Chilling in Chilly Chile

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We arrived in Santiago, Chile to begin our last leg of what has been an amazing three month holiday. It was immediately evident that Santiago is a cosmopolitan city compared to the other capital cities that we have visited. We were staying in the suburb of Providencia at Hotel Orly which was a real treat. We spent the first day chilling out and exploring.

The next day was Kerry’s Birthday and after a sleep in, we made our way into the city center for a bit of indulgence. Kerry treated herself to a very relaxing facial whilst Kai had a fantastic full body massage. We then headed into the shopping precinct to do a bit of widow shopping and have a light lunch. That evening we ordered room service (the first time this holiday) and sat in bed watching TV. Kerry was also lucky enough to receive phone calls from her parents and Kristin (Cheers guys!).

We spent a day walking around the suburbs of Bellavista and Bellas Artes. This included a trip to the top of Cerro San Cristobal by funicular and cable car. We also visited the Museum of Bellas Artes which was holding an interesting photography exhibition.

From Santiago we took a tour to the beautiful sea side resort of Viña del Mar and Chile’s second largest city, Valparaiso. On this trip we visited the Easter Island museum, the infamous garden clock, the beach, the colourful home of Pedro Neruda, and took a trip up a 106 year old funicular.

Today we make the 18hr flight back home, which is both sad and exciting.

Before we end our final blog, here are some highlights and lowlights of our trip with a few stats thrown in for good measure.

Top 10 holiday moments (no particular order):
- Inca trail and Machu Picchu
- Four days in the Amazon Basin
- Horse riding in the Pampas with Gauchos
- Rafting on the Rio Mendoza in the Andes
- Paragliding over the coastline of Miraflores
- Samantha and Alexis’ wedding
- Watching Australia beat Japan 3-1
- Seeing all our friends and family in Europe and catching up with Kristin and Matt in Peru
- Seeing the Iguazu falls from Argentina and Brazil
- Flying over the Nazca lines

Funniest holiday moments:
- Kerry self medicating with laxatives to cure diarrhea
- Kai stepping in dog shit in Buenos Aires
- Kai having an ejector seat in a ten hour overnight bus ride
- Out of shear desperation Kai ran into a female toilet (at 0400 on the last day of the Inca trail) only to discover that it would not flush after he had “Used” it!

Worst holiday moments:
- Kai and Matt getting giardia and salmonella and Kristin being so sick on the first day of the Inca trail that she needed a horse to get her to base camp
- Straying off the beaten track in Boca, in the rain
- Having to go outside of the hotel in Pisco
- Losing Kai’s luggage on the first day of our South American leg

Fascinating stats:
- 12 countries visited in 12 weeks (note includes stopovers and Australia)
- 17 flights, 84 flying hours
- 6 bus rides, 61 busing hours
- 4 train rides, 13 training? hours
- Out of 84 days of traveling, we only had 2.5 days of rain, one Argument and cooked for ourselves once

Over and out,

Kai and Kerry.

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