Spring has sprung - mountain biking, trekking, cooking and gardening

September is the month when spring arrives in Santiago and one can noticeably feel it. The trees blossom, the temperature goes up and stays in the twenty plus during the day quite often. The 18th and 19th of September are national holidays (link in English here) which means that often (when they fall on any other day but Saturday or Sunday) most people get a little break.

The medical system in Chile

Lots has happened since our last post! We had been postponing for a while using the medical system in Santiago (for general check ups and other non-urgent stuff). This was not out of worry about bad doctors or hospitals but instead, we were aware that we had to learn to use the system and in Chile things are often not as straight-forward as one may think.

Life (and death) in the traffic jungle

Apparently 608 pedestrians got run over and killed in the Streets of Santiago in 2011, and more than 8,000 injured (see CONASET). Only a few months ago Christian witnessed how someone, walking across the three south-bound lanes of Avenida Manquehue while the pedestrian lights were green, got hit by a left-turning car. The driver just hadn't seen him or was distracted or who knows. Accidents happen all the time and here's a link to a website which maps the hot spots.

Urban gardening - Huerto en la ciudad

Back in Santiago and to our normal routine. We decided that this weekend would be perfect to start an urban vegetable plot.