We're home!!

We finally made it home this afternoon. What a trip back - an exciting ending to a great trip. Successes all the way around, Grandma Gina's surgery went well and she is recovering after the surgeons removed a 9" tumor from her stomach. We can't wait to go back with Micah, Tyler and Kayla to see Grandma Gina and the rest of the family again. . . maybe 2010?

Thanks everyone for taking the time to read our blog. We hope you enjoyed it because we had a lot of fun sharing the memories with you. Besitos y abrazos . . .Chao! (hugs and kisses. . .Bye!)

Don't tell me anything bad about Patron!

So with a few hours to kill, we're cruising the airport in Mexico City. I told Rod we should buy a bottle of Patron from here since we're in Mexico. So we go to the Duty Free store and there's a couple of workers greeting people, they immediately read my shirt out loud and made a comment saying they have better Tequila here. What??!! I pointed to my shirt and said, "This is Mexican."

According to the boys, they said Patron is from Las Vegas and it's an American tequila. They said Patron is really very good, but tequila from Mexico is better. Rod and I looked at each other, not knowing what to say - I know for me, I felt like a little kid who just found out there's no Santa (oops, sorry if there's any kids reading this who still believe in Santa - if so, cover your eyes!!)

The boys recommended a bottle that is similar in flavor and smoothness to Patron and at the same price so we decided to splurge and get a bottle to take home (anyone want to taste, come on over!). There was no Patron to be found in the store, so maybe it was true that it's American. Rod said he'd rather research himself before making any conclusion. Sure enough, I checked Wikipedia and it says that my Patron is manufactured in Mexico and imported to the United States exclusively by the Patron Spirits Company which is based in Las Vegas. (Thank god for the Internet.) So the boys were not exactly correct, but I'm still curious as to why they don't have Patron here.

Anywho - no me importa, Patron is still my favorite drink. You can't go wrong when you see how many smiles Patron has put on so many faces in Hawaii and in Chile!

Oh no! We're stuck in Mexico City!

Ok, this is pretty much our worst nightmare come true. Our return trip included a stop over in Mexico City which I didn't think very much of because our trip to Chile was very smooth, uneventful, the bags were checked from Honolulu all the way through Chile - we pretty much only had to worry about changing planes with our carry-ons.

Well the trip home turns out is not so smooth. When we checked in at the airport last night we kind of suspected we might have some issues. Our first flight is operated by AeroMexico and at check-in, we were told at the first stop in Mexico City, we needed to pick up our bags, go through customs and check-in again at the next airline, Mexican Airlines. I thought we'd be fine because our first layover was 4-hours in Mexico City; and I have never missed a flight in my life so this wasn't even on my radar.

Well, the first flight was diverted to Acapulco because the Mexico City airport was closed this morning (due to fog, we think). The Acapulco airport is a little rinky dink airport with about 5 gates - they made us go through Immigration there - which they made the rest of us wait while the Mexican citizens went through first (we had to stand in the line for "Foreing Citizens" - LOL!)

Once we got through, we sat at the gate again waiting to re-board our original flight and the announcement on the loudspeaker said they had no estimated departure time. So by the time we actually left and flew the final 45 minutes to Mexico City, we only had 45 minutes to get our bags, go through customs, re-check ourselves in at Mexican Airlines and get on the plane. So to make a long story short, we missed the connecting flight because we got stopped by the police once we got off the plane so they could search my bags (not Rod's, just mine) and again at Customs. I think the issue is because I'm wearing my "I love Patron" shirt so we probably look like a couple of trouble makers. Not to mention when Customs scanned our luggage and 3 of our 4 bags had a bunch of bottles in them, they said they were going to take half the alcohol we were carrying because we exceeded the limit. Luckily they didn't end up taking anything from us but the extra time we had to spend there really didn't help us any. Plus, I told Rod that they were full of @$^#* because with 2 passengers together, we did not exceed the limit. It was 2 kids playing 'cops' at Customs giving us a hard time because I think they wanted to keep the bottles for themselves.

Plus another thing I think jinxed us was because I carried an extra pair of underwear in my bag which I never do when I travel. But for some reason, before we left last night, I put one in my bag - won't ever do that again.

Anyhow, we seem to have caused a lot of attention in Mexico and are now waiting for another flight to LA which doesn't leave for 3 more hours. Out of LA, we can't get a flight until Friday morning - so instead of coming home tonight, we won't be home until tomorrow afternoon - arrrggh!!

La almuerza ultima en Chile

After saying our good-bye's to Grandma Gina at the hospital, Dad and Susie took us for our last lunch in Chile at Eladio Restaurant. The restaurant was full of people at mid-afternoon (which I always take as a good sign that the food must be really good).

(We have pictures of the food but wasn't able to download before we left. So until then, you'll have to use your imagination, but when we do post the pictures, your mouths will be watering for sure!)

Dad ordered carpaccio to start with - I hadn't tasted it before and am now definitely a fan. It's made of paper thin slices of beef, arranged on a platter topped with cheese and capers. The waiter brought it to the table to show then dressed it while we watched. The dressing is pretty much olive oil and lemon juice, the meat cooks just slightly in the citric acid and it's pretty awesome.

Rod had a steak and I had stewed short ribs, both were 'melt in your mouth' yummy. We had a fresh salad with greens, corn, avocado and tomato and a few rounds of pisco sour (again!)

Dad ordered a very light dessert, a creamy cake was so light and airy, even though you were completely stuffed from lunch, you just felt like there was plenty of room once you took the first bite of dessert.

During lunch, Dad and Susie shared a lot of family history with us - that's one thing that we have enjoyed the most throughout the entire trip; spending time around the table and getting to know all about people in the family and things everyone experienced. I think we're very lucky to have such a diverse group of people (and so much of them!) who are all different and special in every way and we're glad to be able to call them our family.

Dinner with the Family

Pato and Marcela took us to 'Ky,' a nice Thai restaurant last night. From the outside, you would never know this place was a restaurant. It's a residence converted into a restaurant - inside it's very beautifully decorated. You're totally surprised when you go in because the restaurant is in a pretty scary neighborhood - there's graffiti everywhere, it's dark and you definitely should not be out walking in the area at night. Tia Veronica, Paulina, Uri and Ravit also came along and made it a great evening.

The food was wonderful, I had Osso bucco with Israeli couscous and Rod had the Shrimp Risotto. We also ordered a refreshing salad with octopus and mango with a light orange citrus dressing. For dessert, we ordered a sampler of cute little mini desserts - creme brulee, fresh berries, manjar topped with meringue browned in the broiler, and two other desserts made with ice cream.

We cracked up because one of the desserts is called, "Maiquel Yacson." It's made with a scoop of a vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate sauce and caramel (just a little bit racist, don't you think?)

What a memorable evening, such a great night of good food and drinks and wonderful company! Gracias a todos!

Big Fruit and Veggies

There's big fruit and veggies here - not just big, but REALLY big. We took Tia Chela and Tia Lucia to the market to buy a few things and thought you might enjoy seeing how big the produce is!

The other day, Tia Luci gave us some corn to make for lunch - to get a perspective of the size of 1 cob, we held it up against a bottle of Corona (the circumference was wider than the bottle)!

El Estadio Nacional

El Estadio Nacional (The National Stadium) is right down the street from Grandma Gina's house. We stopped by yesterday and were able to go in and actually see the field. This is the biggest stadium in the country and the World Cup tournament has been hosted here in the past. Dad also played 2 games en El Estadio Nacional when he played for La Union Espanola; one was against the national team and the other against Colo-Colo.

The stadium is impressive, it can seat almost 80,000 people. The stadium has gotten really run down over the years and it's now being renovated. We talked to some of the folks who work at the stadium and they said the seating is being replaced to aluminum benches and the total maximum capacity will be reduced to about 67,000 (a requirement being imposed by FIFA to help crowd control). Part of the reason for changing the seating to benches is because the crowds have pulled out the individual seats that are in place today and thrown the seats on the field. Each section is enclosed by steel fencing with big spikes across the top of the fence. This is another method of controlling the crowd and trying to keep order. (At the La Catolica game we saw - it was a tiny stadium compared to El Estadio Nacional but there was still barbed wire atop the fence that separated the fans from the field.)

We looked at the view of the field from the press box and also saw the special seating area which is reserved for the Chilean President. I can imagine how incredible it would be to see a game played here.

Dinner with Paulina and Gato

Late Monday night, we had dinner with Cousin Paulina and her friend, Gato. We met Gato in December when he came to Hawaii for vacation, Paulina put him in touch with Susie and he stayed with them in Hawaii Kai. You may have seen pictures of us on Facebook with Gato, we introduced him to Patron in December and had a few really fun get-togethers while he was in Hawaii.

Gato took us to an excellent steak house, Don Carlo, in La Providencia. It's like Chile's version of Ruth's Chris but I'd say it was ten times better! There are various types of carne (meat) you can choose, grilled to perfection! I had the center cut ribeye and it may have been just about the best steak I've had in a restaurant. Rod ordered the prime rib and he thought it was excellent. For appetizers, we had fresh abalone and the cutest little baby empanadas that were so good.

We had another great time, Paulina is so beautiful and so kind. I'm glad we had the chance to get to know her and see Gato again . . .good times!

El Teleferico

Cousin Angelica, Tio Hugo and Tia Luci took us to El Tereferico on Monday night. This is a huge park where you can camp, bike, run - kind of like a national park, really big. You can also ride up the mountain on little cars suspended by a cable. It gives you the whole perspective of Santiago - which is a really big city. At the top of the mountain, there's a small catholic church which has a lot of historic paintings and carvings right in the stone walls of the buildings Angelica said the paintings were recently discovered and are now the public is allowed to see them but no one knows who the artist is. Hopefully the artist will be discovered soon.

It was really cold up there because we were so high but being able to look at the city from that perspective was definitely worth it!

Afterward, we stopped by a small neighborhood filled with little bars and cafes - the sidewalks were full of people having drinks and dinner. We were also treated to some street entertainment with two young boys performing a dance with their drums, they were pretty cool. The area is very artsy and there is an open air marketplace with restaurants and vendors selling Chilean arts and crafts. Tio Hugo said it was an old mansion that was converted into sort of like a mini-mall. We stopped off at Empanadastodos and tasted some fried empanada filled with seafood - so good!!

Feliz Cumpleanos Tio Hugo!

We celebrated Tio Hugo's birthday at his tiny, humble, little home down the street. There were lots of family there and we got a chance to meet more of my cousins. We finally got to see Cousin Alvaro who was only 13 years old when we last saw him when in Hawaii in 1992! He is now all grown up and a doctor specializing in Gynecology. Alvaro's speaks excellent English (Shown here Sheri). We had a blast and we were finally able to have the 6 siblings together for a picture before Abuelita Gina goes into the hospital. (Bottom row from left to right is Tia Lucia, Abuelita Gina, Tia Teresa, and Tia Chela. The handsome boys are Tio Carlos and Tio Hugo the birthday boy with smile). Once again we had great food, lots of wine, great company, and of course our Patron which my dad had to go back to Grandma Gina's apartment to get after we had forgotten it. We had been searching all over town for this bottle and couldn't find it anywhere and finally my mom brings a bottle from a Duty Free store somewhere along the way here and then we forget it for our last party. Everyone loves the Patron! We're so glad to be able to spread the joy of Patron around the world. Tia Veronica called the next day and told Susie she loved the Patron so much she was going to call the Duty Free store here in Chile to try and get some Patron - another fan!! Everyone had such a good time, the party didn't end until 3:00 am!

Shopping Day

Uri and the family picked us up after having a nice breakfast with Abuelita Gina. Dad went to the supermarket and bought us some of that really good "Mariscol" that Sheri and I had at the Ceviche Bar. It was just as good as the first time we had it.

We basically bounced around from mall to mall since they were relatively in the same general area. It was actually a good day to go to the malls because it was extremely hot. We started out at the Apumanque which was the first mall that was built here just over 20 years ago. It was an interesting mall with low ceilings and lots of very tiny shops. We bought a couple of things and then when to lunch at an Isreali eatery which was very good. We had our first taste of Falafal, which we did not know what made of garbanzo beans. Really good!

We dropped off the kids at Uri and Ravit's country club across the street so they could swim. This place was huge and it had everything including the kitchen sink! There was a full size soccer field, a small soccer field, 2 pools, playground, tennis courts, basketball courts, indoor soccer field, weight room, hair salon, and much more. It only costs $1,000/year to join! They also have organized sports through the country club, kind of similar to club soccer in Hawaii (without the drama, I think). The picture of the soccer field on the country club grounds shows the Andes Mountains in the back - what a view!

After leaving the kids there to swim we headed off to another mall which was very much like the malls in the US. This is same mall we went to with Abuelita Gina when we first got here where the food looks just like the pictures on the menu. After spending some time here we picked up the kids and went to a Sports Mall. This was different. Every store had something related to some sort of sport or outdoor activity. No Ann Taylor here :-) There weren't a lot of people here which I thought was surprising until I saw the prices. They had rock climbing, a crazy wave machine that kicked out a full barrel, and a cool thing where you climb into a ball and try and run on the water (it's the same hamster ball that they have at the UH soccer games at half time).

Passport update!

On Thursday night, we checked online and saw the confirmation that Rod's passport and Chilean ID card were ready. That's pretty amazing that they could issue the passport in just 2 days! So on Friday, we stopped by and picked up both - now Rod is able to come back home to Hawaii - what a relief (?)

Vamos a ver una partido del futbol!

Last night we went to see a professional soccer game. Although we couldn't go see my favorite Chilean team, Colo-Colo, we did go see my dad's team, La Catolica. I know of 3 main soccer teams here in Santiago and it seems like everyone is a fan of one of them. The fans here take this game really seriously. That might be the understatement of the year! For example, my 8 year old cousin, Tal (Uri's son) is a Colo-Colo fanatic. You can talk to him about professional soccer like he was an adult and when Colo-Colo sold three of their best players to other leagues, he was literally in tears, worried about how the team will survive the next season! I'm sure there were lots of adults here that reacted the same way and shared his feelings.

The La Catolica game wasn't the best soccer game I've ever seen but you can't help but cheer for them when a few thousand fans are singing, non-stop, the entire game. There was an entire section closed off by barbed wire fencing to contain the 'fanatics.' The songs seem to be orchestrated as they changed songs in unison and they even cursed the referee in unison. Imagine thousands of people all of a sudden calling the ref a "son of a $%#@" at the same time. (We tried to upload a short video in this post of the fans but Blogger couldn't handle it.) If you are a fan of the opposing team you either have to keep quiet or you have to buy your ticket in a different section. The opposing team's fan section is enclosed by barbed wire fence, separated by an empty section on both sides. One side borders the expensive seats (on the shady side of the stadium, costs 20,000 pesos - about $33) and the other side borders the cheap seats (in the sun - costs 8,000 pesos, about $13 - guess where we sat). On the side of the cheap seats there were two rows of police dressed in riot gear placed along the length of rows from top to bottom. Not sure if you can see it from the pictures but there were about 25 fans from the opposing team, Cobresal, at this game. Some were actually even wearing the team colors - I thought that took a lot of guts. La Catolica scored in the first half and it appeared the game would end with a 1-0 win for them. Unfortunately, La Catolica made a terrible defensive mistake and allowed Cobresal to tie the game with only about 10 minutes left to play. When Cobresal made the goal the entire stadium went silent except for the 25 or so Cobresal fans who went nuts. The whole team rushed over to their section to celebrate. It was kind of funny.

Sheri, of course, was expecting to have a beer at the game - but there's no way any alcohol can ever be served at these games. The fans are already super hyped up, adding alcohol into the mix would be major trouble. The only drink being served was soda.

It was good that Cobresal wasn't really a rival. If they were playing Colo-Colo, I hear things possibly wouldn't have been so civil.

Un viaje a la Pomaire

We took a trip to Pomaire on Saturday morning. Pomaire is a cute, very country little town where all the clay pots/dishes originated from and the prices can't be beat. Basically, there's a main road right in the middle of town where all the shops are and side streets were there are some residential areas. The whole place is kind of a throw back, it's hard to think that people still live in places that lack a lot of modern comforts.

We looked around a bit and then had to look for a place for lunch before Rod got crazy. If you know Rod, you are probably aware that once he is hungry, there's only a short window period of time to get food into him before things really go bad (for anyone close by). Uri took us to a small place down a back road, behind a small plaza (I was a little concerned that we would make a turn off the main road and disappear once we were out of sight from the rest of the crowd), but we decided to go to another place that Susie and Dad had been to before on the main road (whew!!). So we trekked back up the road and had lunch at La Naranja (The Orange). It was almost out of a movie, dirt floor, wooden tables and chairs, handmade paper flags streaming above, whole watermelons on the tables - and a live rooster walking around!

What a good choice for lunch, we had empanadas and pastel de choclo (corn pie) - which I have not liked for years, but after having it at La Naranja, I'm a fan. They made it a different way with chicken and only a few raisins. It was sweet and tasty. La Naranja is famous for their half-kilo empanadas (a little over 1 lb); they're HUGE! Rod did not want to share the giant empanada with me because he doesn't like sharing his food - which we found out Uri also has the same problem. (Anna and Larry - remember the french fry incident at McDonalds awhile back?) Surprisingly, Rod was willing to share a pastel de choclo with me and even offered me 'the good piece of chicken' because he said that's his way of showing how much he cares about me. So, wanting to return the sentiment, I only took half of the good piece and gave him the other half. Wasn't that nice? Maybe the way to world piece is to always offer everyone the 'good piece of chicken.'

After lunch, we looked around a bit more then headed back to town to watch a real professional futbol game - Dad's team, La Catolica.

Cambiar de la Guardia

On Saturday morning, we went Downtown to see the changing of the guard. Susie recalled years ago, she and Dad would take the kids Downtown every Saturday to see this, it was really a big deal. The changing of the guard happens every 2 days and begins with a parade that ends at the back of the Presidential Palace. There is some ceremony to exchanging the guards - once you enter, you stay in at the Palace for your 2 days of duty before the next group comes in to take over watch.

There were a couple of police with their police dogs, the dogs are so cute, they wear little bandanas around their necks that say "Los Cabineros de Chile" (Chilean Police)

It's hard to believe this is done so often, it seems like so much work. It was nice to see a memorable tradition like the changing of the guard.

La Plaza Nunoa a noche

We heard that La Plaza Nunoa (the park at the end of Grandma Gina's street) has a lot of activity on Friday nights - music, dancing, etc. so we decided to check it out. Uri, Ravit and the 3 Colo-Colinos (3 Colo-Colo fans) met us at Grandma Gina's and we walked over to the Plaza in the evening.

When we got there, we didn't find anything happening like what we were expecting. There cafe's/bars across the street that were full of people but no music or dancing in the park. It was kind of strange because the there were about 4 small restaurants lined up with outdoor seating. Everyone was packed outside in the narrow sidewalk but the restaurants were completely empty. When I say packed I mean I'm not sure how the waiters made it through the tables. Even thought the actual restaurants were empty they didn't allow kids inside because they were officially bars at the time we went. We decided to walk the 2 blocks back to grandma's house and jumped in the car to get something to eat so we ended up at a mall about 15 minutes from Grandma's house.

The mall is ultra modern with big open space, a stage for live music and dancing in the middle of a big food court of restaurants. The parking lot is also pretty cool. At the entrance, there's a digital sign that tells you (by floor) how many open parking spaces are available and above each parking stall, there's a light to indicate whether the stall is available or not. Red light = full, green light = open stall and blue light = handicapped stall. They can tell because of a small sensor that is located above the center of the stall. Really great technology.

We ended up at a local restaurant, Tip y Tap - and had steaks and fries. Nothing terribly exciting as far as the food goes but we had a great time with Uri's family. After dinner, we had a little dessert at Bravissima Gelateria before going home to rest up for tomorrow.

The next day, we told Dad there wasn't anything happening at the Plaza the night before. Dad asked if we went across the street from the Plaza and behind the church because that's where the action is. We said, no because everybody said it's at the Plaza. So much for getting the right 'scoop' beforehand!