A very wet place.

After I was in the north of Chile, I flew for about 5 hours to Puerto Montt which is nearly to the bottom of the country. It is very green and very wet. It didn´t stop raining for about 7 days. There a many volcanos here but because the clouds were so low I did not ever see the top of the mountains.
But one day when I was having lunch at the wharf by the fish market, playing in the sea underneath, were about 12 huge sea wolves which, I think, are sea lions or eared seals. They were gobbling up all the guts from the fish that the fishermen were throwing over the side of the boat, and after they had fed they just stayed playing for about an hour.
I went to the island of Chiloe which is a big island just off the coast of Chile. It took 31/2 hours by bus and ferry. I stayed there and went to school for two weeks at the primary and the secondary school. It was very interesting.
The children do not have a big, big playground like we do and have to play inside all the time and with 800 students there, it is very noisy.
They also eat a very big breakfast and a very big lunch at school which the government pays for.
For breakfast they have a ham and cheese roll, very big, and milo. For lunch they are given a salad, meat, vegetables and rice or potatoes and a dessert.
Kerri Kiwi really liked it there because the ground is really wet and there were lots of bugs to eat.
Sam I am really glad that you are reading the posts with your mum and sending me some messages. Sometimes it takes a wee while to answer as I dont always have a computer.

San Pedro.

Did you know that the desert up here is the driest in the world?
Last weekend we went to a very small town called San Pedro de Atacama. We drove for 4 hours and never saw a drop of water or any plants except some very dry, small bushes and some cactus plants.

There are mountains all around, with the very high Andes between Bolivia and Chile and Argentina. There is not much snow up there at the moment.

The town we went to is a very old town. The houses are all adobe. The bricks are made out of mud mixed with straw and plastered together. Because it hardly ever rains the roofs of the houses are made out of grass like pampas, this is more to keep the sun out.
The streets are very narrow and there are dogs, that everyone seems to feed, everywhere in the town.
It is so beautiful!
On Sunday we got up at 4 in the morning and went to see the Tatio Geysers. It was so cold. The temperature was -15. We were at the about the same height as Mount Cook 12,000 ft above sea level. Do you know what a geyser is and how it is formed?
On the way back after having a swim in the very hot pools, a volcano was erupting in the distance. There was quite a lot of smoke and steam coming out.

Antofagasta

Just a wee note to say that it is freezing here. I did not think that it would be cold in the desert.And last night it rained. The children did not know what to do because it never rains here. Sometimes it is dangerous because there are not any trees to stop all the mud sliding off the hills but this time it was OK because there was not much rain. What news do you have?

Mrs C in Chile with Kerri Kiwi

Well hello everyone.
I hope the holidays have been super.
Have you found Chile on the world map yet? Santiago is the biggest city in the country. There are 6 million people living there.It is the capital just like Wellington is the capital of New Zealand. Everyone here speaks Spanish and just a few people speak English. Whenever I speak in Spanish people look at me and wonder what langugae I am speaking??? I will have to do lots and lots of practice every day just like we are practising our basic facts in maths. I think you are better at basic facts than I am at Spanish. Has anyone achieved their challenge of basic facts to 10 yet? Cannot wait to hear who has.
Today I have been to Valparaiso. It is a port city on the coast. It is where all the ships from the Chilean navy are. There is a wondeful museum there all about the way the Chileans battled to take the country from the Spanish many years ago. Some of the cannons they used in the battles had cannon balls the size of a soccer ball, some of them had spikes attached to them.
The hills behind the city are very steep. To get to the top you have to walk up zillions of steps, or you can take the funicular. These are very like the cable car in Wellington, but much smaller, much steeper and much, much older and very rickety. Kerri Kiwi was very scared but of course I was not.
Perhaps you can google Valparaiso with Mrs McC and see some of things that I have told you about. Let me know what you think.
Yesterday also I saw some wonderful sand art. The men were drawing mermaids, unicorns, octopuses, fairies and even Spongebob and the Simpsons. I will post some photos when I can download them as I do not have my computer with me.
Tomorrow I will go to Antofagasta. That is in the north, in the desert.
Mrs McClure, you will have to go to my school email to publish any comments that are written for the blog. Mrs Barton will know the address,
Write to me with all your holiday news,
Lots of love, Mrs C,

In 30 days Billy is going to live in Stewart Island. He is going there for 10 months. He will be able to go fishing, and shooting for deer. Lizards and kiwis and albatrosses and crabs and all sorts of birds and bugs live there. Room 3 is going to miss Billy terribly.

Today is the last school visit for Hamish. After the holidays he is starting school in Room 3. Hamish already has some friends in Room 3. They are Gen, Billy and Shaye.

Today we are having a special treat. Sam made these special treats at his house for the class. They are called hedgehogs. They have marshmallows and grapes and pineapple and kiwi fruit on them. Yum! Yum!