28 August 2014:
“My wife Carolina was born in Valdivia in Chile.
I am Belgian.
Between us we have had three marvellous daughters, Anna, Clara, and Elena.
On 2 September 2014 all five of us are leaving for a year spent beyond the Andes, to meet Carolina’s family who stayed in Chile, and to show this country which is half theirs, to our daughters. They will discover folk they know only from stories, discover this country nestled between the Cordillera and the Pacific, with its scattering of volcanoes and lagoons, between deserts and glaciers, kept vivid by the stories of their mother and grand-parents.
Carolina often says that each time she returns and flies over the Cordillera before the descent towards Santiago, she cannot hold back her tears, overwhelmed by the feeling that part of her still belongs to this country.
Perhaps our daughters will feel the same for this unknown land.
Meanwhile, we are busy getting ready for the voyage, and the girls are impatient as this summer seems never-ending.
Only four days left till we leave and now nothing is holding us back.”