Back in the U.S. of A., or Driving on 5

OK, we've officially been back in the U.S. of A. for two weeks, but with all the catching up with family, friends, laundry, and filing our late taxes, we've been a bit blog-negligent. Being back has been both strange and wonderful. For one, we have a plan for the whole next couple of weeks, and we've gotten to see family and friends on the west coast that we haven't seen for a while, as well as some friends that helped see us off on the trip about nine months ago. I should mention that a couple of friends are mere days/weeks away from having babies, which could only mean that Dennis and I possess some kind of shamanistic ability to help people conceive (a marketable job skill?).  It's also been a little strange but wonderful to be able to have great, long conversations (in English!) which hadn't happened often enough around the world. 

Our first real efforts at repatriation were going to Costco, and then buying a minivan that we could drive to visit said friends and get us and our stuff back to the east coast. Yes, not only are we bloggers, but we own a minivan. It has tinted windows, and we fluctuate between thinking this makes it even less cool or possibly more cool. At any rate, it's a mode of transportation and it runs equally well in the Town and in the Country. 

After staying with Ma and Pa Campbell for a few days, we headed to Seattle to visit Ben, Emi, and their charming 4 3/4-year-old daughter, Azi. After hitting the sites and a farmer's market (hello again, delicious west coast food), we headed down I-5 to visit Matt in Olympia, who took us sailing on Puget Sound. We arrived just in time, because the next day the boat was being sold. We got to enjoy a sunset cruise and spot lots of seals along the way. God speed, Spackle. We hit Interstate 5 again down to Portland to visit John, Jenn, and brand new Portland resident, Phil.  We relaxed and ate more delicious homemade food, including tacos, which we try to eat at least once a day now. Good luck with the 'birth plan' guys! Our last stop on the whirlwind tour of the I-5 was Eugene, where we saw Craig and Deb (good luck with your 'birth plan' guys), and Eric and Stephanie. After more great conversation and homemade food, including our second rhubarb pie, we had to head back to Camp Campbell to prepare for the longer drives ahead. And even though we've been kept pretty busy, it's easy to remember why we missed home.

-K 

Santiago, Thrice is Nice

It´s sorta hard to write an entry on Santiago the city, partly because Santiago always stood for something else. It was the place we had to go to get to Easter Island and Valparaiso, it was where we came back to, and ultimately it is the city which we fly back to the States from. As a result, Santiago is a place full of anxiety, anticipation and sadness.

But as a city, it has treated us remarkably well. The lesson that we were taught throughout the trip is that cities rise and fall in our estimation based upon the quality/availability of food and the lodgings we stay in. In Santiago, there were a few good veggie options (plus more bad pizza, sadly), but the hospedaje that we stayed in made us love the city. Located in the heart of downtown, the Green House is run by a family that seems to revel in going out of their way to help travellers. Each time we left, they kept luggage for us, did laundry and each time we came back they helped orient us to the city and tell us how to find places to eat. Nice way to end a trip that has included a full range of places.

The city itself is somewhat lacking in charm--being as it is a business capital. There are a few wonderful plazas to walk through, a smattering of cathedrals and parks, some very strange sand art by hundreds of young Catholic children, but it somehow lacks the energy of our favorite stops. As I said, Santiago just stands for so many other things for us. And while we are tired, and while Santiago didn´t fully charm us, we would love for Santiago to be the place where some kind patron gave us a boatload of money to keep travelling.


-d

Valparaiso (I´m Well Aquainted with the Works of Pablo Neruda)

Desperation has set in as the international leg of our trip is now hours from being over. With that anxiety in mind, we decided to squeeze one more city onto the itinerary. Valparaiso is a seaside town with rolling hills hugging the port. The hills are covered with all forms of brightly colored, dilapidated structures made from combinations of corrugated metal and stone. The fact that the city experiences quite a bit of earthquakes combined with the, admittedly beautiful, slapdash structures gave an element of danger to our visit.

The problem for Kristi and me is that in the entire 9 months we have been out of North America, we have had exactly 10 days of bad weather. We have grown soft. Very soft. We spent two days, hiking up and down the hills of Valparaiso getting drenched by a fog\rain that made Eugene, Oregon in winter look like Phoenix. So, while the UENESCO World Heritage parts of the city are wonderful, we may, just may, have prayed to find an indoor mall. We also found ourselves relying a bit much on the turn-of-the-century ´ascensors´, rickety wooden box-style funiculars that scale some of the steepest hills for a modest fee, thus adding another element of danger to our visit.

The highlight of our stay was our visit to the poet Pablo Neruda´s (less famous) house. The house is constructed with a panoramic view of the city and is itself an amalgam of the city. Portholes from ships line the stairwell, salvaged stained glass, custom designed fireplaces, model ships, and a study that groans like a ship at sea when the wind blows all come together with a strange unity. There is even a small ¨heliport¨on top of the home for future travels to the stars. Poets think of everything.

-d

Easter Island/ Isla de Pascua/ Rapa Nui/ Fantasy Island

Ah, Easter Island. The mystery, the allure, the end-of-the-world tiki-ness of the place. When we stepped off the plane onto the narrow airstrip surrounded by palm trees and stone sculptures, with a host of lei-bearing residents waiting for us in the tiniest airport ever, it felt a bit like Fantasy Island. It seemed it couldn´t be possible that we were actually there, despite the 6 hour flight from Santiago. But seeing no man dressed in a white suit, we chose to believe it and felt extra lucky that this remote destination was a possibility on our round-the-world ticket, since the cost of getting here from DC would be twice as much as what we spent on our 20-stop ticket.

After choosing a place to stay from one of the people that show up at the airport with rooms to rent, we settled in and explored the major town on the island, Hanga Roa. As this task only took about 15 minutes, we spent the rest of the day relaxing, looking at some of the moai (big tiki guys), cooking up some dinner, and watching the sun set.

Rapa Nui turned out to be the ideal stop for us as we were winding down the trip. We went on plenty of fun day trips filled with looking at ruins, learning about the anthropology of the island (I won´t spoil the mystery and allure by divulging what we learned here), going to the beach, scrambling around the craggy volcanic coastline, and plain hiking around. We also spent a good amount of time relaxing around our little apartment, playing backgammon, and discussing how long we could stay on this 12-km-long island without getting bored. We settled on 2-3 months on our current budget and 5 months on a bigger budget. Did I mention that the island is jam-packed with wild ponies?

-k