Epic Chile Recap Part Deux (rental cars, border crossings and karma mentioned)

ColindaP

So after Vina, we go to the bus terminal in Santiago to catch our overnight bus to Osorno, in the lakes region. (Santiago is smack in the middle of the country; Punta Arenas and Puerto Natales, where Recap 1 was, are at the very bottom; Osorno and the lake/volcano district are in between the two). We get to Osorno and switch to a bus to Bariloche, on the Argentine side. Stay in a cute little hostel across from the cathedral:

Finally drink some good beer at a local brewery:

And eat some bife de chorizo (aka a giant gob of beef) after a fun hike:

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We buy Christmas presents, leather goods and chocolates. DH bought a leather Indiana Jones-style hat, which prompted me to follow him around the rest of the trip, humming the Indiana Jones theme song. Argentina had a beautiful, well-bred black Lab drug dog. Chile looked like they grabbed one of their millions of strays and taught him to do it The border corssing back into Chile was RIDICULOUS though, how thoroughly they inspected every single article that every single person on the bus had.

Then, 'tis back to Osorno for us, where we rent a car so we don't have to be so dependent on buses and can stay in smaller, less touristy towns on the lake. We get to Ensenada, where we decided to stay, and go to a couple places to check them and their prices out. Decide on a cute, functional little cabin right on the lake, run by an old German-Chilean couple (lots of Germans moved to that part of Chile a long time ago). For $50 a night, we had a 2-bedroom cabin with a kitchen and a grill right on the lake:

And this was the front yard:

::patiently waits for your desire to throat punch me to pass::

We get up and go for a hike to the foot of the volcano:

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(Indian Jones hat)

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Then we went to the Saltos de Petrohue (Petrohue Rapids) (pics are lame, it was way prettier. I'm gonna put the video on Facebook)

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Then we went back to the cabin and made Thanksgiving dinner, consisting of beef, chorizo, aji, salad, strawberries, wine. Oh, and a big fat volcano.

There was a farm dog at the cabins who loved us for giving him scraps and building a fire in the extra grill

And we almost died of a cuteness overload when we saw this

The next day we drove around to some of the other little lake towns. We stopped to have lunch in one. The restaurant didn't take credit cards, we didn't have cash, but there was a bank across the street, so no problem! So we eat, and while we're waiting for the bill, I run across teh street to pull out money from the ATM. And whaddya know, it's the one bank in Chile that won't accept the kind of debit card I have. So I come back and explain it to the waitress, and ask where the next closest bank is. 25km away. We are an hour from Osorno and have to catch a bus back to Santiago. So, we can't find the other town, so we can't take out money, so we can't pay our bill and have to head back to Osorno. Bad karma building instance #1.

We get back to Santiago uneventfully, go out shopping for lapislazuli jewelry and 13 bottles of wine to take back with us. Have a big old bbq despedida party.

Then we go to the airport for our 11 pm flight. I hand over the passports; guy asks me for our itinerary. I hand it over, thinking he misspelled my name. He says "Your flight was yesterday at 11pm." Me: "WHAT?!?!?!" He shows me itinerary, "Yes, see, Friday Nov 27." Me: "OMG OMG OMG." Him "It's ok, this happens all the time. The flight is full, but I think you can maybe get on it standby tonight. You will have to pay $200 each as a flight change fee though." Me:

At the end of the day, we did get on the flight and make it back on time. But we were skipping out on our lunch bill the day before when we should have been getting ready to go to the airport; so that lunch really cost us $400. And a couple months ago I totally lied to get Monday off after my friend's bachelorette party and pretended I missed my flight since I knew my boss wouldn't give me the day off. Karma, as they say, is a beetch.

But there you have it!?

Mrs.EmmaLouise

Those pictures are AMAZING!  Sounds liek you guys had a great time, Im glad you had so much fun.

p.s.- now that damn indiana jones song is stuck in my head.  thanks.