Getting from Pucon to Santiago can be done by a flight from a nearby town, or by a long bus ride. The problem – the bus and flight schedules are wildly mismatched, so your options are essentially to sit in a bus for ten hours, or take around eight hours, five of which are spent sitting at the airport. Really not much of a choice – a minor time saving for a substantially higher cost, I was always going to take the bus.

I managed to get my favourite spot in the bus – front of the top deck. With a fully charged phone and headphones, I was able to enjoy the beautiful Chilean countryside pass by while listening to music, audiobooks etc. The bus took a lot longer than expected, but I wasn’t planning to do anything that day anyway, so no stress.

My accommodation from my first visit to Santiago wasn’t available, but I found what seemed to be a decent place nearby. When I arrived, I realised I was in a tiny one-room basement with a bathroom that was a 50m walk away. The owner tried to be helpful, e.g. there was no wifi, so he set up an old phone as a router for me – which worked for about two hours, till the phone auto-disconnected. The downside of booking places at the last minute, especially going into holiday season, is that often what’s available is often not great.

The following morning I was up early. Last time I was in Santiago, I had missed the nearby UNESCO World Heritage Site at Valparaíso. Many Chileans had told me it was one of the most beautiful parts of the country, so I was curious. On my way to catch the bus, I saw some beautiful birds – google tells me they are monk parakeets, and are actually an invasive species in the region.

The scenery on the bus ride to Valparaíso was really interesting. Chile is an exceptionally long but narrow country, and the scenery in the south and north are worlds apart. Then again, Puerto Williams in the south and Arica in the north are over 4000km apart as the crow flies, so they literally are worlds apart.

Valparaíso wasn’t particularly interesting – Santiago has better historical buildings. I did manage to get a local SIM card, while there, which would mean the lack of internet would not be an issue. Kind of ironic to only get one this late when I had been in the country for a while already.

I walked along the coast, there is a bit of a beach, the shipwreck was interesting, but by far the best part was getting relatively close to all the seals. I did tag the South Pacific while I was there, but I had already tagged this ocean in Lima a few months back, so nothing new.

A Chilean had once told me that only locals know where Valparaíso ends and Viña del Mar starts. They are functionally one town. My plan had always been to take the bus to Valparaíso and then take a bus back from Viña del Mar. Where possible, I walked on the beach, but most of the morning was spent walking on the road next to the ocean.

To be honest, Viña del Mar is the prettier of the two, but I can only assume the locals who told me that it was the most beautiful part of their country had never been to the south or north of the country – I wouldn’t even put these towns in the same category as Santiago for beauty.

On arriving back at my room, the owner of the place I was staying asked me what I was doing today, to which I responded that I had just got back from Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. He was confused, it was still fairly early in the day. To be honest, everything around Valparaíso and Viña del Mar can also be done around Cape Town, and at a higher level of quality – but I was happy I spent the day out there, now I know. My walk around the region had given me a good 10km morning walk – by this point I had realised that if I push for the last few weeks of 2025, I could reach 2000km of walking, hiking and running for the year, a total I had never reached before, although I would need to dramatically up my mileage to get there.

Heading into December, my flight timings had been a bit more limited, so I spent two full days in Santiago. I had considered a few options, but decided to walk around the historical region of Santiago looking for a Chilean football shirt – which was harder to find than expected.

I decided to take a long walk around Santiago, visiting the Tower of Mordor along the way. I had already been up, and didn’t intend on going up again, but its always nice to walk below tall buildings like this. The weather was also a lot clearer than last time – the location of Santiago is really beautiful, with the Andes towering above the city, with an almost 5000m elevation difference between the city and the highest peak visible from the city. I like Santiago, but I can’t say its a contender for my favourite South American city. I don’t know if I’ll ever return to Chile, I have achieved almost everything I had hoped to achieve in this country. Admittedly the country high point, Ojos Del Salado, would be a great objective to return for, or perhaps I’ll pass through Santiago if I attempt Aconcagua some day.

A downside of booking December flights at relatively short notice is that a route that would normally be a direct flight from Santiago to São Paulo suddenly includes a layover in Mendoza, Argentina. It was a fairly long layover, and being a tiny airport, there isn’t even much available to eat during the layover. Fortunately there was free wifi and desks to work at, so I was able to catch up some photos, and even wrote part two of my Antarctica trip report while I waited.

Watching bags get loaded onto the plane for São Paulo, I was happy to see my large blue duffel bag make its way on. At least I knew my bag would arrive on the other side. I even took a photo, seeing as I had nothing better to do. Fast forward a few hours, and I found myself waiting at collection in São Paulo, and my bag had not arrived. After waiting far too long, I went to the desk, who confirmed that my bag never arrived in São Paulo. When I showed the photo of my bag being loaded, the guy at the desk next to me noted that the red bag on the belt behind mine was his, which also never arrived. This was the first time I’ve had this problem, so I guess I have been lucky.

After logging a ticket and giving them contact details for when the bag arrives, I got a taxi to my usual Brigadeiro Hotel. On arriving at my room, I unpacked my hand luggage, which fortunately included a change of clothes and all my electronics. In Santiago that morning, the overweight bag warning light had come on, resulting in me having to move a few things between my checked bag and my hand luggage. Unpacking my bag and realising I had exactly half a pair of running shoes, I actually packed up laughing. I always fly in my heaviest shoes, and I had hoped to go for a run in my favourite park on the continent – Ibirapuera Park – and I most certainly wouldn’t be doing that in hiking boots.

My flight home from in six weeks time would be from São Paulo, so the plan was to leave most of my things at Brigadeiro Hotel, and travel with a small bag for the final phase of the trip, the bag not arriving was going to complicate that – in part because it included things I would need, and in part because I really didn’t want heavy winter clothing in the hot equatorial regions I would be traveling to.

The following morning, I made my way to some local shops, and bought the essential items I would need if my bag never arrived, including some cheap running shoes. I then proceeded to get my run at the park. Later in the day, I would get a message that my bag had been found, and that afternoon it would be delivered to the hotel.

Last time I departed São Paulo with a light bag – right at the start of the first part of my trip – I had tried to use the metro to get to the airport, but didn’t get close. I had plenty of time, so I opted to try again. After accidentally taking two trains in the wrong direction, I finally found myself at the station where I lost the trail previously – Luz Station. This time, I asked security, using Google Translate, and they pointed at a random spot that made no sense. I followed what they said, and after walking for about ten minutes, found a sign that said GRU with a picture of a plane. It isn’t well marked, and the train to the airport is only a few times a day – but luckily I was still very early.

I was anxious about this flight – I had tried to check in online with GOL, but it wouldn’t let me. If I tried to add a booked seat to my ticket, it showed that the flight had almost no seats left. At the airport queue, the lady checking tickets before allowing people to join the queue said I was too early, but I decided to wait in the queue anyway. As it turns out, a good thing I did, I was allocated the aisle seat in the back row, meaning I probably would have been bumped from the flight if I hadn’t done this.

My flight to Belem landed just after midnight. It was a fairly brief layover in the city at the mouth of the Amazon. While I had been in the Amazon basin a few times already, I hadn’t seen the actual Amazon River, only its tributaries – and seeing the Amazon Delta had been on my bucket list since someone told me how wide it was when I was very young.

By 2am I was in my hotel room, and managed to get a bit of sleep.

I was surprised how large Belem was, with over a million residents. It isn’t the most touristic part of Brazil, and has a very different feel to the other parts of the country I had visited.

I made my way down to the river, and put my hand into it. Technically this is the Pará River side of the delta, with three different rivers joining here, but I would see the Amazon itself on my next flight.

What was I doing in Belem? Well, the easiest way to get from São Paulo to Paramaribo, Suriname, was to fly through Belem. I had wanted a day or two in the town, but that increased ticket costs dramatically – and in hindsight, I’m happy I just had a morning there.

Arriving at the airport and seeing Paramaribo on the board was strange. Suriname is the second least visited country on the continent, only ahead of Guyana – it would probably be last if KLM didn’t fly directly there from Amsterdam. The relevance of this country to me was that in high school I had done a group project on it, mostly selected because I knew nothing about it. I find these countries that are rarely talked about to be very interesting.

One thing I had learned was that the airport security check bags on arrival, and there are strict rules on not bringing food into the country. So, at Belem Airport I ate the last few snacks I had left in my bag, and prepared for my flight.

Now the crazy thing about flying north from Belem is that the first 26 minutes of the flight are spent flying over the Amazon Delta. 26 minutes! Absolutely crazy how wide the delta is. South America truly is the continent of extremes!