Chile was our first “break” from typical Latin America. All of a sudden the roads were great, buildings looked exactly like buildings in North America, especially the suburbs. The gas stations had convenience stores for the first time in forever, and Berne’s favorite, hot dogs! Chile is also entirely amazing landscapes. From Patagonia to its desert’s, and coasts, everywhere was gorgeous. Overall, this was one of the countries we liked a lot, and would go back to. KoKo’s favourite side quest was here, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), something that had been on her bucket list for more than ten years. This is also where we started our “real camera” photography journey…
Days in Country: 62, but 26 of them were in the USA
Miles Driven: 3,410
Nights spent indoors: 11
Things we weren’t expecting:
Chile was the opposite of Peru in so many ways, including the roads. Instead of endless switchbacks, Chile builds very long, very straight roads down from the mountains. There were also significantly less motorcycles and stray dogs here, which was nice. We were expecting Patagonia to be a long mountain range, but it turned out to be pockets of mountains separated by windy and grassy plains. And then there was Jumbo, the best grocery store we had come across to this point! They had good quality, and large variety, and imported goods! Chile also ended up having our favourite wine of all Latin America: Casa del Diablo anything red.
Things we didn’t enjoy:
Our first border crossing into the country was genuinely terrible. One of the border agents was a terrible bully, and threatened KoKo with a lifetime ban from the country because of a rotten, half onion in the bottom of the fridge. Luckily another agent overheard, and come over to tell him he was being ridiculous. The air quality in and around Santiago was crazy pants bad. We had to keep all windows up and recirculate the air to keep from having our sinuses explode. And for some reason, it was really hard to get rid of our garbage. There were almost never trash cans at camp sites or gas stations. Other than that, there really wasn’t much we didn’t like about Chile
Some things we recommend:
Rapa Nui
Patagonia
Marble Caves
The art around Santiago
The wildlife at high altitudes
How we got here:
Rapa Nui
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