In Villarrica

We´re now in Villarrica, a city of about 45,000, 9 hours south of Santiago by bus. It is in the Lake District, aptly named - you simply can´t find a bad view around here! We are staying with the Nilo family. I first lived with the Nilos as a study abroad student in 1993. At that time, both parents were in medical school, and the kids were 9, 7, and 6 years old. I´ve kept in touch and visited them several times since then. Now they are both doctors (he is an anesthesiologist and she is a general surgeon) and the kids are 20, 18, and 16, and they have a new little girl who is 2. They just built a house a couple of years ago here, with a view of both the lake and the nearby volcano. So we´ve been enjoying visiting with them and seeing some of the area. Friday was a beautiful day and we went down to the lake beach. Yesterday was cloudy, but there was a big family barbecue. Today it is alternating sun and rain and cooler. The Nilos speak a good bit of English and also fluent German, so Sean is better able to communicate with them without my help. He´´s also picking up some Spanish!

Today is a voting day in Chile - the runoff for President, between the left Michelle Bachelet and the right Piñera. If Bachelet wins (and I think she is favored) she will be the first female president in Latin America! In Chile the voting rate is high - around 70%. Once you are registered to vote, if you do not vote you are fined $500 (if you are at least 300 km from your assigned poll, you can go to the local police station and get an excuse to avoid the fine).

Tomorrow or Tuesday we´re going on down the road to Pucon, where my friend Fields from college is living for a few months.

Hasta luego,
Nancy