PIE and more.

Ken made 2 apple pies this week. Yummy. They do not have "true" apple pie here. Our British friend enjoyed it. I also made pumpkin pie. It is odd with the vast availablility of pumpkin they do not use it for much other than in a stew called "cazuela." We are focused on schooling the kids for the next few weeks. The weather sucks. I am sooooooooooooooo tired of winter. We hope to create a little grill area soon. Then we can grill steaks. The veggies are spectacular and cheap. Bought apples for $95 pecos a kilo the other day. That is about $.18 us. Meat is about the same as when on sale in the states. Clothing and manufactured goods are expensive.

The Tattoo

This ias backtracking a bit. I am taking advantage of the WIFI at the hotel. Will in Florida in April Ken and I did something we had been thinking about for a while. Yes we got tattoos. No it does not hurt much at all. I love mine. The 3 flowers represent the blessing I have in my 3 great kids and the rings represent my unbreakable marriage. God has blessed me so very much. I will post pics of Kens ink later.

We did alot of shopping around and were very impressed with the place we chose.

I would recommend them to anyone.

BLACK CHAPEL TATTOO...on cocoa beach in front of Coconuts. We recommend Kenny!

Tell Him Hi.

Valdivia day 1 and the mixed seafood plate

Our day started early, as we arrived at the bus station at 8 am. We were lucky to catch an 8:10bus to Valdivia. We did not have to pay for the kids as we explained they would ride on our laps if nescessary. The bus was almost empty, therefore they did get thier own seats. We arrived 2 hours later in a very cold foggy Valdivia. Oh did I mention my incredible headache and nausea on the bus. Thankfully i had improved by the time we reached our destination. After acquiring a map we headed for the Fluvial Fish market. We were also in search of a place to stay. With the weather so grey we chose to hit the Mc Donalds for coffee and WIFI. Searched for accommidations and waited out the weather. By 12:30 the sun wa out and temps in the low 40's F. (heat wave!!!!)
We set off to find a place to stay. Unhappy with our selection we continued along till we reached the fish market again. We decided to eat. We ordered Salmon Calle Calle ( salmon with cream, mushrooms, shrimp and potatoes), Salmon in tarragon sauce with rice and the mixed seafood plater). The salmon was EXCELLENT with huge portions. I will forever regret not taking a picture of the mixed seafood platter. This was a huge plate of more than 30 mussels. All different kind. This was quite an experience. I was truely impressed with my children's willingness to try most of them. Virginia likes clams and Theodore fond one he was fond of. They both enjoyed the salmon. We could not finish all the food and left there stuffed. The best part all for $32. We left and stopped by the fish market and saw the sealions who come right up on the sidewalk. Then continued to a chocolate shop on our seach for housing. We saw a Hotel and went in. It is the same price as the other places we looked, but is right off cetro and only 2 blocks from the fish market, has wifi and is like a small apartment. It has a livingroom and kitchen downstairs and 2 bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. We felt between location and wifi it was a good deal. With our room secure and bags unloaded we headed off again. We found Virginia boots and me badly needed shoe laces. We also picked up a spanish english dictionary, the phasebook wasn't enloygh. I located a thrift shop which we hope to return to. Pit stop at the room and off to the mall. We fed the kids pizza and stopped at the grocery. We finally got back around 9:45 fed the kids a small piece of cake and of to bed for them. The day was great fun. We are tired, but happy.

Ken and Jesse's Trip

Following is Ken's narration of my brother and his trip through central and south America with the truck and 3 perros (dogs). It is titled Agua and you will see why when you read it. It is both scary and funny.

I am sorry I have not blogged more frequently. Things have been a bit wierd. Ken and I are looking into getting mobile internet through a cell phone company down here. If we do it would make things much easier. I will try to be more faithful. The kids, Ken, and I are going to Valdivia on the coast this week. I am looking forward to some seafood.

AGUA

May 8th, 2009
Day 1-2
Start of our long drive to South America. We began our trip through Mexico at the Texas/Mexico border town of Matamoras Mexico. We arrived bright and early, around 9:30 AM only to discover the Border was still closed. So we sat around waiting for the border offices to open, let the dogs out to pee and generally just waited. The only real problem was when the customs inspector made a grimised face when we said we had three dogs. Finally cleared the border with little trouble and proceeded to Cuidad Victoria. All was good and we changed out drivers to begin a little trip through the Continental Divide. The trip up a mountain was spectacular with twists and turns, ups and downs, lefts and rights. The view will totally impress the hardest of people to please, and will scare the living hell out of those that are afraid of heights. You know your trip is extremely precarious when your passenger looks down over the cliff, and proceeds to climb into the drivers seat with you. Yes, two lane roads with no gaurdrails and very little shoulder will make butterflies gurgle in your stomach. Throw into the mix the infamous traffic control item called the "Topa". This is Central Americas method of ripping the undercarriage from under your vehicle, ejecting all your luggage or cargo out the back and cause you to slow to zero miles per hour just to make it over. Also, maps have a tendency to fool the crap out of you by showing you a straght road on the map, however when driven, the road is so windy the GPS loses signal cause it can't get a lock on the satalites. We drove 350 kilometers, when the road speed was supposed to be 100 kph, and it took more than 7 hours of driving. I thought the road would never get straight again. We forced our way through and managed to end up in Mexico City at 2 AM in the morning. Now this is a town that will cause a certain part of your body to create a vaccuum so strong, the seat fabric becomes lodged within it. For those familiar with a red light, the Mexicans have decided they are of no use to anyone. Picture 4 to 6 lanes of traffic flowing from all directions and there being a red light no one obeys. Even at 2 AM, it's enough to cause heart failure when the traffic is weaving in and out of each other even when you have a red light! We managed to get through Mexico City with all our limbs intact and then pull the fabric from our butts. We pulled over and rested (sleep would not be good description). The rest of the trip through Mexico was rather uneventful until we reached the border at 9am. If you never have had the experience of crossing a Central American border crossing, then the next event will scare the life out of you. There are people who hang around the border crossings called helpers. This all sounds like a great idea, a person to assist you in your border crossing! But the problem is when you first begin your approach to the border and 15 to 20 of these so called helpers attack your vehicle shouting how much they can help you. We were rather stunned for a moment when we thought we saw one of the helpers reaching into the back of the truck as if to help himself to some of our luggage. The red flags go up and we punch the gas...40 mph heading for the border with a helper in the back of the truck, slide to a stop and I jump out to address our helper, who by now has probably wet himself. Come to find out, he was mearly reaching in to get a ride on the back of the truck. Not having experienced the helper process, we selected one to assist us. Not like it makes any difference, the rest of them follow you around as well. We finally got out of Mexico and then began the process of getting into Guatemala. Bring plenty of cash, you seem to have all kinds of unexpected expenses. So you traverse the small expanse of land between countries and guess what, there are helpers on the Guatemala side! So we finally get through, it's now 12pm, and begin our track south to Cuidad Hidalgo. We finished day two in Guatemala at a location near the border and pulled over to get some shut-eye.
Day 3-4
Awoke this morning and got on the road. Figured we would make border crossing in the morning with El Salvador. Once again, border helpers are there to greet you. Border crossings are a time consuming process with 3-4 hours being the norm. Made it through border and proceeded through El Salvador with little problems and reached border with Honduras. You only spend 138 kilometers in Honduras, which is good, however, there are checkpoints all the way across it. They each find a way to discover a problem with your paperwork, hoping for a "tip" to allow you to pass. We found using the "I don't understand, No habla" got us out of a lot of "tips". We finally got across Honduras at about midnight and went ahead and crossed the border in the night. Fewer helpers, but they still persist. Beware of the guy who decides he needs to urinate at 1am in the morning. A 250 lb guy, naked in the middle of the street is kind of disturbing to some. Then into Nicaragua we go. We had a brief sleep and into the great interior of Nicaragua we went. Now when you look at your map you will notice the map indicates a road of highway proportions heading for the capital. Think again! It appears someone has taken a grader to the highway every 100 meters and ripped up the road. Fear not for these stretches are relatively smooth with a few potholes here and there. The paved portions are so full of pot holes, you can only weave yourself through at about 20 MPH. This is where the name to this story comes into play. Some people will label us as heartless bastards during this phase of the trip, but being in our shoes would shine a new dimension on our predicament. Being in Nicaragua during this part of our journey, there is a sense of foreboding apprehension when anyone approaches the vehicle. You place a great deal of value on your only means of transportation, and any threat must be dealt with extreme prejudice. So when you chance upon the 7 year old girl in this desolate and hostile enviroment, carrying a shovel and yelling at the top of her lungs "Agua!, Agua!", swinging her shovel and approaching the vehicle, we floored it!!! Yes, we took off. Sorry to all who are offended we did not stop for the girl yelling "Agua". We look back on it now with reserved feelings of sorrow and wishes of survival for this little girl. If we knew this girl was not hell bent on cutting us to pieces with her shovel, then I'm sure we would have spared some "Agua" for the poor girl. So if you plan on making this trip, take plenty of liter bottles of water with you and throw them out at little girls swinging shovels at your vehicle. After we finally got to a road that was passable, we attempted to make up time to the border. We arrived early in the morning and proceeded to the border crossing and made it through with our usual delay of 3-4 hours and proceeded to the Port of Portarenas, Costa Rica. Here we checked on shipping truck and then proceeded to the Port of Caldera to check on same. Then off to San Jose' Costa Rica to get truck shipping information and find a suitable place to camp out. We located a river along the way and proceeded to strip down and shower/bathe ourselves. Wow, what a feeling of cleanliness. We continued on our way and found ourselves at a place for some local cuisine; "Denny's". Who would have thought, Denny's with Wi-Fi and they also served beer and wine! I was in heaven. Now came the task of locating a place to camp for the night. Such a location we found at GPS coordinates Lat. N 09 59.2396; Lon. W084 20.5444. This place we affectionately named the "Bat Cave". No, it was not a cave by any means, but the bat population was extremely high.
Day 5 - 11
We awoke in the middle of the morning to the sounds of a loud crack and crashing. This was what we discovered to be the rock cliffs breaking off and crashing through the trees. Really gets the blood pumping and the nerves on end. After that start to the day, we began to get our plans in the works for getting dogs shipped and the truck loaded onto a ship. Stopped by the airport and spoke to the COPA airlines for info on the dogs. Good news, dogs can all be shipped together and without the problems we encountered in the United States. Now for the truck. Jay took a bus into San Jose' to track down the shipping companies. He came to settle onto the ______________ shipping company. Jessica there was a great help. The draw back was the truck had to be in the Port of Limon' on the 19th and would not be loaded onto the ship until the 21st. Then it would not arrive into Guayquil Ecuador until the 2nd of June. This was a containerised shipping method, not Roll-on/Roll-off. Much more expensive and loads more red tape. After having been told our costs would be $1600.00, we found out the next day that there was an unexpected additional cost of $100.00 for Customs fees. Get the full cost before beginning this process. The other thing about Costa Rica is the cost of everything. It's like being in the US as far as costs. The other thing is if you think "Burger King" in Costa Rica tastes like the US, you'll be terribly dissappointed. We lulled around at the "Denny's" and the park waiting for the time to leave Costa Rica. Once the truck was dropped off, we caught a flight to Guayquil Ecuador via Panama.
Day 12 - 25
We arrived in Guayquil, Ecuador and began our quest for a hotel or hostel we could take the dogs too. After searching many hotels, we made a call to a hostel my wife had located online. The hostel was called "Dream Catcher" and was only a $5.00 cab ride from the airport. Isabelle, the owner and hostess was very understanding of our predicament with the dogs. The hostel was quaint and comfortable with great amenities and a bed! The hostel also runs a "Farm" as it was called about 60 kilometers from Guayquil at GPS coordinates Lat. S 02 26.6234; Lon W079 33.3300. This is were you will find the "Mono Loco" hostelira. Once there you will discover how it got it's name. There are groups of "brown howler monkeys" located in the tropical forest behind the "farm". From sunrise until dark, they tend to make a grunting howling noise that resembles someone with acute constipation, coupled with severe indigestion. This noise coupled with the 15 roosters crowing and the Macua squawking(named Paco) we affectionately called "Scabby", made for our morning wake up call at, 5am. We named him "Scabby" cause he looks like someone put him in a plucking machine! The Mono Loco is a work in progress. There are rooms which house 3 to 4 bunks, with a shower/restroom and the wonderful clickety, clickety fan for circulating the sultry air. There is an equipped kitchen with refrigerator and microwave. Beware the toaster that can't toast bread, you have to press it down two to three times to get toast. There is no hot water in the kitchen, but with the temperature being so hot out, you really don't need it. They have dug a pool and are trying to get a soccer field put in and other improvements done soon. For those seeking to go to town, it is mearly a 7.5 mile walk to the bus stop. Occasionally you can hitch a ride with a truck or car, but if someone offers to haul two 200 lb gringos with him as well as his 7 year old son, it can make for a dicey ride, not to mention a lack of safety gear. By the way, this was all done on a Suzuki 125 motorcycle. Fore-go buying beer in town. Not only is it alot to carry, but is unnecessary cause beer can be bought at the local whore house next to the school. Yes, a meer 300 meters from the Mono Loco! At a $1.00 a bottle (650 ml), it's a pretty good buy. For the more athletic and adventurous types, you can also scale the tropical rainforest mountain behind the Mono Loco. This would entail a trek that is nearly vertical, covered with a plant that covers you in little sticking seeds, only to be bombarded by the howling monkeys who enjoy nothing better than to throw poop at the nearest tourist trying to scale this monument of jungle. As menacing as it was, we did try, but threw in the towel when I couldn't walk anymore due to the sticking seeds in my pants. If you are lucky as we were, then you could find yourself starring in an Ecaudorian "Narco Drug film". Yes thats right a film crew showed up out at the Mono Loco to film a action/love story film while we were there. They asked us to be in their film and Jay even had a speaking part. Was a slight bit un-nerving when the transvestite showed up with his/her espedrils on! Don't worry, we have pictures to back us up! The Mono Loco did fulfill our needs though, we needed lodging and a place to keep the dogs. We got the truck on the 1st of June and began our journey to Chile' on the 2nd.
Day 26-28
We began our journey to Chile' with renewed vigor, after being stuck in one place for so long. It was only 98 miles to the border and we wasted no time in getting to the Ecuador/ Peru border. Now if you race to a border and follow the signs to the "Frontier" and suddenly the road turns into a construction zone, then turn back! We followed the signs and it even said in great big signs "Welcome to Peru". But what happened to the Immigration office? Those must have been the buildings all those workers were working on. So off we go, racing through Peru when suddenly we reach a checkpoint about 75 kilometers into the country. Well, after much beconning back and forth and the border gaurd calling and trying to get our papers done there, they inform us we have to return to the border and process in properly. This burned up about 6 hours of driving time and caused about 2 hours of border processing before we were legal to be in Peru! Even the border checkpoint guys, who were still on duty when we got back , thought it was funny and even waived us through without even checking our papers. Guess they figured after all the trouble we had been through, we must have all the right stuff. We continued on our journey along the coastal road and then began a slow turn inland. The road tends to follow the coast but slightly inward. This is were Peru turns into a desolate, barren, naked, inhospitable landscape. The road becomes windy and hilly as well as there is nothing to see for miles and miles but SAND. There is more sand here than the Sahara desert! The roads are well constructed but there is just nothing out there!! Some parts of the road appear to have been laid out with a laser and are straight for about 25 - 40 miles! We made our way through Lima' the capital and am convinced we will die of lung cancer within a couple of years. Talk about a pollution problem, the buildings are covered in soot and you can hardly breathe the air there without choking. We finally got through Lima' and were on our way, when Jay suggested we get something to eat. We saw a beautiful hostel/restaurant to get some food at. They even had Wi-Fi, so we conversed with Katie while we were there. Jay and I had the same thing and after walking the dogs and getting situated, off we went again. We pulled over and found a little place to sleep, and thats when all hell broke loose. Jay said he didn't feel well and then commenced to throw-up. So I started our day out and then started to feel sick as well. Great, the two of us had food poisoning! Between throwing-up and crapping a steady stream of poop, we pressed on! After a short while, we had a pooping for distance competition as the standard practice. Unfortunately for me, Jay beat me out with a six foot skip shot. That is, it hit at 4 feet and sprayed out to 6 feet. Oh well, you win some and lose some! Our path through Peru was blazed as fast as we could without getting a ticket. We passed throught the Peru side of the border without much problem and arrived on the Chilean side. We didn't realise we had arrived at the Chilean border just 30 minutes before it closed. As we processed in, a young Chilean Lady assigned to the SAG office worked with us on getting the dogs cleared for Chile'. While we waited for the Veternarian doctor to show up, the entire Chilean processing crew began to get all the paperwork and stamps necessary to enter Chile' done so all we were waiting for was the SAG to clear the dogs. If they had not worked to get us through, then we would have had to spend the night in "No-Mans" land between borders awaiting the opening of the borders in the morning. Midnight and the border had closed, but the SAG officers and the veternarian doctor stayed after closing to process us through!!! Wow, this was the best border crossing we had encountered to date. Not only that, they brought out a vet doctor after hours(12:30 am) to see the dogs and do the necessary paperwork, and didn't charge us a dime more!!!
Day 29-30
After clearing the border, we went about 30 miles passed Arica Chile' and stopped for the night. We had a brief sleep and off we went again. Wow, straight roads and a reasonable speed limit were at hand. We made it all the way to just short of Las Serena and stopped for a short break. We picked it up and continued on until we got to Villarrica. Then we called Katie and she was really excited we had made it! After a moment of emotional release, we retired to our new home for some good wine and afew stories to tell. So now begins the story of our stay in Chile'.

God is powerful.

When He acts it is so big you can never doubt it is HIM!
Just got email from the guys, dog is fully recovered and they are south of Lima Peru. Last I heard they were still in Ecuador trying to the truck through customs for the secound day. Just remeber He is there when you look to Him he will provide. This has been an incredible opportunity for me to show my children the power of faith. Thank you for your prayers. We expect them Sunday night or Monday. Just pray they get through the Chile border crossing with out any problems. That is the last one...YEAH! Crossings are a challenge with the truck and dogs.

God will Lead

For those of you who see me as a wonder woman, I am not as strong as I seem. I have had some real low points. Yesterday I got bad, but after the encouragement of a friend, I am better. My friend reminded me that I am not alone and I do not need to be strong enough to do this. She reminded me God started us on this path and he is still here if I will follow. He will be with me and provide the strength. I had strayed from what we set out to do. The kids and I spent a great deals of time in prayer yesterday and I last night. I was pushing my agenda and feeling proud of MY accomplishments. I was also feeling despair and doubt. I was not listening to God. I think this is why the house by the lack fell through. God was trying to get me to hear him. Well today we found the perfect house. It is more expensive, but with in our budget. It is a clean newer 2 bedroom on 2 fenced acres outside of town but withing walking distance. It has swings and a seesaw for the kids. There is even a washing machine. There is a beautiful deck and porch. It also backs up to soem woods for the kids to explore. When I got my heart back in the right direction God provided. Let there be NO doubt this is not my strength or adventure. This is God. All the glory is His. I can not wait to post pictures of the place. I have still heard nothing from the guys. They should be traveling this way by now, but nothing. This too is in God´s hands. One of the dogs was ill. Please pray for the guys and dogs.

Oh, I tried steamed beets for the first time tonight and yummy. Even the kids liked them.. With all the available pumpkin I started looking for other things to do with it. I found a recipe for Pumpkin Curry online. Yummy!!!!

Food

What is food like in Chile.....
The meat is incredible lean. I have not gotten used to how lean it is. I always bought the 93% lean, but this stuff is LEAN! I made burgers the other day. Problem is I expected them to cook down a bit, wrong. I go to the meat market and pick a piece of meat at which`point the man trims th fat then ask me if I what it left whole or sliced into steaks. This is very neat. As for veggies and fruit. We have found a fruit stand with the most amazing fuji apples. They are huge, bigger than soft balls and taste like someone soaked them in sugar water. They are fabulous. I eat alot of pumpkin. Here they are whitish not orange. You go to the market and ask them to cut off a piece. Red and Green bell peppers are the same price here. They have a red pepper which is similar a red bell pepper except it is shaped like a tear drop and about the size of a large lemon. They are much sweeter then a regular bell pepper. Tomatoes and avacados are very popular. We do not eat out much. If you order a hamburger in Villarica you will get just that, a cooked hamburger patty. In Santiago things are a bit different. There are fast food resturants. McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Etc. In Temuco I saw a McDonalds, but no fast food in Villarica. It is ok because every place, but the retsurants closes for about 2 hours for everyone to go to lunch. Then they stay open late. The bread here is fresh yummy and addictive.

Moving on hold

When we got to the new place, the woman said she had already rented it. She claim her husband did not tell her we were going to take it starting the 1st. Also appearantly, these people are paying much more than our agreed amount. Nonetheless, I am back to house hunting. The lady who own the cabana I am in says things changed and I can stay in the cabana for the rest of the week.