South America Day 42 - Santiago

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We awake to the inevitable sounds of rain and cockerels. It’s been an uneventful night, apart from the old man waking to find a cat on his chest. Today we are returning to civilisation, which is an exciting prospect, although I have developed a cough and chest infection and am terrified someone will notice and deny me boarding.

We check out of our hostel. The bill is quoted in dollars then converted to pesos at a very creative exchange rate. The old man stands his ground and eventually she backs down and agrees to use the official exchange rate.

It’s another long day of travelling; a 5 hour flight backwards through time zones, then a bus and a tube, finally reaching our apartment in Santiago at 8 pm. It’s such a relief to be somewhere clean and dry, away from the smell of mould. We have WiFi, we have a balcony with views across the city to the Andes and the real highlight - a laundry. By tomorrow the smell of Easter Island will be but a memory.

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