A long drive

We woke up early to get the most out our last full day in Chile. Just north of Termas del Socos is a strange rain forrest located where it actually shouldn't be, called Fray Jorge and we wanted to check it out. As we left the highway we realised that is was a 25km drive on a crappy gravel road to get there and since we were a bit short on time and we decided to turn back and head south instead.

We made a quick stop to be amazed by the enormous waves from the pacific that clashed onto the shores.

A little further south we stopped in the little coastal town Pichidangui for lunch. As usual it was a bit over priced compared to what was served and my 'seaf food soup' tasted a bit funny but Anias fish was quite alright.

The goal of today was Vina del Mar which we had heard would be a beautiful but slighly blant city close to the coast. We reached VdM just after 16 and then started to look for a place to stay. Quite quickly we realized that all of Santiago had come here for the weekend and pretty much all places had printed notes on the doors saying they were full. After 30min of getting rejected we drove down to the ocean to decide what to do.
The sight that met us was astonishing. On a little 200m stretch of sand we finally saw our "penguins". Though they were not really of the kind we had been hoping for but the many thousands of people that had packed themselevs on that small beach could just as well have been penguins, because that's what they looked like.

Now we had had it with Vina del Mar and thought that if all of Santiago had came here it would be a breeze to find a place to stay there instead. The first two phone calls was neegative and we actually started to get a bit worried but then we found what sounded like a nice b&b that had room for us and we grabbed it instantly.

It took about 1.5h to drive into Santiago and it was a bit of a shame that we didn't know this before because we could have saved quite a lot of time then. The place we found is called El Patio Suizo and is located in a vey nice area of Santiago and it is super cozy. We felt that the day would probably end on a high note after all.

We walked a good 30min to a restaurant called Cafe del Patio to have dinner. For a change we got some really good food and we practically rolled our way back home.

It was actually good that we went back to Santiago because this evening has really showed the city from its best and we now feel a lot more positive about it.

Tomorrow we are leaving Chile.
We have a soft morning ahead of us that we will enjoy here in the patio. The Swiss couple that runs the place have just baked a special swiss bread that we will have for breakfast and it smells great.