Since starting my job almost 3 years ago, I haven’t taken a vacation more than a week long until this past month travelling to Chile and Mexico City. My dad was planning to go to Santiago to visit family friends and do some wine tasting. I’ve been wanting to visit as well, so my partner and I decided to make the trip at the same time, including a stop in Mexico City on our way back.
My trip itinerary:
Day 1: Fly to Santiago (AeroMexico via Mexico City)
Day 2-4: Fly to/from Calama to visit San Pedro de Atacama
Day 5-6: Exploring Downtown Santiago – National Historical Museum, Museum of Human Rights, Prehistoric Art Museum, Funiculars
Day 7: Santiago Cooking Class – Tour of Food Markets and preparing traditional foods
Day 8 – 9: Weekend trip to Valparaiso
Day 10: Last day in Santiago – last minute downtown trip and souvenir shopping
Day 11-15: Explore Mexico City, Teotihuacan, fly back to SFO
There were so many different things (and still more that we missed) to learn and see and experience, that I’ve had to break up my trip into 6 blog posts. Mostly in chronological order:
Santiago is the capital city of Chile located in the central valley surrounded by mountains (Andes on the east and Chilean coastal mountains on the west). We walked around, visited museums, and explored the city.
Our family friend told us about a sale on flights on Sky Airlines, a local airline, so without thinking too much, I booked some ~$40 round trip flights to Calama, the closest airport to San Pedro de Atacama, a short trip from Sunday to Tuesday. I didn’t do a lot of research before this, but I’m glad I made the quick decision because I really enjoyed exploring the Atacama desert and just appreciating the peacefulness of nature and undeveloped landscape.
This is the first cooking class that I’ve taken while travelling and now I’m totally sold – it’s a fun way to explore the city and learn about the culture in a unique way. We met our tour guide/chef at the Central Market, and wove our way through this market and more.
Valparaiso is a coastal town about 90 minutes northwest of Santiago. We drove by a couple winery stops and made our way to the small hilly streets of Valparaiso.
Layovers are usually just a pain, and there is currently no non-stop flight to/from Santiago from SFO but we took advantage of that by extending our layover to spend a few days in Mexico City on our way back. One of my better ideas!
ok, i still count 6 blogs, where do i find the 7th?
Ooops! LOL I fixed it! Thanks!