CC’s mum returns to Santiago!

Unfortunately for CC’s mum, all holidays come to an end – and so it was time for us to return to Santiago as CC’s mum had a flight to catch back to the UK…

We didn’t stay in the same part of town as last time… instead we opted for an Airbnb close to the bus station…

As people who like to travel, our Airbnb had the most appropriate shower curtain… a world map! We like to look at maps… but this one was partcularly intriguing… especially when you looked at the towns they picked to represent Australia… fear not Sydneysiders – we are the best! – we are on the map!… Melbourians however… you might be a little disappointed, and need to look away….

Anyway, I digress… back to Santiago… we’d already seen a lot of the sights of Santiago when we were there last, but we still had a full day of sightseeing left to go – so this time round we decided to get out of the big smoke and take a day trip to Cajón del Maipo in the Andes…

CC’s mum loved the journey to San José de Maipo – the main town that we had picked to visit in Maipo canyon – it was match day for the biggest football team in Santiago, and on the metro the chants being shouted by the Colo-Colo football fans and the additional movement of the metro caused by the jumping up and down of the football fans in unison, was nothing but a unique experience 😉

The journey became a little more tranquil when we got off the metro and took the local bus to our destination San José de Maipo – so at this point it was time to sit back, relax and enjoy the scenery out of the bus window!

San José de Maipo is a small town, so we explored on foot… taking in a couple of side streets and the main square before settling on a cheese and prawn deep-fried empanada from a food stall – YUM!!!

Wanting to see some of the spectacular scenery that the canyon apparently has to offer, we jumped on a local bus to San Gabriel. The lady in the tourist information office recommended it to us – we were excited at the prospect of seeing cactuses NOT out of a bus window!!! The problem was that no-one told us where to get off the bus – so we had to guess… with the help of the driver we ended up getting off a little out of San Gabriel village at a ‘popular’ picnic spot by the river…

The popular picnic spot was quite busy – it was a sunny weekend after all – we found a stall with empanadas and settled in for the second round of lunch! 🙂 There’s no point going to a picnic spot and not eating after all!!! We then strolled around and took in the nature… it wasn’t quite as we hoped, but at least we saw a cactus or two without a glass reflection to mar the pictures…

To get back to Santiago we had to stop once again in San José de Maipo… so we made the most of it and ate ice-cream… manjar flavoured ice-cream… what can I say?… It wasn’t as good as dulce de leche gelato from Argentina – but it hit the spot nonetheless!

Santiago this time round was primarily about the day trip… but… we also managed to ensure that CC’s mum finished her Chilean food challenge 🙂 🙂 Check out the final delights she consumed in Santiago…

So, that was it! CC’s mum had finished her holiday, and it was time for her to return to the UK. Before she left, we made sure that she took her completed bird and animal list with her – as bird and animal lists are mandatory on this trip! 🙂