My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
This morning after breakfast at our hotel we went out for a drive. We headed towards the southern tip of Fuerteventura. We stopped in the town of Morro Jable and walked along the coast path.
Along the coast in Morro JableThe lighthouseThe sperm whale skeleton
We stopped at several viewpoints along the coast. Eventually the road became dirt. All of Fuerteventura that we have seen has been extremely arid.
At an overlookWe saw this guy as we drove down the coast and again as we came back
Eventually we drove up over the crest to the west side of the island. The house in the picture below is Winter House. It was built by a German engineer Adolf Winter in the mid 1900’s. You can’t go inside. Winter House is where we turned around and headed back to the hotel.
Winter HouseWalking around Winter HouseThe western coast of Fuerteventura
On the way back we stopped at a grocery store and then had a picnic in our room.
Lunch
Meals at the Melia are served buffet style. Staying here has been perfect for getting over jet lag.
I’m having problems with WordPress, my blogging software. This post was published and then deleted when it already had comments. If your comment was lost I’m sorry! I’m recreating the post. Argh*!*
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Saturday 3 February 2024.
Duke and I are at the start of another adventure. Tonight we are sitting on the balcony of our room in our hotel overlooking the Atlantic. We are on the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. It was a long trip to get here but we made it!
At our hotel on Fuerteventura
We left Reno Wednesday and drove to Walnut Creek. Thursday Allison and the kids drove us to BART where we caught a train to San Francisco airport.
At the BART station
Our flight from San Francisco to Paris was on French Bee Airlines, an airline that is new to us. We were a bit late leaving the gate and then sat waiting while 10 or more planes landed before finally we took off. Apparently there was only one runway open because of maintenance work.
Champagne to start our trip
We arrived at Orly airport and walked across the street to our hotel. We were each pretty tired after the red eye flight so we went to bed at 7pm and were immediately asleep.
Walking to our hotel at Orly airport
Since our plane to Fuerteventura was at 6:30 the next morning it didn’t really matter that we woke up about 3am. We walked back to the airport, had croissants and coffee, then caught our flight to the island of Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands.
Leaving our hotelCroissants and coffeeFuerteventura
We rented a car and drove to the other end of the island where we are staying at a beautiful Meliā resort. After naps we went out exploring and checked out the pools and the beach.
We started our trip home from Chile with a flight that left Santiago at 11:55 pm. So we had a whole day to continue exploring Santiago before we left.
We started the day at our nearby coffee shop, The people there were incredibly friendly. They remembered us and the coffee and croissants were some of the best of the trip.
Le Boletó Café
After we checked out of our hotel at noon and stored our bags we took the hop on hop off bus tour of the city. We got to see the newer and more modern eastern part of Santiago.
A street in the eastern part of Santiago
We got off the bus at Plaza de La Constitución and had a late lunch at a cafe called Blue Jar.
My empanadas Dukes albóndigas
When we got back to the hotel and reclaimed our bags they arranged a car to take us to the airport. At the airport we killed time until we could check in at around 8pm. We had sandwiches and beer and finally right at midnight we were on our way.
Sandwiches in Santiago airport
I can’t say I would recommend American Airlines given the quality of their food and service but after a ten hour flight, a 6 hour layover in Dallas, and an almost 4 hour flight to Reno we arrived home safe and sound. We are recovering from our red eye flight and getting over our jet lag.
It was a wonderful trip. I uploaded our YouTube video of Iguazu Falls just before we left Santiago. I’ll be editing YouTube videos for a while so please watch Boomers Without Borders for more videos.
Today the weather was perfect in Santiago. This morning we had coffee at the same coffee shop where we had coffee yesterday.
Breakfasts
Then we walked to the Nobel prize winning Chilean poet, Pablo Marisa’s home, La Chascona.
We took the audio tour. I enjoyed the tour. It was an interesting place but it also gave us a perspective of Chile’s recent history.
La ChasconaOn the funicular
Next we took the funicular to the statue of the Virgin Mary that overlooks Santiago. From there we rode the cable down and back we had great views of Santiago and the surrounding mountains.
Going upThe view from the topThe virgin statue
From the bottom of the funicular we went looking for a jazz club we might eat at tonight. The club we were looking for appeared to be closed so we walked back to our hotel.
We had a great dinner at Casaluz Restaurant not far from where we ate last night on Avenida Italia.
This morning we found a wonderful little coffee shop near our hotel and had coffee and croissants.
Breakfast
Then we walked towards the Plaza de Armas. Last time we were in Chile in 2019 we only spent one night in Santiago on our way home and we stayed near the airport because there was civil unrest and there were violent demonstrations in the center of Santiago . As we walked along the main street today a lot of buildings were boarded up and others had closable metal shutters and doors. We hypothesized that this was because of the riots.
Subway has its door open. The Museum of Contemporary Art
We walked around the center for a while.
Plaza de Armas and the CathedralInside the CathedralPalacio de La Moneda, the home of the Chilean President
We wanted some lunch and just happened to find a little restaurant very near Palacio de La Moneda. They offered a menu of the day that was very good. We started with squash soup for Duke and Ham rolled around avocado for me. Then I had tongue and Duke had chicken breast. For desert I had banana and with carmel sauce and Duke had flan. The meal for the two of us was about $19.
Our restaurant for lunchInside 100% NaturalMenu of the dayMy tongue with walnuts and Dukes chickenMy banana with caramel sauce
We took the metro back to our hotel and then napped.
Santiago Metro
Tonight we went to a jazz club about a 20 minute walk from our hotel in the Italian District. We had dinner and enjoyed a great show at the Jazz Corner.
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