Five hours later we arrived at Laguna Torca, where a rustic cottage awaited us, together with horses, dogs, chicken, and (of course) lamas. Rufus, the dog, followed us everywhere. Except into the territory of Rambo, the alpha lama, with whom Florian fought a daily battle of the egos, in order to get us through Rambo-land and into the breakfast room. What an adventure for Luis!  

One day we spent at the coast. The rolling sound of the waves lulled Luis to sleep wonderfully, while we enjoyed a nice walk along the rocky beach. When fishermen saw, how Luis was eating up his whole hand, they recommended us to use sea weed, a traditional teether. However I wasn't quite convinced about the rotten-fish-aroma of the weeds, and decided to better leave them ;-) On the way back to the cottage we drove past the salt fields of Boyeruca, and stocked up on sea salt for five years or more.

Last but not least, we had a beautiful lagoon directly at our door step. Every day we watched the swans and played with Luis in the reeds. He absolutely loved it! In the evenings we made a cosy fire, and after Luis' bedtime, mum and dad enjoyed the sauna (while keeping an eye on the baby phone through the sauna's window). Everything worked surprisingly well. Thus... Europe, here we come!

In December Luis met the first family members, apart from mum and dad. Florian's parents came to admire their third grandchild! This time even grandma Inge got onboard the long haul flight, to see the new addition to the Hertel clan. Proud grandpa Ludwig was also thrilled to meet him, since little Luis is his namesake and bears the Spanish version of his grandfather's name. 
It's been a great time for Luis – he received double the amount of hugs and kisses, as can be seen in the many pictures.

Inge and Ludwig also had to see something of Chile. We always love to take our guests into the colourful hills of Valparaíso, where the ocean breeze makes the summer heat a bit more bearable. In the pictures we are just stretching our legs in a typical Valparaiso art café. 
And, of course grandpa and grandma couldn't leave Chile without doing a wine tasting. Viña Casa del Bosque is one of our favourite places. They also serve a delicious lunch on their terrace. It goes without saying, that Luis, our gourmet of wine, commented on each barrel in the cellar. In his opinion one should use much more "gaga guga" and lay a bit low on "ui ui ii". Good to know Luis – we'll pass that on.

Hohoho! It's that time of year again! Our sixth Christmas in South America and we are still not accustomed to celebrating it in summer, with plastic tree and styrofoam snow. Still, nothing to complain since this time we had family over for the holiday season: Florian's parents and Anna's sister! Furthermore it was our first Christmas with little Luis! Santa Claus had a cool Hard Rock Cafe shirt for him and also brought some goodies for mum and dad.

A few days after Florians parents had left, my sister came to visit us. Again a double portion of love and cuddles for our little one! 

On Christmas Eve Luis went on his first beach trip, together with his aunt, mum and dad. The weather was bleak, so we didn't bother about sun protection, until everybody got sunburnt - including Luis. He was red as a tomato! Lessons learned for mum and dad. Luis also showed his auntie all the cool places of Valparaíso, as only an insider can! And on the last day of her stay, we all went to the Mercado Central. In an unobserved moment, while we savoured some great Chilean seafood, Luis sneaked off with daddy's beer! Seems my milk has serious competition now ;-)

During my pregnancy I made some great new friends from around the globe. And how do you best find fellow future mamas in a city of 8 million people? Via Facebook! We met every week, and while our bellies grew to incredible dimensions, we ate chocolate... ;-) shared our experiences, and discussed those numerous cultural differences, that you come across, when living abroad. Look at those beautiful round bellies!!

A few months on and the pictures become crowded: our babies are born!

Playtime! Our cuties are about to discover the presence of their fellow playmates. Here we have little Annabelle, Luis, Ruby and Antonius. Luis looks like the oldest of the bunch, but that's just the effect of his mohawk hair and engineer-in-spe-outfit. Ruby is older and Antonius is bigger!

After so much hussle and bustle, 
Luis took a a well-deserved nap
on his cosy lambskin...

Amanda:
 
"Was absolutely captivated by two month old baby Luis yesterday. With these gorgeously intense eyes he has a very direct and inquisitive stare. I just love his little mohawk too! Was a pleasure to photograph him and his beautiful mum!"

Our little cutie is making big progress!!! After mastering the basics like drinking, digesting and sleeping (not so easy as you might think, see blog HAPPY BIRTHDAY LUIS), he just smiled for the first time! What a wonderful sign that your baby is doing just fine. We are so proud of out little one and can't stop admiring him.

Luis got his first bath at around three weeks. As you can tell, it was a disaster. Little man was not amused. He screamed through the whole procedure, and only stopped, once he had him back on solid ground. Three months on, and it's a total different story. Luis loves bath time! He is now splishing and splashing, giggles with joy, and wants to stay in the tub forever.

Now that Luis can hold his head (+/-12 weeks), he loves to be carried on the back, and look around. And he is not afraid of anything! Whenever we go hiking, he bathes in freezing rivers, pets big dogs and wild horses, and tastes everything, that he can grab.

At about four months Luis started to show a lot of interest in our food, and has since tried plums, pears, melons, figs, strawberries, and who knows what else. He loves everything. We took his interest as a signal to start with solids. Now Florian, Luis and I have lunch together! When I put Luis in his chair, he is always pounding the table, impatiently waiting for his food. His absolute favourite is palta (Chilean for avocado). Isn't that just right for the first Chileno in the family!

Also at around four months Luis demonstrated his first skills in sitting. Through a clever three anchor point solution, using his hands and mouth, he sat up in his crib one day, and gave us a big proud smile!

Luis is now six weeks old. His cheeks become rounder by the day and overall he is not so fragile anymore as in the early days. Little genius even spoke his first word: "ui" (Dutch for "onion"). We decided, he is ready for his first hike! Aguas de Ramón is one of the nearest and most popular getaway destinations for us Santiaguiños. I believe this hill is not even outside the city. We exchanged the pram for the wrap and started project "hiking with baby". 

Getting the wrapping technique right was quite a challenge at the start, but as soon as we had him snuggled up tightly, Luis calmed down and dozed off. On the track we were the attraction number one (babywearing is uncommon in Chile). As soon as people realised that there was a little baby "hidden" in the fabric, they cried out "Ooooh que chiquidito, ...que cosita mas rica, ...precioso!!!", called together all of their family, and outbid each other on exclamations of cuteness :-) Luis didn't bother, and only woke up at the end of the day, when we sat down for a cup of coffee and some good old German apple pie.

He is finally there! On September 21 at 11:35AM our baby boy saw the light of day! He weighs 3.4kg and is 52cm tall, and his name is Luis Constantin Hertel – our pride and joy.
He choose a special date: the first day of spring in the Southern hemisphere. And Chilean spring welcomed Luis with pouring rain, that cleared away all the smog and gave way to a spectacular panorama of the snow-capped Cordillera. What a brilliant day to start a life! However not such a brilliant start into parenthood, since the clothes we brought along for Luis were all too small. It simply didn't come to our minds to bring a variety of sizes, just in case. Well, I guess he'll forgive us. Daddy drove home and quickly got a bigger wardrobe for not so little Luis.

As a standard procedure, we spent the first three days at Clinica Alemana. Luis needed quite some help  in learning how to drink. However, thanks to the many experienced nurses, who patiently practised the right technique with him, his abilities quickly improved. Drinking was not an issue anymore. 

That was until we got home... 
Luis, flabbergasted by all the new impressions, simply decided that drinking can come later. And so arrived the first moments of concern and worry for us new parents. The next morning at the clinic, when we described the problem and wanted to demonstrate, how he is NOT drinking, he drank like a champ and since then it has become his favourite pastime. Meanwhile we got the hang of Luis' daily routines – sleeping, drinking, pooping, sleeping, drinking etc. But also the first piece of art was created! We decorated some pages of his baby album with cute hand and foot prints. As a real artist, Luis not only decorated the album, but also generously marked mum and dad and half of the living room :-)

Being a Hertel, it is never too early to throw a decent party. A cake was made, the "beschuit met muisjes" were served, and a bunch of international guests came over to celebrate Luis' zeroth birthday. Luis was the star of the show and did not cry, until the last guest had left.

Luis, mum and dad, also really enjoyed the cards and presents, sent by friends and family from far and wide. Thanks a lot and we really hope, you can see Luis in real life soon!

UPDATE: We are at 41 weeks and still waiting!! We thought by "Fiestas Patrias" (Chilean Independence Day) we would be changing diapers. Instead we danced the Cueca and watched Chile's annual army parade. Seems like baby has a mind of it's own! So far we just couldn't convince him that the outside world is actually quite nice too. But shouldn't be long now...

The first leg of our journey led us to Florian's family in the Netherlands. The girls had grown so much! As a souvenir we brought along our air plane, so that Julie and Fleur could come and visit us in Chile in the future! 
In Dresden/Germany it rained non-stop, until the river burst its banks. Fortunately the flooding was not as bad as in 2002, and we didn't get wet feet at my grandpa's birthday party. Happy 80th Rudi! Then both my sisters joined us. We were headed to the far north-east to see our other grandma Dorothea. Despite dementia she still remembers all 3 of us!
The brief moments Florian and I had to ourselves, we spent shopping cute thingies for our little blind passenger...

After Venlo, Roermond, Dresden and Pasewalk, Potsdam was next. Why? Because it's one of Germany's most beautiful cities, and  – more importantly, the location of Rebekka's wedding, part II :-) Bride and groom looked absolutely gorgeous, and we all enjoyed a sunny day full of love. There was even an special salute by Matthias' friends from the old Prussian guard, known as "Lange Kerls" (Potsdam Giants). But not only Rebekka was a happy girl on June 8. Norah turned 7 the very same day, and got, what she raved about as her "best birthday gift ever": roller skates! She put them on right on the spot, and wouldn't stop practising, until she could skate all by herself.

And off to yet another wedding! Christian and Michaela became a couple at the exact same Aiesec Xmas party, where we first met. And it was fantastic to finally see them getting married too. Congrats! The next day we all went up the Drachenfels ruins, overlooking the river Rhine. I arrived in Europe with not much of a belly, but as you can see, at 7 months, it suddenly popped out! Our doctor was fine with all our travel plans, but advised us to take it extra easy, arrive everywhere well ahead of time, etc. Here is, how we put his advise into practise... :-)

Our departure day started off at a public swimming pool at the Rhine. Since it was such a warm and sleepy day, we did not pay much attention to time. But this turned out only to be the first of a series of mistakes to come... We misread our flight schedule, believing Madrid's arrival was Frankfurt's departure time (never happened before). Since we were completely oblivious to this fact until at the closing check-in-counter, it did not stress us too much :-)) We reached Madrid, however our bags did not (never happened before). In the end it did not matter. The whole flight to Santiago was cancelled anyway (never happened before). Technical problems. We went to customs for the baby shopping: Where is your luggage? ...Lost. Don't know.  Where is your on-flight boarding pass? Don't have one. Flight's cancelled. Without hesitation customs stamped all our tax-free forms (never happened before). Hey, at least something worked out! After an involuntary overnight stay at the most awkward airport hotel ever, a shuttle bus was supposed to bring us back to the departure hall. But again, the Spanish transport system had a different idea. We queued endless hours in the morning chill, finally got on a bus, only to be stranded on the highway minutes later. The shuttle bus engine had broken down (never happened before)! Seriously?? We had to laugh in disbelief. If things continued like this, we would never get home!! But fortunately we did: A confusing wait later, we were picked up by a substitute bus, bringing us to our substitute plane, which flew us back to Santiago safe and sound. Over the coming days all our luggage miraculously reappeared. End of story :-)

Europe, here we come again... 
On the program: two weddings, two birthdays, visits to family/friends and lots of baby shopping :-)) We'll be travelling as 2,5 this time! Attached a first "Hello!" from our little blind passenger.