The very last stop in this 5 month tour through South America would be the modern capital of Chile, Santiago. Before even getting there though, we didn’t want to miss Los Lagos Region. Even though it wouldn’t stop raining on us for a week straight, we got to enjoy this magnificent part of the country and witness its incredibly blue lakes, lush forests and Swiss-like mountain towns. Actually villages such as Puerto Varas possess a very unique European -specifically German- heritage which is still very noticeable while wondering around their streets.

On our way up north we crossed the border to the Argentine side so we could spend some days between San Carlos de Bariloche and San Martin de los Andes. Again, we didn’t have the best of luck and both mountain towns welcomed us with heavy rains and strong winds—you gotta love spring in the Andes!

Even though I wasn’t the best at improvising and always liked to have everything under control, being on the road for such a long period of time forced me to be very good at it. We both actually turned ourselves into ‘live-the-moment’ experts and are quickly learning how to react depending on many external factors we can’t possibly control—weather being probably the biggest of all. Unfortunately we had to shorten our stay in this beautiful region and keep moving on northbound to chase some sun (but surely will be back one day!).
The search for warmer days finally brought us all the way to Valparaiso where we luckily found the sunniest (and warmest) days of the whole month of September. Picturesque, artsy and slightly run down we really liked the vibe of this historic harbor city and its friendly locals.

Santiago was the closing chapter for an unforgettable first leg of our round-the-world trip.

These past 5 months in South America have been beyond incredible. From the rugged Patagonian landscapes or the captivating altitude of the Andes in Peru to the warm Caribbean vibes in Colombia and spectacular lush rainforest of South East Brazil we loved absolutely everything about this continent, its people and their rough history which undeniably shaped their unique, kind personality and cultures.