{"id":679,"date":"2012-04-21T04:30:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T11:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/?p=679"},"modified":"2013-09-05T15:14:35","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T22:14:35","slug":"celebrations-in-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/?p=679","title":{"rendered":"Celebrations in April"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two weeks happily homebound at Helen’s home \"\"<\/a>10 km east of Temuco, we decided we had much to celebrate and so we took off for the cordierra 100 km to the east.\u00a0 We have been tending Helen’s house, dogs and garden for the past two weeks while Helen\u2019s daughters, Mahani and Teamai, plus Teamai\u2019s boyfriend, Lucas, and his brother, are traveling in Europe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Two hours east of Temuco we thought perhaps we had landed in Japan!\u00a0 For 3 hours we soaked in our good fortune at perhaps the most elegant hot springs in Chile.\u00a0 The “Termas Geometrica” is\"\"<\/a> 15 km up another challenging Chilean jeep road where you put on your bathing suit and wander from hot pool to hot pool in a plant- and fog- shrouded canyon.\u00a0 The development is elegantly simple with its 17 slate hot pools set over or around a rushing stream and bordered by red-planked walkways.\u00a0 We were almost the only visitors while we were there, but in the summer we are told that this hot springs is mobbed.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>So what is all this celebration?\u00a0 Well, it is because we have so many lucky stars!\u00a0 We have been happily engaged in Chile for 4 months now.\u00a0 That deserves a celebration.\u00a0 And we must celebrate our dog sitting because Helen\u2019s dogs, Olivia and Miti, are consistently sitting now before being fed.\u00a0 Tennessee just became two years old!\u00a0 More celebration. \u00a0And Annie had her 40th birthday one day before Tennessee’s.\u00a0 More cheers.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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There is still more to celebrate.\u00a0 April 23, 1961 is a day that was an existentially special day for us.\u00a0 On that day, in the evening just after dinner, Leslie came down the stairs at Mather House in Cleveland and various cupids shot their arrows and their marks have held strong and true for all these intervening 51 (!) years.\u00a0 Val always remembers that he met Leslie on April 23rd<\/sup>, though he will be quick to say that that day is also special because it is Shakespeare’s birthday and deathday.\u00a0 Leslie will then mention that she learned many years ago one more fact: this day is also the birthday of Cynthia (Val\u2019s high school girlfriend) . This verbal dance is a little tango (no, we are not yet in Argentina\u2026) that we have enjoyed over and over again — all thanks, as we also always say, to Val\u2019s Aunt Nancy, who arranges marriages. \u00a0Another celebration that we contemplated a bit these past couple of weeks continues throughout this year when we and so many of our friends are passing the 70-times-around-the-sun mark.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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Our final celebration: Volcan Villarrica did not blow its \"\"<\/a>top while we sauntered along its flanks.\u00a0 (Check out the Villarrica Volcano cam at: www.povi.cl ) \u00a0At dusk the first day we viewed the mountain smoking a bit.\u00a0 The next day dawned cloudy and threatened rain.\u00a0 We considered passing the day celebrating shopping in Pucon, an outdoor adventure vacation \"\"<\/a>destination in this part of the world, where we had spent the night.\u00a0 But, after picking up some much-needed “warmies” because it\u2019s getting cold here in the Arucania and Los Lagos areas, we saw the sky turning blue. By 2 pm the fall day was fantastic, so we set off on the moon-scaped Challupen Chinay Trail which goes around Volcan Villarrica on its southern side.\u00a0 We were high above the nearby Lake Villarica and close below the 2847 meter summit of the volcano.\u00a0 Villarica looked over us, puffed a little more smoke, and quietly announced, “Todo esta calma!”\u00a0 Time to celebrate once again\u2026.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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After two weeks happily homebound at Helen’s home 10 km east of Temuco, we decided we had much to celebrate and so we took off for the cordierra 100 km to the east.\u00a0 We have been tending Helen’s house, dogs and garden for the past two weeks while Helen\u2019s daughters, Mahani and Teamai, plus Teamai\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":686,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,20,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chile","category-south-america-2012","category-temuco","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1108,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679\/revisions\/1108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leslieval.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}