Adventures in Chile

A New Favorite

We spent 17 days in Chile, August 29th to September 13th… and we wish we had more time! We really liked Chile and only scratched the surface on what it has to offer. We were pretty skeptical after Argentina and Uruguay, but something about Chile just felt right. It was really comfortable for us. Our major highlight of Chile was Rapa Nui, or Easter Island. It was the perfect mix of outdoor adventure and history. It was tropical without being too hot and was simply breathtaking. We’ve also added Valparaiso to our list of favorite cities.

Colors of Chile

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Sunset

Chile – Valparaiso – Street Art

Chile – Valparaiso – Fine Arts Museum

Chile – Valparaiso – Street Art

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Matu Tautara

Chile – Valparaiso – Street Art

Chile – Valparaiso – Laundry Day

A collection of some of our favorite photos from Chile, one for each color of the rainbow. Click on the first photo to view a slideshow. Check out our Flickr page to see all our photos from Chile. Also, check out our photo collections by color.

BLACK & WHITE

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Sunset

Chile – Santiago – Cerro Can Cristobal

CADENCE Week 15 – Santiago and Rapa Nui, Chile

Run – 16 miles

Long runs and beautiful places.

This week I started out with a ten mile run up the Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago. I had run most of the way up the hill before but had yet to run to the top. It was a rainy day, my favorite, so I felt ready to go all the way to the top. I ran up the hill hard and had a great time. The views at the top were great, you can see the city laid out before you with snowcapped mountains in the background.

Chile – Santiago – Cerro Can Cristobal

Chile – Santiago – Cerro Can Cristobal

In the middle of the week we headed out to Easter Island or Rapa Nui. Our first day I got out and ran along the coast. Amazing! I ran by 10 Moai, the famous statues, and lots of cows and horses. It was the most beautiful run of the trip.

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Tahai

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Horses roaming free

For the rest of the week we hiked the island. We are in love with Rapa Nui, so we were hiking over 15 miles most days. We ended each day sitting on the porch watching the sun set – paradise. Next, Tahiti.

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Rano Kau

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Ana Te Pahu

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – View from Maunga Terevaka

Later.

Week 15 – Rapa Nui (Easter Island), Chile

Ahh… Paradise

Chile – Rapa Nui (Easter Island) – Tongariki

When we were first planning this year, we each listed a few things we really wanted to see, which we called “pillars.” One of Lindsey’s pillars was Rapa Nui or Easter Island. This was a really exciting week because we spent most of it on Rapa Nui. It is seriously remote – 3,700 km (2,300 miles) from mainland Chile and the closest populated island is 2,075 km (1,289 miles) away and only has 50 people. The remoteness doesn’t quite sink in until you fly on a Dreamliner for five and a half hours and every time you look out the window all you see is blue ocean.  But the long trip was well worth it. Everything about it is paradise. The weather is 65 degrees every day with scattered clouds (and it only rains when you are inside… or maybe that was just our good luck) – not too hot and not too cold. There are enough tourists to have an infrastructure, but not enough to create crowds. And best of all, it’s the perfect mix of history and outdoor adventure (similar to our first pillar, Machu Picchu). Just perfect.

Week 14 – Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile

Sick in Santiago

Chile – Valparaiso – Bicentennial walk along Pacific Ocean

We started the week in Valparaiso, which has quickly become one of our favorite cities on the entire trip. On our last night in Valpo, Lindsey came down with a nasty cold that kept her up all night. The next day, Wednesday, we went to Santiago where we had an apartment rented. This was perfect timing since Lindsey’s cold completely knocked her out. She laid in bed watching TV (with several English speaking channels) for the next few days. Over the weekend, she started to feel a little better and made it out of the apartment for some short walks. Despite getting sick, we really like Chile. There’s just something about it that makes us comfortable.