As soon as Clare committed to spending the fall semester of her junior year in Santiago, Chile, we decided we would visit her for our Thanksgiving break. Partly because this is a good time to go as far as Danny’s and Laura’s schedules are concerned, and partly because Tim has fond memories of his parents visiting him for Thanksgiving during our semester abroad.
Given that Chileans don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, we knew Clare would have limited time to spend with us during the school week. So we chose to break our visit into three parts: A weekend in Santiago, a trip to Patagonia for a few days, and then a few more days (including Thanksgiving itself) back in Santiago.
We departed Atlanta on Friday night, and arrived in Santiago bright and early Saturday morning (it’s about a 9-hour flight). We went straight to our Airbnb, a condo on the 12th floor of a building overlooking Araucano Park. Clare met us here, and we walked to the nearby (and very nice) mall for some food. After that, we hopped on the metro and explored some of our surrounding Las Condes area.
We returned to the condo for much-needed naps (or homework, in Clare’s case), and then ventured out again. This time we wandered to an artisan market and then grabbed drinks and a snack at another mall. Santiago takes their malls pretty seriously! We enjoyed beautiful views of the Andes while we sipped and chatted. From there Clare went to a friend’s birthday party, and the four of us returned to the mall near our condo for an alfresco dinner.
Sunday morning we met up with Clare for a great breakfast in a swanky part of town (El Golf), and then headed out for more sightseeing. We had some time constraints, as we would be heading to have a late lunch with Clare’s host family at their house, so we quickly realized we didn’t have time for Clare’s proposed outing. We hopped back on the metro to explore something closer…and that’s when Tim’s wallet got stolen. Thankfully he still had his phone, so a few quick phone calls/app visits canceled the cards. Overall it wasn’t that disruptive, but it did rattle us for a bit. Nevertheless, we rallied in order to be in good spirits for the big meeting with Clare’s host family (and we had to go buy wine!).
Clare wasn’t certain how this meeting would go, since language had the potential be a big barrier. Turns out more of her extended family speak English than she realized - and Danny and I made good efforts with our Spanish, too! We met Carmen, her host mom, and Pancho, her host brother who lives with Carmen; Francisco, the dad (and Carmen’s ex-husband); Mida (?) and Martina, the host granddaughters; Teri, host daughter, and her husband (can’t recall his name); and a random neighbor! We sat outside in the enclosed patio area and had a great time getting to know everyone a bit. We also got to see Clare’s room, etc. - it’s always nice to get a visual on where people live!
Things eventually wound down, and we made our way to Sky Costanera, the largest building in South America! We headed to the top for some pretty incredible 360-degree views. Several of Clare’s fellow ND students decided to check it out as well, so many photo shoots ensued.
Eventually, the five of us made our way to a nearby French restaurant for a delicious dinner (and record-breaking dessert consumption). From there we parted ways until we returned from our Patagonian adventure!
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