A Long way home

Yesterday we started our long trip home. I had initially planned a more gradual return to Santiago from Chiloe however Air Canada had bumped my flight from Santiago to Edmonton forwards by 24 hours resulting in my having to drive from Chiloe on Thursday. The drive from Chiloe to Puerto Montt where we were to drop off the car and catch our flight on to Santiago was 3.5 hours but had a ferry ride. I booked a 6:30 pm flight to Santiago. Fortunately or unfortunately everything went well. The ferry service was very efficient with no waiting. I am used to having to wait for prolonged periods for BC ferries but this was not the case. We made it to Puerto Montt for lunch. I had figured out a Sushi restaurant to eat lunch at before the airport. Chileans always add cream cheese to their sushi rolls which added a pleasant taste but also increased my cholesterol. There is always a trade off. The joy of Google maps. We would never have found the restaurant pre Google as it was in a mixed commercial residential neighborhood. We had a leisurely lunch before returning the car to the airport. It all went very smoothly but then we had to wait around the airport. Uneventful flight on LATAM airlines. We in Canada could learn some things from the Chileans. We stayed at the Holiday Inn airport hotel which was mainly a legacy of Air Canada changing the flight itinerary. It was very convenient and I had a great sleep. Santiago has a beautiful new airport.

The main excitement that night was feeling a 5.3 Richter earthquake just after getting into our room. It started gradually but became quite vigorous to the point the whole building was shaking and creaking probably magnified as we were on the 6th floor. It lasted 20 seconds. The locals labelled this as merely a tremor rather than an earthquake. We had been warned that we would probably feel a tremor by our tour guide Pablo when we were first in Santiago so it wasn't totally surprising. I however was a little nervous at the moment. Cheryl thought it was one of the high points of the trip.

Our flight the next day wasn't until 8 :40 so we decided to head into Santiago and visit the museum of fine arts. It was a beautiful building with a double glassed domed ceiling. Their permanent collection was all by Chilean artists dating back to the 19th century. All the pieces were unframed which I haven't seen in a museum before. They had a lot of contemporary art which was less appealing.

I found a wonderfully rated Ramon noodle restaurant a couple blocks from the gallery. We had stayed very close to this part of town 3 weeks ago so we knew our way around. This restaurant really took Raman noodles to a new culinary level. I always think of Raman as the noodle packs my sons eat when they are too lazy to cook something. After we had another leisurely Japanese lunch we called an Uber and headed back to the airport for the long wait for our flight.

I think Cheryl and I really enjoyed our trip. Chile had a lot to offer and they are working hard to develop their tourist trade. Internal travel in the country on LATAM air was convenient and inexpensive. The car rentals all went smoothly and having an economy car was fine for 2 people. Next time I rent it will be a standard which is one size up and I will make sure Cheryl is a second drive. We didn't really cover any significant distances but I did find doing all the driving was tiring. Although most tourists go to Patagonia, the lake district where we travelled is where Chileans go on holiday and there were more than enough things to do and wilderness to experience. I did find that there was an information vacuum surrounding non guided tours specifically hikes in the National parks. I had to use a combination of Chat GPT and all trails to find appropriate hikes. The websites for the Ntl. parks were not terribly helpful. The Fodors guide I had for Chile only scratched the surface and didn't help much in planning. I missed having a Rick Steves guide book.

The Chileans people were all very pleasant and patient with us. They seemed very calm. There standard of living is not as high as North America however they on the whole looked better than NAs. There is less obesity. The longevity of Chileans is equal to that of Canadians. Perhaps their public health measures are paying off more compared to the interventional healthcare system provided in NA.

I hope everyone enjoyed the blog. I appreciate the comments that people make as it is nice to know that someone out there is actually reading these musings.Read more