December 28,

Up & about, and readied by 0800. We had our Javas and breakfast of yogurts and bananas. Today would be a connecting day. It is nice that we will be talking with everyone all in one day. That is one huge benefit of living “South of the Border.”😂😁

Breakfast done and cleared up – we did a WhatsApp video with my mother and her husband. The weather has taken a turn – way colder! The high for the day was before the sun came up!! So far though it was just cold, not snow or ice. The ice was what I always hated!🥶 After our call ended, we had 2.5 hours so I caught up on some blogs; as Jeff read some then edited the blog; lastly we watched some YouTube. We snuck in some lunch – each having a PB&J sandwich and a nectarine each. Next we zoomed with our church back home, and watched a great video recorded Sermon. We talked some more after the service, finding out the temperature had dropped 30 degrees Fahrenheit in 30 minutes from seven to seven-thirty! Wowza!!! We are thankful for technology that enables all these opportunities to keep in touch, but that info was crazy. Anyway, I know I’ve mentioned about the tech stuff before, but I really do appreciate it!

Anyway after this, we went for a walkabout. It’s a balmy upper sixties here – I do appreciate this! We went up along where the walking tour would have gone the day before. It was nice to see the different homes, apartments, and the different views up over the ocean. Then we decided to stop at the smaller Lider express and picked up a few things. We headed back to our place and unloaded. We had an hour or so to cool down, then we did a WhatsApp video with my sister. She’s excited as her daughter – who’s pregnant – has felt the movement of the baby. This will be my sister and b-i-l’s first grandbaby. Then we had supper of hamburger & veggie stir-fry with the leftover sauces from our sushi. It was good. Then we did our last WhatsApp with Jeff’s sister and her husband. They were traveling to the airport to fly back home from their venture back east. All our connecting done, we ended our day.

December 29,

I slept in, guess I’m still catching up. Anyway, we had our Javas and breakfast from the leftover stir-fry with eggs and toast. Around ten-thirty we went out taking a load of laundry to be done at the place we’d checked out earlier. A twenty-something man helped us and we were pretty sure we were charged the local price, not the price the lady had quoted us before. That was nice!

That chore accomplished, we set out on a long walkabout. We walked the opposite way along the coast on the promenade, south toward Valparaiso. The ocean air was crisp and light, and we were definitely under cloud cover. We actually had started out with our jackets, but we shed those off soon. Along the way we saw Sea Lions!! One, a very big bull(?), was being fed at a small fisherman’s stand. What funny creatures, and that bull could move faster than either Jeff or I thought. We also passed by the fish market with local stalls selling all kinds of fresh seafood. We had purposefully went this direction to go back to Paola’s Restaurant for lunch. It’s a Chilean fare restaurant and has been around since 1964 – I mentioned that before, when we were here before. But we were taken with the place… not just because it’s the equivalent of Paula. 🤭 We ordered a Reineta (which is Pomfret, or Brama Australis fish) Ceviche and battered fried Hake fish fillet with fries, caramelized onions, and 2 fried eggs! Again portion control is very large. The fish fillet was large itself, but the fries were probably the equivalent of three potatoes!!! The ceviche was in a bowl big enough to be a serving bowl! Jeff had a beer and I had a Pisco Sour. Anyway, we enjoyed and paid 31,130 CLP, or $34.03 including the 10% tip.

Next we went to the Jumbo grocery store, because we had not been here before. We passed by some fresh produce stands first and bought five ears of corn for 1,000 CLP or $1.09 and fresh cilantro. Then we meandered through the Jumbo grocery store finding some food stuffs. We now left and went to the light rail/metro and took it back since we had so many heavy groceries.

Back at our place by 1500-ish, unloaded and unwound – cooling off. Supper will be some corn and a salad with some wine. Ciao for now!