Weeknote 78

Return to Santiago and home time

• At the beginning of the week, we took an early flight back from Arica to Santiago to spend the remainder of our time in Chile there.
• Making the most of cheaper, more accessible healthcare than we sadly now have in the UK, I went to see a dermatologist in Santiago who identified a few things skin and body related. Fortunately, he was friendly and could speak some English and was able to perform a small surgery on my foot the same day. Unfortunately, that left me with a somewhat wounded and sore foot for the rest of the trip.
• Despite the uncomfort, I did manage to continue exploring the city, including a guided tour of Palacio de La Moneda that houses the office of Chile's president.
• On Thursday we visited the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, which provided a graphic and hard-hitting story of Chile's darker past during the military dictatorship led by Augusto Pinochet.
• Lunch on Thursday was one of my favourite culinary highlights of my visit to Chile, with a visit to Peumayén Ancestral Food. The selection of Chilean breads they served up as the pre-starter course, or panera, were like nothing I'd tried before, and incredible in taste and texture. The main course I had was equally impressive, consisting of pork in algarrobina sauce, a creamy mote and pickles.
• The flight back to London via Madrid was fairly smooth and quiet. Surprisingly and pleasingly there were no long queues at Heathrow's UK border control for me or Ximena who often has to put up with much, much longer waits.
• Although I'd a great time in Chile, I'm still glad to back home after three weeks away and to see all the houseplants are well and healthy.