Blahhh I haven't written for like 3 weeks… so much to talk about... here goes.

Ok so this is the recap of when my parents visited me a week ago, the good, the bad and the hilarious hahaha.

Day 1: They arrived on Sunday morning in Santiago around 8 am. I had to wake up super early (4 am to be exact) to head down to the bus station to meet them.As I was waiting for them I started chatting with a fellow that was waiting to pick up a grandmother and grandson. Their flight had arrived about an hour earlier and there had been no sign of them.. so we were laughing that the grandmother probably had an apple in the bottom of her purse and got stuck in customs. Then I said that my parents would probably walk out the wrong side of the exit and then I wouldn't be able to find them. But he assured me that 90% of people go out the right door. A couple minutes later the old lady appeared with the large blue paper you get when you get stopped at customs… after he approached her and asked what happened he turned around to me and said, "it was an apple in the bottom of her purse." After laughing I noticed my phone was ringing and answered to my mom asking where the heck I was. Surprised I said I was at the gate and she said, "oh we are waiting there too." After realized they were among the 10% of people that go out the wrong door and I turned around to the same man and said that we were both dead on with our predictions.It was just absolutely hilarious and I had to include it to preface how our trip went.

After making my way to the other side of the exit I was overjoyed to see my parents! I hadn't seen them in almost 3 months and it was right about the time I was going to fall apart if they hadn't come to visit. We left the airport to take two different buses and a cab and finally made it into Viña. After some unpacking we head out to the beach and then walked all around downtown. There was actually a fire in one of the hills in Viña that day and filled downtown with smoke. After walking all along the beach we headed to the grocery store and cooked some dinner while watching the sunset from the 18th floor of the apartment.Great end to day 1!

Day 2: The only instructions that dad gave me were to not book an early bus to Argentina the next morning. But… unfortunately there were only 2 buses to Argentina (one at 9am and one at 10pm)… so we were off to Mendoza, Argentina at 9 am the next day, sorry dad! The 7 hour bus ride was gorgeous and terrifying. The road going through the Andes Mountains was very steep and windy. After summiting the Andes we had to wait awhile to make it through customs at the border. We got into Mendoza later that day and checked into our hotel with a breeze. After a bit we headed out for to find some delicious Argentinian beef.We found an awesome restaurant and had a bottle of wine, calamari appetizer, salads, mom and dad had steak and I had shrimp pasta.. and in total it cost USD $60! It was one of the best dinners I've ever had and we quickly discovered Argentina was very cheap.We ended the night walking around downtown and eating some traditional Argentinian alfajores (cookies).

Day 3: OFF TO THE SPA! After a little research we found a spa called Termas Cacheuta that was snuggled in the Andes Mountains. We got picked up at 9 am and took about an hour to arrive. Upon arrival we were given a tour… incredible! There was an infinity pool on the top level, then below were about 8 different natural hot springs, with vapor caves, mud baths (yes dad was especially excited about this one)... the works! We were in the middle of nowhere, at the most amazing spa ever! After getting our robes and signing up for an hour massage and facials (hehe) we were off for an entire day of relaxation.Lunch was also included and worth mentioning… it was an enormous buffet, equipped with a full carving station with chicken, ribs, pork, beef, chorizo… and tons of side dishes and salads. Absolutely delicious. After lounging all day long, drinking wine, eating delicious fruit, going in the caves, massages, facials, mud baths, we left around 7 pm to head back to the hotel. And all of this for the price of USD $70 each. This was a day to never forget.

Day 4: On day 4 we headed off to a wine and bike tour around Mendoza. We rented bikes for the day and then were off to visit as many vineyards as we wanted. I think there were 14 in total, and we ended up visiting 5.The first one we visited (Museo del Vina La Rural) was a museum and a vineyard so we learned a lot about the process of winemaking. The next one (A la Antingua) was a small one that made chocolates and olive oils as well. Next we biked about 8 miles to Familia Di Tomaso for some lunch. One slight problem we had was that they told us we could pay with credit cards at the wineries but come to find out we couldn't. So… with the little cash we had we skimped a little on lunch to be able to tour a few more wineries.Probably my biggest complaint is the whole cash economy thing… not only can you not pay with credit… but ATM's only give you large bills and most every place won't accept them. So even when you have money you really don't. It's quite annoying.Anyways… we headed out again for the last two wineries on the map. Carinae was a small winery that was very young and had only been established a few years ago. Mom and I actually didn't like their wine so much, but the next winery we visited was Vistandes. They had a very modern winery and had very delicious wine. Most winery specializes in Melbec because Mendoza is known for its Melbec. After around 20 miles and 5 wineries we were beat. We headed back to the hotel and ended the night fairly early.

Day 5: Our last day in Mendoza.. .we opted for a night bus ride home so we had the whole day to shop downtown! We left dad in the hotel for the morning and mom and I left to do a little damage. We picked up dad a couple hours later and had another amazing (and cheap) meal in Argentina. Dad tried to order off the kids menu.. hilarious, but ended up getting himself a burger and fries. Luckily mom and I decided to share a sandwich and salad because when it showed up to the table it was the biggest meal I had ever seen. We stuffed ourselves and still ended up having an entire portion of the sandwich left so we made some homeless people's day and gave it away. The bus ride home was quite the experience. We left Mendoza around 10pm. We ended up getting stopped 4 times and the Argentinian police came on the bus and started asking people for identification and looking through luggage. We didn't know what was going on but at one point they asked one man to get off and they we had to wait for them to finish questioning him before we could leave. After we got home I asked Nora (my Chilean mom) what she thought it was and she said they sometimes they get word of people trying to transport drugs and stop busses to search. It was a little scary to be in the middle of the Andes at night, not knowing what was going on, and having the police search the bus every hour or so….

We got into Viña at about 5:30am and headed for the apartment for a good nap. In the afternoon we spent time downtown .

Day 5: On Saturday we went to my Chilean house for a huge asado (BBQ) and so both of my families could meet. My Chilean family doesn't speak English and my parents obviously don't speak Spanish so I played middle man all day. It was actually way less uncomfortable than I expected and honestly didn't even feel like there was a language barrier. We grilled tons of meat and feasted all day long. After lunch we all played Uno and had a total blast with all the kids. Dad and Nora even got into a little Uno war, but in the end Mom whooped us all and won. That night we went into Valpo for the night. We walked all around Cerro Alegre and Concepcion. There are tons of small shops, restaurants and art galleries that mom was especially fond of. I was so happy that Nora and Julian (Chilean parents) took us up there because Valpo is so different from night and day and I couldn't have taken my parents up there at night alone. I am so fortunate to have such great parents in 2 different countries!

Day 6: Sunday was Easter so we spent the majority of the day lounging around the apartment to just spend time together as a family. Later on we ventured downtown and watched a bunny parade over a cup of joe from Starbucks. We ended the night watching the sunset over some tomato soup and grilled cheeses.

Day 7: Monday morning we woke up and mom did my hair. Believe me she was super excited to travel 6000 miles just to cut and color my hair. HA! But after that I had to head out to school for one class. In fact, my school decided to change campuses that day… that's a story that I will have to blog about another time. What a headache. So I had to leave extra early to go find a new bus to take to this new campus that is out in the middle of nowhere.The parents spent time at the beach while I was gone, and that night we went to Delicias del Mar, a famous seafood restaurant in Viña. Mom had seabass, Dad ate salmon and I went out on a limb and ordered Eel which turned out to not be one of my favorites. But hey gotta always try something new.

Day 8: Tuesday we were planning on going to Casablanca, a town about an hour away that has tons of vineyards specializing in white wine. Unfortunately, mom wasn't feeling great and around 7 am I decided that we would head to the clinic. She felt like she had fluid in her lungs and was a little worried it was pneumonia so I decided it was a fabulous time to head to the doc. When we arrived no one spoke English so it was up to me to figure that out. Fortunately for us the meanest doctor alive was the one we got. The nurse that came in first was super nice, talked slower for me to understand and helped us with the paperwork. When the doctor came in the nurse told her to speak slower for me, so instead of doing that she purposely started running her mouth of which I had no idea what she wastalking about. Then she used the thermometer on the touch screen computer, came over to mom and then stuck it right under her armpit. It was at this point mom turned to me and said if they want to do some radical procedure she was on the next plane home. We then were sent off to the x-ray room and then got some blood tests. After 45 minutes of waiting for results we figured out she had bronchitis and were sent home with some antibiotics and cough medicine. I don't think mom was so happy to get outta that place…. Hahaa.

That afternoon Nora insisted on coming over and making soup for mom so that she could get better. She came over with everything to prepare a delicious meal. She is such an amazing cook. So we spent the rest of the afternoon together resting in the apartment.

Day 9: With a little rearranging of the planned schedule, we switched going to Valpo and seeing CONIN, the orphanage I work at, for Thursday and went to Concon on Wednesday. We slept in and then headed to Concon and Renaca for some delicious empanadas. We walked around the town and spent time on the beach. We actually ended up going back to get empanadas… twice. Que rico! When we got back we headed to the market in Viña. Mom was pretty shocked at all the produce and how cheap everything was. That night I invited all the girls over for some dinner.

Day 10: Thursday started off pretty early as we set out for an eventful day in Valpo. We first took a collectivo (taxi) to the plaza, then the metro to the fish market in Valpo. I think mom and dad liked seeing all the boats and the fist coming in from that morning. There are also sea lions that live close to the pier and eat all the fish that they throw out. After that we took a micro (bus) up to the hills of Valpo so they could see CONIN. The ladies there are so nice, they gave them a full tour. We spent the majority of that afternoon feeding and playing with all the babies I work with. Dad even got pretty into it and was playing with Katherine.After that we went to a little restaurant because they had to try completos before they left! Completos are pretty much hot dogs with tomatoes and avocados on them, very typical Chilean dish. After filling our stomachs we walked around the hills of Valpo and then headed back to Cerro Alegre so mom could buy a painting she wanted.By mid afternoon we were pretty tired so we headed back to the apartment to rest a little and get ready for dinner with my Chilean family.

That night we went out for an amazing dinner. We met up at my house and had a couple glasses of wine (I had to add that in because the night ended with both my moms getting a little tipsy). We went to Portofino in Viña. We had a delicious appetizer of all seafood, clams, shrimp, crab.. everything. Yum.After a few pisco sours I think we were all feeling pretty good, hahahaa. And our entrees were delectable. It was an amazing, night and perfect way to spend their last night here. I am so amazed at how everything turned out between my two families. To be honest I was a little worried because I knew the language was going to be a difficult thing to get past. But I don't think we all could have bonded any better. It grew even closer to them during the time my parents were here… I'm not sure how I will leave them in 2 months…

Last day: We woke up on Friday morning and packed up. After all was put together, we went downtown for our last shebang. We ended up getting some snacks and sitting on the beach to watch the waves crash. We left at 4pm and made the trek back to the Santiago Airport. Leaving the rents at the airport was a little tough. I am most definitely a family girl. As much as this has been the best experience of my life, it's been difficult too, which I can say has made it even better and more worth it. Thanks again to the most amazing families on this planet, I love you all sooooo very much.