How can it be that August has gone by so fast? It seems like just yesterday that we arrived in Chile! Our last two weeks were spent both on our own and with both of the kids grandmas.

The week before the Grandmas arrived was spent wondering around Viña del Mar and a few of the surrounding cities. The kids got lots of playground and beach time to balance out the school work they do most mornings. We took the bus over to Renaca to have lunch at an empanada place that was recommend to us and then went to Cooper’s third therapeutic horseback lesson at Trekán which is also in Renaca. The next day we took the metro train to a city called Villa Alemana for lunch at a wood fired pizza place called Da Cate Ristorante. We were seated at the back by the oven where the kids could watch. The chef gave each kid a ball of dough and some flour to play with. After Mason had played with his for a while he took it and made a tiny pizza for us to eat while we waited for our real pizza to come. It was a neat experience and the food was great.

After lunch we hung out in the park across the street and then took the metro back. There were some very talented singers on the metro ride back that made the ride lots of fun.

The kids were so excited to have their Grandmas come to visit! They could hardly sleep the night before. Antonio dropped them off safely after picking them up at the airport in Santiago and bringing them straight to our place. After getting settled we all walked into town so that the kids could show them their favorite park.

We then went and got lunch at a Peruvian restaurant. It was fun to be able to share some of our favorite foods and drinks from Peru. They got to try lomo saltado, chifa, chicha morada and pisco sours.

The next day we took them down the road to see the flower clock and up the hill to see the president of Chile’s vacation home and to check out some of the souvenir shops in town.

We ended the day by going over to the Sheraton for drinks to watch the sunset.

On Monday we headed back to the unique city of Valparaíso for the third time. We showed them a lot of our favorite spots and discovered some new ones.

We had lunch at Inquilino again which was fantastic. They have an amazing terrace that looks out over the sea. We all shared clams baked in a parmesan cheese sauce along with more ceviche and a few sandwiches.

We took a different funicular calle El Peral down the hill this time. Our third one out of the twenty-two in the city. We will definitely have to get back to the colorful artsy town of Valparaíso some day. There is so much more to explore!

El Peral funicular was closer to the harbor which allowed us to walk around the port for a while. That evening we walked over to the Sheraton hotel for some drinks and to watch the sunset. One of our favorite things about Viña were the spectacular sunsets. We were lucky enough to see several of the most amazing sunsets that we have ever seen. Here are a few of our favorites.

On our last full day in Viña we went down by the pier area, had lunch at a great burger place called roof burger, and then the Grandmas came with us to watch Cooper in his last horseback riding session. Viña del Mar was a beautiful city that we will miss very much. It will be hard to beat living across the street from the ocean for a month. Especially watching the giant waves crash into the rocks and seeing the huge pelicans purched on the castle or flying by. We could not have rented a better Airbnb and hope to return someday.

Everybody took the double decker bus the next day back from Viña to Santiago. This really is the way to go if you have time. It ended up being around $30 for all six of us. The rest of the day was spent by the pool relaxing. The kids had been dying to swim all month.

Located with in the giant park behind our hotel was an awesome kids place called Kidzania. We took the kids there after playing at the park most of the morning. Kidzania is modeled after the city of Santiago and the different jobs and businesses around the area. There are other Kidzanias around the world that are also modeled after their respective cities. In ours the kids were able to try out jobs like working in a laundry mat, as a delivery person, a pilot, fireman, paramedic, grocery bagger, bread maker and popsicle maker amongst many other professions. They earned money by doing some of the jobs that they used to pay for some of the more favorable jobs like being a pilot or fireman. The kids had a blast and learned lots about different types of jobs in the community.

On our final day in Chile we went took a hop on hop off bus back to San Cristóbal hill with the Grandmas. We went there earlier in the month but thought they would love it. We took the skyway up to the half way point this time and got out to explore a park we could see from above for a while.

After that we took the skyway the rest of the way up the hill to see the virgin Mary statue and then the funicular back down again. We got back on the bus tour and took it all around the city. It was a whirlwind day but so much fun!

Just like that month number two had come to an end. We have fallen in love with South America and can’t wait to explore more of it. Currently we are in Buenos Aires, Argentina for our third and final month in South America.