Hola!! My Spanish is terrible- I keep lapsing into French, which I know about as well as Sierra knows Spanish. I think of something astute to say, then realize that it's French, not Spanish. So I just smile, and ask Sierra to say what I was thinking. You all know how much I like casual conversation with strangers, (gee, I wonder where I get that from?...) so it's weird being primarily silent in public!!
Well a lot has happened since the last time I posted here. We caught an overnight bus to the Peru - Chile border, and made it across with no problem. The busses here are amazing. It is just like business class on an airplane. This is how everyone here travels, and a bus station in a large centre is much like Calgary airport. There are about 30 different bus lines, with 5 or 6 major lines. They serve you meals (bad airline food at best, or a bag of crackers, the ever-present cookie, and a juice box at the worst) and give you a blanket and pillow at bed time. The seats fold almost flat on the most expensive busses, which are only marginally more expensive, and sooooo worth it if you are planning on sleeping at all. Sierra and I are both sleeping great on the bus. I was sleeping so soundly that we had a middle of the night baggage check- (for fruit!??!) and the stewardess guy(?) woke me up, and told me we "have to get off the bus". I thought it was some sort of weird dream- I had no idea I was even ON a bus! I must have looked at him pretty funny, because he was laughing by the time I figured out what the heck was going on! The northern end of Chile is a very desolate place. Hundreds and hundreds of km of sand with not a single living thing. No plants at all. For much of the first day it was absolutely flat too. Then there would be some water somewhere, and a green patch would appear with flowers and trees and crops sometimes. As we traveled, it got more mountainous in a way that resembled pictures I've seen of Israel. I just kept thinking about all the biblical references to streams in the desert and how God in heaven chose to come to a place much like this and life a life on earth, but certainly not the easiest place on earth to live - purely out of His deep love for the people. The thought of 40 days and 40 nights in this place alone has a new meaning. As we travelled through, the people we saw had a different demeanor- you could tell that life here was hard. We got off the first bus at the Peru border, and started looking for the next bus in line on the Chile side of the border. There was one bus leaving in 5 minutes, or we would have to wait till the next day. This happened the next time too, so we ran from bus to bus with only minutes to spare. We made good time, and I enjoyed the ride and the rest. But we only had a few Chilean Pesos that we got as change from one of the bus tickets that we paid American cash for. There were ATMs at the stations, so we figured it was fine. Nope. None of them recognized our cards, so we were out of money by the time we reached Santiago. We were getting hungry, and a little worried by then. Our bus supper that night was overcooked rice with 2 no name type chicken nuggets. Then that was microwaved and served to us, so the rice was hard and dry, and the nuggets were mushy, but we ate every last morsel of that dry rice!!! Hahaha!! We laughed about that alot. About how fussy we are at home, and on that bus ride we were excited to get a package of crackers and a juice box. Good thing we brought some snacks- granola bars, nuts, etc. that helped tremendously. Finally in Santiago we had to go to the main branch of the Banco de Chile and get an international teller to do a cash advance on our Visa cards. This bank looked like our Parliment building!! I've never seen anything like it! Boy were we ever happy to have some cash!!