We started the morning in Valparaiso. Breakfast, a quick goodbye with Tracy’s relatives, a walk downhill to the bus station, and we’re on our way back to Santiago. We decided to take a bus from a different carrier for the trip back to compare comfort between brands.
Our Valparaiso Airbnb 
Mural across from bus station 
View from the hill
It’s been a crazy nine days in Chile so far. Deserts, mummies, wars, artist communities, poets, human rights. It’s a lot to take in.
For our final day in Chile we decided to spend more time in downtown Santiago. Our first stop was the area around the Presidential Palace, which was bombed during the military coup. There is a small sign on the side of the Ministry of Nation Defense building documenting it’s use as a torture facility during the Pinochet regime.
Presidential Palace 
Two time president 
Ministry of National Defense 
Presidential Palace
Across from the Presidential Palace, in a small park, there was an activity taking place that on the surface seemed normal enough, but after looking more closely I found it somewhat disturbing. The military was out for a community event. Chile is very proud of their military and they like to show off from time to time. No biggie. But as we got closer we could see there were multiple ways the military was pulling young children into the act. Uniform dress up, sitting on the tops of tanks, etc. It’s a PR and recruiting tool aimed at children. Not cool!
We made our way further into the downtown area looking for lunch. We ran into a performing troop along the way with some interesting puppets.
We spent the rest of the day wandering through various parts of the city, taking in as much as we could. Later we had another great meal in the neighborhood by the hotel and settled in for the night.
Our time in Chile is coming to an end. It’s been a fantastic ten days, and I hope to return some day. The last few weeks have been better than I could have ever imagined and I feel blessed to have made this trip.
But, we’re not quite done yet. It’s back to Paraguay and on to the last phase of this adventure.
Stay tuned…Will