We are Felipe and Elena, two youngsters from different parts of the world. This blog tells the story of how we met and how we ended up living together in Belgium.
Felipe and Elena met for the first time on a tiny little bus in the south of Chile. Felipe and one of his friends were on the road to meet the rest of their music collective at a festival hidden on the beaches of Manquemapu in the Chilean south. As the last part of their journey, they needed to take a local bus to the coast.
On that bus, on the 2nd of February 2018, they met a Belgian-Spanish brother and sister who were travelling across South America, and had made their haphazard way to the same festival.
In August 2018, Elena went back to Belgium, originally with the idea of going back to Chile. Soon, however, we decided to move to Belgium together, and Felipe followed in September.
We spent the first few months living with Elena’s parents, until we found our own place in Leuven. Now it was Felipe’s turn to get to know Elena’s life in Belgium, and Felipe was able to reunite with old friends who he got to know in Chile but who had moved back to Europe.
Our life in Belgium
Cold, rain, and bicycles – welcome to Belgium Felipe!
Visiting Leuven’s city hall (some strange paintings)
Belgian fries!
Belgian Stoofvlees!
Belgian beers!
and some more biking
Leuven sometimes also has nice sunsets
Some welcome home gifts 🙂
Hanging out with friends in Leuven and attending PhD defenses and weddings
Wandering around in Brussels
Our first trip: meeting up with friends in Vienna
Our second trip: exploring Berlin
Wintertime in Europe: Snow and christmas markets!
One of Europe’s largest christmas markets, to be found in Dusseldorf
Our first trip together outside of Chile was to Peru. Elena had been postponing a visit to some friends of her from Belgium – Raf and Liene – who were living in the Sacred Valley near Cuzco.
When one of Elena’s close friends, Dries, hopped over from Belgium to Peru to visit these friends, we decided that it was the perfect moment to join them.
We decided that we would meet up in Paucartambo, a small city that was hosting one of the most interesting and colourful festivals of the country: la fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen. However, when we arrived in Paucartambo after a particularly long night of buses, we were presented with some kafkaesque obstacles to acquiring a working simcard. It turned out impossible to communicate with Dries.
We decided to go the good old fashoined way, and walk around in the centre in the hopes of finding Dries. Luck was on our side: after a few hundred meters we (almost literally) bumped into each other. This happy coincidence set the tone for a truly unique few days in Paucartambo, and for a fantastic trip in Peru.
Dries and Felipe right after we had found each other – everyone tired but happy to have made it
The fiesta de la Virgen del Carmen is a truly spectacular event that lasts for three days. During the day, there are colorful processions with music and dancing, and the party continues long into the night throughout the city.
After the festival, we travelled to Arin, a tiny but charming village in the Sacred valley, to spend a week with our friends Raf and Liene.
The patio of our place in Arin
The beautiful Peruvian Andes right on our doorstep
Feeding very empty stomachs after a long day of hiking
When we arrived in Arin we had some time to relax and recover from the festival, but soon after we were also put to work. Raf and Liene had bought some land in Arin and had started to build their future home. On ‘work day’ we helped them to clear the land by taking down trees, which would later be used as construction material for the house.
Felipe is ready to chop some trees
The result of a long day’s work
Raf and Liene only take down invasive Eucalyptus trees, and replace the lost trees by indigenous species.
The rest of our trip we spent climbing some of the impressive Inca ruins and ancient salt mines in the Sacred Valley, hiking the Andean mountains, and visiting nearby towns – where we bumped into the occasional smaller version of the festival in Paucartambo.
After Kompáz festival, we started living together – in an actual house – in Valparaiso. A unique city in many ways, it was easy to fill our days walking around to admire the street art, attend spontaneous jam sessions, or marvel at the colours of Valparaiso’s sunsets with some wine on the beach.
Valparaiso was also a meeting point, where old and new friends came together and where Elena and her brother reunited after some time apart.
Rooting for the Belgian Red Devils from our living room in Valparaiso, with the appropriate Belgian beers
Belgium didn’t win, but we still had our beaches and sunsets so who cares really?
Celebrating Elena’s birthday in Chile Belgian style (pancakes!) with the Manquemapu gang of four and some new friends. Elena’s brother Jan timed his visit to Valparaiso perfectly
The spark at the festival at Manquemapu grew quickly, and we became a couple two weeks later when we reunited in Valparaiso.
In this city, which had been Felipe’s home for the past 10 years, Felipe and his friends were organising their own small festival: Kompáz. Located at Las Docas, one of Valparaiso’s beautiful beaches, we spent our first week living together in Elena’s tent on the beach to help build up the festival.
Felipe and his friends hard at work to build the stageFelipe taking a break, with Elena collecting trash in the background. Kompaz festival is not just a music event, but also a way to sensitize people about taking good care of their natural spaces and keeping them clean. Hence, before the festival, part of the volunteers collect and dispose of the trash on the Las Docas beach.
In between the stage building and trash collecting, an occiassional simultaneous break is of course also necessary 🙂
Amazing sunset views from our tent are one of the rewards for the hard work during the day…The stage and the decorations slowly start to take shape as we get closer to the day of the festival.
The first encounter on the little bus to Manquemapu was immortalized by Elena’s camera. From left to right: Felipe’s friend, Elena’s brother Jan, and Felipe.Manquemapu, hidden away on the wild coast of Southern Chile
The only image of our gang of four was captured by Elena’s brother – who is represented by his feet – at the festival campsite
Felipe and Elena 