Wednesday, Dec. 9th

Long day!  It is not 1 AM and I just finished doing the pictures for today.  It gets harder and harder with three cameras snapping every day.  After very ruthless deleting there are still 74 pictures from today!!  Obviously you didn't get them all.  We left Tia Peddie relaxing with Joan while Patrick took the five us, plus his son Christopher off on a jaunt.  Hopefully the pictures and captions will tell the story because I am running out of steam.  We are all overwhelmed with the kindness and immediate friendship we have found with all the Clemo family.  Tia Peddie is definitely the "cement" that kept us connected over the years to Joan and her family,  but all generations have embraced us and welcomed us like long lost cousins.   Tomorrow we are driving to Temuco where Jackie, Joan's youngest daughter lives and runs a bake shop.  Obviously we will be eating well AGAIN!  I don't know if we will have internet as we will be spending the night at Patrick and Rose's farm, so Hasta la vista for now.  The Blisses

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~~~_/)~~~D&M

The first stop on our adventures today was at 691 Pedro de Valdivia, the Bliss house in 1955.

The second stop was an open air market where Christopher (center picture) needed to pick up fresh fruit for his "smoothie" cart. He takes the cart to the beach area at Lenga, near Talchauano on weekends. We went there to see the area and have lunch.

Third stop was the fishing pier where we saw lots of fish and shellfish most of which we could not identify!! Some that we could, we were surprised to see considered as food. Barnacle anyone?? (they were HUGE). Jay bought some "loco" which is related to abalone, but we learned that "loco" is carnivorous while abalone eats seaweed! We watched two sea lions cruising for handouts near the dock.

We also drove by "CAP", the steel mill that Grandpa John helped start up 60 years ago. It is still going strong.

When Tia Peddie first arrived at Joan Clemo's house she was met by Maureen, Joan's daughter. Tia Peddie exclaimed, "Why Joan, you haven't changed a bit!" It's easy to see how she had become confused, Maureen is the spitting image of her mother!

Dinner the first night (and tonight also) was hosted by Patrick and Rose with help from their son, David and his girlfriend Melanie.

The day ended with another dinner at Patrick's, with everyone contributing something. This time Patrick and Rose's youngest, Pauline and her boyfriend Willy (along with Christopher) represented the younger generation. Pauline had brought back fresh salmon she caught yesterday from the lake district which they served as carpaccio - "cooked" in lemon juice with capers and parmesan cheese. Quite amazing.

Martes, 8 decembre Talca a Concepcion

Hola!  We made it.  

    We had a very pleasant breakfast at our hotel and while loading the van kept hearing cattle lowing in the distance and noise that suggested a cattle drive or something.  We decided to take a walk and investigate.  Down the street  we found a livestock auction arena just revving up for a day of selling.  There were 30 or 40 pens that had raised walkways all around them so prospective buyers could investigate the stock.  We took seats in the stands and watched as the preparations were made.  Luckily they started with the horses, because we had much more interest in them.  We resisted bidding on a mare/foal duo and one or two other good looking horses! Around quarter of 11, we realized we had better get going if we were going to arrive in Concepcion by early afternoon.  

    The drive from Talca was an easy one and although we saw several carabineros set up for traffic stops, we were spared today.  Patrick Clemo, who has been keeping in touch with Grandma (who is now going to be referred to as Tia Peddie-as that is her name here in the Clemo family) over the years through e-mail, told us to call him when we were south of the town of Chillan where there is a new turnoff for Concepcion so that he could come and meet us to lead us into town.   It was a good thing because Nuvi seems to have gotten confused the farther south we go and, although our little blue arrow was always on the street that it said we were on, it couldn't seem to find the way to Patrick's house!   Patrick rode with us while Jay and Pegg rode into town with Patrick's son David and his girlfriend, Melanie.  We learned from Patrick that Melanie was very interested to hear about the 1976 hosting of the Esmeralda crew by the Robinson family, because her grandfather was the captain of the Esmeralda at that time!!  We had a long talk about it with her at dinner.

    The Clemo family very graciously offered to house all six of us during our stay in Concepcion, so Barb and Tia Peddie are staying with Patrick's mother, Joan.  Pegg and Jay are staying with Patrick and his wife Rose, and Dan and Martha are staying with Patrick's sister Beverly and her husband Antonio.  We all settled into our respective homes and then met at Patrick and Rose's for a BBQ.  Lots of great pictures were taken there, but not by us, as we had misplaced the camera and forgot to collect everyone else's camera before splitting up to go back "home" to bed!   More pictures tomorrow.  Buenas noches,  The Blissful Blisses
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~~~_/)~~~D&M

After breakfast at the hotel, Dan, Martha, Jay and Pegg walked down the Avenida San Miguel toward Talca to find the source of a lot of cattle lowing and found a livestock auction arena. We climbed into the stand and watched while the horses and cattle were herded into different pens in preparations for the auction. We enjoyed watching the subtle bidding action for about half an hour.

Get out the tissues again. Grandma could barely contain herself when we saw the first sign showing that Concepcion was only 136 km away!

As we left Ruta 5 just south of Chillan and headed toward the ocean (and Concepcion) we went over the coastal range where much of the land is taken up by stands of very regimented plantings of both pine and eucalyptus trees. We understood why when we came upon a tremendous paper mill.

This is the incredible view from Dan and Martha's room (at Beverly and Antonio's house) high above the city of Concepcion and the BioBio River. We'll get a daytime shot tomorrow.

Monday, Dec 7th, Santiago to Talca

     We are on our way south.  We waited until after a leisurely breakfast at the hotel to leave on our journey.  The traffic proved to be very light as tomorrow is a big holiday, so, many people had Monday off too.  Nuvi did an admirable job of getting us out of the city and we started off down Ruta 5, for the town of Talca. We stopped at a service station once we were out of the city for diesel and were amazed how much like a WaWa or a Sheetz it was.  All sorts of foods and services.  Jay took over the driving from Dan and we headed off with the Andes to our left (looking much clearer away from the smog of Santiago) and the coastal range on the right.  All seemed fine until we were signaled by a carbinero (the police) to pull over!  Jay handed over his international license and his passport and had the carbineros quite confused as to how to handle his paperwork. The rest of us all had great fun teasing Jay about how we would be bailing him out.  It seems it was just a routine traffic check so we were on our way after about 10 minutes.

     We decided to try Nuvi's talent at finding a restaurant with very little success.  I don't think it was Nuvi's fault, there just weren't that many places to eat, so Dan checked the FODOR's we had brought along and we decided to try the Miguel Torres Winery and Restaurant after reading a very good write-up.  Up till now we had been very unhappy with Fodor's, but decided it paid for itself for finding Micguel Torres for us.  We thought the food in Santiago was good - - -GUAU this place was terrific.  The setting, in the middle of a vineyard was great and the food plus presentation amazing!  We ended the meal with coffee on the veranda surrounded by thousands of grape vines.

     We arrived in Talca at 4:00 and found the Villa del Tillicana easily.  It's VERY different from the Holiday Inn Express.  The boys call it "a bit of the viejo (old) Chile."  - - -but here I am using their Wifi, so who's to complain.  Dan warned me not to take a shower unless I didn't mind the water turning cold before I was done.  We did have a lovely time out behind the Inn sipping wine sitting in their gardens by the not yet ready swimming pool.  We drove back into town for dinner at the Casino Hotel which proved to be just as fancy as lunch!  Amazing presentations of all the dishes and very reasonable.  We resisted the casino and headed back to our rustic rooms.  Buenos noches, D,M,J,P,B & Grandma Peddie

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~~~_/)~~~D&M

As we were packing this morning we realized we were looking out our window at the American Embassy (upper right-Barb says the moat is to ward off terrorists-ha ha). Our other window looked at the tallest building in Chile (left). The lower right shows the building that will be the tallest in all of S.A. when it is finished.

Some caballeros riding along a service road, we thought they might be on a pilgramage to a special church for tomorrow's Dia del Concepcion Immaculata.

We crossed the River Claro on our way by Curico. Most of the rivers we have crossed look like this - - very wide with very little water and certainly not navigable.

Luckily Jay's charm and great command of Spanish kept him safe from the carbineros. This was just a routine traffic check, and he (we) passed!

Pegg kept talking about the "Mauricio ten" referring to the 10 lbs. we put on eating all the great food while in his care, but we can't blame it on him anymore! Our lunch stop today proved to be most elegant. Each entree was "partnered" with one of the wines produced at the vineyard and all were excellent. Dan's seafood platter, including oyster shooters (in the small goblets) was the most dramatic and he says the best.

Very pleasant cocktail hour (or was it two?) enjoyed out by the pool (not yet operational) at our stop in Talca, just a mile off Route 5 on San Miguel Av. in Talca.

Barb joins us for Day 3 in Santiago.

     Dan and Jay were up and out by 6 AM to meet sister Barb at the airport.  Her flight from LAX included a stopover in Lima, Peru, so she was ready for a nap when they got back to the hotel at 7:45.  We  had a relaxing morning in the hotel and picked up Mauricio at 11 AM for a quick trip to "the MALL".  As Mauricio  says, "GUAU" - - translation WOW!  It was the biggest mall we'd ever seen.  Three levels and every standard mall store we know, like GAP, Esprit, Timberland etc, and thousands more.  We were in search of a SIM card for our "unlocked" Bahamian cell phone to use while we are here.  It took visits to several different kiosks before we succeeded, but succeed we did, we are now "connected"   We also wanted a small step to help get Grandma up in the van.   We solved that problem with a small cooler, that can serve dual functions!  Dan, Mauricio and I were together and were running late to make the rendezvous with the others, so I decided to head back ahead of Dan and Mauricio to meet up with the rest.  Well, long story short I got lost!  Ah but now I had a cell phone,  BUT Mauricio was in a dead zone.  Small panic, but eventually we connected.
     We dropped Mauricio at home after the mall and drove up Cerro San Cristobal, a famous mountain park in the middle of the city.  We enjoyed a light lunch on the veranda of a very nice restaurant with a wonderful view of the whole city, with the Andes as a backdrop.  All but Grandma hiked to the top observation spot for an even better view.  We then headed back to the hotel to regroup and get ready for supper with Mauricio's family.  It's hard not to keep using superlatives to describe the enjoyment of  getting to know his whole family.  A great evening!   Buenos noches, D,M,J,P,B and Grandma P
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~~~_/)~~~D&M

We revisited The Grange School here in Santiago where Jay attended boarding school in the 1950's.

After lunch near the top of San Cristobal, all but Grandma Peddie climbed to the spot of their last visit there in 1955.

Another great meal to end another great day. Mauricio took us to a restaurant at the base of San Cristobal that specializes in Chilean food. Hard to tell which was better, the food or the company. Mauricio and Carolina's three children are amazingly well behaved and didn't quale at the two and a half hour dinner! They did play outside the restaurant some of the time.

Saturday, Day 2 in Santiago.

Hola! We were too tired last night to prepare a post, so it is all coming today. Our flight from Miami was really great (for an eight hour flight!) two meals, all sorts of electronic entertainment available, and some sleep. Mauricio Rojas (who was our exchange student in 1991-1992) met us at the airport helped get our van rented and took us to his mother's house for breakfast and lunch and the chance to shower and relax until we could check in at three. His parents, Isabell and Gorge, have a beautiful apartment with a wonderful view and Isabell had prepared two feasts for us! We got checked in and had only an hour to rest before driving to Mauricio's house for dinner.
We (with the help of Sam) had loaded maps of Chile on our Garmin Nuvi and were amazed how well they worked as we drove to the hotel. When we left for Mauricio's house we headed off blithely expecting to have no trouble, but the tall building in Santiago made it very hard for the Nuvi to find satellites! All of a sudden we were lost in Santiago without even knowing the actual address of his house! We muddled along for a while with Dan assuring us that he thought he knew the way. Finally we emerged onto a wide avenue and found signal - - - and Dan had been on the right track, we were only a few blocks away! Mauricio, his wife Carolina, their three children, Catalina, Tomas and Diego, Mauricio's parents and his brother and wife were there to share another wonderful meal and friendship with us. We all slept well when we got back to our Holiday Inn Express at 10pm.

Today Mauricio and family took us to Valparaiso to see the "most important port on the Pacific coast." What a city, streets (many cobble stone) that rival San Francisco for their inclination! Most of them were also very narrow, making it a challenge with our big van. We drove through the city and saw the open market, Congress building and many other magnificent buildings, then headed to the waterfront for a wonderful lunch. Mauricio had arranged a special table for all of us and ordered samples of all the seafood specialties of Chile, including abalone, clams, octopus and scallops for appetizers. All were delicious. We shopped the open air markets after lunch and then drove to Quintay, further south down the coast where Carolina's parents have a condo in a golf community right on the ocean. Again we were welcomed with open arms and given refreshments before our return to Santiago. We got back to the hotel at 8:30 pm and grabbed a pizza at a local shop to eat in our room.

Before we left home, we had a few worries about taking Grandma Peddie (aged 91) on such a possibly arduous adventure, but we had not thought about the emotional toll it would take. Physially she is holding up beautifully and her Spanish is coming back rapidly, but the tears!!! She is so full of joy and memories of, as she says "the best years of my life." - - - and we haven't even gotten to Concepcion where the Bliss family lived for seven years back in 1948-1955 yet! Buenos noches, D,M,J,P&Grandma P

~~~_/)~~~D&M
Jay and Pegg had to jog the length of MIA to make the plane, but they made it in time for the overnight flight to Santiago.

Grandma started the fight playing Free Cell, but ended up dozing, as did we all.

We're a little wrinkled and tired but very happy to see Mauricio, our exchange student from 1992 who met us at the airport.

Mauricio's mom Isabell served us a sumptuous breakfast and let us relax until our hotel would let us check in at 3 PM.

Saturday morning we all piled into our 14 passenger Hyundai diesel van for a trip to Valpariso.

We sampled some of the famous wine from this vineyard during our lunch in Valparaiso.

We arrived in Valparaiso in time for lunch at a famous restaurant with an astounding view of the whole harbor and an incredibly delicious menu. We had a special table for the 12 of us. The 5 Blisses, Mauricio's parents and Mauricio's 5.

The view of the harbor included the tall ship Esmeralda on the Navy pier. Martha remembers well hosting the crew of Esmeralda in New Jersey during OPSAIL 1976.

Off to Chile

Hola! We are off on a new adventure. Dan, Martha, Jay, Pegg and Dan & Jay's Mom (Grandma Peddie) are off to Chile for a trip down memory lane. We will be joined by Dan and Jay's sister Barb for part of the trip. Wish us luck!!
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~~~_/)~~~D&M

That's rain, not snow coming down. We leave tomorrow morning for Santiago, Chile where the temperature is 78 and sunny!

No, this isn't Brunelle, it's a small sailboat on our deck here at
Lake PaHaGaCo. It is our one bit of holiday decorating this year as we are off to Chile for the next three weeks! If you want to follow along, just check our progress out on our blog. We are lucky to have Sam willing to keep it updated for us. ADIOS AMIGOS! D&M