Last stop - Chile

Hello girls and boys and welcome to Chile 😊

After leaving the Altiplano with an average height of 3,600m behind us for good, our first stop in Chile was San Pedro de Atacama (2,400m). The city developed over decades on the edge of the Atacama Desert around an oasis. Here, Lisa actually let herself be persuaded for a bike ride for the second time on this trip. What is there to consider when you have the opportunity to bike through part of the driest desert in the world, you might ask (she).

So off we went on our bikes to 'Valle de la luna'. The name says it all and it actually looks like the moon in some parts. An impressive but once again very harsh and barren landscape. However, the play of colors along the different rock formations is breathtakingly beautiful.

Here, the wind also creates some unreal stone formations. The following one is called 'Los Tres Marias' because they supposedly resemble the 'three Marias.' Unfortunately, there are only two of them now for about a year because a tourist 'climbed' the one on the left for a photo and it broke... 🙈

Other than that, we slowed down the pace of our journey a bit, tested ourselves through the very abundant restaurant offerings of San Pedro, and celebrated the Fiestas Patrias (National Day celebrations to commemorate the beginning of the independence process from the Spanish Crown) with the Chileans.

For the last time, we shouldered our backpacks for the picturesque city of Valparaiso, with one of the most important ports in Chile on the Pacific Coast. The city is considered the cultural capital of Chile, and in 2003, the historic city center was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, Valparaíso was the first major port reached by ships after circumnavigating Cape Horn. Therefore, in the 19th century, the city's port was the dominant one in the southern Pacific and, along with San Francisco, one of the two most important ports on the west coast of America.
We mainly wandered through the streets of the old town, which stretches over several hills, and admired the countless works of art by artists on houses, staircases, and in parks.

We also visited the house of Pablo Neruda, a Chilean writer who fought mainly against fascism in his homeland and in Spain. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. The house, called La Sebastiana, is located in an idyllic spot overlooking the entire Valparaiso and is a museum of artworks and anecdotes.

In addition, we tasted the excellent Chilean wines. We visited a total of 3 wineries in the Valle de Casablanca, learned a lot of wine-related knowledge there (which we would love to share with you during a wine dinner evening 😋), and finally said goodbye with a light-hearted farewell to our last destination towards home.

The End ❤

PS: Lisa was forced to part with her beloved sneakers at the end, which she already commented on at the beginning of the world trip in 2018 with the words 'They will not survive the journey.' The pain still runs deep... But maybe there is an empathetic reader who will accompany her on a shopping trip for a replacement shoe 😉