HILARIOUS WOMEN'S RETREAT

I will be presenting a program of faith-filled joy 

at a women's retreat in Marion, Iowa this weekend. 

Click here to learn more and register!

BUY 2 GET ONE FREE ON COMMUTER CDS

You may have seen by yesterday's blog post, that my commuter CD, Laugh Your Way There, is now in it's second edition. Very Good, Very Good, Yay!

Thanks to all of YOU, the laughter keeps growing and people are laughing their way to work, school, shopping malls, playgrounds, swimming pools and just about everywhere! Good bye road rage, hello world peace through laughter. :)

As a thank you, The Laughter Shoppe is extending a limited time offer on this product. Right now, you can buy 2 and get one FREE! That's just $29.90 for 3 discs. Now you can share them with your friends, family and co-workers (especially if you want a more pleasant work experience). Ha ha ha!

Note, this offer is only for on-line paypal orders. Click below to order. It's so simple.

BUY 2, GET 1 FREE!

$29.90 for 3 CDs l Shipping just $2
no matter how much you order

It is also available as an MP3 download for just $9.99 at CD Baby.

Do you have something say about Laugh Your Way There? How does it help you laugh more? Please e-mail me at: laughterlaura@yahoo.com. I'd love to include your review at my site. You can also post your review directly at Amazon.com. Thanks!

CHILEAN LAUGHTER TOUR DAY 10

The 10th day of our Laughter Tour began with Tosha flashing this compelling but devilish grin! We were staying in Nicole's house and this is her daughter's room.

Here I am in her lovely living room.

William lounging in Nicole's living room.

Felipe got the fire going so we'd warm up.

Nicole got busy making breakfast as Tosha talked (you can see her gestures on the right side).

Tosha was happy to check her e-mail.

Then we went exploring the town of Pucon. Ironically, we ran into Alejandra and her daughter who were downtown doing the very same thing.

Tosha and I adored these bright rolls of wool roving we found at a local shop.

Here is a tented "open air" market we walked through.

Then we went to a fancy chocolate and coffee shop. Look at all these amazing delectables!

The chocolate girl was getting the box ready for us.

The chocolate tester was administering a test to see if the chocolate was good enough.

When we got back to Nicole's house, the fire was wonderfully warm.

We made 3 salads to take to Sonia's birthday party. Here I am with the salads, all ready to go to Sonia's house.

Next we went to Felipe's apartment and art studio. Here he is with one of his paintings.

Felipe explained some of his work to Tosha.

Here's another one of his paintings.

Then, we arrived at Sonia's cottage. This bright bowl of fruit was the centerpiece of her living room.

Sonia is also an artist. This painting of hers hangs above her couch. She also has a studio/gallery space in the downtown are of Pucon.

Here Tosha was greeting a party-goer named Oscar.

Sonia's sons were working hard to grill the meet outside.

Notice that the grill is actually a wheelbarrow!

Nicole getting the music set up for the party.

This plate from Sonia's set is hand-made without a wheel, which was the traditional way of making pottery in Chile. She is proud to own this special set. 

Here is Sonia, the birthday girl, serving lunch.

Tosha in her Bolivian wrap enjoying the conversation at the party. 

Ah, the beautiful birthday cake!

This is another party guest. One of Sonia's sons is coming down from the loft in the background.

We gave Sonia a laughter blessing for her birthday. Here she is joining us in the laughter.

Now the birthday candle has been lit.

Here Sonia is with a scarf she's been given as a birthday gift.

She's cutting the cake as her son looks on eagerly.

Almost instantly, we vanquished the cake. It was a light, fluffy orange frosting with layers of yellow cake. I'd never tried anything quite like it.

Here's Sonia and her cat with their friend and landlord, Elisabeth (who invited us to come to her house and see her llamas the next day—stay tuned for photos of that adventure).

More happy party goers!

When I got into the bathroom, I found the cat in the sink!

And it wouldn't leave but just kept staring at me. What I didn't realize is that it was waiting for me to turn the water on so it could get a drink!

Everyone bundled up and got ready to depart.

Here is the outside of her cozy cottage.

When we got home, William's nose was running from all that time with the cat so he tried out a Chilean brand of nose tissue called Elite (menthol scented).

We felt grateful to have experienced a day of laughter, friendship, celebration and more.

CHILEAN LAUGHTER TOUR DAY 9

On the ninth day of our laughter tour, we had a low-key schedule so we slept in a bit, then enjoyed breakfast at our hotel in Los Angeles, Chile. As you can see in the photo below Alejandra wasn't yet awake even though breakfast was late.

William was taking a photo of the corridor of our hotel when the maid stepped into the frame. They both got a great laugh out of that.

When we went out to the parking lot, we saw that the hotel hangs the sheets on a line instead of using a dryer. We watched the hotel employee quickly pull a whole group of sheets off the line, throw them around his neck and head back to the hotel. Here is is in all his sheets.

Here's one of the many stray dogs of Los Angeles.

A shot from Los Angeles.

This flag vendor was giving us directions. Because it just two days before the fiestas patrias (literally "patriotic parties") to celebrate the Chilean Independence.Celebrations of all things Chilean center on their independence day so we saw many flag vendors.

Some lovely spring tree blossoms in Los Angeles.

More random scenes from Los Angeles.

Before we left town, we stopped at the bus station so Alejandra could purchase her bus ticket. We had determined she would depart from Pucon separately so she could get back to Santiago in time to fly north for her big laughter job in the copper mines.

This guy didn't even see me take his photo as we drove by.

We saw many street vendors selling kites in Chile. It is a favorite pastime and since it is a coastal country, there is generally plenty of wind for kite flying.

More aromos trees. Everyone told us how lucky we were to be in Chile during the very small window of tim when these gorgeous trees are in their full spring bloom.

Here we are going through another toll. There were many of them along the highway.

This is a bridge on way from Los Angeles to Temuco.

Here is a church in the city of Temuco.

This is the Chinese restaurant in Temuco where we ate lunch.

Here in Chile, it's Coke Light, not Diet Coke and it tastes slightly different than the formula used for Diet Coke in the states.

Tosha contemplating her lunch.

Mmmm...this is the lovely coffee drink I had for dessert.

Here is the sign in front of the restaurant. While lunch was good, we decided that Chinese food in the United States is a bit better than in Chile.

Here's a scene I photographed in Temuco.

A beautiful home with a Mapuche sculpture in Temuco.

More scenes along the way.

Our gas guys!

Faintly in the background you can see a volcano. This was our first glimpse of the famous Villarrica Volcano situated near Pucon, our destination city.

Now here is a closer view of Villarrica Volcano.

As you can see by the photos, I was very impressed (if not obsessed) with the giant volcano. I was proud of myself for capturing these shots with a zoom lens from a moving vehicle.

You can see how it dominates over the landscape. It is breathtaking.

When the sunset tinted the volcano pink, I demanded Tosha pull over so I could get an adequate shot of it. It was simply magnificent.

Then we went to an open air market to get some groceries to bring to Nicole's house. Here are some of the lovely items they had for sale.

Then we dropped Alejandra off at her daughter's house. Here you can see the very happy reunion of Alejandra and her granddaughter, Antonia.

We arrived at Nicole's house. This is Nicole and Felipe. Tosha has long been friends with Nicole's mother and so we were invited to come stay at her home. She's an America but has been living in Chile most of her adult life.

They took us for a walk down by the beach on Pucon's lake.  There we got a spectacular view of the stars—including the Southern Cross, which is easily visible in the Southern Hemisphere. This was the first time William and I had ever seen it. Here are some shots along the walkway where we strolled.

After a nice visit with Nicole and Felipe, we enjoyed a night's rest.