Santiago day 9

After breakfast and after the gym, we did what the kids consider to be the most fun thing to do, which is ride electric scooters. They have two scooters companies here in Santiago, Lime which seems to be joined with Uber, and Whoosh. We have been using Lime because that's what we first saw, and as it turns out our kids hands are too small to reach the hand brake levers and only the Lime has a rear wheel brake that they can step on. The Whoosh had a place on the handle bars for your phone and the Lime scooters do not. The scooters go around 15 mph. They cost around 25 cents a minute but I soon realized if I bought 300 min, it only costs 7 cents a minute. At first we rode with each kid, but now we all have separate scooters and so it costs 28 cents a minute. I had to reload another 300 minutes today. 

We rode through the Parque Araucano which is the big park outside our window. It was pretty crowded because it was the weekend. We found our way to a Brussels cafe which is the chain where we tried a sample of luxuriously thick hot chocolate yesterday. 

We ended up having a cup of Mexican and Italian hot chocolate. The Mexican hot chocolate was more like hot chocolate we have had back home but with some cinnamon and spices. The Italian hot chocolate was very thick and the last spoonful doesn't slide down the cup very easily. It was delicious. We also had a fondue for two with milk chocolate and Nutella with almond brittle. They had marshmallows, Belgium waffles, banana and strawberries to dip in -- delicious.

After that, we scootered to the park and Dd and I played tag and hide and go seek for an hour before riding back to the hotel because it was so cold for Christine since she was sitting on a bench and it was 49 F outside.

Fortunately the hot water was hot so the bath was good. We have been using a hot water kettle to help supplement the lack of hot water at the hotel. I think the hot water heater is shared on the floor so it can run out easily.

We had Chinese food leftovers and the kids did some homeschool and had tablet time and finished the night with popcorn and movie but the Amazon fire stick USB started to not work because I think it has reached the end of its lifespan.

We only have two more days before we fly back to the states. Staying in the condo has been a great transition out of vanlife. We have been reflecting on the things we have seen and experienced over the last ten months. There haven't been any earth shattering revelations. The kids miss their friends and miss school. They hate long drives. They don't respond well to my parenting style so I take a backseat to Christine. Christine has done a great job homeschooling them this year. Both kids read for fun now. I think Christine is looking forward to being in a house and not having to homeschool everyday. I will miss the road and the simplicity of trying to do the three things everyday: dump the cassette, the gray water, and fill the fresh water. I do not look forward to the all consuming world we will return to with the Costco runs and Amazon purchases but I am not so naive that I think we won't fall back into our pre trip lifestyle. This past year has been a gift and I am thankful.