In search of America...

February 3: the sale is confirmed! Eduardo, Grettel and Angelina come to visit the shiny motorhome and confirm they want to buy it. A relief for us as it means that we won’t need to go back to Santiago to see other potential buyers. In addition, Eduardo and his family invite us to their place for the next 5 days, turning what we had imagined as a boring period of paperwork into an extraordinary experience of making new friends and sharing the life of a Chilean family!!

Angelina (6) and Cleo (12) soon become good friends and play all day long in the motorhome, the house or at the swimming pool.

Ready for a dive…

On Saturday, with such a nice weather and some friends of Eduardo coming up for a visit, all the conditions are met for a huge and DELICIOUUUUUS ASADO. Despite our host claiming this traditional BBQ to be an Argentinian specialty, none of us had eaten such an excellent meat before.

The whole afternoon goes on, between eating huge pieces of meat, playing, swimming, trying the airgun, ...

In the evening, we head to the village for the celebration of the “Carnaval de la Papaya”, a festivity held each summer in this fruit-producing region. Contest of the cutest leg, of the prettiest babydoll, obstacle courses, etc. will keep us awake until the middle of the night.                        

The next day, we enjoy a visit of the Elqui Valley, an arid valley where only the nearest terrains to the river produce grapes to make wine or the popular (and delightful) pisco liquor.

Vicuna, the main town of the valley, is also the birthplace of Gabriela Mistral, a Chilean poet and first Latin American author to receive a Nobel Prize in literature. We defy the heat to walk to the interesting museum chronicling her life.

Further into the valley, the friendly little village of Pisco Elqui makes a perfect stop before climbing to the Mammalluca observatory, one of the observatory of the area, also known as “valley of the stars” because of the purity of its sky.

Unfortunately, the moon is quite bright that night, hiding a lot of the stars… but observing the stars or Venus in the big telescope will definitively be the highlight of the day, for the whole family!

At the restaurant after completing the paperwork on a crazy Monday. Lots of comings and goings, but everything is pretty much sorted out by the end of the day.             

Once the packing done, we finally take some time on Tuesday to visit the beautiful town of La Serena. The tour will even include a visit of some governmental buildings, as Grettel works for the intendent of the region and shows us the impressive meeting rooms…
  

All packed and ready to leave! Grettel and Angelina will drive us all the way to Valparaiso, more than 400 km to the south. All the best with the motorhome, and we hope to see you again soon…