New destination, old dreams

We are not getting any younger and that goes for everybody, but how about our children?

Our son is a resposible adult with a life if his own, content to stay behind building a future we have supported, to give him a solid start. The little one is another matter, her dreams are anchored to the back of a horse and our dreams have evolved around the possibilities of our new destination to fulfill her dreams.

Time is a luxory, time is money, but time is also wellbeing and health. If you wait long enough to retire your pension plan may look financially robust, but what about your health?

We aim for good health, less material assets, a smaller home, calming environment and more time in each others company. We pondered, calculated and came to the conclusion that these values were priceless and far more important than our careers and working more years to earn more money.

August 4, La Calera

We continue our daily life in this land of contradictions, as we exchanged our normally quiet life in the countryside for the more energetic, not to say hectic and loud environment of the capital city of Santiago. We attended the Nutcracker Ballet and it was a lovely, well performed, colorful and pleasing to the eyes as well as to our ears. Sayen was very impressed with the whole experience, and that is a good sign since our purpose is to widen her taste in culture and to give our little family some needed rest from flu, fever and lack of sleep. In addition this visit to the capital started also the winter holiday and to establish a new tradition in accordance with last year’s holiday, we booked a riding tour to the Dunes of Ritoque, a treat for body and soul. Riding along the sea shore is amazing and together with the salty air it gives you appetite, so we drove to the little fisherman’s cove of Horcon where you can find all kinds of fresh seafood and dine by the beach with pelicans and sea lions.

Luckily we had time for a couple of outings and some padel, because only days after school started again, the rain came and it came with a seldom seen rage in this parts of the country. We even had something that can only be described as a hurricane, wind that ripped trees, electrical power cables and roofs, that plus a whole month’s of rain in a couple of days managed to leave us without electricity for almost 5 whole days. So we were busy trying to keep the house warm with our kitchen stove and stop the rain from leaking in. In spite of the weather we had a lovely time, because we were prepared with lots of good food, water, fire wood, rechargeable camping lights and games.

This winter has fulfilled it’s rain quota and the coming week’s rain will only be icing on the cake and very moderate in comparance to this last storm. We are alredy seeing the grass growing green, the trees starting to bloom, the ground will soon be covered with endemic flowers and a new cycle is about to start.

June 22, Oasis de la Campana

June has almost passed and we are recovering from lack of sleep due to Sayen having the flu. We lost an entire week just fighting her fever and trying to keep her as comfortable as possible, without any of us getting enough sleep. The last thing we did before this unfortunate week was travel to Santiago for a jump contest and having to unload and load back our mare Pollaka into the trailer and head back home almost immediately, since Sayen was developing symptoms and was not able to compete. She is still taken by the experience and has a lingering cough yet to battle. So we have been homebound this past weeks, but this coming weekend we are planning to travel to Santiago again to see the Nutcracker Ballet and hopefully enjoy the performance as well as the trip there. I’ll keep you posted and add a couple of pictures, since we are going to the financial center of Santiago, a location with sky scraping buildings of glass towering over you, but insignificant in comparance to the Andes surrounding it and painfully different from the rural and simpler life of our little chilean corner. 

May 2026, La Calera part 2

Let me tell you about la Calera in my mother’s childhood friend Fernando’s words: Ugly, but cheap. He should know, he drives all the way from Los Andes to the local farmer’s market here in Calera to buy produce for his small road side convenient store. 

Besides the market, the town of Calera boasts a cement factory (Calera means lime site, lime being one of the main ingredients in cement). They have a very proud and prominent football team, Union La Calera, with a very nice stadium and fiercely loyal supporters. 

They used to be an important rail road junction, but earlier government’s lack of understanding or interest in this particular way of transportation led to no maintenance measures in decades, so now the station building is just a sad reminiscence of a more glorious past. Luckily for all the local commuters there is a plan in motion to reestablish the rail road line by 2029, this will most certainly open up possibilities for the entire community and it’s inhabitants as well as all the small villages surrounding it. 

Last week the town council inaugurated a brand new cultural center, which will host music, art and other events as well as a brand new library. We are looking forward to visit this new center, an innovative initiative from Calera’s young mayor and his council, a project to further evolve the town from pure working class to a more elevated state of service for a growing population with more needs than the basics of work, housing and food.

May 2026, La Calera

The world has changed and we have to change with it. So many things have been altered, but I guess the one with the hardest impact is the situation between Iran and the US. We live at the literal end of the world, but things happening on the other side of the globe still leave an imprint in our day to day life. 

Due to this we have been forced to stay in the city of La Calera during the school day to save traveling time and foremost, to save gasoline aka money. I can’t even imagine the trouble and sorrow this must cause in households with weaker financial state than ours. So here we are and to pass time we have signed up with a local gym, called Gorilas and that has been a most healthy decision because it is a really great place, with deeply dedicated instructors and members. 

We still put a lot of time with diverse authorities, we are still waiting to get our construction permit, Johan is now also due to apply for a permanent citizenship and we know from earlier experiences both our own and others that this application will take at least a year to be handled. Johan is also studying to get his chilean driver’s  license and we discovered by coincidence that he has been registered as single when he received his social security number. So now we have to rectify this as well, otherwise my family health insurance will only cover Sayen and not Johan.

Sayen is doing fine in school, her Spanish gets better by the day, so much that she has earned the highest mark in a poetry assignment and her English teacher has recognized her skill and asked her to do a recital for the older pupils in her school, since she is more or less fluent in this language and that is rather uncommon here.

Still we keep enjoying our lives here, the arrival of our second winter here and all the great meetings and activities we share with our family and friends as we strive to settle and make it here on the other side of this great globe we call our home.

February 2026, Valparaiso region

January 2026, Hijuelas

Oh dear, I haven’t written in months! So much happens, most all the time and specially during summer vacation, so you loose your sense of time and also all the nice every day routines that we have managed to establish. Anyway summer was hot and dry, nothing new there and we are still waiting for our building permit, so we can dig a swimming pool and add a separate guest quarter to our house. This project has still about two more weeks in the hands of the municipality of Hijuelas and their lazy ass architect, whom objected to our previous plan since we deemed it small, but he judged it to be large. You would think we are trying to build a castle with a moat, but no all permits are handled this slow, between 60 to 720 days more or less, making it kind of difficult to plan. Most chileans will first build the house and when ready they will pay the fines for not following the procedure, it is cheaper and definitely faster than waiting to get an objection and delay every other party involved in the building project. 

We have spent our fair share of time at the municipality’s office this year already, since they also have mandate to issue driver’s license. In November I got a scheduled appointment for January to be there for the driver tests and when I got there my documentation was not correct, this they told me after having and reviewing my documentation and keeping me waiting two monts for this appointment. I managed to get the correct document rather quickly, delivered it to them thinking I would have to wait another two months to take the tests, but they tell me that I can be squeezed in for the theoritical part immediately. Well then, who was I to turn down such a surprising and time effective solution? I passed the theoritical test with flying colors, which you could do both in Spanish or English if needed, I chose Spanish obviously, but had to wait for the practical test over the weekend. I started the practical test by driving against a red stop light, almost red, but close enough to be noticeable. The only light regulated crossing in Hijuelas and I flunked out, damn it I thought, but the instructor forgave me for that one and for driving too slow to begin with. Because when I felt like I had got the grip on it, I began to feel more confident to be my usual self behind the wheel and if you know me, then you know I’m not shy when it comes to accelaration within the allowed limits of course. So I passed, despite the lousy start and can check another box on our to do list, in becoming law abiding chilean citizens. 

December 31, Oasis

This is the last day of 2025, this past year has been a humbling experience and we are getting more accustomed by the hour, to how things are done here. Some things are easier, but then some that should be or at least in Sweden are easy, are almost impossible here. Like trying to find a competent handyman with good references is almost impossible, so we end up doing most repairs ourselves. An other case is Sayen's schooling, she has finished her basic education and is now opting for middle school or high school. Basic school has been a very positive encounter with her class mates, teachers, the other parents and all of the administrative staff. All have contributed to make us feel welcome and helped all of us to settle and manage. Sadly going forward in her studies means having to leave the happy, secure bubble of Escuela Basica Rabuco and applying for higher education also means having to travel further away. Applying is made on line and is unnecessary difficult, with different lists that run with a limited number of vacancies for each institution. So we applied to several, ended up with nothing the first time around, but now we managed, the second time around to get Sayen accepted at Teresa Brown's school for girls, in La Calera. We may still get a chance to change if she is accepted else where, but that will have to wait until 2026, because now all the institutions are closed for summer vacation.

Ah yes summer, it has hardly lasted more than 10 days, but is already baking with 30 degrees and more on a daily basis. Johan and I are on constant vigilance due to the high risk of forests fires, but we will still try to make space and take time for lots of summer activities for our future high schooler. She deserves all the fun we can muster, having managed to graduate with an average of B+/A- or 6,5 out of 7 after a rocky start, she came back and ended with flying colors.

So my dears, so far so good and we are still here for the next round, 2026. Please take care and thank you for following us. Happy New Year and see you soon!!

December 19, Oasis de la Campana

November was overwhelming and I have been emotionally exhausted, thus no entry for November, but I will write about it next with not so much detail. Because having to say farewell to Cristián put a shadow over the month, but still life went on and we had previous plans and tickets, so we went to the Theatre in Viña for a concert with Quilipayun, which was a bit nostalgic in all kinds of way, with old familiar songs and also a new experience because we had never been to this lovely newly refurbished theatre before. 

We also had time to cooperate with our neighbors to organize and throw a blast of a Halloween party for the children of Oasis. It was very appreciated and everyone, young as well as old had lots of fun, candy, music, karaoke and games. 

In the middle of this I had to vote for parlament, senat and president and you have to understand that the democratic voting process in Chile is mandatory. So I had to look up where I was supposed to go, to register my vote and not surprising at all, I had to go to Viña since the last known address I had in Chile was my grandparents house. Voting was easy and very well organized, it only took about 20 minutes including waiting in line for a couple of them, the more difficult part was getting to know the candidates and what they stood for, to find a match. So I had to ask around, look them up on government pages, see articles on the internet, to finally follow my own convictions. 

So far so good, but now to the less enjoyable part of the month that caused much of the distress we had to deal with and that only now has settled. Sayen came home one evening after riding school, I could tell she had been crying and Johan was furious. They had reached a limit where they no longer could take the constant nagging from the riding instructor’s wife, the insults, innuendos and constant shouting. The instructor had chosen to force our horse over a water obstacle, something that she never had jumped before, so naturally she hesitated once and jumped, but then refused when Sayen tried again, but the instructor persisted that she must make it and mounted her and got thrown off. Somehow that incident ended up being our fault according to the instructor’s wife, our mare’s fault, because she is a worthless horse, Sayen is spoilt and no good rider and we should sell the mare. She even ranted about us speaking Swedish to each other, as if we were gossiping behind her back, she completely lost it and it was not the first time. We started immediately to look for other riding school alternatives, we were not going to stay there a day longer than necessary. We found the German riding school in Limache, a good hour away from us and payed them a visit, we brought Sayen to check it out the next day and everything was agreed on. We would move our horse to them the following week and they would help with the transport. The day before the move, the German riding school messages that they can no longer accomodate us and that they are very sorry. Somehow, the instructor's wife had gotten to them and persuaded them not to accept us and our mare. In her own words, the riding community of this region is very small and everybody knows everyone, in other words she would make sure that we would not be welcomed anywhere. I have seldom met anyone as devious and false in my life as this woman, and it saddens me to say that Sayen had to learn it the hard way, because Johan suspected things would escalate after the second time around the wife had one of her tantrums, and asked if Sayen wanted to move. It might have ended on a better tune if we had parted ways on that earlier occasion, but then on the other hand, the wife might have sabotaged us anyway. We had to pull all our established strings to save the situation, so we managed through our contacts to get hold of a horse transport and a box for our mare in our condominium Oasis de la Campana, out of the wife’s reach and to get some piece of mind. Unfortunately the administration of Oasis was not as forthcoming as we thought or hoped it to be, so we were only permited to stay a week and again we found ourselves having to chase for a place to keep our mare. By the time this was happening, we hardly slept, we called everyone we knew all over again, to find a spot and finnally we got a more permanent place for her, the owner of some local Polo horses, just outside our condominium had room for our mare and a place for Sayen to keep working on her riding and jumping skills. Our local friends and neighbors have been an enormous support in this matter and we will never forget their kindness. 

October 16, Oasis de la Campana

Where to start, well after 3 months Johans social number was made official with the arrival of his very own identity card and that very same day we applied for a bank account at Banco Estado, yes the very same one that has given us so much grievence and bad service before. It turns out that as a foreign citizen that is the only bank that will grant you the possibility to open a bank account, so in other words we had no real choice. It took 6 visits in persona to clear all the red tape and get it all going, application, on line service, card, etc. 

Nothing in Chile comes easy, except when you are dealing with private entrepeneurs, because they will bend over backwards to make it work, so it is not all bad but you have to choose your battles. This will now open for more extended freedom and the possibility to apply for a drivers license, but also to answer a request from our dear neighbor Michel about opening a boxing club for the youth in our community. So we have also reached out to the municipality with a list of over 40 names, including the head master of the local high school, for them to take under consideration and include our request during the planning of next year’s budget. 

We have also during this period received our diplomas for passing the S-190 ES test of the NWCG, National Wildfire Coordinating Group, a standard used by our colleague brigades in California and applied to our zone in Chile since the climate, weather and landscape are similar to the californian one. This means that in case of massive wild fires our brigade can exchange personnel with our californian colleagues and vice versa.

Speaking about our brigade, we also had to take farewell of our president and Command Center, Chief Cristian Olivos, whom left this earthly existence due to illness. He was a great, generous man, very knowledgeable and supportive. He will be sorely missed and it is a great loss for our community as well, since he was a loving husband, and father, a good neighbor as well as our friend. 

October 2, Oasis de la Campana

How time flies when you are occupied with having fun. September feels like ages ago and our agendas were busy with traditional dances, barbecues and drinks of the season. So we more than welcome the calm of October, a whole month to finish and register our guest house at the derpartment of construction at the municipality. We will also receive notice regarding Sayen’s high school choice for the coming 4 years, where we had to pick 6 different alternatives, based on what her friends chose, since we had no clue how to otherwise make a calculated decision, but now at least she will end up in the same school, with a friend or more. 

Today is so hot you would think it is summer already, but we have just passed the limit of spring and by this weekend it will rain again, not much, but enough to make it to next winter and to alleviate the coming drought. Nature here is a constant surprise for us, not having been here during either winter or spring, every new flower or tree blooming is a source of joy and admiration. The green hills, the yellow flowers, the blue sky are reoccurring sights that fill our eyes and hearts with beauty and calm.

August 30, Oasis de la Campana

With all of July behind us and almost completing August, winter is coming to an end. September is a joyous Spring month, everybody is preparing for the Fiestas Patrias, Chilean National day the 18th of September and the spirits are high. Sayen is learning to dance the national dance of Cueca, practicing the national anthem and will be performing another dance from the south of Chile, called Chamame at school. I have enrolled in the neighborhood comity and the school class parent group, and they have also lots of activities planned for this month. To start the school will have a large Cueca dance competition the 5th where several other schools are invited and will be participating. Johan and I have volunteered to man the Choripan stand that day, Choripan being chorizo and bread, so something of a Chilean hot dog. We have noticed that whatever the locals plan, food is always involved and a whole variety of it, freshly made by very dedicated ladies, moms, grannies and neighbors. 

So Winter did it’s best and gave us some magic moments with the citrus harvest, the snow covered peaks and some crisp cold days, Sayen even got a cold, but from now on the weather will keep on stabilizing and the precipitation will be more scarce. The fields are already bursting with different kinds of flowers, our first winter here will soon be over and we can’t help to be infected by the expectations of everybody around us.

June 28, Oasis de la Campana

Winter here is green, the recent rain has woken up nature from it’s dry spell and since the native flora doesn’t shed it’s foliage, the landscape has turned a deep green color that we nordic foreigners would mostly recognize as spring. Yellow flowers have sprouted along the highway looking very much like big buttercups and the hills (2000m or less) are covered in a lush carpet of green grass, but to remind you that it is winter the rain that falls in the valleys falls as snow on top of the mountains. I don’t think we have ever been this excited to see snow as we were when we saw the white peak of El Roble 2220m from our bedroom window. 

On the topic of snow, we had to travel to the border of Argentina to activate Johan’s newly acquired permit to stay in Chile for 2 years, and the future possibility of applying for permanent residency. So out of Chile and in to Argentina, through custom for an hour and then back, not really the trip I had in mind, but given the season and the time frame given by the Immigration authorities, it had to be done in a hurry. Quite the adventure driving to the border pass of Los Libertadores, slowly climbing to over 3000 meters and hoping to make it back before the weather changed and the pass closed. If closed we would have to stay from Friday to coming Wednesday waiting for the snow to settle and the roads to open again and even though Sayen is on winter holiday from school it would still be a lot of time spent just waiting at some random border hotel. We went there prepared for the worst, but we were lucky, everything ran as smoothly as possible and the trip in total took 12 hours, but I still wish to visit Argentina in the near future under more pleasent conditions. 

Next week we will get a phenomenon called Veranito de San Juan, Saint John’s little summer and temperatures up to 25 degrees Celsius are expected, but I’ll tell you all about that next time. 

May 21, Oasis de la Campana

Sometimes I feel like Alice in Wonderland, nothing is as it should be, as I’m used to, but still familiar. Difficult to explain, you have to be here to understand, but things we used to take for granted in Sweden are not a certainty here and other things that we had to struggle for back then, are effortless here. There is not a dull moment in this country, there is always something going on, so we have to learn to relax and enjoy the ride.

Sayen finally got her Chilean debut, the regional jumping competition hosted by the Presidential lifeguards, Horse Grenadiers of the city of Quillota. She rode fluently, with no remarks and ended in fifth place among 23 other riders in her category. It was a glorious day, 29 degress of sunny bliss and we couldn’t have asked for a better setting for her introduction to the sport here in Chile.

Autumn keeps showing up on a weekly basis and we have had some more rain, but are still slightly below the normal rate of precipitation. Nature here is completely different to what we are used to, in the summer temperatures are so high for a prolonged period of time, that the ground is dried and the grass withered, almost burnt by the time it starts to rain again. So by the first serious rain and by that I mean like the last big one with at least 30mm, the ground will be more or less hydrophobic and the loose layer of dust that keeps finding it’s way into the house, will form a very slippery surface. Locals knowing this warned us and told us to stay at home and not try to drive anywhere, Sayen’s school gave her the day off due to the rain, also in consideration to the fact that we wouldn’t be able to leave the house. It poured down like nothing we have ever seen here before, we even heard thunder and saw lightning, an unusual phenomena here and it all ended with some hail. As soon as we could go out wihtout being drenched, we put on boots and raincoats to test the road and to our surprise it was as slippery as ice! Lesson learned and it is wise to listen to the locals, they know their surroundings and conditions best. 

After rain comes sun, so we took advantage of the sunny weather and went to Viña for a day, to see the Pacific Ocean and have a more cosmopolitan fika, buy necessities like coffee beans, skin care and other items not found here out in the countryside.

April 17, Oasis de la Campana

Time flies when you are having fun, the aim was to write once a week, but life is what happens while you make other plans and I have had to settle with writting once a month at the most. Anyway, regarding the horse jumping competition in Santiago we had to let that one pass due to Sayen having a cold. Autumm made its entrance and we had a rainy day, the first real rain since October, so that and probably the excitement of a new school, the competition nerves and the sudden drop of temperature, surely affected her immune system negatively. So no visit to Santiago, but we did get to light the stove for the first time, since we also lost electricity for a couple of hours that day and I was in the middle of cooking dinner. Since then the weather has gone back to it’s normal dry, sunny days and cool mornings and evenings mode again. During this period Johan also started to build me a greenhouse with all the natural material we have in our plot. We were supposed to buy one, but our Chilean friends pointed out that a traditional glass greenhouse would be too hot for anything to grow and a home made version would be both cheaper and more useful in the climate of this zone. So we are now the proud owners of a greenhouse that looks like one made in Hobbittown, very organic and one that in time will melt very well into the landscape.

We have also during this time incorporated ourselves into the Chilean health care system and even Johan got a social security number that he can use in case of any emergency or illness. I pay a monthly fee for a government insurance roughly 350 SEK and both Sayen and Johan are included in that fee. So when and if we go to the doctor, we get a bond from Fonasa the government insurance company and pay nothing in our communal or other facilities tied to the system. If we wish to visit a private clinic we can get a refund up to 75% of the bill, so we are covered and feel much safer as it is now.

March 20, Oasis de la Campana

Sayen has now been attending chilean school for more than two weeks, she is the only child allowed to use her phone in class, to translate if necessary, but she is doing well regarding the situation and is content with her teachers, besides the slight language limitation and has even made a couple of friends. Riding after school is obviously also very motivating, knowing that she will be riding in equestrian school with her lovely Pollaka Rising Moon every Saturday and Sunday and every afternoon after school with the exception of Wednesdays and Fridays. This coming Sunday is special, she will be participating in her very first regional jumping competition with Pollaka. To enter the competition we have registered them both in the chiliean Equestrian Federation and she will be competing against the cream of Santiago society, so it will be intereresting to see how far the discipline she has acquired will take her.

Johan and I have continued our journey evolving to more capable brigadiers, able to battle and prevent fire with both tools, motor pumps and hoses. This will defenitely come in handy when the dry season starts again in November, as it is now the days are getting shorter, the mornings are cooler (around 15 degrees), but we still get over 30 degrees by day, a day or two per week otherwise it is mostly around 25. So winter is still out of sight and we take advantage of the colder mornings to work on our house and to prepare it for harsher weather.

March 4, Oasis de la Campana

I can’t believe it has been more than a month since my last entry, but so much has happened during this month, that we have been too exhausted to sit and ponder over the situation before the next thing hit us. We have since planted 2 more palm trees, a lemon tree, a fig and a laurel, our belongings arrived and were stuck in custom for 14 days and if it wasn’t for a custom agent that felt pity for our situation and decided to help, I guess our stuff would still be stuck. We ended up spending a whole day at the custom site, paying almost 1 million pesos in storage cost and handling, but that bill would have been almost the double if our new found friend had not stepped in and pulled some strings. Then trying to fit and find a place for everything when your house is half the size of your last home has been a challenge to say the least. 

So it has been nerve wrecking, messy and wonderful at the same time, a real life roller coaster filled with new acquaintances, lots of paperwork and time spent just sitting on our hands waiting for this or that authority to get their asses moving.

On the more daily basis, Sayen has been settling in real well with her riding routine and her riding instructor Lionel at the equestrian school of El Olivo. Lionel has been a real friend and support with a lot of things in connection to her riding and Sayen has been committed to her riding and the horses she is being dealt. She has been a good sport about it and done her part very well, so when the opportunity arose we went to Santiago to check out and test a horse that was put out for sale. A 10 year old mare named Pollaka with only one owner, a girl of 16 that had outgrown her and was now looking for a new owner for her horse, one that would love and grow with her horse as she had. It was love at first sight, I don’t know much about horses, but this mare was so calm and steady, you could tell she was paying attention and she really showed her best and left some to work on for future endeavors. Horses are an expensive investment, so you can’t rely on feelings alone, so we had a veterinarian make a full medical check and she passed with flying colors. She is being picked up in Santiago today by Lionel and a special transport and will be living at El Olivo and Sayen will visit her and ride every other day after school. Talk about school, today is the last day of summer vacation so tomorrow is Sayen’s first day at school, but that will be a story for another day.

Chile is the land of natural catastrophes, so we grow up instinctively knowing when to run for cover. We have a lot of active volcanos, mostly in the south, the tectonic plates of the Pacific Ring of fire meet along the coast of Chile, so earthquakes are almost a daily nuisance, with following tsunamis and we have extreme heat and extreme human negligence that ends up in forest fires. This latter impacted us last week, when four visiting handymen had been smoking and lost control over their cigarette ashes, burning up 40 acres of land. So 6 helicopters, 5 fire fighting planes and 13 brigades of firemen had to be engaged to stop this sorrowful event. We had no electricity due to the fire and everything smelled burnt, but nobody got seriously hurt and no structures or homes were damaged. We were extremely lucky and since we are new to the neighborhood we could only watch this unfold in front of us, very frustrating. If you know me or Johan, you know we were not going to take this lightly or idly, so we bought bottled water for the firemen and asked around if we could support in any other way. We were told that with no training or equipment it would be difficult, we would be more in the way or probably get hurt. We had recently been to a meeting on the topic of preventing accidents in your home environment and we felt ready to take it further, so we have enrolled in the private fire fighting neighborhood brigade. Our first training session was this past Saturday and we will attend three more this month, to never more be left standing on the side doing nothing.

February 3, Oasis de la Campana

The amount of red tape in this country is staggering and honestly unnecessary and keeping this otherwise lovely country in the back waters of Europe and other great nations. As you might read between the lines, our visit to Santiago didn't go so well, we managed to solve 3 out of 4 tasks we had set for this trip and I guess we should be content with that, unless the missing task wasn't the most important one, regarding Johan’s  residency. 

So we are back to square one on this particular task, but no use crying over it, TIC and things take their time, no matter if you kick and scream.

On the brighter side of things we have been to a local festivity Festival del Huaso de Olmue and saw the epic band of los Jaivas, that have been playing for 60 years and that we have a special bond to, since they were childhood friends of my father.

December 31, Oasis de la Campana

It’s all about the small things that we see, do and share that matter the most, whether you are in your prime or in your twilight, looking back those are the memories you will cherish the most.

I have always enjoyed doing the laundry here outdoors, a perhaps silly thing, but the satisfation of your clothes drying in sunlight and getting that fresh smell of nature and summer breeze has been a memory I have relived since arriving. 

So embrace the natural order of things, enjoy the small gifts in life, like watching seasons change, new little animals being born, reading a new book, eating healthy and spending time together. 

With this said please have a nice day and a happy new year to all of you out there reading my rantings. See ya 2025!

December 29, Oasis de la Campana

At the end, it’s all about the money and we have spent every open bank day since the last entry, trying to finance our car purchase with our own savings, but the Chilean Banco Estado has an antiquated and rigid set of rules that put a stop to the whole deal.

Banks are supposed to work with a common set of rules within the SWIFT system that assures the receiving bank that the funds being transfered from another affiliated bank are legit and with no criminal intent. Still BE required additional documentation, impossible for us to verify from the source at this point and not necessary. So we had to let go of the car model we were looking for, go for a less expensive, but equivalent and buy it on credit. Everything exactly as we didn't want it to be, but what to do in a new country, where we have no saying towards the banking system, but apparently excellent credit rate.

So our funds were stuck in cyberspace for a month between banks and we had to retrieve them from the source bank again where they were sent back in lack of cooparation from our part, apply and open an account in a new bank, a more international, digital and more modern bank, to start to move our funds over here, again.

Between banks, car dealer and other necessities, we have hardly had a whole day in our house, to enjoy the fruits of our hard labor and to be with our loved ones.

So it will be a good day when we can look behind and have this over and done with, but until then we need to have patience and understand that this is not our home turf and things are dealt with and solved in a different way than we are used to.

December 21, Oasis de la Campana

With our belongings on their way (pick-up was last Wednesday, how time flies!) things started to move faster and Monday the 16th of December we left for Madrid. In Madrid we had to stay over, due to an expected change in flight. The airline used to have two flights per day from Copenhagen to Madrid, but have apparently decided that the evening flight was more profitable (what other reason could it be?) and cancelled the afternoon one. Leaving travellers to run from the arrival Terminal 1 to Terminal 4, in less than one hour and if you ever travelled through the Madrid airport of Barajas, you know that an hour is way too short a time to pass security, passport control and reach your gate. So we had to add one night in Madrid to our already long journey, but fortunately the hotel was nice, had a decent restaurant and a couple of open spaces between floors to have impromptu meetings or just hang around waiting for your flight.

Finally a week after our possessions had left, we arrived at our little cabin and like all houses that have been closed and left to itself, it was in need of some serious love. For starters we had to evict a family of mice from our main room and sanitize every single flat surface. So today Saturday is the first day when we have been able to enjoy the tranquility and the amazing weather that is like a band aid to our sun thirsty bodies.