Valpariso- last day

It's taken me a few days to post this as my laptop died, then my backup laptop died. So I gave up and tried to take a couple of days to decompress from the trip before getting it figured out. It feels really strange being back and though I weathered the dramatic events well enough, I'm sure feeling it now that I'm home. We had aftershocks for the day and a half after the earthquake so we were on edge the entire time. In fact, one woke us up that morning! Apparently a trucker entered our room as I heard a lot of swearing.

We woke up and wanted to walk around a little, and headed back up Cerro Concepcion to see if there was an artist there with paintings that we saw on the free walking tour. We tried two other times with no luck, so it wasn't meant to be! We wandered a bit through that neighborhood which had some cute stores and murals. Apparently not too impressive as I didn't take any pictures! We were just soaking in the last rays of the city.

We walked down the main road by the hotel and saw a bunch of military personnel with machine guns. It's hard to know if that should make us feel more safe.. or less. We decided to look for lunch though many places were closed. We got an empanada at a little place we walked by many times. Most of the stores were closed as it was Fiesta de Independencia, Independence Day in Chile.

As we were walking back, we started hearing noise that sounded like the boom of a large drum and sure enough there was a parade! Several different groups of military professionals, some in blue and white uniforms, some in army fatigues and others went marching down the road. In front of them were policemen scouring the trash, looking in alleyways for explosives. The sad reality of today. We got a good laugh as several dogs brought up the front of each parade group marching like they were part of it. People followed along as well.



We decided to head out at around 2. We had planned to leave around 4 but we were done so we left. The bus ride was around an hour and a half and had some pretty views.

We got to the airport over five hours early and couldn't check in, so figured we'd grab a snack. I can't even tell you what we received, but it doesn't look like it was ever once alive. Mystery meat is a nice way of saying it. Horror!

We checked in then decided to get a last pisco and spend the rest of our local money. We found these hilarious keychains-- we had seen some wood carved little men figures that if you pulled their head, their, ahem, member, would pop out and it was disproportionately sized. They had keychain versions of them, so with several giggles, we bought a few.

literally, the last picso sour

the flight was long but uneventful and we didn't sleep. We get into Houston and got to try out our Global Entry card. Score! It was awesome and we went through immigration and customs in under ten minutes. We board our flight and were delayed an hour and a half, with no message from the pilot as to why. Maybe an hour in, a man with full hazmat gear came aboard. Are you kidding me?? what more could happen.. we don't know what the issue was though cushions were carried out. This was one of the planes with the tv screen in the seat in front of you and guess what was playing in a trailer, over and over and over.. yup, San Andreas. Sick. Truly.

Made it home and I had to drive I10 where there is a shooter who is targeting cars on the highway. There was a 'shooter tip line' sign up all over the highway, so I was wide awake for the drive. I have never been quite so thrilled to be home after a trip. I enjoyed Chile for sure, though didn't love it like I loved Peru. Even before the earthquake and all that! I did love Easter Island and honestly would recommend this trip. but for me, I will continue traveling and seeing all that I can in this big wide world that we have!