Life in Chile

I’ve been going about daily life here in Chile, posting every so often over here without giving you a proper introduction to our new town and life. So let me back up a bit.

We arrived in Chile a little over a month ago and have been settled into our new town of Villarrica for about four weeks. Villarrica is a mid-sized town in the center of southern Chile. As I mentioned in my last post, Villarrica sits on a beautiful lake flanked by mountains and volcanos. On the other side of the lake is Pucón, Villarrica’s more tourist-friendly neighbor. The area is known for its access to nature and outdoor adventures (hiking, canoeing, hot springs, rafting, skiing, and so much more), which we are steadily working on checking off our list.

We have made our home in Villarrica in a quaint wooden cabin, just two blocks from the lake (and less than two blocks from my school). We are learning so many new things through our adventures in cabin life, like how to keep a fire going all day (and all night), and what to do when you run out of propane in the middle of cooking dinner on your gas stove. Reminds me of some of the fond memories we have figuring out life in Finland. One of the best things about our cabin is that we have a view of the Villarrica Volcano from our porch. Every day on my way to work I get to glance over at the ever-changing peak - sometimes clear and calm, while at other times surrounded by smoke or looming clouds. That incredible sight never gets old. Another thing that I love about where we are living is that we walk to everything - the supermarket, the laundry, our favorite pizza place, the lake, and my school. It’s just one of those small joys that makes the everyday a little bit more pleasantly simple.

On top of this just being a wonderful little town, everyone has also been so welcoming and kind to us. People seem to go out of their way to help the gringos figure out how to do things around here. Especially our adoptive Chilean padres who make sure that we get our filling of asado every weekend and keep us stocked up on fire wood so we don’t freeze our buns off. They've made sure that we know what a real pisco sour tastes like and how to make the simply delicious staple, Chilean salad. They even threw Scott a birthday party complete with fresh ceviche and Chilean wine just a few days after we arrived! They've played a huge role in the amazing experience we’ve had so far.

It’s hard to believe that we’re already a month into this because in a lot of ways I feel like we're just getting started. There's so much to do, so much to see and time seems to be racing past us - I wish I could hit the slowmo button and stretch out the time we have left, just a little bit.