Back to the Beach

We’re engaged!

The question was popped and the answer is yes!

We are super happy and want you all to know we think of you and love you and when we get back to Canada we can celebrate this together.

 

Some friends invited us to their parents beach house in Algarrobo last weekend.  We posted some pics in flickr and on this site.  It has been unbelievably hot here the last couple of weeks so it was really nice to get out of the the city and into the fresh sea air.  We spent our time playing frisbee on the beach, hiking around the shoreline, and soaking up sun.  We also hiked through a eucalyptus tree farm to a Blair Witch house(thank god it wasn’t at night).  

We relaxed at night playing cards and the guitar with our friends Marie and Francesco, all in all it was a fun relaxing weekend.

El Morado in the Cajon del Maipo

We just got back from a long weekend in El Morado park.  Thursday the first was the ‘dia de muerte’ for most Latin American countries.  It’s a holiday for families to visit cemeteries and celebrate the lives of people past.  We booked the Friday off to make a long weekend of it and went camping.

It was only a hundred kilometer trip into Cajon del Maipo, but with bus stops and unpa

ved roads it took roughly three hours.

Anyways we left early enough in the morning to start our trek before noon.  The sun was shinning and the scenery was spectacular and even though our packs were heavy our spirits were high and we enjoyed the hike in.

It is still spring here but the temperatures are consistently in the high twenties.  I think the summer is going to be much to handle.  Also the hole in the ozone down here doesn’t leave you much time in the sun before you start burning, and at the elevation we were at the exposure is even greater, so you must take care to wear plenty of sunblock and a wide brimmed hat.

There were only a dozen people at the lake 5 kms in, and only a few camped over night.  Upon arriving we set up our te

nt cooked some food and relaxed.   I was nice all day but you could feel that the temperatures would drop this high up and so early in the season.  It did ,but we were prepared with our warm sleeping bags and warm long underwear.  Early to bed and early to rise.

A cool calm morning.  Little yellow chested birds.

We hiked up towards the glacier that day getting a good 

distance up the mountain.  We had lunch below El Morado peak.  The slide down the mountain was a lot of fun(check out the video) and we followed the glacier fed stream back to the lake for another relaxing evening.  There were even less campers there the second night but we made friends with our neighbors and everyone had some wine or brandy to share.

We hiked back on Saturday, just in time, as the weekend crowd was rolling in!, and managed to hitchhike back to Santiago in one shot directly to our apartment.  

It was only two nights and it felt good to be home.  This was some early preparation for Torres del Paines where we’ll spend several days hiking and campin

g through this renowned park.  It gave us ideas for food prep/planning and pack weight and the kind of shape we have to be in come February.

A great weekend all in all.  We went for Peruvian food for fresh fish, yams, and steak to top it off and now we’re back to our regular schedule till Christmas.  Opps did I say Christmas....I guess now that Halloween has come and gone the end of the year is here.  Eeep!

Keep working and studying hard!  the new year is almost here.

Have good ones and keep in touch!

Chile National Days

I have to say that Chile's National days rival China's New Year celebrations. We partied for five days here taking advantage of all Santiago had to offer for their Independence day. The 18th was the National day, the 19th was Military day, and because these fell on a Tuesday and Wednesday we also celebrated a 'sandwich' day  on the Monday. Around 2 million people actually left the city to vacation in coastal towns like Vina del Mar or head south into the Lake District, and as unpatriotic as it sounds many went into argentina for cheap eats and sleeps. For us it Santiago was unusually tranquil....the streets were quieter anyways.

Bridge Linguatec had a party on the Friday leading into the long weekend. They had food, drink, dance and karaoke. 

On the weekend we spent time 

with our Brazilian friends Daniel and Fabiana, and their friend Paula visiting from Brazil. We walked around the central market and main plaza and into a cultural museum underneath the presidential palace. We also went into other cultural neighborhoods like Barrio Bellavista for food and entertainment. The highlight was finding a little restaurant at the end of the day and sitting down for beers and empanadas, while being entertained by traditional dancers dancing the cueca, Chile's national dance.

On Monday we had people over to our apartment building roof-top for a barbecue. It was a nice time with lots of food, pisco sours and beer, that reminded us of summertime in Canada. 

The next day we had refueled our tanks and went to party at a nearby Fonda. We went to 

Parque Inez de Suarez for live music, dancing, food and wine and had a great time celebrating Chile's Independence days.

Day Trippin'

We just spent a great weekend on Chile’s coast.  

Our friends Philipe and Zanatoa invited us to their beach house for the weekend in Concon.  They picked us up in Vina del Mar and we drove up the coast to their place taking pictures and checking out the surfers along the way.  

We had a great dinner that night at a local restaurant of seafood and white wine.  The best seafood ever..?  I would have to say yes.  Mixed seafood platter to start followed by crab cake, fish and chips, and cooked fish jumbilee.  For dessert we had two crepes - papaya and pineapple.  We walked it off and then relaxed on their balcony overlooking a beach.

The next day we went back down the coast to Valparaiso and spent the afternoon walking through the streets, up and down the hills through different neighborhoods.  Actually I should mention before going to Valpo we went to Las Deliciosas in Concon and filled up on the best seafood empanadas in Chile; seafood, crab and cheese, scallops and cheese, - again the best empanadas ever!

So with full stomachs we walked the streets of Valparaiso taking pictures of the cool graffiti and colorful homes.

We used a couple of the funicular elevators to get us up certain hills for great views of the city and port.  The city has a certain atmosphere...like old Quebec, a cool old-charm.  UNESCO named the city a world heritage site in 2003.

We took a lot of pictures and I’ll have them uploaded soon(I hope)(Elqui Valley pics are finally loaded).  It’s slow without home internet access.  We are seriously reconsidering our position on getting the service.

Tomorrow is National Day for Chile.  We are having a barbecue here on the roof of our apartment tonight and will be checking out all the festivities around town tomorrow.  Stay tuned for September 18 update.

September Weather

Hi all.

August was a very busy month.  Lots of work.  All of a sudden it’s September now and there’s not as much work, but Paula has secured a private class! Spring is around the corner and thank god, we’ve been a long a time without a summer and now it’s almost here.

We’ve been exploring the mountains close to the city.  Last weekend we went deep into Parque Mahuida  along the pre-cordilla mountains.  We hiked up and over them for some really great views of the Andes.  We had a picnic and met a old ranger patrolling the area on horseback who told us to come back in a couple of weeks and he’d give us a tour further into the mountains.

With all the free time on our hands, we’ve been doing a lot of homemade cooking!  (yum!)  As I write, Sean is frying up fresh naan to eat with some chickpea concoction I made up....  We’ll let you know how that works out!  It’s hard to find ethnic food out here, unless it’s Japanese.  Sushi is huge and any blue-blooded Chilean will tell you that raw fish is at the top of their favorites list along with Peruvian food.  We’re not too sure how to distinguish between Chilean and Peruvian yet, but the Chileans are astute in pointing out the differences, sure it will come with time!

We’ve bought our tickets to the south for February!  We will fly from Santiago to Punta Arenas on the 4th and then head to Torres del Paine National Park for 8 or 9 days.  We’re planning on doing the circuit.  Then we have tickets for P.A. to Balmaceda.  Will will spend a couple of weeks exploring the carretera austral(southern highway) between Peurto Montt and Cohaique, Chiloe Island, Orsorno Volcano, and then head into the Lakes District where we’ll hopefully visit with some friends in their summer home.  

Big plans that require a lot of preparation.  We really need to buckle down and save as much money as we can during the time between so there will be plenty of home-cooked meals and walks in the parks.

Around town; there was a violent protest last week with molotov cocktail’s and full riot police(don’t worry folks we stayed away), the city is getting ready for Chile Independence day on September 18, and we’ve increased our Spanish lessons to 3 times a week!

Winter in Santiago

It’s been awhile folks. Hope everyones having a good summer, staying out of trouble, and having fun. Things are good here! It’s relatively cold but September is just around the corner and for Chile that means Spring! It also means Chile National day or Independence day, on September 18. The 19th is military day,..for all the Pinochetists, and the 17th being squeezed in on the monday is going to be a ‘sandwich’ day. It sounds like it should be a real party with 5 days of drink, drum, and rodeos.
It snowed here in Santiago for the first time in 10 to 40 years depending on where you live in the city. The elevation change is extreme ,being so close to the cordillia, so the folks in Las Condes have a different take than the folks downtown. It was nothing like a snow storm in Canada but it was really something new for most. For us it felt like Christmas as we walked up Vicuna Mackenna to the metro and looked up at a nicely dusted Cerro San Cristobal in all its snow dome glory.
We’ve started spanish lessons!
A movie recommendation: What the Bleep! Down the Rabbit Hole. If you liked The Matrix or are interested in quantum physics this movie is key.
We’ve just bought a new refrigerator! This should be the last of our major purchases, I think(still like to get a guitar and a blender), so we’re settled in now! Wouldn’t it have been cool to have the fridge in the photo page?
We’re having occasional dinner parties with some teachers from our school and there’s also a regular football game being played every sunday. It’s nice finding people you can hang out with and have a few. I think sometimes it helps with any homesickness of our friends and other times makes me wish more than ever, you were here.
Namaste.

Long Weekend

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Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

The Chileans really know how to liven’ up their winter. This weekend was the second long weekend in July.

On Canada Day long weekend we tried to go to El Morado but were unsuccessful mainly because we couldn’t understand exactly when and where the bus would leave.
It was a good though, because we now understand that it’s not the best time of year to visit this area. It is close to the mountains and not very accessible.

So we started researching and asking questions about an area north of Santiago near La Serena. We were told that there was a beautiful valley to the east of this city that’s well known for its Space Observatories, spirituality, clear skies, magnetism, papaya’s, pisco distillery’s and UFO sightings. This area actually has the highest levels of magnetism on earth and its telescopes are some of the biggest and most powerful.

So after our classes on Friday we caught a bus 500km north along the Pacific coast into a dry cactus covered land. We arrived in La Serena around 6pm and immediately bought tickets into the Elqui Valley. The bus took us to the main town, Vicuna, in the valley with a population of 7000 people. We got a room had a couple pisco sours and had a little time to gaze up at the stars before we fell asleep from a long day of travel.

We woke up in the morning to a beautiful cloudless day. We walked through the streets and then out of town and up a big hill for some nice views of the surrounding landscape, the town below, and the observatories far off on hills in the distance.

Later we went further into the valley towards the Andes by catching a bus to the end of the line - Pisco Elqui. It was a really nice drive even though the valley isn’t as lush as it usually is during the summer. We went through Monte Grande, the birth place of Gabrial Mistral, Chile’s other nobel prize winning poet, and continued down the road to Pisco Elqui. We had reserved a cabana here where we chilled out for two nights. Other than relaxing by the pool or going across the road to watch locals play soccer we went for a nice long hike up and around a nearby mountain going down through a vineyard over a fence and then followed the road back into town. The sun and altitude made for an exhausting trek so we went to a local juice bar afterwards and each had an all natural papaya drink.

We are back in Santiago now and don’t know when we’ll see another long weekend. We’ve hit winters peak and are looking forward to getting some of that sun you’ve all been basking in the last couple of months.

In other notes Chile is very excited about it’s junior soccer team that is well in the under 20 championships being held in cities across Canada. Tonight they are playing Argentina for a birth in the finals. Go Chile!

This just in....Chile lost and got in a fight with the Toronto police afterwards! We are laying low on being Canadian for a few days!

Deadwood Days

Hi People, hope you had a good Canada Day long weekend. We celebrated our Canadian heritage by climbing a big hill for some nice views of the city and then had a couple beers. We posted some pictures of the way up and from the top of Cerro San Cristobal. It might be hard to make out the buildings with the thick layer of smog blanketing Santiago. Not so healthy. Being tree hugging greenies it’s a bit hard to stomach but the reality of the poor air quality we create is obvious . In winter the smog here is at it’s worst. We are looking forward to the summer winds blowing in to make our hill hikes a little easier.

We have been passing our nights making home-cooked meals and watching episodes of Deadwood. Our days are busy preparing for classes and our teaching hours are gradually increasing. Paula has picked up a 4 hour Saturday class. We are also close to finalizing spanish classes that should begin next week! The weather is mild and we’ve had warm sunny days here and there.
The internet hook up is not happening. The long delay involved in getting registered with a Chile ID got us to thinking we could do without the home service. So we’ll put the money we save towards spanish lessons and use wi-fi at school and at the many locations around town.

Ciao for now!

Good Gear!

It was chilly in our apartment till we found this little powerhouse. We’ve also outfitted the bed with a warm down blanket to help us through this Chilean winter. The cold temperatures, though, are giving us time to find a cheap/used refrigerator to buy.

The real rush is to get the internet hooked up in our apartment. Paula is having Facebook withdrawls and I miss Skyping my friends and checking the baseball scores. It has been a bit of an ordeal trying to talk with these fast speaking Chileans over the phone. If it’s not the speed they talk at it’s the Chile slang and expressions. We are getting nowhere so we’ve enlisted the help of a new friend in our building and hopefully tomorrow we’ll be online.

We’re hoping to be taking Spanish lessons soon too! Our school also teaches Spanish and offers to swap teaching hours for lesson time. It’s a really good option because Paula and I are on similar schedules and should be able to take the Spanish lessons at the same time basically giving us a 2 for 1 deal.
We’re both loving our classes and Paula is really liking teaching. I am really enjoying the organization and methodology this school provides. It’s a far cry from what I experienced in China.

Anyways hopefully the next time we post it will be from our apartment!

Yep, we´re employed!

We’ve got work and a new apartment!
Hmmm, living in Canada wasn’t THIS good, apartments are really nice and affordable. We quickly learned why, Chile doesn’t winterize or heat them! (brrr!) Also, they don’t usually come with a fridge. We’ll be hitting up the markets this weekend to get these final important pieces and a few trimmings to make our apartment truly guest worthy.

As for work, we’ve been fortunate to find a company that will arrange working visas for us. We’re slowly gathering teaching hours and looking into tutoring on the side (this is where the real money is at). Also, we’ve been arranging volunteer opportunities and looking into other organizations within Santiago. We won’t be firm on times though until our teaching schedules are all worked out.

The school, Bridge Linguatec, caters to business clients in and around Santiago. Sean has been gathering classes quickly with most of them being at the business’ office. He gets paid travel time which is a nice bonus and he’s happy to travel around the city. Paula’s happy to see him in a shirt and tie!

Enjoy the pictures of our new place. We also posted a couple of videos from inside the apartment.

Back in Santiago

Well we’ve been back in Santiago de Chile for a week now. The weather seems to be nicer than Argentina, but it’s still heading into winter so it’s chilly and we’re starting to get multiple overcast days. We bought an umbrella today!

The true sign that winter is on its way are the people in the streets selling umbrellas and the skiers getting stoked for the season.
We are told that watching the mountains gather snow and then watching it recede is a good way to pass the next couple of months. We are also told that it’s not supposed to be a rainy winter, but that doesn’t help with thoughts of Canada soaking it up in the sun right now.

Paula and I are passing the time with multiple projects including; finding volunteer opportunities in the community, finding a job, finding a place to live, and finding cheap watering holes. The holes aren’t to hard to find actually, you can go anywhere for a good cheap drink. Pisco sours are Chile’s cocktail and good beers at good prices are at every restaurant(Kuntzman (sp), Escudo, and Cristal are regional). The key to being thrifty though is finding restaurants that have a happy hour. We’ve been lucky enough to come across a great sushi bar and a great thai food joint offering half off everything on their menu’s. Along with finding a place that offers ‘real’ caesar salads we think this is the key to good living. As unemployed transients and mindful buddhists we take what we can get and give as much as we can.
We love hearing from you.

Esteros del Ibera

Don't Step in There
Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

After spending 5 days in Iguazu, we decided to head out to the “Misiones” province to check out some famous Jesuit ruins. (San Ignacio being the most well-known) It was a bit of a surprise to come across the ruins, they were quite elaborate with beautifully carved entrance archways and huge “longhouses” built from rock and used to house the natives in the mission. We learned that Portuguese Jesuits entered this part of Argentina (along with bordering Paraguay and Brazil) in the early 1600’s. The ruins are like nothing you’d see in Canada as they were built from volcanic rock “bricks” and other mineral sources.

The native people are called Guarani, and while there are still some full blooded villages in existence to this day, their population has downsized considerably. Many of the people in this region are mixed blood (or Mestiso) which is a mix of European and Guarani. (Believe I’m getting this right).

The next day we made a beeline to a town called Mercedes where we hoped to have the opportunity to visit the Argentinian Wetlands Esteros Del Ibera. The weather was cold and we were glad to have packed the long johns for this part of the trip! Camping was out of the question (most campgrounds are closed for the season and only offer cold water, brrr!). We holed up instead in a great little hostel called Delices Del Ibera and arranged a trip into the swamps.

Another set-back, out little car would NEVER make it on the gravel roads to the base camp Carlos Pellegrini. We needed to travel about 150 km directly into the swamp to get to the national park border. So along with our new travel buddy Adam, we arranged for a “collectivo” (mini bus) to take us in. It took us 3 hours to cross that distance, but it was well worth it!

We arrived in Carlos Pelligrinni at about 4 pm and were immediately greeted by an older gentleman (Martine) and 3 horses. We rode into the sunset while taking in the countryside. The town only has about 1000 inhabitants, 1 grocery store and 1 restaurant (both of which were run out of people’s homes I believe). It had a true provincial feel to it. We took a walk down the main road and were greeted by people on horses (the main mode of transportation here). There were also random horses and cows grazing along the side of the road seemingly with no owners as well as chickens and (yipee!) guinea pigs!

In the morning we went for a hike through the forest bordering the swamp and were surprised to find out they have monkeys! (very very loud monkeys!) There were also millions of birds stopping to check us out. Later in the day, once the sun came out and it warmed up, we went out on a boat to check out the floating islands and were thrilled to get up close (we could almost touch them!) to the swamp deer, capybaras and caymen. These three animals have no natural predators in the swamplands (besides man) therefore were not afraid of us…A capybara waddled right past us for a juicy grass mound when we stepped out onto one of the islands!

And so after our two exciting days on the swamp, we’re back on the road heading back to Buenos Aires to drop off the rental car and catch our flight back to Santiago. No worries parents, we’re on the job and apartment hunt now!

In the Jungle

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Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

It was a great time in Iguazu. I wanted to put a link up to for our pictures from the last five days here. There’s a ton! I edited some but everything is just so spectacular most of them I just left up.

I don’t really know what to say about Iguazu falls other than awesome....It was a once in a lifetime experience seeing these wonders.

We are heading back to Beunos Aires now but plan on having one more adventure before we do. We’ll write soon!

Along the Rio Uruguay

Banks of the Rio Uruguay
Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

We hit the road on Friday. The guys at Alamo were helpful giving us easy to understand directions out of Buenos Aires and onto the main road north over the River de la Plate and into the country. Like any country it was nice to see land outside the big city.

Day 1 - We headed into the Parque de Palmas, a natural palm “oasis” (or savannah to be technical) where we set up camp for the night. After slaving over pasta on the MSR stove (Sean tells me that’s the “gear” term for all you nerdy camp nuts) we didn’t realize night had hit. Two capybaras (or Carpinchos in spanish) were standing just outside of the camp light and waddled into the underbrush (Donnie, that one’s for you).

There are also these really cute giant chinchillas that squeak at each other all night, they’re called Vizcacha (no pics, they only come out at night and run VERY fast!).

Days 2 and 3 - Next stop, Yapayu! This little town had a great provincial feel to it with dusty red dirt roads and horses parked at street corners. Yapayu is set right in the middle of farming country on Rio Uruguay, all you hear when you stand in the town square is chirping crickets, dogs barking and cows mooing.

Yapayu is the birthplace of Liberator San Martin, a prominent political hero in Argentina. We wandered through the old ruins, and then went for a walk on the main streets of the town. Living here is very modest, homes are small and most people keep gardens to grow their own fruits and veggies.

Monday we left Yapeyu for provincia Misiones. The roads got worse but the scenery was much better. We were out of farm/ranch land and into the sub-tropics! Around 2:00 that afternoon we were gridlocked by farmers on strike. They are upset by the unfair prices they are getting for their crops and blocked the two main highways accessing the province to bring attention to their fight.

While chatting with other stuck motorists we were recommended an alternate route to keep us on our way. So we back tracked a few miles and took a winding roller coaster of a road to another small road that snaked up the banks of the Rio Uruguay. It was slow going but the scenery was just great and there were hardly any other cars on the road! We ended up that day in a wet and muddy city called El Soberbio. We holed up in a cheap hotel and had an early night to recoup for our drive deep into the jungle and Puerto Iguazu the next day.

Food in Buenos Aires

Aregentina Breakfast
Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

Well here we are in Buenos Aires, Argentina everyone! The bus ride from Mendoza was long but luxurious (we got to play bingo on the bus for the grand prize, a bottle of wine!). We arrived Saturday May 12 and have now had a few days to walk around the city trying to take in as much as we can. Our Spanish is improving every day!

There are 13 million people here and with all the apartments from the outskirts to the downtown core it’s no wonder. The architecture is old and European influenced and the streets are cafe friendly. Yerba Mate is the Argentine coffee used to aid in night life (it’s something like a strong loose-leaf green tea loaded with caffeine, you drink it through a straw). The party usually doesn’t get started until after 2 am and wraps when most start their work day. We don’t have any picks of this night life (although Sean did fall in with the wrong crowd one night...see photo link), but follow the link from photos for our shots from around town which include Recoleta Cemetery! We’ve also tried including some food and drink pics for all interested. The food portions are big but the menu isn’t too different from home. We are going to a regional food restaurant tomorrow night and bringing the camera. I’m not ordering any guinea pig!
The beers are also big! 750 and 900 mL big! 3$ Cdn at a restaurant or diner and even cheaper at the grocery store!

Paula and I really like El Sol Hostel we’re staying in and decided to extend our stay till the end of the week. This gives us more time to take in the streets and prepare for our big adventure to Iguazu Falls. We are renting a car for a couple of weeks to do some camping and get off the beaten track. It’s a long haul between Buenos Aires and Iguazu and we want to give ourselves enough time to relax and enjoy the land along the way. Check Wiki.com and you’ll see why we can’t pass up the chance to take this trip north.

So...you might not here from us for a few days, but don’t worry we will be taking care and taking care of each other. Hopefully we can get some pictures of our road trip out to you along the way!

Goat for Dayle

Goat for Dayle
Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

Dayle you asked for them so here you go...goats and other animals.
Check out this Mendoza link for some pictures of zoo animals and other areas of this high altitude border town of Argentina.
Randy we’re still working on some food pics, but in the meantime there’s a couple restaurant shots for you in the Mendoza set.

We’re on our way to Buenos Aires for a few days folks...
Have a great weekend!

Donde Argentina?

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Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

After a few conversations with fellow hostelers over a few bottles of wine, we decided to make a change in our plans and cross over to the Argentina border town of Mendoza. We hopped onto a double decker bus at 11:00 am and sat ourselves at the very front, top floor.

Driving through the Chilean countryside is incredible! The scenery is very similar to what you might see in Colorado and Arizona. Very dry, scarce brush and plenty of cactus standing taller than us. The sun beat down on the arid landscape as we drove past cattle ranches and small dusty towns. The scenery started to change the closer we got to the mountains, passing through valleys with vineyards and small streams.

Then the scary stuff! Sitting at the front of a double decker with a first hand view of the scenery is incredible, until you hit the switch-backs just before the Argentina border! Then you get a first hand view of the sharp drop-offs at each turn and the sheer gutsiness of the South American bus drivers! (check out the photos)

But once you get over the pass, it’s just amazing mountain scenery, glaciers and old railway tracks by dried river beds. A cowboy’s paradise!

Surf and Sun

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Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

Hi folks., we really enjoyed our first weekend in Santiago walking the vibe and taking in the streets,..It’s a great city and we both decided that we really like it here....
That being said we headed for the coast on Monday. We met a girl at our hostel from Brazil who also wanted to see Valparaiso and Vina del Mar so we packed our bags with wine, cheese, bread, flan and caught a bus for the Pacific.
It was such a beautiful day...not a cloud in the sky.
Check out our pictures of the surf. Vina del Mar is the place you should all use as an excuse to come and visit us!

Around Town

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Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

We spent the day doing a tour of the city. The weather was overcast all morning but the sun came out and made for a great day of walking around. Above is a picture of Paula from high atop Cerro Santa Lucia in the heart of Santiago.

Check out the photo page and the movie page for a look at what we happened upon at the Plaza de Armas....

10 Hours of Flight!

Santiago, May 2007
Originally uploaded by Travels and Escapades

We touched down today at 11am Chile time. Very nice flight down into Santiago. Very much like google earth. The terrain looks so dry with mountains and Pacific coast in distance.

Sean enjoyed the taxi ride downtown to our hostel picking out all the motorbikes on the road. There are really a lot of bikes on the road, the temperatures are fine for riding still(and probably year round) so it’s really a practical way to get around.

The city itself has a European feel to it like Spain or Italy. We walked around our neighborhood after a short nap and had dinner at a nice restaurant named Patagonia.