December 26, 2024

We left Telluride on Christmas after a fantastic vacation with the Laabs family! Lots of fun with Neal, Amanda, Will, Max, Mimi, Poppi & Mike. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve & Christmas morning. Then we hit the road during the middle of a snow storm. They were treacherous roads…which hadn’t been cleared!😳 Thankfully JJ was driving and our flight left Montrose for Dallas without any delays. We had a long layover in Dallas & ate our Christmas dinner at BW3’s!😂 Then headed out on our red-eye for Santiago, Chile. 🇨🇱

We arrived into Santiago around 7:30am on Thursday, December 26th. JJ always likes an airport pickup when we arrive but the driver was late so after a couple tries getting ahold of Hector we took an Uber. The Uber was cheap -$30 to the city. We stayed at Hotel San Francisco. It was centrally located & cheap at $160 a night which included breakfast. It was a 4-5 star hotel. Luckily our room was ready so we could all take showers before venturing out for our tour. We found a cute street & spot for brunch – cappuccinos, eggs, açaí bowl, etc. Most places were closed because they eat lunch later around 1-3pm. We headed back to our hotel to be there for our 1pm walking tour.

It was a gorgeous day for our Santiago walking tour- no humidity & around 85 degrees. Our guide took us to all of the highlights. Lookout point right next to our hotel with incredible views of the city

The boys stopped for the famous hot dogs & empanadas. The hot dogs had avocado, ketchup & mayo. It was the first of many empanadas which were yummy! The most popular are the beef & onion. We saw three famous churches. The largest, one that burnt down & they kept. We explored the neighborhoods. Noticed lots of dogs 🐕 in Chile. It’s a very catholic country. We went to their congress buildings, stock exchange.

Their largest cathedral called xxxx. We ended around 5:30pm. Headed back to the hotel to get ready for a fancy dinner at La Mer. JJ’s friend recommended it.

Connor always falls asleep on the first night…here he is in our Uber ride. La Mer had amazing seafood- especially the cervice!