My friend Nora and I are flying to Bogotá, Colombia, and will then take buses to about 16 other cities on the way back to Santiago. We’ll live out of our backpacks on a bit more than $40 a day as we jump from hostels to Hashes through the Amazon Jungle to Inca ruins, around Lake Titicaca to the world’s largest salt flat and over the Andes to the driest desert on Earth.
Mark insisted that all of us sit at a single table, like a family. I explained that with big families, Thanksgiving means grabbing every chair you can find and spreading out between the “dining room table, the table on the patio and the kids table.” Some people would even be relegated to eating dinner on a TV tray propped up in front of the couch. Mark would have no such thing. And with that, the quest for a table for 20 was born.
I practically grew up in a tent, I went camping so much as a child and teenager. I remember weekend after weekend camping at Lake Mead, Lake Powell or Lake Mojave. I’ve camped in the Grand Canyon and in Zion. I’ve camped in Missouri, Idaho, California, Arizona, Utah and Nevada. I was excited to add Chile to my list of places I’ve slept under the stars.
If there is one thing Chileans do right, it’s celebrating their history. Fiestas Patrias, known as Dieciocho because it’s celebrated on Sept. 18, is everything that’s good about Chile.
