Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Sabine wanted to be on the road by 8 am. After I went to sleep I woke up in the middle of the night with a terrible stomach ache. Something did not agree with me and was up for most of the night. Nate slept hard, but when I tried to give him breakfast, no success. Very difficult for me to swallow, especially since I knew we had a long drive ahead of us. We managed to be out the door by 8:20 am. Not too late. The drive was going to take us approximately 8 hours. Colomba had left the day before to ride with Carlos and Sylvia. Sabine and I would ride with Nate, Clemente and Salvador. We met up on the Pan American Highway which I understand is a highway that goes from Arica, Chile all the way to Punta Arena, Chile.

Our first stop was a winery called San Pedro. The best thing about Chilean wine is that it’s amazing and inexpensive. I bought 3 cabernets and one late harvest. Carlos came in and bought a case. Looking forward to drinking more wine. The next stop was at a gas station which also had a store called “Pronto”. There we had a quick lunch. I tried to get Nate to eat some of my ham and cheese sandwich and he was only able to eat three bites. I hate for him not to eat. It really hurts. Back in the car and all three kids fell asleep. Sabine and I chatted all the way and finally arrived around 6 pm. 10 hours of driving.


The boys behaved incredibly well the whole trip. When we arrived we had to load everything in the boat then cross over to the island. Wow is it nice. The kids have been strapped in a car for 10 hours. Arriving at the island they had a lot of energy to release.

Sylvia told me to just watch Nate while they get situated. It was rather hectic. The place is beautiful. Carlos and Sylvia built a 3 bedroom house. Carlos’s brother Walter also has a home here and so does Carlos’s cousin Hans. So a private island with 3 homes. Place is amazing. The water in the lake is crystal clear, I am excited to see more of Panguipulle. I took all the kids to visit with Hans amd Monica. They happened to have a watermelon and all the kids just attacked it out on their deck. It was fun to watch them.
They gave Nate and I a room with 2 twin beds that we pushed together since I knew Nate would still crawl into my bed. We fed the kids and I ate a protein bar that Mike happened to put into my backpack. Apparently there was no wind. Carlos had turned on the generator and lights came on. Nate came up to me and dragged me over to a window and said “look”. Wow, I could not believe it. The amount of bugs on the window. Sylvia told not to even think about opening the windows. The window was covered with these tiny little bugs. This only happens when there is no wind and these bugs are attracted to the light. A little unnerving. It was late and Nate and I went to bed.