Exploring Santiago & Surrounds

May 6, 2025

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow Travelers,

We’ve made it to South America, our 6^th and final continent of the trip. We’ve spent the last week and a half in Santiago, an extended stay planned to allow for sufficient time to fully recover from the 14-hour time difference between here and Sydney.

Sara’s Thoughts and Recap

After 10 months of travel, one perk is that eventually one acquires enough airline points to do something wild, like upgrade you and your sons to business class for the longest flight of the trip. (Justin and Calla were in Premium Economy.) Because our flight took off at 11:30am, we effectively landed in Santiago at the equivalent of midnight Australia time, though it was only 10am here. I tried really hard to convince the boys to sleep on the plane, but admittedly, this was a hard sell at 3pm. I somehow managed to eke out 2 hours of sleep, plus the remaining four episodes of the English Teacher that I’d not watched on our flight from Hong Kong to Christchurch, and finished the final 3/5’s of my novel, “A Gorgeous Excitement.” We’ve never traveled long haul in lie flat seats before, and despite not being able to get much sleep, this made the flight not just tolerable, but enjoyable. We were able to rest even when we weren’t sleeping, and the flight attendants kept us well fed. I fear I may be spoiled for all future travel.

At the same time, I don’t think I’ve ever been this jet lagged in my life. We were so thrilled that our apartment hotel allowed us an early check in, and we immediately conked out for several hours. We made ourselves get out of bed in time for the boys – who both contracted Calla’s cough - to meet with a local doctor. Then we ordered Uber Eats delivery, ate, and promptly tried to go back to sleep. On our first night in Santiago, I was up off and on all evening, slept in, attempted to get up, and then still couldn’t manage to rally myself before 2:30pm. In all, it was 48 entire hours between arriving at our apartment in Las Condes and leaving our apartment. Sleep was still a struggle for several days, with multiple middle of the night wake ups and/or or challenges falling asleep. I’m relieved this is out last big time change of the trip; we are currently on Eastern Standard Time, just 3 hours ahead of Seattle.

Almost every day for the last year I’ve told myself, “You need to brush up on your Spanish.” And almost every day for the last year, I have not. By the end of high school, I could speak and understand Spanish conversationally, but with so few opportunities to practice, this skill set has fallen off. While we’ve appreciated the widespread use of English while traveling, it is disheartening that Americans tend to not learn second languages in school until they are in their teens, which we know is a less ideal time for language acquisition than in earlier childhood. Through our days in Santiago, I’ve noticed retention of more of my receptive language than expressive language; I can often more or less understand the gist of what people are saying, but I struggle to produce the correct words when needed. I’m hoping that two more months here will allow for more of this to return to me, and while awkward and halting, I am trying to practice using Spanish more and more each day.

So…. Our time in Santiago has, hands down, exceeded my expectations. This is in no small part due to the hospitality of my DBT colleague and new friend, Jael Camhi, and her husband, Mattias, who went above and beyond to ensure my family had the absolute best time here. To be honest, we initially decided to begin our trip in Santiago for purely practical reasons; it is the only city in South America with a direct flight from Sydney. That said, once I got to researching Santiago and the surrounding areas, I discovered there was so much more to do than I’d thought, including world class wine regions, hiking, and quirky city vibes. We sampled them all. Incidentally, I am noticing feeling self-conscious about how many times I mention things like "cocktails” and “wine tours” in this newsletter. Please know that the last week was quite an anomaly for me!

Visits with Friends

On my first day as a semi-alert human, we were invited to Jael and Mattias’ house. Calla and I left early for our “very Chilean lunch,” as Jael described it. (Justin and the boys – still half asleep – joined later in the afternoon.) When we arrived, we discovered a full lamb spit roasting in the backyard for the occasion. Calla was thrilled to be in a house full of toys, and happily occupied herself for the rest of the afternoon, getting into just a bit of a sticky situation when she stumbled upon 5-year-old Isidora’s kid makeup. (See Calla’s Corner for her take.)

Jael gathered together several friends, many of whom were fellow DBT colleagues or other psychologists. I marveled at how quickly she put the gathering together, noting that if I wanted to have 15 friends come to lunch on a Sunday afternoon, I’d need to send an Evite out at least a month in advance. While the boys got off to a bit of a slow, sleepy start, Jonah was soon chowing down on lamb and chatting with the adults. We immediately felt so comfortable and at ease; I even discovered that one of Jael’s friends briefly lived nearby to me when I was in high school! It was a perfect way to start out trip here. Of course, delicious food and wine helped, too.

Several evenings later, Jael and Vicente, another fabulous DBT friend, took me out for drinks and sushi. I don’t know where the time went, but somehow we spent four hours eating, drinking, and chatting about everything DBT (and not). The following night, Jael, Mattias, and their children met us for dinner at Restaurant Peumayén, which serves traditional Chilean food. Again, somehow the time flew by with good food, drinks, and conversation, and we all had a lovely evening.

Day Trip to the Casablanca Valley

Prior to researching our trip here, I had not realized that Chile is known for incredible wine, particularly in the Central Valley. There are four primary wine regions surrounding Santiago: Casablanca Valley, Maipo Valley, Cachapoal Valley, and Colchagua Valley. We planned to visit the first two. In the Casablanca Valley, climates are cooler, and thus the region is well known for its white varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay. In Maipo, the climate is more hospitable to red varieties such as Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon.

Our first full day wine tour was to the Casablanca Valley. Our guide, Juan, picked us up at 9:15am from our apartment in Santiago. The plan was to visit three different wineries, two larger vineyards (Veramonte and Casas del Bosque) and one smaller, family-owned winery (Attilio & Mochi). During our first stop, the winery set up a mini tasting for the kids, at a table adorned with chocolate muffins (“with chocolate chips and chocolate swirls!” cried Calla), coloring supplies, and orange juice. While we sampled four different varieties of wine, the kids enjoyed exploring the grounds and eating their snacks. At one point, I looked over and watched as Simon victoriously poured Calla’s (disliked) juice into his half-full glass.

Our second stop was Casas del Bosque, one of the larger and better known wineries in the region, where we first toured the grounds and then sampled four wines. Afterwords, we enjoyed a delicious lunch in the vineyards complete with more wine pairings. Calla was thrilled to discover a small playground, which she opted for in lieu of lunch. (Our family refrain: “Nobody expect dinner tonight” was lost on her.) The prix fix lunch menu for the adults (and Jonah) was sublime: a salad with crispy tuna and oranges, angus with potatoes and blue cheese, and a panna cotta.

Finally, we stopped at Attilio & Mochi, which is run by a Brazilian couple. We toured the grounds, and the kids sampled several of the grape varieties. While we didn’t love the wines here as much as we did at the first two stops, we appreciated the homey atmosphere and personalized attention. Here is Simon imbibing “clear wine” (i.e., water, in case this isn’t obvious).

Highlights from our tastings in this region included Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, as well as Pinot Noir (never our favorite) and the new-to-us Carmenere, a medium-bodied red originally from France but now grown almost exclusively in Chile. Our day was really lovely --- we laughed over lunch that it wasn’t even a real day, just lounging and drinking and enjoying nature. The kids were actually having fun, despite the fact that they were on a wine tour. My only regret is that I wasn’t sufficiently over my jet lag enough to enjoy all the wine. Luckily, Justin helped me polish it all off.

Food Tour

We took a food tour that I booked through the online platform “Withlocals.” I selected our guide, Cristobal, based on his high reviews, and we had a blast. We met at the historical center of the city, and Cristobal took us to six places. First, we visited the Mercado Central, a 200 year old market that primarily sells seafood. We toured the market, and then sat down to a seafood broth soup followed by a plate of mussels, clams, ceviche, fried shrimp and fish, crab pie, and cuttlefish with cheese. The adults also enjoyed some pisco sours, Chile’s national drink. (Also popular is “Piscocola,” which is pisco and coca cola.) With the kids already telling us they were getting full, we knew we had our work cut out for us! Next up, a visit to Caja N1 for empanadas. We sampled both varieties, one cheese and one beef, which includes meat, onions, one olive, and an egg. This was our second time having empanadas in Chile, and I can already tell that this is going to be a standout for us. Flaky, buttery pastry and gooey cheese? What’s not to like? Next we stopped for completos, which is a Chilean hot dog. At this point, everyone was getting really full, so we only ordered one to try. Half was topped with mayo, relish, and tomatoes and the other half, only tomatoes and relish. It was fine, but nothing more exciting that what we’d have at home on a hot dog. Our fourth stop was to get some Mote con Huesillo, which translates to “maize and peach drink.” It’s a popular street food here, made from cooked wheat and dried peaches. The stall owner layered the cups with wheat, followed by one syrupy peach, and then poured juice on top. It was very tasty, albeit a bit too sweet, but perfect for a hot day. Next, we made an unplanned stop for gelato, where magically the kids were no longer too stuffed to eat. We ended with a trip to a local restaurant for sopapillas (discs of fried dough and Calla’s new favorite) with pumpkin sauce and potatoes with meat.

Some random notes on Chilean food that we’ve enjoyed:

Cheese on seafood: Chileans consume a lot of cheese, particularly on seafood. I have already had cheese on the following: cuttlefish, scallops, crab cakes.

Dulce de Leche: You can buy this in tiny plastic packets, cut a small hole in the top, and suck out the sweet caramel. I may have to buy one or two or fifty for the road.

Empanadas: These are everywhere. On street corners. Available to be Uber Eats-ed to one’s apartment. We’ve tried several varieties (cheese, ham and cheese, seafood, meat) and they are all delicious.

In the afternoon, Calla and I visited Los Dominicos Artisan, a village comprised of mulitple small shops and makers. My typical tactic is to walk entire markets and assess, and only go back and buy things when I’ve seen all my options. Unfortunately, this strategy fell flat for me as the jewelry store I loved the most magically disappeared upon my second walk through the village. We tried to find it, but after dragging Calla around in circles for far too long, we needed to call it. Nevertheless, it was a really enjoyable way to spend our afternoon.

Day Trip to Viña del Mar and Valparaiso

We were picked up from Santiago by our tour guide, Myriam, who took us on a fun and informative tour of Viña del Mar and Valparaiso, two citiies which are close to one another in proximity but far apart in terms of character. Viña del Mar is a coastal city which is bursting with energy over the summer but was quiet when we visited. We saw several key sites, including statues of Pablo Neruda and Gabriela Mistral, as well as the Moai statue gifted by the people of Rapa Nui that stands outside the Franciso Fonck Archaeology and History Museum. We also made a brief visit to the famous flower clock.

I was particularly eager to visit Valparaiso, which is known for its eclectic architecture, street art, galleries, and steep hills. Upon arrival, we poked into some galleries and then stopped for lunch at La Concepción, where we enjoyed a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Casas del Bosque and multiple dishes with cheese and seafood. We continued to wander the city as Myriam told us stories about Valparaiso’s history. My absolute favorite was seeing all of the incredible murals. Myriam had an encyclopedic knowledge of the different artists and their styles, which made the murals come alive in ways they would not have were we just viewing them. At one point, we stumbled upon a long slide in the middle of the sidewalk. This was really the best way to visit Valparaiso – wandering the streets, taking the funicular to the pier, poking into small shops, and admiring all of the art. I think the photos speak for themselves.

Long Weekend in Maipo Valley

Towards the end of our time in Santiago, we decided to spend a few days in a cabin in Pirque before heading back to the city to pack; we leave for Atacama bright and early tomorrow morning (May 7th). It was nice to get out of the city for a bit and enjoy the countryside, plus the cabin was larger than our Santiago apartment and allowed everyone to spread out a bit more. We planned two full day trips here, one to visit wineries and one to visit Cajon del Maipo.

Maipo Valley Vineyards:

We had the absolute best day exploring the Maipo Valley with Maipo Valley Wine Tours. Our guide, Gerald, was very hands on with the kids, which allowed us to fully enjoy the day.

Our first stop was to a homestead/bakery/art studio, where our hosts, Connie and Ricardo, treated us to a spread of delicious homemade bread, jams, meat, avocado, and butter (which was commandeered by Calla). Gerald broke out a Cabernet Sauvignon, and I knew I was in trouble if I was already going to be drinking with my 10am breakfast.

Our first stop was to Santa Ema, where we spent so much time chatting with the sommelier, I mostly forgot to drink my wine. The highlight for me was the Carmenere, and we bought a bottle to take with us. Next, we visited Viña Rukumilla, a family-run boutique winery in Lonquén. When we say “family-run,” what we mean is “Andres and Angelica, the winemakers, raised their children on the property next door to all their cousins.” The Rukumilla family makes just one type of wine – a red blend (Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah, Malbec, and Cabernet Franc) – in the style of French producers. The wines are aged for 10 years in a room inside their house; we were amazed to see their DIY storage facilities. After our tour of the vineyards, we sat outside with our hosts and sampled the 2015 vintage as we noshed on cheese, homemade bread, and crackers. The wine was spectacular; really flavorful and unique. We just had to take a bottle back with us.

Our fourth stop of the day was to a farmstead for a home cooked lunch. Gerald produced more wine; this time, another Carmenere. We ate salad with avocado, meat and potatoes, homemade pizza, fresh squeezed apricot juice, and stewed apricots for dessert. After lunch, the kids enjoyed exploring the property.

Throughout the entire day, Gerald helped keep the kids entertained as they drew and wandered the different properties. We’ve said it before, but a good guide can really make or break a tour for us. In this case, Justin and I were able to enjoy our entire day in large part because we knew the kids were off having fun on their own. I also credit Juan, the company owner, for putting together an extremely family-friendly itinerary for us. All four locations included outdoor space, with various permutations of swings, hammocks, roaming dogs, cats, and in one case, a peacock. The kids alternated between drawing and wandering around, just enjoying being out in the quiet countryside. At no point did anyone complain that they were bored, and both Gerald and Felipe (our driver) ensured the kids felt included in the experience.

A quick anecdote: During our first winery visit, we found out that Calla was talking politics with Felipe; specifically, she was drawing “Bad Guys Land,” for bad guys and [insert current US president here]. Incidentally, the kids have been very publicly vocal about their political leanings of late, which fills me with a mix of pride and mortification. We’ve actually had to ask them to reign in some of their more, um, graphic commentary. That means you, Simon James.

Our last stop was to the Chocolateria Sala de Ventas, where our host, Kety, showed us how to make delectable chocolates. The kids helped paint and fill the molds, and we were treated to taste test of white, milk, and dark varieties. I discovered lucuma again, which is also known as egg fruit or yellow sapote, a flavor of ice cream I tried in Northern Australia. Its sweet taste lends itself well to a chocolate filling. At this point in the day, Simon was starting to get a bit antsy, so he mostly hung out outside while Jonah and Calla did all the work, returning only to eat his fair share of the chocolate. As always, Gerald continued to keep our wine glasses full (Syrah, this time), and by the time we headed out around 5pm, I was pleasantly fuzzy from seven straight hours of drinking and eating.

Cajon del Maipo:

Our second full day in the Maipo Valley was spent outdoors adventuring. Our guide, Andres, picked us up first thing in the morning, and we drove two hours to reach La Engorda Valley, which lies at the base of the San José Volcano. With an elevation gain of approximately 7,000ft, this was a tough hike, but worth it for the panoramic views of the colorful and snow-capped Andes Mountains. We saw three people on the trail the entire time we were there, and in those moments – when it is just us surrounded by boundless nature – it feels like the entire universe is ours.

As we were descending, Calla began to get tired. Initially, she was upset that her brothers got to climb a big rock with their dad, but she was too small to go. This resulted in lots of tears, and insistence that we find another rock for her. I could tell she was fading, so she and I walked the remaining 45 minutes or so mostly hand in hand, deep in conversation. Calla is very interested in the concept of being an adult, focused as she is on “being able to do whatever I want.” She’s been pondering whether or not she wants to have kids. (On the con side: “I want to eat nachos on the couch and watch screen time [without being interrupted].”) She also expressed concern that her future children would try to steal her good snacks, like gummy worms. I explained that when she grows up, she can hide some of her snacks in a “Mommy only” place where her kids can’t find them and eat them after the children go to bed, and that I do this back at home. “You have snacks you aren’t giving us!!” Calla cried, horrified by this admission. Well, I suppose not these days. It’s amazing to have these quiet moments with my youngest, watching her small body beside vast landscape, her little legs taking her step by rocky step, pondering the meaning and future of her life.

After our hike, we visited Valla de Colina hot springs. I’m neutral on hot springs, though the nature surrounding these was incredible. We soaked briefly, but I was starting to get a headache from the altitude and heat, and everyone else was getting hungry. So, we got changed and enjoyed a picnic that Andres prepared of fruit, crackers, and cheese. We began the long drive back to Pirque, making a requisite stop for ice cream en route. We also encountered a whole bunch of goats on the road! We arrived back at the cabin at around 6:30pm, exhausted, but full of life.

Ultimately, Santiago served as a great base for us to explore the surrounding areas. We also saw a decent amount of the city proper, as our food tour involved a lot of walking. Additionally, the afternoon before we drove to Pirque we took the funicular to the top of San Cristobal Hill, where we walked around, enjoyed the views, and rode the cable cars. On a couple of quieter afternoons, Justin took various combinations of kids to visit local playgrounds, including a makeshift “bouncy park” that was erected for the May 1^st holiday (Labor Day).

At some point, we’d love to come back and explore more of this beautiful, hospitable country, perhaps this time heading south to the Colchagua Wine Valley and Patagonia. Truly, the hospitality we’ve experienced here has been unparalleled. Everyone has been warm, welcoming, and tolerant of my choppy Spanish.

While we’ve had a phenomenal time enjoying the vineyards here in the Central Valley, as we are heading to Atacama tomorrow - a desert area at higher altitude - it will be a good time to take an extended break from wine so that we can stay as healthy as possible while we acclimatize.

Justin’s Soapbox

It's much less embarrassing to be in a place where you know none of the language and just own up to being a hopeless tourist, versus a country where you think you might be able to make it through some basic conversations in the language and repeatedly flame out when trying. My Spanish isn't great, but compared with other things I learned in high school and rarely have used since, I think it's held up a lot better than my algebra or skills. Unlike nearby U.S. tourist destinations like Mexico or Puerto Rico, most people in South America don't speak english so my conversation starter has shifted from "¿Hablas inglés?" "Hola! Sólo hablo un poco de español." Overall, I haven't done nearly as bad as I was expecting.

Everyone seems to like Chile so far. When we initially planned the trip, I think family members had more clear expectations of what to expect in certain countries (i.e. Italy = pasta, Australia = animals) but I don't think we had as clear a picture of what we were getting into in Chile. Luckily Santiago has proven itself to be a great starting point for us, and people seem excited to move on to the wilds of Atacama after this introductory stay in the city. 

For one thing, the kids have liked the food. Cheese empanadas, tons of seafood (also with copious cheese), and some prime cuts of red meat have enticed them along. Sara's colleague Jael (as described above) provided us the warmest welcome anyone could ask for, and this immediately helped us get our footing. And the kids seemed to have found their hiking legs once more and have been able to appreciate both the beauty of the country, both natural and man-made. 

Our day trip to Valparaiso provided a stunning example of the latter, as the city features an amazing array of street art and murals that cover the Cerros Concepcion and Alegre district as well as others. We had a lovely guided tour through streets completely covered in beautiful, surrealistic imagery which Sara shared a sample of in the gallery above. What made this impactful for me was that these murals are all obviously fairly recent and well-kept, with the city municipality intentionally providing this opportunity for local artists. The city is an ongoing work-in-progress whose pictures change over time and are regularly added to. We stumbled across one artist who was painting some flowers on a simple railing - every space is considered as a potential canvas. American cities, take note!

The other thing I found striking about Valparaiso was the architecture, which seemed like such a hodge-podge of unrelated styles I had never seen before. Let me unpack that statement while providing a few examples below. Our guide explained that because different colonial and ethnic groups built up different parts of the cities at different times (First the Spanish of course, but then British and German populations made their own mark), Valparaiso was home to an overlapping number of styles. However to my eye, these aren't your normal European styles transported over to the Americas. Many rooftops seem to have additional angles and corners that almost have a Byzantine kind of look to them. Others had an Alhambra type of look. The individual buildings themselves confounded me at times, and the juxtaposition of them against one another made the whole thing look a bit dream-like to me. Combined with the street art, Valparaiso was a city that kept me looking around in all directions.

I would be remiss if I didn't close by mentioning the glory of Chilean wines. While Chile is not exactly an unknown in the wine-producing world, it was admittedly a place I didn't have a good sense of taste for. Sara and I knew we both loved New Zealand Sauvignon Blancs before heading there, but we didn't know much about the wine producing regions here. Sara has already walked you through it, so I'll keep it brief. Firstly, a great big thank-you to the kids for being good sports about coming along for another wine tour (though some of these places had some fun animal friends for them to play with) - I don't know what it is about wineries that somehow makes them figure out how to more or less behave themselves and give us space as opposed to almost anywhere else, but if wineries are the only parental gimme we have for where good kid behavior can be expected, we'll take it.

My hands-down favorite wine was Rukumilla, a red blend produced by a very small mom-and-pop winery that only makes this one variety. Apparently they only produce just over one thousand bottles per year. When I heard that this was all was on offer at this place my first thought was "well this better be good," and I can tell you it more than delivered. Sara was less over the moon about it but didn't stand in the way of me buying a bottle.  

So far, so good, so little time left! We continue onwards, with more Andean adventures awaiting us. Stay tuned! 

Jonah’s Musings

North America has been my home ever since I was born. But on this trip I got the chance to go to SOUTH America. 

We arrived in Santiago, Chile. We've done so many cool things here, and I want to share some with you. One thing we did was go on a big hike. This hike was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen. We walked through a small valley with a river running through it. 

It was so gorgeous that it looked like a background picture on a phone. I thought that the hike was going to be really hard as well, but it was actually quite easy, and I definitely think it was worth doing it.

I also love the social structure here. One of mom's colleagues hosted a backyard party and the food was incredible - everything from grapes to lamb, it was definitely some of the best stuff I've had on this trip. They also had a pet rabbit that was really fun to pet. But it didn't do much and kind of just ran around the place.

My parents, of course, forced us to go on a bunch of wine tastings. But they were actually somewhat fun! There was really good food and pets at every tasting we went to. 

So far Australia has been my favorite place on the world trip, but South America has a shot at being better though.

Please be sure to subscribe to our YouYube channel and follow our newsletter. See you in the next one!

Simon’s Reflection

Hi, this is my blog about Santiago. Santiago is in Chile, which is in South America. We flew to Chile and we could not sleep! It was the most jet lagged I’ve ever been in my life. It took me three nights to finally get to the right time zone. This was very overwhelming! Jonah and me one night went from being in bed at night all the way until the morning without even sleeping. Finally, we could actually sleep! I was finally used to people speaking English, so it took me a while to get used to people speaking Spanish. So, it wasn’t the best at the start because of the sleeping issues but it soon got a LOT better! We did a food tour. We got seafood, empanadas (kind of like crispy sandwiches with stuff inside it), ice cream, and a peach corn drink. It sounds bad but it’s really good. At one of Mom’s friend’s houses, there was a big party. There was cooked lamb, yummy chips, and soda! There was also a cat what for some reason ate a stick and a leaf. The lamb was so good I got seconds and it took like three hours to cook the lamb but it was worth it. Now I’m going to talk about the cabin [in Pirque]. We drove to this cabin place where you had to put the toilet paper in….the trash can! You could not flush it down! How terrible! The bathtub didn’t have a plug so I had to use the sink plug. We also went on this big hike where there was a carcass of a goat. It was very tiring. We also went to these hot springs. It's exactly what it sounds like. Our guide also made us lunch and we got ice cream. Like 50% of mine fell in the bushes, though. Santiago was so fun!

Calla’s Corner

Mommy: Calla, how are you enjoying Chile so far?

Calla: Great! And it was a blast!

Mommy: What have you enjoyed doing the most?

Calla: Well, I liked to do the hike. Normally that was not especially so fun, but we went to the hot soaks and it was pretty fun. And it relaxed our muscles and the hike didn’t, but even though the hike was really hard I still did it, anyways! So, it was really fun. I liked doing the hike. Now I’m going to talk about…hmmm… I don’t know.

Mommy: Calla, first I want to tell you that I hope you feel proud of doing that hard hike. I feel very proud of you.

Calla: Well, I don’t feel proud of myself.

Mommy: Why not?

Calla: Because I just don’t.

Mommy: Alright, I think we may need to agree to disagree on this.

Calla: Uh huh.

Mommy: So, we did a lot of other fun things here. You went to parks, we visited wineries, we went to Valparaiso, we made new friends. What else would you like to share about?

Calla: Uh, so… we did go to my mom’s friend’s house, and it was super fun. And we had a lot of lunch there and I got to play while I waited. And the little girl [Isidora] was my age, but she speaks Spanish, so I played in her room. I dressed myself as a queen with a heart necklace, a heart gem ring, and I did a crown, too. And a magic wand. And lipstick, eyeshadow, with nail polish on my fingers and my toes. And it was pretty much fun. Soon we had lunch. Normally I didn’t eat a lot. Mostly I ate chips and crackers with a lot of tomato sauce-y stuff. And after lunch I went to find a stroller up in the playroom and [Isidora] picked out a cute, adorable bear for me and I treated it as a cute, adorable bear baby. And I put it in the stroller always when I go out for walks, and we were going on a day trip. It was super fun. The backpack could turn into a suitcase. Yeah, thanks a lot for visiting our blog. I’ll talk a little bit more later. [Ed note: Gracias, Isidora, for sharing your fantastic toys with Calla!]

As always, we’d love to hear from you - especially those of you who have been quietly reading and keeping up with our adventures since the beginning. It means a lot. These newsletter entries will ultimately go into books we make for the kids, which we hope will help preserve many of their memories of this grand adventure.

xo,
Sara, Justin, Jonah, Simon, and Calla