After leaving Rapa Nui we stayed in Santiago for a night. I found a cute little bed and breakfast through Hopper (it’s an app that tells you when flights and hotel prices go down or up.) It’s been pretty helpful and I had a $30 credit so our B&B was only $20 instead of $50! But even at $50 it was such a cute little place with a nice room and included breakfast! I’d say that’s a win for the budget. They also did all of our laundry, which was much needed after almost 2 weeks. If you’re ever in Santiago, it’s called De Blasis B&B with a ton of restaurants to walk to. We went to Insert Coin that was a funky arcade themed bar but had good drinks and food and we stayed and played some games. Then we went to get pizza for our second dinner. We’ve share tapas or an entre at one place, and then share something at another place so we get to try more food. Seems to be working so far.
Mercado Restaurant 
Mercado Shops 
We took a bus to Viña Del Mar and checked into our air bnb where we could see the beach! I was feeling a little over decision making so I let Tom put a little tour together and just followed him around. We took a gypsy bus to an awesome market, Mercado El Cardonal where they sold produce, spices and everything else on the ground level and there were multiple restaurants above. Kind of like the food halls we have in Denver. We then walked all over Valpiraiso which is such a funky maze up and down hills, through stair cases and down alleys. The architecture was a mixture of New Orleans and pieced together buildings but everything had color! Valpiraiso used to be a major port town before the Panama Canal opened. After a few earthquakes and people left after the canal opened it’s become somewhat deserted and a canvas for artists. We walked for hours, rode the ascenders (little box cars that brought you up or down the hill) and ate ice cream and every street we turned down, there were more murals to see.
Emiliana Winery 
Indomita Winery
On Monday we rented a car and drove to the Casablanca Valley for some wine tours! This seemed more budget friendly than signing up for a full tour and we were able to go at our own pace. The valley is know for it’s white wines because of the cool breeze that comes off the coast keeps the grapes chilled while on the vine. Mind blown! Our first and favorite wintery was Emiliana which is an organic, sustainable winery that also does a lot to give back to their employees. And their wine was delicious! We had a full tour, the landscape was beautiful with tons of flowers, herbs and animals specifically placed and allowed to roam to keep pests away. They even had alpacas, which are to keep the foxes out. Not sure how true that really is or if it’s more for the tourists, but we didn’t care because we got to feed them. Our favorite with was their Pinot Noir which they served chilled. It was so refreshing and delicious!
Our second winery was Indomita where we did a different tour that focused on the actual production of the wine once the grapes left the fine. It was interesting getting the two different processes of wine making from the wineries. Their wine wasn’t as good as Emiliana, but we did enjoy walking through the vineyard and eating the lunch we packed down at the pond.
Chilean hotdog 
Our last day we had a little solo morning time. Tom went to the coffee shop (Starbucks because they’re known to have semi reliable internet) to get some work done and I went for a run! I haven’t ran in a few weeks so even being at sea level felt like more work than it should have, but it was so good to get out! We (mainly Tom) did some much needed Patagonia research to prepare us for the next part of the trip and then we hit the beach! It was a much needed “down day” to take care of logistics and catch our breath. We had dinner from a kiosk at the beach of chilean hot dogs – basically gyro style meat with tons of tomatoes, avocado and mayo. We split the first one in case it wasn’t good, but went back to split a second because it was really good! We followed up with a Nutella churro, because why not? With it being January I forgot it was their summer, there were children everywhere and it was 9 pm! The pier was bustling with people, vendors and street performers. It was really fun just to sit and be entertained by people watching and street performers.