life in chile has kept me from blogging very much (i think i am stuffing a years worth of activity into one month and i LOVE It!) so i apologize for the lack of updates - but have no fear the experiences are definitely being internalized and i cant wait to share stories with yall! each day of this month keep getting better - i dont know where to begin and i guess i will just have to pick and choose the high points - aaahh this place is A - MAZING! I think the last time i wrote was after my last minute adventure to vina del mar. thank goodness i went on a limb and accepted the invite because the columbians have quickly become dear and true friends. how fun that jennifer also is in the mix, we have made so many memories (both in the hospital and out). I cant imagine chile without them, isnt it neat how God brings those people into our life - uh i love it! Last friday night (yes this is the story that jennifer was leaving to me in her prior blog), i had a repeat of my vina del mar experience. if you didnt get a chance to read about it, quick summary is - martha mae + dance floor until 6am, and when i say 6 am i really mean it - crazy! i heard people hear party until the "break of dawn" but i never believed it could be true. the energy on dance floor reached a 5 on the richter scale around 5 am...more on the richter scale later in the blog..... So back to last friday night, our intern matias (otherwise known as GQ, or ...beautiful) reccomended a party on the top of cerro san cristobal called "wake up", apparently its where all the "cool people" go haha. towards the end of the afternoon at work we decided to go to concha y toro winery, dr menchaca had reccomended it the night prior when he took us out into the andes. the columbians asked permission to leave early for our wine tasting experience (resident priorities lol). lauras friend guillermo and angela joined us. i was overcome by a "warm and fuzzy" feeling so i bought a "premium tasting/tour" package for everyone (8 people....one extra moonlighting shift in the NICU!...will be called our chilean shift). so at concha y toro we had delicious wine, weather was great and topped it off w some local cheese and a tasting class. flash forward a few hours to 8 pm when we return to santiago. we all departed to get ready for our night out (i made a very intense caffeinated elixer!), and circa 9 30 pm were out for happy hour and a meal. yes happy hour does not end at 6 pm here and if a restaurant is empty at 8 pm its not because they are done serving meals, its because the chef is just preparing his menu for the night. a cursory summary of our night includes mojito(s)..plural?, a delicious churassico sandwich (some type of latin meat), and then heading to the tip top of san cristobal to dance the night away. this is a PG rated blog so for the juicy details of our night please invite me out for a coffee date and i will spill all the secrets. (JUST KIDDING!) around 5 am i was ready to go home much to the chagrin of my new columbian girlfriends. there was concern on jen and my's part about the taxi drivers on the top of the hill - and everyone was walking down the mountain together so we just went with the pack . dont freak out ....we got a ride with a reliable looking male and female. (NO...this is not hitchhiking!), once down the mountain we hailed a taxi (circa 6 am) - the streets are still so crowded at this hour - and i remain baffled that it seemed to some that we were "going home early". needless to say it was a very memorable night. we have a soundtrack from our trip, most of the songs coming from the dance floor and now when i hear them my heart just skips a beat (oooh ooh sometimes, i get a good feeling - yeah....nosa nosa (my portugese song...) Anyhow that is a brief summary of our friday night - thanks for hanging in there with me on my stream of consciousness.
Flash forward to sunday, we all went to isla negra (on the coast) home of nobel prize award winning poet from Chile Pablo Neruda. Laura (columbia) has taught me so much about the world while here. i had no idea who he was, i realize when i travel how i can totally suffocate myself with my own worries and problems and priorities in america and lose sight of the world. i have to add in about my lunch on sunday, so fun, totally had a cheap empanada that an older lady was selling on the street!
The next day (monday)...my last work week in santiago, i was at the catholic university (universitad catholica), which is much more similar to Childrens in Birmingham. Tertiary care center with all of the specialists --academic center and more serious than sotero. The residents seemed to be pretty busy. Highlight of the day.....running into Patricio Valle! I heard someone say his name and ran out into the hall! The other PICU attending, who sports colorful skirts and stilettos, had wanted some inside information on Patau's time in birmingham...i still have time :-)
I attended morning report and afternoon seminar with the residents. The upper levels used their cafeteria pass and got lunch for me - we ate together at a short little table that is meant for little kids - what a memory! The patients were complicated just like those at sotero. Jennifer joined me the following day and we were graced with a two hour long seminar on constipation with the GI fellow.....
My second day at cath. univ I ventured to the NICU since I had already met Daniela, Shirley and Valeria (fellow and residents from bolivia/argentina). They gave me a huge hug and invited me up to their "reunion" (literature review). Dr. Kattan (picture richard gere meets nicu) was very kind, included me in rounds. Everyone there knows UAB because of dr fabres.
For my last few days of hospital work I went back to sotero del rio - i just fell head over heels for that hospital. The spirit of the work there, and especially Dr. Menchaca, Dr. Sandoval and Dr. Cavagnaro, really touched my heart. My last few days found me taking picture after picture, bustling from one service to the next to examine interesting patients, and savoring sweet time with interns/residents whom I now consider friends. On Friday I presented my an oral presentation to several interns and residents. During the past week I prepared a talk on my reflections/experiences and what I have learned here in Chile. It includes info on the health system, specific pediatric topics I learned from interesting patients, contrasts between medicine home and here, and the fun/enriching memories I will take with me. I almost cried during the talk, I will present it during a noon conference in may for all of my UAB friends. This trip has totally encouraged me in pediatrics!
To top it all off, Friday was the interns last day of pediatrics ....which means....exam over and rotation over and time to P A R T Y! Yes, in fact we attended the intern party and it felt so good to be included! Yes the party started around midnight, but that was okay for us because we didnt start dinner with Cony and friends until around 9 45 pm! What a country. Again, this blog remains PG rated (you all know im kidding - of course its PG!!! Its martha mae and jennifer we are talking about!) Our friend Hernan is known as the "salsa king" among the interns - and it is totally true!!
I have left many experiences out because there has been just so much going on, and we will try to go back and clean up the loose ends - but I must flash forward to the present (TODAY!) in which I am returning to santiago after FOUR DAYS SO FAR WITH MY MOM! thats right, mama mae and martha mae take on Chile!!!! We are currently in a taxi going from pucon to the airport in temuco for our flight back to santiago. To get from pucon to temuco we took a bus with several other passengers en route to pucon, but leaving its harder to find a caravan so we were forced into a pricey taxi (after attempting to find a bus....you all know im a little hard headed :-)....)
back to mamas trip, I picked her up at airport saturday morning (after a few hours sleep, the interns were 100% confused why i was going home at 4 am when she didnt arrive at airport until 8:30am...whats the problem they said, you have four hours lol!)
Directly after her landing, we went on a bus to vina del mar (gotta hit the ground running, didnt want to waste transit time so did our traveling before going into santiago). My mom is such a trooper (expect a short blurb from her later....). It is such a blessing to have a fun travel partner and dear friend - love you mom! We made it to vina and I had a hunch that Hotel San Martin would be nice and may have an available room, so without a reservation we took a taxi there from the bus station - and they had ONE ROOM AVAILABLE! YES!!! Our first afternoon in vina included strolling on the water and finding lunch along with cafe cortado (chilean form of cappucino), obviously mom wanted to find the street with markets. For a couple of late afternoon hours we attempted a siesta (still just cant get into it but trying), then cleaned up for her first night out. I found a hole in the wall local bar/restaurant where we enjoyed pisco sour and caprikoska, and procured info on the bartenders favorite local seafood spot. wow, he was right - fresh seafood on the pacific in chile - life is G O O D! Circa midnight (at end of dinner) I thought it would be a good idea to hear some salsa and maybe dance a little (mom, you told me you werent that tired!). After taxi'ing it over to valpariso (sister city to vina del mar) and paying the cover for a local salsa club, mom hit her wall and started to fall asleep....OKAY...FOR ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE ..INTRODUCING...MAMA MAE...
ill take it from here, hola everyone, this is karen, martha's mom. I have the best tour guide a mom could have! After flying all nite without sleep, which if you know me, I have a problem sleeping anyway! Martha couldn't wait to get me to the beach! There are no words to describe how beautiful the area is! Pics will be posted soon! We took Vina Del Mar down! I love to shop, as you know, but now winter clothes are out! I'm pumped cause I get to see the fashions for us next winter! Too cool! Of course I wanted to eat some pescado, (fish) so we took a taxi to a nice restaurant that the bartender recommended. And yes, it was amazing. After dinner I wanted to salsa so we went to the bar with live music but WOW I was fading! Ok I admit it I was asleep at the bar and woke up and there was Martha trying to get a refund! She told the manager that I just arrived from the US and had a virus! LOL She did it! I didnt understand much but I heard the words "vomito" and "taxi a casa". Thankfully, a restful nights sleep followed! For the rest of the details including mother nature's suprise Ill let Martha come back.
Thanks mom! Chile loves you! My mom is learning a few new words each day. Our 2nd day in vina was amazing - weather perked up, we walked along the water, did some shopping (mom LOVES to shop), lunched on the water while talking with some locals we had met. During happy hour, while the sun was setting over the pacific (BEAUTIFUL,,,,see pic below!), we felt a little shake and I thought for a second we were on a boat...but no...it was a 7.0 on the richter scale with impending risk of TSUNAMI!, for which reason the restaurant/cafe cleared out. (we got our shots of sunset though). Cony, Carina and Jennifer all called to make sure we were okay. I had Carina on one line telling us to evacuate to the mountains but the hotel staff in front of me saying not to worry. Sweet Cony offered for us to stay at her mothers so that we could go to her grandmothers mountain home if conditions worsened. Once seeing that SHOA (Chilean disaster committee?) disregarded risk of tsunami, we decided to stay in vina for the night..no one else seemed worried :) We made a smart decision by going out for dinner, around 9 30 we ventured to "delicias y mar" and it was a smart decision because if the tsunami were to attack us I would definitely want that to be my last meal! (okay okay a little extreme, just wanted to make you laugh). Truly though, crisp and cold sauvignon blanc, ensalada with creamy avocado and hearts of palm, fresh salmon on top of mint gnocchi -I cant describe how delicious the food is here. All who know me and know my obsession with Italy, have no fear Im not turning my back,,,but just saying, I have certainly found its equal....sorry! The waiter at the restaurant was the same one from when I was in vina 2 weeks prior with my columbian girlfriends...hmmm...fate? again, JUST KIDDING!
Adventures continued the following day, when we bussed it back to santiago airport and flew to temuco, after which we bussed it to PUCON. The lake district of chile and gorgeous green mountains and lake and a looming volcano with ice on the top. Such different landscape in different parts of the country. It was quite a trek and my mom, as I said earlier, is SUCH a trooper. I was excited for the "cute bed and breakfast" I had found on internet, called hotel (hostal) geronimo. well upon our arrival it wasnt quite what i expected, i mean not bad, just not a - mazing. Now I thought it had so much character, but I think for mom she could handle a little more glitz. Nonetheless we stuck with it . Pucon is a a major destination (2nd behind vina del mar) for chilean holidays. It is an adventure capital, you can kayak, trek, ski (winter), hike to top of volcano, white water raft, rock climb....or....YOU CAN GO TO THE THERMAL SPA (AQUA TERMAS)...i will let you guess what we did. OMG OMG OMG OMG..okay im still recovering from my experience at "termas huife". Let me say, if you ever need a retreat, getaway, honeymoon, personal vacay, gathering with friends...head straight to termas huife. We had a man who looked like indiana jones (with adventure hat) pick us up in a caravan around 11 am and we arrived (along w other passengers) to termas in 40 minutes. I immediately booked massages (60 minute premium!), and we explored the territory. I asked a lady to take our picture, and mamma mia! She kept directing us to different locations at the termas and we went on a full photo shoot. I just couldnt tell her no and mom was along for the ride. She had us get on rocks and pose..im not kidding - 30 minutes! Our massages were awesome. We originally signed up for facial/tension tamer/reflexology, but when we each got into our room i wanted to make sure we got to experience the "mud and honey" mask that i saw on the menu - so i asked to make sure that would be included. Well, apparently I changed the hour to a complete mud/honey mask. After getting my back side lathered in mud the masseuse said "in dies minutes sec..." (wait 10 minutes for it to dry). so i was left in the massage room for 10 minutes twiddling my thumbs (attempting deep breathing and yoga type meditation...friends who know me can only imagine). After coming back in and completing the other half of mud mask, I was left for another 10 minutes. After the mud/honey all dried we were each taken to a large bath/shower that was so comfortable! Felt like a roman princess or a greek goddess...or a chilean chica bonita! I felt bad that I changed our service to only mud/honey instead of all the other things, but our skin felt so smooth and it was still relaxing. And now we have something else to come back for. After the massages we enjoyed champagne and margaritas along with lunch consisting of fresh trout (think they just caught it..see picture below), cold vegetables, bread and olive oil. We relaxed in the waters for a couple more hours after lunch and other than mom getting stung by a bee had such a tranquil time. Chile - i love you!!!! On returning to pucon we lingered through the street, enjoyed some gelato ( i had "honeydew melon" how refreshing) and caught another beautiful sunset. God is so good to grace us with these natural wonders, and how wonderful to know that the most amazing things in life are free. such peace :-)
We are now back in santiago which I am blessed to call home for another week. Jennifer just left since her sister is getting married (i miss you!) and have already taken mama to plaza des armas. We are relaxing and on our way to cerro san lucia for sunset and then to bella vista for dinner. We had our afternoon snack of a crisp fuji apple (i really think fruit is better here) and be expecting more updates this week. I have to make up for lost time - and if you would like to see all of my pictures I can present them when I get home or you can look on facebook. Until next time, many besitos!
XOXO and with lots of love and chilean excitement
marta mae and my mom (mama mae!)
No comments:
Post a Comment