Back to Santiago

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Took an exciting "short cut" through the Sleepy Mountain road (Camino Descansado). Taxi guy turned a 1.5 hour trip into 2.5 hours, getting lost in the hills. To make up for time, he decided he needed to drive fast (meaning reckless), so he took the 15 mph corners at about 45. Winding, twisting, turning, climbing, descending. We got some good photos though.

Our plan was to go to Eduardo´s house in La Florida, a nice residential community southside of Santiago. Ramón (the driver) had never been to Santiago, and didn´t know his way around. Not sure why they sent him to drive us? After several wrong turns, we made the 3rd call to Eduardo for help. He told me "get out of this guy´s car & take the Metro. You´d save hours." So we did. The metro here is wonderful. Anywhere in the city, meaning miles and miles in every direction. In no time we were there, and had a wonderful visit and dinner, including empanadas, chicken, potatoes, tomato salad, and ice cream.

Eduardo was 15 when I left Chile. He now has a good job as a civil engineer with a mining company, and is married with 3 cool kids (we´ll put a photo on later). One of them, Martín, is about 8 yr old and has his picture on every bus in the city, from a commercial he did showing his toothless grin. I´ll try to get a photo of it. The oldest of the 3 kids is Lenie, then Martin, then Benjamin.

Around 8:00 Eduardo drove us to his mom´s place on the other side of Santiago for a visit. She gave me a give she made in relief society to give to Petrea. It was awesome. We talked about the first time I met her, only her son was interested in hearing what we had to say, but she came around after a few visits and is doing great.

We´ve got 3.5 hours before we get up to get ready to head to the airport. Adios, Chile. By noon we´ll be in La Paz. We´re considering staying up all night (meaning til 4 when we´d get up anyway, right now it is going on 1) - but we´ll probably catch a couple hours now, then on the plane.

It´s my turn now (Justin´s), but there´s really not that much to say. It´s exactly 1:00 right now, and my eyes are starting to droop, so I´ll be to bed before long. Eduardo´s house was awesome: the food was great, the kids and family were fun... and so was playing Fifa Street Soccer and Tony Hawk 4 on their Playstation with the kids.

All in all, Chile has been awesome. I´m looking forward to this next short week of Peru exploring, but Chile was great. The people we met, the food we ate, and the places we went were all cool. I´ll miss them all.

Like Dad said... so long, Chile. Adios, y quiero hasta luego. Fue muy bonita y divertida, y quiero volver. Chao chao.

Justin

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Photos

Una Vista
A picture we took on the drive back to Santiago.

Eduardo´s Familia
The kids - Benjamin, Martín, and Lenie.

Eduardo´s Mom
Dad, Eduardo, Lenie, Benjamin (asleep), and Eduardo´s mom.