Santiago, Chile

 We first arrived in Santiago on our flight from Patagonia, and made our way to our hotel on the metro. The Santiago metro is one of the best metros I’ve ever been on (and I’ve been on a lot) because it is SO fast. We went all the way across the entire city (17 stops) in 22 minutes, which is insane! The stops are quick and the train moves fast between stations, plus a train comes every 60 seconds on most lines. Absolutely incredible! I’m still stuck on this 😂

We walked through the gorgeous Mar de Plata neighborhood with tons of greenery and tall trees until we reached our hotel. We ran out to the grocery store right before it closed and ran into a whole fiasco where a can of peanut butter was marked as $35 rather than the $3 it was supposed to be, so I had to beg to go back into the store after it closed and communicate the whole situation in Spanish (my brain was dead after a long travel day). It took awhile, but I ended up giving them my card info so I could be refunded 15 days later 😭


After our trips to wine country, we spent the day in Santiago, first visiting the Museo de la Memorial y los Derechos Humanos. I had learned about some of the Chilean civil rights movement history in my Spanish classes, but it was good to learn more. The exhibits were in Spanish so I translated some of it for Tyler and then we went to Peluquería Francesa (a barbershop and French restaurant). I got a good French Onion soup and we headed to Plaza del Armas (touristy area) but weren’t impressed. Visited the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, which was pretty small but had some cool exhibits. I was most excited about the Persa Víctor Manuel flea market, but it turned out to be overrated. Went to Del Beto restaurant to try Chilean cuisine. 


Went back to the hotel for a swim before Tyler left for the airport to head back to the states. We didn’t fly back together since it was cheaper for me to fly to PHX the next day and he flew back to his family’s house to drive our cats back to PHX. It has become kind of a joke now that we never fly together because we have usually ended up taking separate long haul flights due to different timing/destinations and even when we do fly together, sometimes we aren’t able to sit together bc we’re cheap and don’t pay for seat assignments 🙃


I flew out the next day and barelyyy made my connecting flight to PHX because my flight to ATL had gotten delayed. I found out about the delay in advance so I was stressing the night before and had to do a bunch of work on my phone since I thought I wouldn’t have access to my computer until Monday and I had to start teaching a course with 450 students who would not have appreciated not having access to their Canvas shell 😅








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PCT Info and FAQ Answers

Image
Not so shockingly, there are lots of questions when you undertake something like the PCT!  Here are a few answers to FAQs, plus some general background info on the trail, in addition to many of my own thoughts and opinions: Thru-hiking Thru-hiking refers to hiking point to point, without looping or retracing your route back to where you started. Thru-hikes are typically lengthy by definition. The Pacific Crest Trail is a lengthy for a thru-hike but not the longest out there. My first thru-hike was the Trans Catalina Trail (TCT) in 2023, which is about 40 miles. During PCT training, I completed the Nakahechi Kumano Kodo route in Japan (a little over 40 mi) and Tyler and I completed the West Highland Way in Scotland (around 100 mi). Tyler hiked around 200 mi on a route of the Camino de Santiago (I was injured so I did not). In addition to full thru-hikes, we also hiked sections of the AZT and multi-day loops/out and back trails. Other very well-known thru-hikes in the US include: App...
Read more

Fiji Layover

Image
  I was pumped for my 18 hour layover in Fiji but after looking into transit from the airport, I found that the taxis were very expensive and scammy. After my recent travel days in Malaysia I decided I really didn’t want to deal with that, and local buses seemed way too unreliable and difficult to figure out (after being there, can confirm I never would have figured them out)…so I ended up deciding not to withdraw any cash and to just walk to the closest beach…which ended up being on a private island where season 5 of Love Island USA was filmed. Security tried to kick me off the island but I made up a really elaborate lie and they let me stay but the beach was not very nice and I mostly just laid in the sand and read to pass the time (was also being watched by a camera the entire time). The hour long walk from the airport (and back) was kinda cool tho, bc I got to walk through a local neighborhood and had pretty views during the morning golden hour
Read more

Tokyo, Japan

Image
  Notes from the journal: • Tyler and I took an overnight Flix bus from Vegas to Union Station in LA and then took public transit to LAX • We did our first of many preparations for airport weigh ins by putting on jackets and putting heavy items in pockets so we looked like the Michelin Man :) we checked in at the counter and found out we were unfortunately not sitting together for the 12 hr flight but we both had aisle seats and Tyler was sitting directly behind me • I was exhausted from the all-nighter so I took a nap at the gate and when Tyler woke me up to board I swear to god I have never been more disoriented in my entire life…I thought we had a kid named Tyler?? So I started panicking and asking where Tyler was, which obviously confused Tyler and then I asked if we had a kid and he said no, so I don’t know what that was but it was a hell of a way to wake up • Took off around 10:30 am on 5/13 and landed around 2:30 pm on 5/14 5/14 • Went through customs, did an ATM withdrawal,...
Read more