We thought long and hard about what to do after Morocco. Originally we did think of this big adventure in three phases: Road Trip in the U.S., Europe & Morocco, and then something else but we weren’t sure if it would be more of Africa, Asia, South America or some far flung tropical island. But as the bike trip ended and we started into Morocco we felt a little exhausted from all the travel and moving from place to place. Privileged problems yes, but we wondered to ourselves if it was time to just throw in the towel and head home. We had enough money to do another big portion, but we could just save it for another time we thought. However, as we moved through Morocco, a totally new and different place to us, we gained renewed energy for discovering new lands and far away places, so we decided we would continue ever forward for another few months (4? 5? 6??). It came down to traveling to either Asia or South America, and we decided on the latter for a few reasons. First, the language. Javi of course speaks Spanish and Laura has a long-term unrealized dream of becoming fluent, and so that was a pro for that part of the world. Also, being from Mexico, Javi felt a desire to connect with other Latin Americans, especially in a continent he had never traveled. We figured Chile was as good a place as any to start, with good surf for Javi and it being one of the more developed countries in S.A. (so not as much culture shock). We found a good flight from Andalusia (which was just a hop skip and jump away from Morocco), and booked our new adventure.
We added to the excitement by also deciding that we needed to purchase a car to drive around and then sell before we headed back to the U.S. Yes, that’s right. The first car we ever buy together would be bought in a foreign country with so much bureaucratic red tape for stuff like that it boggles the mind. We arrived in Santiago in early December with plans to take care of some of that infamous red tape (and possibly even finding a car) for a few days before heading to a little surf town a few hours away called Pichilemu. Needless to say, we were in way over our heads as foreigners trying to purchase a car here, and none of the documentation or car-finding got done in those few days so we went to Pichilemu by bus, empty handed. In fact, the car buying would not occur until almost a month later because of how unprepared we were to go through this process. We will spare you the boring details but basically we had to make a friend, to get a number, to go to the notary, to secure the document, to give to the other guy, etc. Eventually we bought our 2012 Fiat Fiorino, lovingly dubbed “Condorito.” But we are getting ahead of ourselves….
Pichilemu was a cute little town. The surf break wasn’t as spectacular as Javi had hoped, given that this was supposed to be Chile’s number one surf destination, but he got himself a surfboard and wetsuit and managed just fine. We had booked a small cabin right near the ocean for about three weeks, including Christmas. It was janky but charming, with a wonderful host name Marta and two ridiculous and lovable dogs that followed us everywhere we went. It was nice to just chill for that long in one place. That’s really the main reason we booked it for so long, because it had been over a year since we stayed put and made a home. We cooked, listened to podcasts, did yoga, went running along the coast, walked the beaches, and all of those things we took for granted when we were stationary. We also worked on our juggling and poi skills and Laura finally made some headway on her Spanish. Most days we ventured out for delicious fried empanadas and Pisco sours (a national cocktail here), and even found a craft beer place. Not a ton was happening in the town; it was a little early in the season for the crowds so it was quiet. The biggest surprise was the weather. It was JUST LIKE Northern California! Cool, cloudy for the most part, and very windy. Admittedly, it wasn’t the South American summer beach destination that we maybe had in our minds, but we took what we could get. We had a nice quiet Christmas, with a yummy home cooked meal and few classic films it took about 24 hours and the entire town’s bandwidth to download. We had been searching for a car this whole time, but to no avail. The car market in Pichilemu wasn’t exactly top notch. One day we even rented a car to drive to other bigger towns to look at cars. We didn’t find a car but got super excited about road tripping through this country.
After Christmas we headed back to Santiago to spend New Years with some friends. Javi has a local friend Catalina who he met many moons ago in Virginia and reconnected with before we landed. She and her family and friends were kind enough to invite us to their beautiful home in Pirque outside of Santiago for a party and to stay the night. It was amazing, and just what we needed after not meeting many folks in Morocco and Pichilemu. After a little bit of a hangover day it was right back to it with the car search and of course finally finding Condorito.
We started heading south pretty much immediately when we got Condorito. We stopped at the Chilean versions of Wal-Mart and Lowe’s to build out a simple bed (nothing like Pick Up and Went) and get some kitchen and storage items. Before we knew it we had way too much stuff of course, and had spent a third of our budget on the car and supplies, but hey we figured we would sell it all later right?
Our ultimate plan is to head north through the Atacama in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, and then return to Chile to sell the car (a requirement for foreigners). But first, we wanted to see at least some of Patagonia. We were so close, we had to! The plan we hatched was to head down the coast to the island of Chiloe, then kick around Northern Patagonia, and head back up to Osorno to attend a music festival and travel around the beautiful Lakes District before going further north. Of course when planning a road trip in South America, always be prepared for anything, including a major, terribly tragic mudslide blocking an entire section of your intended path….
More on those adventures next.
Chile Pt. 1
