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The South American Odyssey
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The South American Odyssey

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
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    Yugoslav house

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    This is an ornate house that was owned by a Yugoslav who made it big in Chile when he ran away from his home country and was given asylum here. This was donated to the city on his death.

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    Colorful city - Valparaiso

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    We continued our walk while our local guide explained us the meaning and the reasons behind a lot of the graffiti. At about 5:15 pm we stopped at an empenada shop with 82 varieties of empenadas. By now, Alexandra was also free so I sent her our coordinates so she could join us.Læs mere

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    The Juice Cafe

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 24 °C

    The cafe where Alexandra took us was a very artistic one. There was nice decorations on the walls and the roof. There was one wall where the clients of the cafe had written things about the cafe in different languages and with text and drawings on paper napkins. We also put up our napkin with 5 different languages written on it 😊
    We ordered 2 big jars of mixed natural juices (Apple+Orange and Pineapple+Coconut). They both were delicious.    Læs mere

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    Off to Viña del Mar

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    After the juice, we wanted to go to Viña del Mar since one of Hristo's friend lives there and we wanted to meet him as well. The city is about 6 kms from Valparaíso and is a lovely place to visit. Since we had a place in the car, we invited Alexandra to join us for the trip. She accepted and we all walked to the car amd drove off around 8:15 pm. On the way to the car, we saw even more graffiti. It was a fest 😊Læs mere

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    Fika - a touch of Sweden in Chile
    Fika - a touch of Sweden in ChileBiggest Casino in Chile

    Viña del Mar

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    Viña del Mar is about 6 kms from Valparaiso and is the place where all the rich people from Valparaiso have their villas. The city is nicknamed 'Garden City' for its many parks and flower-filled gardens.
    On the way to the beach, we even saw a Swedish Cafe (Fika) 😁 It seems it was started by a Chilean couple who immigrated to Sweden during the 1973-74 troubled period in Chile and were very impressed by the coffee and fika culture in Sweden. When they returned, they started the Fika cafe which seems to be doing quite well since they are opening another one shortly.
    We also saw the biggest and the oldest casino in Chile, right next to the beachfront in Viña del Mar.
    By the time we reached the beach, the sun had already set but the golden glow over the Pacific Ocean was amazing.    Læs mere

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    Sunset at Viña del Mar

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ 🌙 20 °C

    We walked along the promenade enjoying the setting sun and the lovely sea breeze. It was a really pleasant walk. The sea seemed to be quite rough with the waves crashing on to the rocks next to the promenade and spraying the walkway. According to Rafael, this was a calm sea as it really crashes the windows of the restaurants on the beachfront during heavy storms.Læs mere

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    Viña del Mar
    Viña del MarValparaiso1

    Night at Viña del Mar

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    As it became darker, the lights started coming on. We walked all the way to the end of promenade. There is a quay here. From here, we could see the full coastline towards Valparaiso. It looked stunning in the darkness. The moon had also come out and the effect of the lights and the moon rays was absolutely mesmerizing.Læs mere

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    1Pisco SourBaked maize pudding and avocado salad2

    Dinner at Viña del Mar

    22. december 2017, Chile ⋅ 🌙 16 °C

    We walked back towards the area along the promenade where there were a lot of restaurants. We checked them all out and decided to go to a Chilean one. The food was fantastic. It was almost 10:30 pm when we sat down for dinner so we decided to stay in Viña del Mar for the night. We booked a place some 2 kms from the restaurant. Alexandra took a bis back to Valparaiso while we dropped Rafael off near his home. After that, we drove to the hotel. We reached there around 12 am.
    Here, we had problems with the price of the rooms. The price we had got from booking.com was different than the one the lady wanted to charge us for. On showing her the booking, she suggested we pay in the morning since then we could talk to the owner directly as she was just an employee.
    After that we slept off since we had to get up early to drive to Santiago and return the vehicle before 11 am.    Læs mere

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    View from our room in Viña del Mar
    View from our room in Viña del MarHaving breakfast in Viña del Mar2Doing the flight bookings while waiting for the room1Fantastic rooms

    Back to Santiago

    23. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C

    We woke up early and were ready to leave by 8:30 am. The owner of the hotel (Saint Tropez, Viña del Mar) was there and we showed her our booking price. She tried to convince us about the extra taxes etc but we stuck to our agreed price. Eventually, she relented and we paid 48500 CLP for the 2 rooms as had been agreed.
    After that, we drove back to Santiago and managed to reach the Chilean Car Rental office just as it turned 11 am. On the way, we booked a place in Hotel Tremo Botique just next to the car rental place so we don't have to walk far with our big bags.
    We left the car at the rental office and walked over to the hotel. While we were waiting to be checked in, I realized that it was 11:30 am and if I could reach the police station before 12, I might be able to get the report. The person at the reception checked and told that I could make it there in 20 min in a taxi. I ran out and caught one in a few min. After driving for a few minutes the driver told he needed to refuel. I told him that I needed to reach the police station before 12 but he showed me the light for the empty tank and promised he won't take more than 2 min. True to his promise, he managed to jump the line and we were off in less than 2 min. We reached the police station at 12:03 pm. I jumped out and ran and told him to wait for 5 min for me to come back as I didn't have time to make the payment.
    I reached the main gate but it was locked. I rang the bell. By this time the taxi driver had also parked and came over. After I had rang the bell thrice, a person came out from inside. I explained to him why I was there. He told me that the office was closed and that it would open on Tues (26th Dec) after Christmas.
    I told the taxi driver to drive me back to the hotel. Here I found the rest of the gang sitting outside the hotel busy on their phones. They too have had their share of issues with the checkin. The hotel had wanted to charge in USD at the agreed price but their card machine was not able to charge in USD so they wanted money in the local currency but the conversion rate they wanted was quite high. On pointing that out to them, they just shrugged and said that was the rate they will apply. Luckily, Hristo had the money needed in USD so he paid them the agreed sum but then they didn't have USD for the return change. They made a note and told him to collect the change when checking out.
    After all this, they said that the checkin time was 2 pm and the rooms were not ready. 😲😲 That's why they were all sitting outside when I returned. We all went in amd sat in their inner courtyard waiting for the rooms. In the meanwhile, we decided to do our flight bookings for the next phase of the trip since there was nothing else to do in Santiago. We decided to risk my flying without a passport and with just a paper copy of it and the police report number since the flights to Puerto Montt (our next destination) were quite cheap at 250 SEK per person while the distance was almost about 1000 kms.    Læs mere

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    Shopping for lost stuff again

    23. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    The flight bookings didn't go as smoothly as we thought it would. There were 3 seats available for 200 sek while if we tried to book for 4, we were getting a price of 700 sek per person. We decided to do 3+1 booking. But, the question was, would it be beneficial to have me as the +1 ticket or part of the 3 tickets. Traveling as the only ticket, I might be in the business class so they might be a bit liberal with me not having a passport and just having the police paper. While, the flip side was that if they were not ok with it, then it would be easier to cancel one ticket than cancel one from a ticket of three. In the end, we decided to pit me among the three ticket.
    By the time we managed to get to the end of the booking it seemed that someone else had booked in the meantime so the payments didn't go through. When we checked, we found that only one ticket had gone so we decided to do a 2+2 booking. We managed to to get 2 tickets at about 200 sek per person but the tickets never arrived on the email id. In the meantime, we decided to do the other 2 bookings. These too went through at about 700 sek per person. By this time, the 1st 2 tickets had come in the email. We figured there were some delays in the mail server and hoped that the other 2 tickets would come too.

    The rest of the day Melinda and I went to the mall again to try and find the filter water bottle for both of us. After searching in and around the mall for more than 4 hours, we gave up and bought the one and only filter we had found there. It was not a filter bottle but just a filter for any kind of water with similar specs as the filter in the bottle.
    After that, we had some food, a frozen yogurt and then walked back 4 kms to the hotel. We slept off around 11 pm since we had a morning flight the next day.    Læs mere

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    Flying without passport and tickets

    24. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    The flight departure was at 8 am so we woke up early around 5 and got ready. We ordered a taxi to the airport. While we waited for the taxi to arrive, we picked up some of the food stuff from the breakfast table. That's when Hristo realized that the 2nd set of tickets had not arrived in the mail. We decided to get that fixed at the airport office of the airline. At the airport we were not able to find the office for the airline. We checked at the information booth and were told that they didn't have an office at the airport since it was a low cost airline.
    The bag drop had started by this time and we jist stood in the que and waited our turn. It was Christmas eve and all the ground staff was wearing Santa caps or red reindeer horns. It was very festive.
    We reached our turn in the queue and told the attendant about the issue with the tickets. She told that she was just the ground staff and did not work for the airline. We would need to call the call center and get it fixed. We called the call center but all the menus and options were in Spanish. We requested the lady at the counter to help us. She first said that she needed to continue with the checkin but then smiled and then took the phone from us and decided to help out 😊
    After a few minutes, she was able to connect to a customer care representative and asked if they could help us in English. He informed that he didn't speak English so she continued with helping us while they opened another counter to check in the other people behind us. The Xmas magic was happening!! 😊😊😊

    After talking and confirming with us a few things, she managed to get our tickets done. That's when we told her we have yet another problem that I don't have my passport since it was stolen but that I have a slip with the FIR number. She looked at it and was fine with me traveling. That was fantastic 😁

    Soon we were checked in and ready to fly. The flight left at around 8 am and landed in Puerto Montt around 9:30 am.    Læs mere

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    Puerto Montt

    24. december 2017, Chile ⋅ 🌬 12 °C

    It was raining in Puerto Montt. We took the bus to the city center to the bus terminal. Our hotel was about 1.5 km from the bus station so we decided to walk till there. The bus terminal is right on the sea front and there is a nice promenade along the sea towards the town center. We walked along the promenade and reached the hotel in about 45 min.Læs mere

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    A walk in the rain

    24. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We checked in and had our lunch in the restaurant of the hotel. After that we all went back to the rooms and took a short nap. When we woke up, it was still raining. We went down amd asked at the reception to find us a good place to celebrate Xmas. They told that most probably everything would be closed but still started making some enquires over the phone. After about 20 min, we were told they couldn't find anything.
    We decided to go for a walk and see if we could find something.
    The whole city was closed. No shops, no restaurants, nada... Nothing was open. The church was open so we went in to check it. It was lovely and well lit.    Læs mere

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    Back to square one

    24. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    We walked all over the towm and didn't find anything open exca small shop selling alcohol and groceries. We bought some drinks and salty snacks for the night. None of the restaurants was open so we decided to go back to our hotel since the restaurant was open there. When we reached back, we were told that the restaurant kitchen was closed. We requested that we didn't have any place to eat so they asked the cook if he could fix something. He agreed to do sandwiches for us. They had the desserts available as well so we ordered some pana cota as well.
    Well, that's how our Christmas celebration went. We we there in the restaurant way after everyone had left, eating sandwiches, drinking wine and enjoying pana cota 😁    Læs mere

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    Christmas morning at Puerto Montt

    25. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ⛅ 17 °C

    We woke up a bit late and made it to the breakfast table just 10 minutes before closing. After the breakfast, Maria came over to our room with the Christmas goodies. We had some sweets and after that, we took some time to get ready and decided to go around the town to see if anything was open.Læs mere

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    Walk in the town

    25. december 2017, Chile ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    It was still raining when we went out to town around 4 pm. Nothing was open. There was hardly anyone in the streets. We walked to the main plaza.

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