5 September 2018: Or is it?

This is how we left the house for our house sitters. Not exactly the paradise we had hoped to leave behind, but we had started the replacement process of our leaky shower a few months ago. Unfortunately; mañana mañana", as they says in Spanish speaking countries. Things did not go much different with our also leaking first flush system. Again waiting for the moment the tradies have time for you. Imagine us doctors working like that. "Ah, I see the problem, you bleeding heavily from a wound. OK, I'll drive to the shop and go buy the stuff I need to stitch you up. Probably will pick up a coffee on the way. Will be back this afternoon, or, at least before the weekend". Anyway, our old sparky did a marvellous job on the ceiling fan in the other shower that broke just before we left.

"See you on New Years eve" our friends mentioned to our house sitters when they left. You have to honour good old traditions ay? We had a kind of a farewell party with some friends and introduced them to our house sitters. 2 days in the kitchen for a good old Dutch 'rijsttafel'.

Last game of golf just before we left. Only one golf ball permanently submerged this time.

We decided to bring only the essentials with us to South America. I know, many years ago it would have been a spare T-shirt, togs and some clean undies. Now it only just fitted in 2 really big backpacks, 2 small ones and an extra suitecase. We'll probably have to buy a proper DHL van in SA to move all the stuff around.

Luckily I do not have to think about our return trip yet. Not sure how we'll manage to come back as Nienke has already discovered that shoes are cheap as chips over here!
Dutch Kiwi just before our departure in Auckland.

Farewell from his big brother.
OK, we did NOT miss our flight. We did learn something from our previous mishaps (3 missed flights of which 2 by 24 hours). Something did go wrong though. We left Auckland on the 2nd of September at 18.15. We did not arrive on Monday though, but on Sunday, about 3 hours before we left Auckland. Slight miscalculation, understandable confusion, we think...... And that's not easy to explain with our still basic Spanish. Embarrassing moment when I opened the door of the apartment (electronic lock) to find to a bewildered couple trying to stuff their belongings in shrunken suitecases (déjà vu). One extra night in a hotel as a reward.

Pretty good weather here. Nice to see the snowy caps of the Andes between the buildings. After dropping our stuff at the hotel we had a walk through the park. It clearly wás a Sunday, as love birds were lying everywhere. Must be spring in the air.

And a special welcome gift from the local council for us (how they knew we'd arrive on Sunday is still a mystery); a nice water show with coloured lights

Found a nice area with fancy restaurants near the university (of course). Looks pretty cool. Strangely enough it was the scene of open drug dealing and use the night before. Police used all possible means (as we saw on the news) to catch the crooks. Seen a lot of police in the streets. Maybe that's why we haven't been robbed yet? Santiago really feels safe.

A billion choices at La Vega central, an enormous market. We took a bit of everything home with us. Forgot to bring the donkey though (said the donkey). At least we finally had success with a phone card. Three 'specialists' had a look at Nienkes phone which did not seem to agree to a marriage with the Movistar sims card. The brief engagement died on the spot and WOM is the new love of Nokia 6.1's life. It works. Unbelievable, Ajax won 0-4 at Vitesse!

Today was an important day. We were going to get a RUT-number. Is absolutely essential if you want to buy a car in Chile. Hablo Castillano un poco (I speak South American Spanish I bit), but not at the speed they do. Luckily we found a nice lady who helped us through the tangled web of Chilean administration. Sign here and there, smile at the lady and pay at the counter. You don't know if you just signed over your NZ home to them, but at least they didn't ask for the house keys. 2 Different offices, 4 different forms, about 20 km's walking and at least 3 hours of waiting. Not to mention a blister. Anyway, tomorrow we're going to look for a car.

We had a nice homemade lunch at our apartment, where discovered that the tradie that had promised to repair the shower (there's a pattern here) copied the New Zealand style of work ethics. Nada, no work done, mañana mañana. Not to worry, we're on a holiday, so we visited some interesting museums in town.

Beautiful street-arts and architecture.

Mixed with a few good restaurants. Great find.

"Hans, take a picture!" So I did. Almost married 25 years, so you do as you are told.

The Museo de Artes Visuales had some nice surprises. Among others this display where you can see Nienke dancing. A bit like in Te Papa. But here the security guards actually applauded my wife.

Unfortunately outside in the courtyard where the youngsters  were practising Nienke had to acknowledge the quite obvious age gap. Hey, I know, I'm not even trying. It's the old battle wound in the leg......

As a reward she bought herself some nice well deserved cookies on the way back home. Adios amigos.