settled into life in Roseburg, living with Kathy and Dave. Most people asked us how it felt to be living with a parent again, but to be honest, it was great! Angelique was able to obtain a position at Kathy’s office as the Area Assistant in order to bring in gas and grocery moola while Cale worked his patooty off around the farm each day. At night we all ate dinner together and watched favorite shows before heading to bed. Living in the country was a bit isolating but incredibly peaceful. In order to get our “social time” in, we would head to Portland or Albany every weekend to see friends.

After living in Roseburg for a month and a half, we received great news. A nanny position was available for Angelique in Portland and they wanted her to start within two weeks. We were so excited to move back to Portland and had already worked out an arrangement with a  friend to rent a room in his home. We immediately began packing! We also finally found a vehicle that was within our price range thanks to a loan from a good friend. It was incredible to see everything falling into place so smoothly. Although we don’t know all the details of our future, we are definitely blown away by where life has taken us so far and look forward to what lays further down the road.

For now, we will leave you with a few pictures of our new digs (pictures of the vehicle to come as we finish working on a few “ouchies” it currently has).

Much love!

A&C

Home Sweet Home!

As some of you may now know, we are finally back home in Oregon and have had two full weeks of surprising as many people as possible. Here are a few video and photo reactions we were able to capture…

As for our plans moving forward, we are looking at the job market and not seeing much in the Portland area, so we have begun the process of applying to teach English in Japan for a year. A promising timeline is looking to be August as we just heard today that all the Spring positions (April start date) have officially been filled.

If we have not been able to surprise you yet, please give us a call or email us. We have our old cell numbers back and would love to hear from and/or see you!

All our love!

A&C

Caldas Novas and Carnival!

We are in the full swing of Carnival here in Caldas Novas and boy is it crazy times! We took a stroll around the city center last night to discover the streets packed in bumper to bumper traffic, which is not normal around here. Car stereos were competing to be the loudest as cross dressing young men and half clothed young women danced in the streets. We also got a chance to watch a bit of the Carnival parade in Sao Paulo on TV and were amazed at the beauty of the floats and costumes. It kinda makes you feel like a kid walking into Disneyland for the first time.

As for Caldas Novas itself, it is a great little city with amazing hot spring hotels and water parks. We had an opportunity thanks to Cale’s Uncle Jack and Aunt Char to enjoy a time share in the area and we can not express our thankfulness fully. The facilities were beautiful and contained 7 pools! Wowzers! We also got a chance to explore one of the water parks near by called “Hot Park.” It was incredible, packed with water slides, mini golf, soccer fields, tennis courts, a paintball field, a bird preservation area and a man made beach complete with wave pool and surf machine (not in order that day, but still super cool). We were so exhausted by midafternoon that we headed home with giddy grins on our faces and very little sunburn. It’s kinda funny to see how we have become more tan than some of the locals (although we can not seem to approach the bronze goodness Kathy achieved in 2 weeks).

At this point we are off for another 24 hour bus. Wish us luck as we search out new adventures in Brazil!

Rain, You Say?

That’s right my friends, you heard us right, it is raining every day at noon on the button here in Ouro Preto, Brazil. It definitely makes us feel at home, although neither of us were particularly missing that piece of home.   After departing Rio a few days ago, we headed to Ouro Preto, about 7 hours North, where gold mining ruled the area way back when slavery and branding your slaves was OK. Luckily, there is no longer slavery in the area, but the incredible wealth of art and churches still decorate this little town.  We are surrounded by cobblestone hills and amazing views of forest for as far at the eye can see. We have also heard preparations for Carnival every night starting at 5PM which continues into the night ending around 2AM. You can definitely feel the excitement of the upcoming holiday.

On Friday we were invited to join a Columbian couple on a tour of a local gold and gem mining field and heartily accepted the invite. We were quite excited to see what it was like to dig for gold and gems, but were surprised to find no cave and no folks sifting for gold in a river. Instead, we found what looked to be an old hill that had slowly been dug away and men digging in piles of mud for shiny goodness. After exploring a bit, we went back to the field owner’s shop and looked around at the finished stones once they had been polished and cut. So beautiful!

Today we decided to explore the beauty surrounding us by checking out a recommended waterfall. We hopped aboard the local bus that dropped us off at the “trailhead” and immediately thought, “hmm…there are no signs anywhere.” As we started the hike we had a choice between 3 different trails, none of which were marked telling us where to find the waterfall. After trying the first two trails, we deducted with our super spy skills that the third must be the ticket.   As we headed down the trail, we ran across a group of boys playing in a swimming hole. They invited us to join in, and as we were sweating bullets (because it had not rained yet) Cale took them up on their offer and jumped in. After drying off, we continued down the narrow path until we finally found the waterfall, which was not so amazing, but was satisfying to have finally found. After exploring a bit further down the fall, the afternoon rain began and it was time to head back to our home away from home.

As for tomorrow, we plan to head to Brasilia, the capital of Brazil and see what fun adventures are around the next bend. Oh, and we have also updated “Our Photos” link with lots more pictures from the past two weeks.  For now, we will leave you with…

Quotes of the Week:

1)

Krystle: “So the other night we were laying in bed and Ashton lets out this big sigh and says, ‘I miss uncle Cale… he always toots on me’.“

2)

Angelique: burp

Cale: “That sounded like Satan just came out of your mouth.”

Goodbyes

After departing the beautiful city of Florianopolis, we headed a couple hours North to B. Camboriu to visit a friend we met at ultimate frisbee in Portland. Marcos, Lumi (his wife), and Kelly (Lumi’s sister), all live a few blocks from the beach in Camboriu and were incredible hosts, showing us around their city, introducing us to delicious local foods and taking us to the beach for a surf lesson with their friend, Gutz. We had such a blast spending an entire day out on the beach, learning how to surf properly and actually standing up a few times. What a fun workout! We were especially excited to see Kathy rocking the waves her very first time surfing. After enjoying the beauty of Camboriu for 3 days, we said goodbye to Marcos and the fam and traveled North to Rio de Janeiro.

Our ride to Rio was about 16 hours and was pretty good as far as long bus rides go. One of the only flaws of this bus ride was that the choice of movie was Xena: Warrior Princess, but I suppose that it might be what’s popular these days since we see people sporting their Xena: Warrior Princess footwear. The air conditioner was not in cryogenic freeze mode and we even found a way to ignore the SUPER LOUD MAN BEHIND US by playing cards. It must have been quite a sight for anyone who was awake on the bus to see Cale and Kathy sitting in the normal bus seats while Angelique sat at their feet in order to play cards on our makeshift lap table. It was super fun until we could no longer ignore the scary maneuvers of our bus driver and finally had to make ourselves go to sleep to escape a heart attack. Once we arrived in Rio we found a little hotel that was central to the city and made our way out to explore. We started out by hopping on board one of the CRAZY city buses to find a nonprofit shopping store in hopes of finding some fun items to bring home. Unfortunately, the store was super small and pricey, so we had to walk away empty handed. Luckily, a block away was a great Japanese/Mexican place where we enjoyed our first real meal since leaving Camboriu. From there we headed to a hill called “Sugar Loaf” where locals and tourist hop on board a cable car to two different lookout points with great views of the city. It was pretty cloudy at our second stop but it was a nice change in temperature, so we did not care. We had a relaxing afternoon enjoying the sights before heading to our hotel to crash.

The next morning we woke up excited to see Samba City, where they build all the floats for Carnival. After taking a public bus to a super sketchy neighborhood, we arrived at Samba City. We were surprised to find that most of the floats were closed off from view but we did catch sneak peaks here and there of folks working on the most amazing floats we have ever seen. It is incredible to see the detail that is put into each float and the forethought that goes into each theme. After Samba City, we headed to the local mall to see if we could have a bit more luck with our shopping goals and were pleasantly surprised to find a 4+ story mall with air conditioning. Unfortunately, after enjoying our leisurely afternoon, it was time to head back to the hotel and get Kathy packed for her flight. We had been trying to ignore the impending flight, but had to face the music by 6PM and head to the airport. After an amazing dinner we sent Kathy on her way back to Oregon with lots of love to share with folks back home. We feel so blessed to have shared these last few weeks with Kathy and hope to share another adventure in the future.

We will leave you with Quote of the day and a note from our guest columnist.
Much Love,
C&A

Quote of the Day:
“It’s hard to walk on the bus when you’re tipsy!” – Angelique

Global Awareness 101:

Sux in the City

I started my Big Adventure over 2 weeks ago in Bueneos Aires, Argentina, a city of over 13 million people. This is a metropolis that will swallow you alive… but funny enough, you can still feel at home getting blasted in an Irish Pub while dancing to Sly and the Family Stone. Tomorrow I fly out of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a city approximately half the size of B.A., at just over 6.2 million. Every piece of literature we read (and a couple concerned phone calls from traveller extrordanaire, Uncle Jack) caution us to watch your wallet and be careful after dark. But today, over and over, we found help from locals. These wonderful, warm people took time from their busy day to help us navigate the city bus system so we could enjoy the sights of this amazing place.

Now I gotta come clean… I’m just not a city girl. It all feels the same; the traffic, cabs, graffitti, crowds. One big city looks like the next to me. In addition to that I’m a bit of a germ-a-phobe. So sitting on the bus, using the same hand grips as ALL the others… and oh, pa-lease, the public bathrooms… it makes me want to wash my hands just typing this!!!

It’s the stuff in the middle that I will remember the most. South America is quite simply… breathtaking. It reminds me, in many ways, of the Pacific Northwest – lush, green, rugged – with an exotic, tropical twist. I saw, with my own eyes, an alligator, a spider measuring 6” across, and tropical fruit growing on it’s very own vine… WILD, for anyone to pick! I was driven into a waterfall, shot a class 5 rapid OUT of the raft , SURFED, and walked more than I have in ages in the Henderson Bootcamp.

This has not been a vacation as much as an experience. Some say the difference is one of tourist vs. traveler, or vacationers vs. backpackers. For me, it has been me vs. me. I have challenged myself and stood up to myself (does that sound as weird to you as it does to me??). As I head back to Oregon I can’t help but admire Cale and Angelique for living like this for almost 6 months. It’s not easy – it’s not a vacation. This is an experience – and one I’m proud to have shared in.

Until the next great adventure,
The Contenintal

Goodbye Continental, we salute you:

Iguazu Falls and Viva La Mama

After 32 hours of bus terminals and winding roads, we arrived in the little town of Puerto Iguazu. We left Kathy with the bags at the bus terminal while we walked around town searching for affordable accommodations. After 2 hours of searching and a dog nip (no worries, no skin was broken), we finally found a place to lay our tired heads down and shower (which was very necessary by then). The next morning we woke up bright and early to head to Iguazu Falls on the Argentinian side. IT WAS AMAZING!!! We started the morning off with an SUV tour through a portion of the wild life preserve followed by a speed boat ride INTO THE FALLS! It was such a rush for 9 AM in the morning. From that point on it was very rare to see us without a big smile on our face. We spent 8 hours walking from fall to fall, all the while heading towards the biggest fall called “Garganta del Diablo.” Believe us when we say, there is nothing like walking up to a fall of that magnitude and literally having to turn away because your breath has been taken from you. A few of our favorite pictures from the falls were -

After the falls, we needed a full day of rest to recover from all the hiking and amazing sights. We thought it would be a good idea to all crawl in bed and watch a movie on the laptop, but soon found out that three people might have been a little too much for a poorly made bed frame. The next day we headed to the Brazilian consulate at 7AM to make sure we were first in line to get our visas for Brazil. Unfortunately, our Lonely Planet book FAILED us again on the visa front. We did not realize we needed pictures in order to get our visa, so we headed to a photo shop to quickly get our pictures taken and developed. After getting the pictures processed we headed back to the consulate to be informed that they did not take US dollars. At that point it was 9:30AM and we had to check out of our hotel by 10AM. Cale ran to our hotel to ask for an extension while Angelique ran from block to block trying to find a bank to exchange the exorbitant amount of money needed to get into Brazil (currently $135 US per person). After finally turning in all the proper paperwork, we were told to return by 1pm in order to pick up our processed visas. Unfortunately, money does not buy timeliness…by 2:45PM we finally had our visas and hoped aboard a local bus towards Brazil.

Once in Brazil we were just in time to catch a bus to Florianopolis, a town on the edge of a beautiful island. Although the bus passengers were smelly enough to make us gag (no joke), we arrived to the beautiful island ready to enjoy some beach time. Kathy was a bit tired of having to rely upon local buses, so she offered to rent a car for our time on the island. You should have seen our eyes. We were like, “that’s an option?!” Having only been on buses or a motor scooter over the past  5 months, you can imagine what a shock to the system it was to have the comfort and convenience of a car at our disposal. Needless to say, we are so thankful Kathy offered to rent a car because we have been able to travel around most of the island, visit a little beach and go rafting all on our schedule. It may seem silly that this is such a big deal, but it is a truly overwhelming concept now-a-days.

Speaking of rafting, we must dish…Brazil has an amazing river to raft and it is called the Cubatao River! We had never read  or heard about this river until we arrived in town, but WOW! We rafted class 3’s, 4’s and 5’s for about 4 hours with very little breaks in between. One of the breaks we did take was to visit a waterfall that is off the beaten track. It was super powerful and so much fun, even if it did give us a few bruises to take along with us. On the last class 5, called the “Bone Breaker”, our guide knocked Kathy out of the boat. Talk about a ride to remember. After one of the kayakers rescued Kathy, the entire crew began chanting, “Viva La Mama! Viva La Mama!” It was really funny and brought a much needed smile to the super bruised Mama. Once we find faster internet we will upload a video of Kathy’s ride for everyone to “oohhhhh” and “aahhhhh” over. For now, here are a few pics from the rafting trip…

Love you all,

A & C

And here is a note from our favorite guest columnist, The Continental:

Global Awareness 101

To borrow a phrase from my good friend Mick… “You can´t always get what you want.”

As we planned to leave the sweet village of Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay for Puerto Igauza, Argentina I learned that on my VACATION we would be catching the 5am bus. OK, I’m trying to be a trooper and go with the flow and all…but 5am. Are you serious?

We lugged our gear the 8 or so blocks down to the bus station in the dark of early morning and loaded up. In what seemes to me to be a “go with the flow”, chaotic world…I was shocked to watch as that bus ran like a fine oiled machine. We left with a few empty seats….then drove down the road a few miles where several people got on, and a few got off. At the next stop it happened again….a few got off and others on. All this happened on road sides…not in pretty bus terminals. Nope, right in the gravel! The whole thing reminded me of those pesky story problems in 6th grade math!

Three hours and eight stops later, we made it to Montevideo, only to find we would have to catch a bus to Salta, Uruguay to connect to a bus headed to Concordia, Argentina to finally board a bus destined for the Igauzu Falls.

In this scenario my job was to sit with the backpacks and suitcases while Cale and Angelique went from counter to counter finding the best deals. They came to check in from time to time, and share developing ideas. Once they figured out the final plan they came back with great big smiles! “We have good news, Mom! We are going to take a bus to Salta, then to Concordia and there we can connect directly to Igauzu!” Great news, yes, but….they just kept smiling…BIG smiles. You know, like people smile at crazy people hoping they won´t throw food! Then I found out the bad news…we would have a six hour layover in the bus station. All the while I´m thinking, “can´t there be a better way?”

Folks, in South America there is not a better way. This is how it´s done. After 34, that´s right, thirtyfour, hours of travel, which included sleeping in a bus terminal, paying to pee and wearing the same clothes for 2 days…..we arrived in beautiful Puerto Igauzu. What a ride!

So, to quote Mick again… “You can´t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you just might find…you get what you need.”

Ciao for now,
The Continental

Tango and the City (featuring Kathy’s Global Awareness 101)

Since before the New Year, we have been unable to upload our pictures, so we thought it would be fun to do a quick recap of the first few weeks of January via pictures before diving into a new blog…

We celebrated the New Year in Bariloche, Argentina with lots of scenic walks and chocolate

After the New Year we reveled in the massive water of the Futaleufu River

Our first two weeks in Buenos Aires consisted of city searching and a fun zoo detour

Once Kathy arrived January 18th, the fun immediately began. After dropping her bags off at the hotel we headed straight to the Antiques Fair that takes place every Sunday in downtown. The fair consists of various artisans, collectors and entertainers. One of our favorite entertainers was a sassy little old lady who takes various recyclables and makes her own form of “music” with them. When the crowd would get a big scars, she would turn to a high pitched “singing” that definitely kept the crowd entertained to say the least. After looking through over 6 long blocks worth of goods, we definitely worked up an appetite. We introduced Kathy to one of the cheapest meals in town, the torta, which consists of an amazing, flaky crust that covers the entire pie and is filled with any number of delights such as veggies, meats, cheeses and more. A huge piece of torta only cost $2 and was super filling. Pair that with a local wine (which run about $2/bottle) and you have yourself a nummy meal.

After having our fill of local delights, we all took a well deserved nap before starting to pamper for the evening show. We took Kathy to the oldest Tango club in Buenos Aires called Cafe Tortoni and were blown away by the amazing show which consisted of a running story line that brought about lots of singing by the narrator, some action scenes to allow for costume changes and AMAZING TANGO. Cale jokingly said he felt like he should not have watch the show with his mother since people were “practically having sex on stage.” Tango is such an intense dance and completely awakens your senses, so for those looking to spice up their relationship, we heartily recommend tango!

After sleeping in until 1PM the next day we traveled along some of the main streets in BA, relaxed at a local watering hole and stayed up until 3AM partying at the Irish Pub where they played super fun Beatles and Rolling Stones for the locals and tourists to dance the night away. The next morning we hopped upon a ferry to Colonia del Sacramento, Uruguay at 8AM, which was quite a stretch for our tired bodies. Once we arrived in Uruguay we immediately settled in at a quaint hostel and headed for the beach to get our tan on. Today we enjoyed a full day of exploration via motor scooters. It was so much fun that we each had smiles perminently plastered to our faces. As for tomorrow, we head for Montevideo to see if we can catch a bus to the Iguazu Falls in Argentina. Wish us luck as we head off for another 24 hour+ bus adventure!

Much Love,

A&C

And now for a reoccurring guest piece entitled

Global Awareness 101:

Every once in a while something happens that rocks your world. Not like your first love, first child or first gray hair……something more “global”.

Outside of a week in Tourist Town, Mexico last year, I have never been out of the country. Kinda scary considering I’m supposed to be planning my retirement years. But, with Cale and Angelique offering to share their Grand Adventure – I went for it!! Like a twentieth century girl I went online and purchased tickets, then spent the next few months organizing my life so I could be away for almost 3 weeks.

But, nothing prepared me for my first lesson in “Global Awareness 101″.

We were in a restaurant, in line to be seated for what was an amazing Tango show. The beautiful Argentenian woman taking our tickets asked me where I’m from. OK, think about it…..what would YOU say if you were asked? Yep, I said (thankfully without a coutry-girl twang), “I’m from America!”. Her response silenced me. She said…..”which one?”. You could have knocked me over with a feather. Which one…?

Folks, guess what…..I just got schooled. WE are not the only America. Recall, there is a Cananda, Central and South America? They consider themselves American’s too. It just blew my mind. We are the United States of America. America describes many places, and thankfully one of which is where I am from.

So that’s the lesson for today. If you ever get the chance to travel into Central or South America and someone asks you where you’re from…..the proper response is, “I’m from the U.S.!!” Oh, and one more thing…..we don’t speak American, we speak English (schooling #2).

Much love,
The Contenintal
(aka, Kathy)

The Futaleufu Rocked Our World!

Our fans are speaking and apparently we have not been writing enough. We have a very good excuse, so hear us out… we have been on buses for the past 5 days straight with NO INTERNET ACCESS and had very limited internet access for the whole week before that. How sad is that?!?

We departed Santiago super late the evening of December 29th (10:55PM to be exact) for the long bus rides to Bariloche, Argentina. We were super lucky as we had originally thought our bus departed at 11:55PM. Cale happened to double check our tickets around 10:15PM and quickly got us out the door after discovering our mistake (gosh darn those military time printouts… we can´t seem to convert properly for the life of us).

Once we arrived in Bariloche, we discovered an almost perfect replica of Oregon during the summer months. Beautiful greenery every which way plus nice warm weather. One day we walked about 10 miles round trip to enjoy a pebble beach overlooking the main lake next to Bariloche plus the surrounding mountains. It was absolutely breathtaking and the only downside was the sunburns we took with us. We also discovered that Bariloche is well known for their chocolate manufacturies. They take great pride in their chocolate and about the detail put into each creation. We also took great joy in eating loads of the chocolate there. Nummy!

For those who know us well, we tend to be fuddy-duds on New Years Eve so this year we tried super hard to switch it up a bit. We got dressed up (well, in the best clothes we brought backpacking) and set out to find a bottle of sparkling cider and sandwiches rather than staying in for the night as we usually do. We quickly found that all regular menus are thrown out for New Years Eve and a ¨specialty menu¨ is thrown in that ups the price of a meal from around 20 pesos per person to anywhere from 100 to 210 pesos per person. We were blown away at the expense difference. Luckily, we had a little bit of veggies left over from Santiago and we had found a bottle of sparkling pineapple cider that was DELISH, so we ended up spending the night in our hostel room enjoying our leftovers. One thing to note is that we did actually stay up till midnight before falling asleep…Booya!

After enjoying a week in Bariloche, we hopped on a 5 hour bus south to Esquel, Argentina where we were hoping to find a bus to Futaleufu, Chile. Unfortunately, buses only run to Futaleufu twice a week as it is a super tiny town, so we had to get creative. We found a few more folks making their way to Futa and we all hopped on a bus towards a town just across the boarder. We then shared a cab to the boarder itself, took care of our paperwork to cross into Chile, and hitched a ride with an Chilean woman and her friend visiting from Germany. It was a fun ride into Futa with the ladies and we immediately found a rafting company through one of the people we had met in Esquel. She was going to begin working for a company in Futa that owned a little log cabin next to the river and that ran rafting tours daily. We were beyond excited to finally have arrived at the #1 white water rafting river in the world.

The next afternoon we found ourselves hopping aboard a raft and flying through incredible rapids. We were amazed at the sheer amount of beautiful crystal blue and seafoam green water that was flowing. There was one section of the river that had two massive waves that we were aiming for. On the second wave, the raft reached the top of the wave and just hung there in limbo for a brief couple seconds as we surfed the top and were eventually thrown over to the other side. We have never experienced white water rafting like this before and we have decided that the Futaleufu river is our Absolute Favorite river to raft. We want to come back again some day to raft for a few days rather than just one section of the river.

After finishing our amazing rafting trip we immediately threw on some dry clothes and hopped on a bus back to Esquel. Our goal was to catch a bus that evening to Buenos Aires, but there were no buses leaving that evening, so we were lucky to find a fabulous little duplex with our own private kitchen and bathroom for a steal and slept like babies. The next morning we grabbed a few snacks and hopped on our bus for the 29 hour ride to Buenos Aires. What an experience that was. If you have never been on a bus for that long a period of time, you should definitely give it a try (but just once). We had interesting bus meals and lots of great cookies filled with dulce de leche (South America´s version of caramel that has gotten better as we headed further south). After finally arriving in Buenos Aires, we were exhausted but so excited to start prepairing for Kathy´s arrival. For those who do not know, we have the honor of showing Cale´s mom, Kathy, around for two whole weeks starting January 18th and boy do we have plans. hehe

For now, we will leave you with a funny Quote of the Week from an employee at the largest chocolate factory in Bariloche:

Cale: There are a lot of teenagers in town yelling chants, singing and clapping their hands throughout the day. Is that normal?

Employee: Yes, they just graduated from high school and are traveling before starting university. It is awesome…or is it awful…I get those words confused.

Cale: Well, awesome is good and awful is bad.

Employee: AWFUL! Definitely AWFUL!

Cale and Angelique: LOL

And for our Miscommunication of the Trip:

Homeless person: Money!

Cale: No gracias, I have plenty.

Homeless person looks at Cale with a confused expression. (Cale can further elaborate on this if it is needed… just ask)

Little Known Facts About Santiago

Hellloooo there…We hope your Christmas was absolutely amazing! We spent our day calling folks back home and went on a walk through Santiago, which was an absolute ghost town. It was a beautiful, sunny day filled with thoughts of thankfulness for our friends, family and most assuredly our Savior.

While out on our walk, we discussed the many nuances we have discovered while here in Santiago and decided we should share a few with you (hopefully this will “spice things up” a bit for those who were bored by our “sick” blogs.  LOL).

1) Mullets are back baby! That’s right, the redneck hair style bridges the age gap bringing young and old together in hair harmony. How sweet…

2) If the bra’s a’showin, the ho’s a’stylin! Once again, a fashion statement bridging the age gap. There are many different ways to accomplish this fashion statement, amongst which are -

A) Cutting a hole in the middle of the shirt-back or buying a shirt with the hole already cut out. How convenient!

B) Buying a mesh or completely see through shirt. In this case, it is super important to note that the fashion statement is not complete unless the bra is a completely different color from the shirt, hence, a black or red bra with a white shirt is way cool!

C) In the case of tank tops, pulling the back of the tank down dramatically in the back automatically shows the bra. This is a Quick and Easy option for those in a hurry.

3) The fanny pack’s a’talkin… And it aint sayin anything pretty. Strap it, sling it or just carry it like a purse…guys are making their statements with “the fanny.”

Yes Tyler Stewart, this means you are definitely making a worthwhile statement (at least in Chile).

4) PDA is at it’s prime! Watch out conservatives, cuz making out and more in the parks is A-OK. Everything from hard core make out sessions to sitting or laying on each other while making out is prevalent in public. And you thought we overdid the PDA…LOL!

5) There is no such thing as a muffin or bagel. There are large independent bakeries as well as bakeries within larger super markets yet there is not a muffin or bagel to be seen. You can find cakes, creme filled items and tons of sweet breads, but leave your dreams of a bagel with cream cheese behind.

In conclusion, the 80’s are back with a vengeance, those grossed out by kissing should stay home and American carb lovers beware. Hopefully these little known facts have enlightened you. We are off to Bariloche, Argentina Monday evening and plan to enjoy our New Year’s beneath the snow capped mountains and along side the beautiful lakes.

Observation of the Day: We saw a lady walking her dog in the park today. On this walk, the dog took a very large dump on the park lawn. The lady left the poo behind without a thought…a few steps later, she stepped in another dogs poo. We thought this was sweet justice and thought if more dog owners stepped in poo, maybe they would actually clean up after theirs. Booya!

Quotes of the Week:

#1

Cale give’s Tawny the following link -

http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc82/berky325/fail-minesweeper.jpg

Tawny: OMG! We loved minesweeper!

Cale: I still do. In fact, I have developed a passion for Spider Solitaire and Hearts.

Tawny: BOO! You and Grandma can have LAN parties.

#2

Cale: I am so freaking tired.

Jered: Why don’t you go drink a Jose Bull?

Cale: Racist!