i thought I'd share with you the final photos of the honeymoon that I have floating around my desktop.  

The cold mountain air of Huilo Huilo seems far away at this point.  Summer has finally arrived to Valdivia.  Today, Pablo and I are lounging about the house, trying to catch a cross breeze as we recover from yesterday's festivities.  Yesterday, we hosted another barbecue and ended up staying up well into the wee hours of the morning, drinking Chilean wine, eating clams fresh out of the shell, and conversing in all manner of languages while counting the southern stars.  With the change of season, I can much better appreciate the concept of the Asado.  Instead of freezing our feet off standing around a fire waiting for some meat to cook, we can now act more civilized and lay the picnic blanket under a tree and enjoy a fine spread with some fine folks.  As is often the case with hosting, I did not take a single photo of the event but let it be said that it was a picturesque evening of delicious food and young people enjoying each other's company.  No doubt there will be more Asados to come, I'll try to share more in the future.

What do you do when its cold outside, you're tired from hiking, and you're on vacation?

Drink beer and eat pizza!  The Peterman brewery right across the street from the hotel was pretty cool.  The pizza and the beer were great.  We ordered a pint before learning that they also have beer tastings available, so we decided to go for the sampler too! Apparently, though, a taste is a full wine glass of beer?!!

Rather than go to a costume party or stay at home waiting for small humans to rob us of candy, this past weekend we went on our honeymoon.

We decided to take this trip of togetherness four months after our wedding and exactly four years after we fell in love with one another.  On that night, which seems like so many Halloweens ago, we enjoyed the typical shenanigans of the pagan holiday.  We danced, we drank forbidden alcohol, he was dressed like a woman, I was dressed like a bee and the mysteriousness of All Hallow's Eve only added to the excitement of a new, intoxicating love.

This past week in an equally bewitching scene, we also fully enjoyed time spent with each other.  We ditched the kitties and the house and drove into the mountains.  Our destination was the Huilo Huilo reserve which might not be the typical beachy-piña colada drinking-bikini wearing locale that newlyweds often seek, but it was no less indulgent and magical.  In fact, I am now convinced that Huilo Huilo might not only be the land of Halloween, but it is possible that Santa and all of the creatures of JRR Tolkien's books also dwell here.  In between the green and glowing trees, the snow-capped mountains, the Mapuche totems, our own ethereal hotel and the frigid turquoise waters of the surrounding rivers, we glimpsed.  yes.  Reindeer.

the song of this place