Jan 6 - Back in business

After our bit of bad luck, we had a fun New Year's Eve in Valparaiso and spent some time in the police station and various municipal offices trying to get the necessary documentation to get our passports reissued. We then took a trip up the coast before heading back to Santiago. There was some great scenery, but unfortunately we had no camera to take any pictures of it.

We've spent the last few days in Santiago trying to get things sorted out with our passports and visas and touring the city a little bit. So far, we've managed to get our passports, but we're still working on our visas (and will be for the next three weeks or so thanks to our bank in Cayman - personal service at it's best!).

Today we met up with some friends who also used to live/work in Cayman - Shari and Eamon who now live in Ireland, and Wade and Rena who are also homeless like us, but originally came from Saskatchewan. Wade and Rena were kind enough to pick us up a new camera before they left Sask and delivered it to us today. They are all taking a few months off and doing a tour through Chile/Argentina and then on to southeast Asia.

Once our friends arrived we spent some time relaxing and catching up. We'll be travelling with Wade and Rena through Chile for the next 3-4 weeks, but may only see Shari and Eamon once or twice over the next 2 months.

Eamon, Casey and Wade enjoying Chile's national cocktail, the Pisco Sour.



Rena telling Shari exactly what she thinks of people in plaid shirts, after a couple bottles of vino.



We had the 6th and 7th in Santiago, and then Wade, Rena and ourselves flew down to Punta Arenas on the 8th to start our trek through Patagonia...