December blog
We started December by finishing up with school. Kit and Lettie took their last exam on Friday, 1st December for lengua and the next day, before dawn, we left on our trip over the Andes. We drove to Iquique, spent some time on the beach and then drove to Antofagasta, where we left the camioneta and flew down to Santiago, back to Antofogasta and then flew up to Lima.
The holiday started with a little too much drama for all concerned, as Millie, half way up the first mountain, suddenly went completely blue, her face loosing all colour, and then started to vomit non-stop. We were prepared for altitude with oxygen aerosols, but they only gave a short reprieve to the situation and the cannister itself didn't last long and we only had 5. By the time we arrived at the border we were seriously worried and extremely grateful to find out that they had proper oxygen tanks there. After she had had two goes on them, we set forth again and were hugely relieved to find ourselves going down the mountain. We stopped for lunch in the very touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama, which was about halfway down, but Millie didn't actually properly recover until we were arrived at our hotel in Iquique and were actually at sea level.
The children were squished into one room, with Millie on a blow-up mattress on the floor, this did not matter to them at all as they had a television. An unimaginable luxury for our television deprived children, where they don't even have one in any room at home. That was their holiday highlight for all of them. We pretty much had Iquique all to ourselves as schools had not broken up, both the pool and the beach were empty, perfect. Whenever we go to Chile, I always greatly enjoy the avocados and this time the children loved having too, their panchos were brimmed with them.
We continued the avocado feast in Santiago. There we saw Hugo's Chilean family again, who we have got to know quite well over the years.
Where as we were old news in Santiago, it was the first time we had been to Lima and thus we were a novelty. Hugo's grandmother was born in Arequipa in the south of Peru, but nearly all of her brothers and sisters descendants who stayed in Peru, are in Lima. Considering she was one of seven (or eight, Hugo's not sure) there were relatively few of them there, but there were 30 or 40 new people to work out who on earth they were and how they were connected to each other.
They were hugely welcoming and we greatly enjoyed spending time with them. Monica very kindly chauffeured us around for two days taking us to the beach and an amazing museum. It was great to be taken to these wonderful places. We also managed to fit in a chocolate taller for the children, who enjoyed more the making of it, if not so much the eating of it as it was not quite milky and sweet enough for their tastes.
Our return flight to Antofagasta left at 12.30am and took an hour and a half, but due to the time difference arrived at 5.00am. When looking at these flights from the distance of September Hugo felt he'd be fine to drive the 16 hours back to Santiago, I was less confident and demanded we spent a night at the last stop before crossing the Chilean/Argentine border, San Pedro de Atacama. We were very thankful for this before we attempted the return trip as we knew that a night half way up the mountain would give Millie a chance to adapt to the height before we went to the top. After our flight Hugo and I were relieved because there was no way on earth that we could stay awake for more than an hour, let alone for a sixteen hour trip to Salta. We pulled over and found some shade under an abandoned adobe wall that may have been part of a house one and the family, as one, fell asleep.
We eventually made it to Calama and found a supermarket to do some last minute and, because of the tiredness, perhaps crazy Christmas shopping. Then we struggled onto San Pedro, which had been pedestrianised and tarted up since we were last there, and after unloading the truck at the wrong hotel, we found the right one. We were so exhausted we were all in bed by 7.30pm and slept through until 8.00am the next morning.
Our return over the Andes was thankfully less eventful and Millie only vomited two times and that was on the final zigzag down. As it was Christmas Eve there was no queue at the border at all and after have a cursory look in one suitcase, the customs officials waved us through. It was great to be back home. Our 12 hours sleep recovery was cancelled out by the 8 hour journey and we went to the Christmas Eve mass at the wrong time. By the time we got there 10 minutes late, rather than the 20 minutes early that we planned there was no parking 3 blocks away let alone any hope of a seat, which exhaustion demanded we find. We returned home, completed present wrapping and rightly assumed that the children would wake us up in time for 9.00 mass. We turned up 10 minutes early and were the first there, as everyone else had celebrated the previous night and been up all night celebrating too. Then it was on to organising Christmas lunch for 10 children and 6 adults.
To recount the whole Lima to Antofagasta to San Pedro to Salta to Christmas makes me feel exhausted. And now we just have the transition to England to organise...
We started December by finishing up with school. Kit and Lettie took their last exam on Friday, 1st December for lengua and the next day, before dawn, we left on our trip over the Andes. We drove to Iquique, spent some time on the beach and then drove to Antofagasta, where we left the camioneta and flew down to Santiago, back to Antofogasta and then flew up to Lima.
The holiday started with a little too much drama for all concerned, as Millie, half way up the first mountain, suddenly went completely blue, her face loosing all colour, and then started to vomit non-stop. We were prepared for altitude with oxygen aerosols, but they only gave a short reprieve to the situation and the cannister itself didn't last long and we only had 5. By the time we arrived at the border we were seriously worried and extremely grateful to find out that they had proper oxygen tanks there. After she had had two goes on them, we set forth again and were hugely relieved to find ourselves going down the mountain. We stopped for lunch in the very touristy town of San Pedro de Atacama, which was about halfway down, but Millie didn't actually properly recover until we were arrived at our hotel in Iquique and were actually at sea level.
The children were squished into one room, with Millie on a blow-up mattress on the floor, this did not matter to them at all as they had a television. An unimaginable luxury for our television deprived children, where they don't even have one in any room at home. That was their holiday highlight for all of them. We pretty much had Iquique all to ourselves as schools had not broken up, both the pool and the beach were empty, perfect. Whenever we go to Chile, I always greatly enjoy the avocados and this time the children loved having too, their panchos were brimmed with them.
We continued the avocado feast in Santiago. There we saw Hugo's Chilean family again, who we have got to know quite well over the years.
Where as we were old news in Santiago, it was the first time we had been to Lima and thus we were a novelty. Hugo's grandmother was born in Arequipa in the south of Peru, but nearly all of her brothers and sisters descendants who stayed in Peru, are in Lima. Considering she was one of seven (or eight, Hugo's not sure) there were relatively few of them there, but there were 30 or 40 new people to work out who on earth they were and how they were connected to each other.
They were hugely welcoming and we greatly enjoyed spending time with them. Monica very kindly chauffeured us around for two days taking us to the beach and an amazing museum. It was great to be taken to these wonderful places. We also managed to fit in a chocolate taller for the children, who enjoyed more the making of it, if not so much the eating of it as it was not quite milky and sweet enough for their tastes.
Our return flight to Antofagasta left at 12.30am and took an hour and a half, but due to the time difference arrived at 5.00am. When looking at these flights from the distance of September Hugo felt he'd be fine to drive the 16 hours back to Santiago, I was less confident and demanded we spent a night at the last stop before crossing the Chilean/Argentine border, San Pedro de Atacama. We were very thankful for this before we attempted the return trip as we knew that a night half way up the mountain would give Millie a chance to adapt to the height before we went to the top. After our flight Hugo and I were relieved because there was no way on earth that we could stay awake for more than an hour, let alone for a sixteen hour trip to Salta. We pulled over and found some shade under an abandoned adobe wall that may have been part of a house one and the family, as one, fell asleep.
We eventually made it to Calama and found a supermarket to do some last minute and, because of the tiredness, perhaps crazy Christmas shopping. Then we struggled onto San Pedro, which had been pedestrianised and tarted up since we were last there, and after unloading the truck at the wrong hotel, we found the right one. We were so exhausted we were all in bed by 7.30pm and slept through until 8.00am the next morning.
Our return over the Andes was thankfully less eventful and Millie only vomited two times and that was on the final zigzag down. As it was Christmas Eve there was no queue at the border at all and after have a cursory look in one suitcase, the customs officials waved us through. It was great to be back home. Our 12 hours sleep recovery was cancelled out by the 8 hour journey and we went to the Christmas Eve mass at the wrong time. By the time we got there 10 minutes late, rather than the 20 minutes early that we planned there was no parking 3 blocks away let alone any hope of a seat, which exhaustion demanded we find. We returned home, completed present wrapping and rightly assumed that the children would wake us up in time for 9.00 mass. We turned up 10 minutes early and were the first there, as everyone else had celebrated the previous night and been up all night celebrating too. Then it was on to organising Christmas lunch for 10 children and 6 adults.
To recount the whole Lima to Antofagasta to San Pedro to Salta to Christmas makes me feel exhausted. And now we just have the transition to England to organise...