Our aventures on the creepy train

Story time.... It was late at night by the time we finally left Santiago to venture down to Chillan and see our new home for the next month. After some crazy taco’s (traffic jams) in Santiago we finally made it onto the highway that heads south to Chillan. After our fiftieth bathroom stop we were driving along minding our own business when Jamie looks out her back seat window and says something to the effect of “look at that” (sorry if I misquoted you Jamie). Well, I looked out her window and had the strangest experience. It looked like a television screen was following our car and was playing right outside Jamie’s window. After all of us trying to process in our brains what our eyes were seeing we finally figured out that it was a train running right next to our road. The windows all seemed enlarged and we could see the people in the train as if they were just a little ways away from our car. Well, after that experience of course we really wanted to take the creepy train back to Santiago! When we bought our tickets there was a poster by the ticket window at the train station advertising the train. This ad showed some young adults all having a great time playing Uno on the train at one of the two table in the car. Naturally we asked for a table seat and went and bought the game Uno. I would definitely recommend the train as a means of travel if we had passenger trains here. We played our Uno and made a few friends on the train. It was a very fun, relaxing ride.

Us on our creepy train at our table

Gotta love Uno

Mercedes and family waited on the station platform until we left.

When the train took off Mercedes and Francisca chased after it waving goodbye like in the movies!

McDonalds

Our last day at CONIN we bought the kids McDonalds. You should have seen the looks I got when I asked for 10 happy meals to go. It was a very funny experience feeding these kids McDonals because they didn't know what to do with it. After the first shock of carbonation the loved the Fanta. The french fries were a big hit. But the hamburgers were sadly rejected. We got three of the 12 kids to try the hamburgers and they only ate a few bites. It's a sad day when you find a kid that doesn't like McDonalds, but we had 9! Hopefully some day they'll grow up and learn to appreciate it.

This is the box full of happy meals that I had to carry on a very full very bumpy bus. Yes, I did have Fanta spill on me before the ride was over.

The kids with their Caja Feliz.

More of the kids.

They gave Ruben his Fanta in a bottle

Belinda loved her french fries and tia Paige loved being with her while she ate them.

Marco LOVED his Fanta. He drank almost that full cup without stopping. I feel bad for the poor tia who had to change his diaper after that.




After the kids wouldn't eat their hamburgers they gave all of them to Francisco because he had eaten a few bites of his.... not sure if they really though he would eat all of them, but it made for a funny picture.

Termas de Chillan

Sra. Gloria asked us one day what all we had done in Chillan. She was so disappointed that we hadn't been to the Termas (hot pots) yet. She told us she would take us that Friday when we got to CONIN. Paige wasn't able to come because she wasn't feeling well. Sra. Gloria and two other tias took time off from work and drove us up the mountains in the CONIN van. It was beautiful. The snow was coming down gently like in the movie White Christmas and everything was covered in it. We weren't able to make it all the way up to the termas because the road was slippery, but it was still a lot of fun. They had packed a lunch for us and even offered to take us to taste some of Chile's famous wine! Of course we had to disappoint them and turn it down even for medicinal purposes, but it was a sweet gesture.

All of us up in the mountains.

Sra. Gloria really really wanted us to take pictures by these strange things on the side of the road because they had volcanic rock on them. We decided they made us look like peacocks.

Peacock Jamie.

Us getting a little too excited about snow.

Jamie really liked the snow.

Esperanza

We went to an orphanage called Esperanza where all of the kids are up for adoption, the same orphanage where Jason and Damian were taken. We went one day for our lunch break and then the next day to give the kids cookies. The kids were so stinkin' cute and were so excited to see us again when we came back the second time... I got the best hug ever just for coming back. It was fun to communicate with some of the older kids... about six years old... because their spanish was better than any of ours. We even got laughed at for sounding so stupid when we talked in spanish! They thought it was hilarious.

Paige being funny with some of the kids. Jason in the highest making a funny face.

Me with some of the kids.

Paige and Jamie with some kids. Jason is in there again in the grey.