Villa Rica

Hello friends!

I just realized that I never gave a rundown of the trip! So, here goes: Nathan and I are here with my mom April and her husband Pierre for the first three weeks. We have rented a car and are driving through Chile. Tomorrow we get on a ferry that will take us down to the Southern tip of Patagonia. After that we have not totally decided what we will do, but it will probably involve going into Argentina (also by car). They leave on January 14 and then Nathan and I are going to take Spanish somewhere between here and Uruguay for a few weeks. On February first we are meeting up with some missionaries in Punta del Este Uruguay for about ten days. Next on the docket involves exploring Uruguay, Paraguay, and Bolivia (no plans yet) and getting to Cuzco, Peru by March 18 to meet up with our dear friend Linda. We are doing the four day trek up to Machu Piccu with her, followed by some more exploring of Peru. After we part ways with Linda we are going to take on Ecuador and Columbia, with a stop over in Belize to meet up with Nathan´s brother and family, arriving back in Canada on May 23.

So, now that the air is cleared: yesterday we climbed a volcano called Villa Rica and it was INCREDIBLE. Oh my was it gorgeous. It is a climb that takes between 3.5 and 5 hours involving ice axes and lots of fun. We had a few great guides and a generally awesome experience. We got to the top of the cone in about 3.5 hours and were quite exhausted but also impressed by the views. The smoke of the lava knocked the breath right out of us when it blew into our faces. It was ridiculous! And after all of the hard work of climbing up, we got the slide down! Yowzers that was a great time. It was a toboggan ride of almost 4 kilometers, sliding on canvas diaper type things and a plastic disc that was attatched to the diaper thing. The speeds you could reach were quite high, and so the ice axe was always in hand as a brake. We had a complete blast, and are now looking forward to the ferry ride. There have been many warnings about getting sea sick though, so we will see how it goes!

Have a splendid New Years!

Big love,

Chloe (and Nathan)

Paradise!

Hello friends, all is well on this end and we hope the same for you.
We have been driving for the past few days, making our way to Patagonia. We spent out first night in the port town of Valparaiso just east of Santiago. It was beautiful and colourful and perched on a hill over the ocean. I am fine that we didn't stay long though as the few very friendly people we met were very adamant about warning us of being robbed. It seemed as if they were embarrassed of their own city because of the thieves but so proud if the architecture.
We spent last night in a beautiful log bed and breakfast called El Rincon in the Chilean countryside. It is in the south, twenty kilometers north of Los Angeles. We went for a beautiful walk and waded up the river, surrounded by fruit trees and blossoming bushes. The woman who runs the El RIncon is German and her name is Elke. She was sweet but you could very much tell that she was missing her husband who passed away last May. It seemed that everything about her paradise there just reminded her of him.
We left her this morning at around ten to head to Pucon, which is a wonderful but very different place. It is a very developed town located about a thousand kilometers south of Santiago, resembling Banff in many ways. There are many markets and bars and tourists. Tomorrow we are off to climb the snow capped volcano Villa Rica that looms over the town.
We will post again soon, hopefully with some pictures!
Big love,
Chloe and Nathan

Adios Amigos!

Hello friends,

The time is near that we jet South. We leave tomorrow evening!!! and arrive in Santiago, Chile at about 11:00 on Christmas morning. We are uber excited and feeling pretty ready to go.

After much deliberation we decided to start up this blog, but only with the disclaimer that we may not update often. We will try to give tidbits of our adventures (and misfortunes if there are any) but can make no promises as to how frequently we will be on here. We just thought it was super important that you (being people we love and care about) can access our life afar if you so desire.

If you are wondering about why we named it Three-L Lllama, here is your answer. The idea came from the following Ogdyn Nash poem that Nathan can emphatically recite at the drop of a hat:

The one-L lama,

He's a priest.

The two-L llama,

He's a beast.

And I would bet

A silk pajama

There isn't any

Three-L lllama.

It makes both of us smile and chuckle a bit, and we hope that it did the same for you!

May you all have a very merry Christmas that is full of laughter and joy and love.

Chloe (and Nathan)