Only a week left in Santiago
I know its been a long, long time since I’ve updated but seriously pregnancy wise nothing much has been going on. If anything I feel a little worried exactly because there’s nothing going on - I feel good, there’s next to no nausea, my energy levels are back to normal, it’s like I’m not pregnant. On the other hand, my stomach has become taut and even when I lie down I can see a small bump and I do have a stuffy nose which is apparently super common.
Non pregnancy wise, of course we’ve been doing a lot of stuff. Ro finished class a couple of weeks ago and we drove up to La Serena, which is a small seaside town up north with a couple of swimmable beaches. From La Serena, we took a day trip to Isla Damas, which is one of three islands that make up a marine nature preserve. Isla Damas is the only island you can disembark on. The other two islands have all the flora and fauna going on.
The boat ride out to the islands was so fantastic because apart from the islands themselves there are also a lot of dolphins around and there was a small pod of dolphins that followed the boat and were just playing around. We tried to get pictures but in most of the pictures they look like they might as well be sharks.
My favourite part of the park though were the Humboldt Penguins. No suprise really since the park’s full name is the Reserva Nacional Pinguino de Humboldt. They’re apparently the second smallest species of penguins in the world and they were so adorable. The island is like one gigantic rock and you should have seen them waddling around and jumping up from one rock to another. Ro and I now refer to our unborn child as Baby Humboldt.
The next day Ro and I drove to the Elqui Valley, not least because Ro had heard that the “good vibrations” from the Himalayas had shifted to Elqui Valley after the dawning of the Age of Aquarius. It was in fact very peaceful and relaxed. The stars in the night sky were amazing. We’d wanted to go to an obervatory but we didn’t have the time. I’m not sure we needed to though because in my life I have never seen a sky that clear. I saw several shooting stars and it was one of the simplest bare bones places I’ve ever seen. I loved it. Ro reports though that he thinks the Himalayas still have their appeal intact for him.
I’ll post pictures later since they’re on Ro’s computer. We also went to Pucon which was awesome and I’ll post about that later too.
