A home cooked meal...

We started off with a lazy Sunday...sleeping in then opening the balcony door and enjoying the breeze and warm morning sun. We then got ready to go meet Dr. Felipe Heusser, the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Universidad Católica de Chile School of Medicine. We met his wife Dra. Marcela Ferres Saturday during the resident research presentations. She was very gracious to invite us to their house for lunch on Sunday and arrange for Dr. Heusser to pick us up.

Dr. Heusser and Juan-Jo

We took the metro to the hospital and met Dr. Heusser in the hospital lobby.  We then got in his car (an accord...he and Justin bonded over their love for hondas) and headed out to their home. They live in a beautiful home in a very nice neighborhood near the mountains. Dra. Ferres her daughter Ignacia had prepared a spectacular table outside on the terrace complete with pisco sour, other drinks, and appetizers. We were joined by their other daughter Catalina, their son in law, and their grandson Juan Jose. We feasted on amazing paella and salad, with fresh fruit for dessert. 

I enjoyed sitting by the pool with Ignacia and Catalina as Juan-Jo swam in the backyard pool while Justin talked music with Dr. Heusser and his son in law. It was also fun to sit and watch as 3 yo Juan-Jo directed everyone to take turns jumping on the trampoline with him. It was truly a joy to sit outside and enjoy a great meal and conversation with these folks.

Dr. Heusser was kind enough to take us by the mall (a small mall he says, but very nice and big if you ask us) so that Justin could finally buy a cell phone (we have spent mucho time looking).  Justin is now the proud owner of a cute blue Nokia. This will be helpful as we get in touch with our new Chilean friends.

After the mall Dr. Heusser dropped us off at Los Dominicos which holds a large market full of local crafts and goods. We shopped for a while and were able to pick up some good souvenirs (well...I picked up souvenirs...Justin picked up uno souvenir). 

After a lot of shopping we hopped on the subway and rode back to the Plaza de Armas. There was a dancing show going on in the middle of the Plaza with some traditional dancing.  There is a video below of some of the dancing where the dancers pulled people from the crowd to dance with them.  Be sure to pay close attention to the older man in the yellow shirt.  He is the show.

After watching the dancing, we set off in search of the nearest grocery store to pick up a few things.  Justin spoke of interesting street encounters which we have been mostly able to avoid until this day. We were approached by a man telling us he was trying to get to a different area of town. He seemed just a little bit sketch and as we quickly told him no, no...he continued to follow us. We saw a store ahead that appeared to be open and pretended we had arrived at our destination...only to find out that we actually had arrived at the supermarket...disaster avoided! 

We shopped for a cart full of food to cook dinner through the week. It was an interesting experience which we worked our way through. We were able to take the cart up the escalator to the 2nd floor of the store, which was fun. As it was dark when we left and we had bags full of groceries in hand, we took a taxi home and dined on our empanadas from the supermarket deli.

All in all we had a great weekend and are ready to start another week at Sotero del Rio. 

j/K

More about Los Dominicos...
Dr. Heusser was kind enough to drop us off at Los Dominicos after having lunch at his house.  This is a fantastic quasi-open air market filled with people making handicrafts right before your very eyes!  The church near entrance should definitely be iconic, if it isn't already. 

 

While not as avid of a shopper as Kelli might be, I enjoyed strolling and musing about all the various goods being sold.  I have to say, though, the first impression was a bit odd as we found ourselves surrounded by oodles of birds and exotic animal stores...

Have you hugged your peacock lately?

  But soon we found ourselves more in the craft section, where people were selling all sorts of things, from jewelry to mind-bending hand-crafted puzzles, to fabrics/scarves, to t-shirts - you name it, they had it!  Kelli found herself gravitating more towards the jewelry:

...while I took more interest in all things musical.  I have a habit of buying at least one musical instrument from each location I go, and this was my chance to snag one!  I found a hand-crafted flute, called a tar-ka, and bought it after having a few lessons from the local pro...

don't worry, Mom, I actually bought a smaller one that will actually fit on the plane.

There were also some other oddities as well.  One in particular I will share with you.  We found this little figurine in a small shop, and instantly knew what it was about...

More blog posts to come...
J/k