the driest desert in the world next to the most dramatic coast in the world

On the way to Vina del Mar from Maitencillo (the condo)

Se we´ve been hitting up the big countryside with my mom for the past couple of weeks. We first arrived to Marbella where my mom has her condo and well, I can´t say anything other than we´ve been living in complete luxury here. The condo is beautiful and cozy (important for those cold, foggy mornings) with an amazing view of the beach. The condo sits up on the jagged rocks that butt up against the coast here. The overlook is probably 2 football fields worth of distance. This morning after drinking an espresso (or as they say here un express) I walked outside onto the porch to be submerged in a cloud slowly rolling over the rocks. I´m so glad we´ve been able to spend so much time here before the high season. I can imagine that the mystical and magical feeling this place has would completely disappear with the throngs of vacationers that come here for the summer. Now, in the spring, there is a feeling of remoteness which more than compensates for the cold sharp wind.

Here is the view to the beach from our back deck!

We were very excited to explore the houses of Ochoalcubo. A project that my uncle dreamed up consisting of 8 houses built by well known contemporary architects. The idea behind the project is to create these houses in a way that compliments the land and each other; not one obstructing the others view or privacy. It's quite beautiful and literally, as we sat in my uncle's living room (which is one of the houses of Ochoalcubo) we saw the same living room in a architect/design magazine! This is quite a different world for us, eh?

My uncle, Eduardo in his picturesque house

We were so happy to meet Jose, an employee of my uncle who is also a gardener. Hidden behind large green wooden walls on the other side of the Ochoalcubo site there lies a huge massive garden of vegetables. The next day Jose delivered huge bags of aselga (chard), spinach and so much more. Micah and I were drooling and are excited to return with our gardening clothes to help!

Jose

Micah so excited for fresh organic greens!

We left Marbella to visit the North (not the extreme north, just the north). My mom has a sculpture made out of copper stationed in the La Silla observatory, close to La Serena. We went on a tour of the observatory and learned about very scientifically advanced instruments known as VLT and ELT. That stands for ¨Very Large Telescope¨and... can you guess...? "Extremely Large Telescope¨. I kid you not. All 3 of us were giggling during the movie when they uncloaked the names of these high tech instruments. Silly. But of course, the most fantastic moment of the day was not seeing the huge telescopes or learning about astronomy or even looking out at the sandy Andes mountains from our peak in the middle of the desert. It was finally seeing the panels I've only heard about all my life. There are 4 panels and each one represents the original astronomers of this land: Incas, Mayans, Aztecs (x2), and a local indigenous group from the North called Diaguitas.

Unfortunately, our camera ran out of batteries and so we don't have any photos. But hopefully our words can paint the picture for you.

After being in La Serena, we went to Valle Elqui which is this beautiful valley in the middle of the desert (but it turns out that we have yet to really enter the desert. The desert that earns the title "the driest desert in the world"). We drank Pisco Sours, admired the green plots of grapevines growing on the sides of the Andes Mountains, watched the festive Procession of the Virgin Rosario and bought homemade tinctures.

And now we're back in Santiago at my cousin's house. Micah had her first day of spanish classes today and will take them for 2 weeks.

There's so much more to write but that'll have to be it for now. Stay tuned cuz we'll have the access and time to write (or as they say, "blog") these next 2 weeks.