Although Jeff and I had a hell of a time getting down to Central Chile (more on that later), we finally made it and we had a lovely Christmas in the Viña/Valpo area. We stayed at a B&B called Casa Kultour in Valparaíso for X-mas eve and X-mas night which ended up being a great choice. The owner was super friendly and helpful and our little room was perfect. How could we not have been happy in a place called cerro alegre (happy hill)?
On Christmas day, we woke up around 10 for a nice breakfast at the hostel and made a few Christmas phone calls. Thanks to the time difference, that meant a 6 am wake-up call for my dad (oops). My nephews lucked out though, since they'd been up since 5 waiting for him to get his lazy butt out of bed so they could open presents. I got to watch them run around like crazy and unwrap some of their gifts via skype which was rad. Yay for Christmas spirit and way too much sugar.
Jeff and I headed out around noon and spent the majority of the day walking all around and exploring the two neighboring cities. We had wonderful, sunny weather all day and then, when we started to head back to the hostel, it got super windy. We made it back to our room just before it started to rain and crawled under the covers with a couple of mugs of cola de mono and some mint chocolate Christmas cookies. After about nine months in Iquique, we were thankful for the rain and it was especially nice to have some wintery weather on Christmas (even though it's summer here).
We got nice and cozy and watched Love Actually (my favorite Christmas movie). Jeff was reluctant because it's kind of a chick flick but he actually ended up liking it too (sorry for outing you on the internet). We passed out pretty early from a combination of the cocktails and a full day of walking around in the sun.
I knew it would be strange spending my first Christmas away from family but it turned out to be a really good one. Although I was definitely still a little homesick and my low-key day was a far cry from the madness of a Briscoe Christmas, I am super grateful that Jeff and I got to spend our first Christmas together here in Chile.
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