Chile!

Oh - Chile - the country that is shaped for its namesake...... Both Jimmy and I were wondering which came first? The country's name, or the name of the Chile Pepper???

After a quick wiki-search...it seems that the name of the country came first- my favorite theory is the one in where Chile is named after the mispronunciation of some Pichunche tribal chief, actually named TILI! haha. Those Incans do tend to mumble their words, I guess...

I went with the new in-laws, Jim and Ursula, Jimmy, and sister Cindy. We flew into Santiago and went straight to the coast - to Zapallar - a little ritzy old fishing town! Where the Chilean aristocrats go to unwind....

A little amateur footage of our lunch view.. I think this place is the combination of the beautiful evergreens from the Washington, Oregon, and California coast, combined with the tropical feeling of a typical resort!

We ate at this wonderful little seafood restaurant both nights we were there, and had a very patient waiter (and his brother) both nights to entertain us and try to interpret our Spanglish.

Somehow a little bit was lost in the translation the first night, and I ended up ordering, and then eating....eel. I thought I was eating sea bass or something...it was a bit chewier than expected... and I pawned the last half of the meal on Jimmy for a "swap" for his delicious white fish... Well - live and learn! It was beautiful and we got to see the quieter parts of the country that were different from that in Santiago.

Here also is a nice view of our hotel, and the little statue of a regal man to the left of the entrance (look hard)!

I was attacked by mosquitoes the first night when we naively left the window open for the fresh air...needless to say my hand was swollen so badly that I thought I had compartment syndrome and might need Jimmy to perform a fasciotomy! Whew thank goodness. (This picture is not even at the height of it- no knuckles!)

We left after three days and went to the Ritz Carleton in Santiago! Santiago is a beautiful, clean city in the foothills of the Andes Mountains! Gassy, my troll, had a great time with the all-day supply of wine and hors d'oeuvres at the executive suite! We probably ate and drank our weight that week.

Awesome trip to the Andes Mountains -horseback riding, (Gassy came along here too!).

We not only got the great view, but back down by the Maipo river we ate some delicious Chilean traditional food (I forgot the name - but has cornmeal, beef AND chicken, raisins, olives...very interesting).

Another trip was to a great vineyard in the heart of the city!