Life in Chile: Update 4

It is now most definitely winter here in Santiago, and we are having many more cold, rainy and grey days then we were having one month ago. It's a big contrast to the hot summer weather that I arrived to back in February! Although I am without a doubt more of a warm weather person, I'm trying to make the most of this winter and enjoy the good aspects of it - for one, there is now lots of snow over the Andes, and it looks really stunning. We are planning to go up into the mountains to spend a day or two in the snow at some point soon, which I'm very excited about!

Recently we have been quite busy, what with Claudio starting his new job, so we haven't done so much sightseeing, but here's a few highlights of what we've been up to...

Universidad Diego Portales

I was at the doctor's surgery a few weeks ago in the city centre, near the university Claudio went to, Universidad Diego Portales (UDP). The university is not too far from where I was living when we first met, and it's located in an attractive and historic area, which we used to often walk around when we started going out. 

After my doctor's appointment, we bought coffee in the university café and went up to the roof terrace, which has 360 degree views of the city. Then we went to meet Claudio's mum, who works at the university in part of the campus which is situated on a street with pretty, historic buildings.

Claudio's Birthday!

This week it was Claudio's 30th birthday, so we've been celebrating! On the day of his birthday, he had the day off, and we went out for lunch to Indian Box, courtesy of my parents. 

Then in the evening we bought some delicious cakes from Tierra Libre vegan bakery to have a little birthday tea.

Yesterday the celebrations continued, as some of Claudio's friends and family came round for a little party in the Adventure Zone (basically a games room) in our building. (Excuse Claudio photobombing!)

Tonight we're going to have one more celebration with Claudio's family in the quincho (barbecue area) of the building.

Jack and Other Animal Friends!

Claudio was reading my blog recently, and he pointed out that I haven't yet written about someone very special: his dog Jack! So I'm going to post about him today!

Jack is a beagle, and he is very cute, and also a bit crazy. He loves going for walkies and howling like a wolf. 

In the neighbourhood where Claudio's family live, we've also made lots of other adorable animal friends! Here are a few of them...

Our Next Trip!

We've got a four day weekend coming up later this month, as well as our fourth anniversary (the first anniversary we'll be able to spend together!). So we knew we had to plan a special trip to mark the occasion. We wanted to go somewhere warmer then Santiago (after our freezing weekend in Conguillío, the south of Chile is off limits until at least October!), somewhere with a beach, and somewhere not too far away, as we'll only be going for a few days. I also wanted to visit a new country, because I try to visit at least one new country every year, and that was something I wasn't able to do in 2021. 

Our initial thought was Rio de Janeiro, but unfortunately the prices to go there that particular weekend were absolutely through the roof, so we had to let go of that idea. I was a bit disappointed, because it's a place I've always wanted to visit, but we'll definitely try to get there at some point this year. 

After a few hours of feeling disappointed, I had a new idea - we'd really enjoyed our trip to Iquique in April, so why not go to another city in the far north of Chile, Arica? Fortunately, Arica turned out to be a lot more affordable than Rio, so we booked our tickets!

Arica is known as the city of eternal spring, so the weather there is going to be nice, even if it's not quite as warm as Rio. It also has beaches and some fascinating culture to discover, including the Chinchorro mummies, which are even older than the Egyptian mummies. 

Another selling point is that it's right next to the border with Peru, meaning that we'll have the chance to take a day trip to the Tacna province, which looks like an interesting place to explore. Neither of us have visited Peru before, so we're very excited to be going to a new country for the first time in ages. Of course we want to go to Cusco and Machu Picchu too, so we'll be returning to Peru in the future (hopefully sooner rather than later), but Tacna looks like a picturesque and very typically Peruvian city, and it even has a nearby archaeological site, so I think it will be a nice introduction to the country. 

Arica is also not too far from Parque Nacional Lauca, which looks absolutely stunning, so we're going to try to fit that into our trip too.

We're both really excited about our next travel adventure, and I'll be back here again in a couple of weeks' time to write all about it!