Our 2 weeks travelling together in Chile were a blast from second 1.
I decided to stay in Matthew's Trip mode so I had us in a rental car right away for a 1,000 mile return trip to the lovely lake town of Villarica, in the North part of Chile's Patagonia. We shivered in the cold, enjoyed the rain, loved the snow, and built our first ever Summer Snowman on the flanks of nearby Pucon Volcano.
We even managed to re-create some of the angst in trying to locate un-marked hotels, mis-mapped by Booking.com, on hard to navigate roads. Check!
Then, after our chilly time we were rewarded BIG time with the ultimate Chill time in Rapa Nui (Easter Island), an Island so relaxed we had to go searching for tourist info, rather than having it thrust in our faces at every turn. 'Coral Head Hugging Hippy Crap' is what I had jokingly said of the idea 17 years ago, when Roni and I had last been in Santiago on our extended honeymoon and decided to blow it off as it was too expensive. Well to make amends we all surreptiously gave a Moa head a big hug as we started our exploration of this amazing place. And yes I also managed to scare us all on a hairy, wet, knarly dirt road in a 2 wheel drive Jimmy. Check!
Then back to Chile for my last hurrahs, and last chance to show Roni and the kids how I had lived for 3 months.
Bus station hotel, and meal at 11 pm. Check!
Hostel for 2 days in Valparaiso. Check!
City wanderings, cake time, speaking Spanish with varying degrees of fluency. Check. Check, and Check.
We boarded our plane out of Santiago en route home ... and Latin America had one last item for me to Check off: my air-side bought coffee was taken off me by one last security check on the jet way... CHECK.
