January 14-18th Chile

by Lindsay Lorenz - January 19, 2019

14th

We ate breakfast at the gas station. This is a pretty impressive gas station. Laundry, showers, and hot food...an overlanders dream come true. Then we packed up and headed to Santiago. We met Bart’s parents around noon at the Airbnb. Before that we met the Airbnb owner who kindly let us park in front of her house. We all headed to a local vegetarian restaurant for lunch and then checked into the Airbnb around 3 PM. We relaxed for a while and then went to La Perla Del Pacifico for dinner. We all enjoyed some good seafood.

15th

We skipped breakfast since we were doing a walking food tour at 10:30. We stopped at a small cafe for some coffee beforehand. We met the tour guide Lariza and a young couple from Australia at the square. She walked us around the markets and let us try a few local foods. She ended the tour at a local pub that smelled of cat piss and served up a local favorite called terremoto. It was made with an extremely strong wine, fernet liqueur, and pineapple sherbert. We all loved them and enjoyed multiple rounds! We all had a good laugh at the Australian man who was walking bow legged due to having surgery on his twisted testies the day prior. I guarantee everyone left with a solid buzz. Multiple different musicians strolled through blasting their talents in our ears followed by a stray cat or two. It was a great experience and everyone was so nice. Lariza did a great job and was fun to be around. Then we took the metro back to the Airbnb. We grabbed food for dinner and relaxed for the rest of the night.

16th

We headed out after breakfast to do a hike. After multiple failed attempts we ended up at a restaurant drinking beer and eating empanadas. Then we headed towards Santiago and stopped for one more cocktail. We ordered Papa John's for dinner and relaxed for the evening.

17th

After some yummy bacon cooked perfectly by Amy, we headed out to some wineries. First we went to Santa Rita Winery. We walked around and checked the place out. Then we shared a couple of bottles of wine on the beautiful patio. The weather was absolutely perfect. Then we ate at their cafe. We tried the traditional pastel de choclo, which is basically shepards pie except with corn. After lunch we headed to another winery called Aquitania. We enjoyed a their tasting very much. Barbara was very informative. We made dinner at the condo and relaxed for the evening.

18th

After some more of Amy's perfectly cooked bacon we headed to the market again. Then we had coffee at Starbucks. We all packed up and checked out of the condo. Then we went to McDonald's for lunch. We drove about an hour to La Petite Hotel. After we check in we headed to the rafting outfitters. We packed into our wet suits and enjoyed a good laugh. Then we jumped into a van and drove to the beginning. After our training we were off! We all took turns jumping in the river. It was much colder than expected. Our raft was extremely light since we only had 5 people in it. Jose told us we were going to "play with the rocks". Since our raft was so light we basically rammed huge rocks at full speed. It was a blast! He also let us jump out while going down the river. Amy's training came into play as she pulled Bart into the raft. Our guide also tried to show off with a back flip and he fell out of the boat. We all had a good time on this adventure. Then we had a yummy cold beer at a local pub. We went back to the hotel. Some enjoyed the pool and some enjoyed relaxing. We ate a great dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was very delicious. Then we enjoyed one last drink in the garden.

A big THANK YOU to Amy and Mark for the visit!!! We enjoyed the company!!