8626 Rio Loa

It’s a bit strange to be sitting in a living room relaxing on the futon while looking around all the rooms of the house and décor constantly realizing none of this is ours. It sure feels that way having spent over a month in this house already. We’ve grown to love Santiago and all the blessings that have come our way here.


Almost daily, my mind drifts away as I gaze out the window reflecting upon all that’s taken place the last days, weeks, months, and years – let alone what all’s transpired within just the last year and the emotions I’ve felt.

In 2009 I welcomed my 3rd nephew into this world in January, traveled to Puerto Rico in February with Jenny for a wonderful trip earned by reaching top sales for 2008, again celebrated my birthday and Jenny’s together in April (only 5 days apart), proposed to the beautiful, sandy-blonde girl from Florida in May, earned 2 promotions in 6 months (January & June), truly had the best day of my life on our wedding day with our families and best friends in July, cruised with my new wife to the Cayman Islands, Mexico, Belize, and Honduras in late July, arrived home and decided with Jenny to “push pause on life” and take a year off to travel, grow together and appreciate more, turned in my two weeks and left Denver for South America in August, welcomed my 4th nephew into this world via Skype in September, lost my precious Grandma in October while in Puerto Iguacu, Argentina, and celebrated my 1st Christmas as a married man with my wonderful wife here in Santiago at this house in Las Condes. Time truly does fly by…

Here it is January 2010 and I have 8 months yet of overall new discoveries, travel, cultural observation, language learning, people to meet outside the U.S., and activities to attend before I’m back home in Denver. I plan to make the best of it. I’m beginning to look at my return to Denver as a fresh start to a new career (as well as many other things). I’m brainstorming several ideas for what to pursue. Many people would call these ideas of mine – dreams – and smile about the “dream” and maybe pat me on the back for a good thought and wanting to possibly go for it, inadvertently telling me not to go for it. I’ve actually come to realize though that I truly am a dreamer and one of the things that puts a smile on my face and motivates me is the absolute challenge of making most of these dreams become reality.


Slowly the visions, voices, and images of today’s daydream so real and alive dissipate as small gusts of wind softly sway the branches of the tree in our front yard luring me out of the trance and back into this moment. Then again, sitting on the futon I look around and smile taking in the fact that I’m here and able to live what was before a dream.

It is all completely foreign – the books, dishes, towels, photos of smiling strangers everywhere and our temporary dog Tully, (SOMEBODY PINCH ME), the Weimar-wiener we have here. She’s probably feeling a bit strange herself with all her familiar surroundings, but yet the people are different. I can tell she is happy and going with the flow – she’s comfortable, has food, water, gets to run with Jenny, has quite a bit of playtime with us, and even gets to break some of the rules she’s known (I know I’d be a happy dog if that were the case for me)! She’s already grown quite attached to us as she follows us everywhere, whines when one of us leaves, and sleeps at our bedside. I must admit we have grown quite fond of her too!


We have been blessed to have such an opportunity land on our laps. We have an entire house, cell phones, dog, and even car (if we need it) in a beautiful city and country in South America. The Denver of South America in my opinion. It has the best of both worlds; the Andes Mountains lining the city and the Pacific Ocean less than 2 hours away. If you like the waves or the mountain snow, Santiago has it, along with your normal city life activities, disco-techs, and restaurants. One of the other not so common amenities of other cities that Santiago has is the numerous vineyards on the outskirts of the city which produce the famous Chilean wine.

We will have been house sitting here for over 70 days by the time we leave. The bus route and metro (subway) are already embedded in our heads, we have both completed over 100 hours of Spanish which is beginning to make things much easier, and we both have part time volunteer opportunities we are contributing to 20 hours per week. Jenny is volunteering at 2 different orphanages a few days a week along with helping out at an “English café” in which she helps Chileans practice their English. I have been volunteering in sales and marketing for a language school here at Escuela Fronteras and helping to further develop its study abroad program with the U.S. and Europe.

The family we are house sitting for happen to be missionaries here with two children. They are on “furlough” for 2 ½ months back in the states. This was an excellent solution for both the family and us as it saved them money by not having to pay someone to stay here, take care of their dog Tully, and maintain their house and yard. In turn, it has definitely helped us out as well with saving money and having a wonderful place to call home, volunteer for awhile, practice our Spanish, and enjoy Santiago and the central part of Chile for a good amount of time.




We will leave here the 18th of February and head south through Chile to nearly the southern tip of South America to experience Glacier National Park. We then plan to fly up to Buenos Aires to catch a ferry over to Montevideo and travel the entire coast of Uruguay and Brazil up to Rio de Janeiro visiting as many beautiful beaches as possible. When finished with Rio, we will fly back to Santiago and travel north along the coast of Chile into Peru and quite possibly some parts of Bolivia. We plan to volunteer in Peru in the town of Pisco where we will help to rebuild a city devastated by an earthquake a few years ago. Our finale if all goes to plan will be Machu Pichu in Peru and then fly out the Middle of May from Lima.

Again - Onward and upward my family and friends…

AA