We have been here for 3 weeks and we are very excited. We had several first for us which I will share in a minute. First let me show you the beauty around us. We are settled in the middle of a mountain valley with tall mountains all around. There are about 6-7 mountains within 10 miles of us which are between 9-13,000 feet. We got some snow and here are some picture of the view out our front door.

 

 

I don't know if you can appreciate the beauty but it is spectacular.

 

As for our first experiences:

1.       We had our first earthquake. We were sleeping one morning and felt the bed shake a little and then shake a little harder. It stopped then. It was a weird feeling but everything held together and we are quite fine. That was the first time at all for Mom and it was a surprise experience for her. I am sure we will feel more as there are 7 Volcanos here in Chile, so to have an earthquake is not abnormal.

2.       We had our first rain. It was a really nice rain throughout one evening. Not a gulley washer but a steady rain. On our roof it is a composition roof but it does not have any decking or insulation, so when it rains if sounds like we are in a tent. So all night it sounded like rain on a tent. We did not get any rain inside and so we felt quite protected.

3.       We had snow in the mountain tops. We are surrounded by mountains, big mountains. All around us are 9-12,000 foot high mountains. It is beautiful so with the recent rain there was snow in the mountain tops and you talk about a beautiful view. I included two picture out our front yard of the mountains. One is at sunset and the other during the day. We will try to get more.

4.       Walmart has stores down here. They are called Lider and just like home they are everywhere. There is one in Puente Alto where we go that is absolutely mammoth. It is bigger than any Walmart we have seen in the States. It has almost anything you can imagine and just like the states the store is full. Yesterday for example we went to the Lider store that is a little closer and there are 44 checkout stands full. We were in line to check out for 15-20 minutes.

5.       Internet is still a challenge. We have the modem stick but it is slow and not the best reception all the time. If we were down in the city of San Jose there would be cable in the homes but not here on the mountain as it is really difficult to get cable to the homes on the mountain so we have to use airwaves. We think we have found the solution though. The church is going to let us use their carnet number and have the service billed to them. We will include our internet service on our housing cost. Then I will use my I-phone as a wifi hotspot and we will be I business. Tuesday we will be checking into it and if it works we will have a more reliable and consistent system. We will see.

6.       We had our first parking ticket. We went to the Puente Alto 2^nd ward for our Zone meeting. The church is in a commercial area and has a fence around the building. A nice building. There is parking along the street in front of the church. Because the church lot was locked we parked in the street. The block is pretty long. Anyway at one corner is a sign indicating 30 minute parking limit which we did not see because we came from a completely different direction than the corner the sign is on. There is another sign 2/3 down the block which we did not see because we did not get that far. If you park for more than 30 minutes you pay 50 cents per minute including the first minute. We were there 3 ½ hours.

7.       We had our first Labor Day. Just like the states there is a Labor day and the same people get off work. And like the states it is a day for shopping.

 

Our next Post we will share more of what we are doing.