Chile: Before the Road trip: Concepcion & area

This is the first post of our Chile trip! It feels like weeks and weeks ago that we were in Chile, but I am excited to blog all about our fantastic experiences.

We arrived in Conception, Chile on Valentines Day. We stayed in a cottage where our favorite Chilean friends were married until the following Tuesday and headed out on the road trip 2 days later on the Thursday.
Valentine's day was the day of Alejandra and Bartolo's civil wedding. Lucky for me, I packed a dress for the civil wedding in my carry-on because my luggage did not make it to Conception with me :( But I did have it delivered to Alejandra and Bartolo's flat the next day.

 This is the first day we arrived and the day of the civil wedding. It took place at a cottage that we stayed in for the wedding day as well. We were there about 5 nights. This is the view from the yard of the cottage... the bay of the ocean!

Alejandra and Bartolo's civil wedding day. It was a beautiful ceremony on a beautiful evening on Valentines Day and it was followed by lots of wine and dancing (and wigs and scarves).

From the cottage, we were walking distance from the ocean and there was a trail all the way to the ocean. Along the shore, it was common to find these dead washed up crabs (on the right) and on the left is a claw we found (maybe from a lobster?).

By the ocean in the same place we found the crabs and the lobster claw.

There was one challenge in the trail to the beach... and it was this tunnel. The reason the tunnel is there is because it was an old railway track. This was a very long, cold, dark, and curved tunnel and it was very scary to get to the other side... and it was the only way to the beach! This is one of our day trips to the beach with Aleksy and I, Chels and Warren and some of Alejandra and Bartolo's family members!

This is what was on the other side of the tunnel! An amazing beach (but with lots of washed up dead crabs).

This is one of the dead crabs... lunch?

This is Saturday February 16th, the day of the wedding! Alejandra and Bartolo and for us to stand up with them as bridesmaids and groomsmen. It was a rainy morning, but ended up being a beautiful day. Bartolo was really counting on the weather to cooperate so that he was able to cook his animals over the fire: he had lamb, and goat cooked over the fire.

 This picture is from right after Ale and Bartolo arrived back to the cottage after the ceremony which was at a little church in a little town close by. Ale and Bartolo had a choreographed dance prepared for the wedding... so much fun!

 This is the set up (and view!) for the wedding! So beautiful!

After all of the wedding festivities were over, we began some sightseeing around Concepcion. This was a stop in a nearby fish town where we had some lunch and were introduced to some common Chilean food and drink. This day in particular was the "Pisco sour" day! Pisco is a Chilean liquor, like a wine-based whisky that is not found in Canada but is EVERYWHERE in Chile! On this day, we also had some empanada's (which are everywhere!) of mariscos (seafood) and fish.

This picture was taken at the University of Concepcion, this is where Ale and Bartolo go to school and you can actually see the University from the balcony of their flat! This exploring was the night before we left for our road trip... we stayed in their flat for a couple nights before heading out in our rented van!