Day 8- The rodeo is in town!!!

Posted by Lisa on March 20th, 2006 — Posted in Activities

All weekend, the rodeo has been in town, we decided to go on Sunday. Steve and I have been wanting to go to a rodeo since we’ve been in Chile. At Parque Coll, which is just down the street from us, they have been busy updating it and rebuilding the stadium for the past month, so we were hoping it meant something was coming. Lucky for us they had the quarter finals this weekend. We went from noon until 530 and had a blast. There was also some shops around the stadium and we were able to buy Terry a chilean painting for his christmas gift. One really neat thing was where are seats were in the stadium, the cattle was right under us and there was a secret door right below our seats where they let the cattle out for the rodeo part, we were right in the middle of the action. Enjoy the pics….

rodeo pan

IMG 0759 IMG 0768 IMG 0781 IMG 1699

IMG 1703 IMG 1705 01 IMG 1724 IMG 1730

IMG 1732 IMG 1738 IMG 1749 IMG 1753

IMG 1754 IMG 1756 IMG 1757 IMG 1762

IMG 1764

Day 7- Steve’s awesome job

Posted by Lisa on March 20th, 2006 — Posted in Activities

On Saturday, we got a somewhat early start for the day. We were out of the house around 1030, and were off to go to the observatory. We stopped in El Molle to get Terry a painting, but unfortunately the store was closed. So we continued the drive into the valley and up to the observatory. Once we got to the top, Steve gave us a personal tour of Gemini. We walked around outside, enjoyed the views, and then headed down to Vicuna. Once in Vicuna, we went to lunch at The Hosteria- walked around their beautiful grounds- which included 2 alpacas, then walked around the square and went to the shops. We went to my favorite shop, the glass shop. We also went to the great bug museum, where you can see bugs from all around the world. We then came home, played monopoly (yours truly won), watched some TV and went to bed. It was a great day, but especially for the Margheim’s since they’ve been waiting for 20 years to see Steve’s dream come true of working at a telescope.

IMG 0722 IMG 1666 IMG 0690 01 IMG 0724

IMG 1685 IMG 1676

IMG 0746 IMG 0740

IMG 1689 IMG 0749

Day 6: Coquimbo/St Patty’s day

Posted by Lisa on March 20th, 2006 — Posted in Activities

I know, it’s already Monday, and I’m only now posting for Friday, but we’ve been busy! On Friday morning, once we all got up, I made fabulous green waffles in celebration of St Patty’s day. After a great breakfast, we got ready and went to spend the day in Coquimbo. First, though we went downtown to the post office so Mary Jane could mail some postcards. We were able to get the stamps and get them mailed very easily. The 3 of us then walked around the plaza de armas a little while we were waiting for Steve to drive around the block, then came Coquimbo. We started out at the fish market. The fish market is STINKY!!!! I did make my first purchase here though, I bought bait so we can go surf fishing, (which we plan on doing today). We then walked around the artesian shops and bought Mary Jane a nice hooded alpaca sweater for Christmas. Then came Barrio Ingles, which is Coquimbo’s square. We walked around the square which was hosting a traveling art show of 100 picture’s of Chile. We also went to one of the artesian shops on the square which is an outdoor area that has a bunch of booths. Then we went to the cross, walked around, took the elevator to the top, and went to the museum in the cross. We had to be home by 4 so Steve could go to a meeting. While Steve was at his meeting, Terry, I and the pup went hiking. I’m proud to say that Terry did both steepies and made it to the top. A feat that Steve has yet to accomplish. We were supposed to go to dinner with a friend visiting from Australia, but unfortunately he had to stay up and observe at the telescope another night. We decided to go out for dinner and went to Coasta Inca- which is a Peruvian restaurant on the beach. Apparently on Friday nights they have a buffet, so that’s what we had. Steve and Terry got to try goat for the first time, Steve’s response was similar to lamb but not as gamey. The buffet was good, though I would like to go back and order from the menu. So, though we didn’t have corned beef and cabbage, we had a wonderful day!!!

IMG 1621
IMG 1622

IMG 0612 IMG 1628 IMG 1631

IMG 0615 IMG 1646 IMG 1653

IMG 1656 IMG 1658

IMG 0644 IMG 0648