Hello again from Santiago de Chile. The title of this post is a hilarious joke because I just spent 10 days in New York visiting my girlfriend Liv, which is a brief sabbatical in the US from the hard work of traveling around without a shred of responsibility. HA! Anyway, I had a great time back in the land of the free. I’m sure anyone who’s been in a long distance relationship can imagine how much I was missing Liv, and it was really really good to get to spend some time together. The biggest activity of the trip was spending Easter weekend up in Connecticut, where I got to meet and spend some quality time with Liv’s mom Anne and her fiancee Glenn. I also have to give a big shoutout to Fred, whom I met at a delicious fish fry dinner at the yacht club the evening we arrived, and who, along with Anne, has to be the biggest fan of this blog who isn’t related to me. We had a great evening chatting and all getting to know each other, and it was my first time at a yacht club, so even back in the US this period of my life continues to be full of first-time, unforgettable experiences.

The next day Liv and I toured all around the area, saw the different houses that Liv grew up in, and went for a delightfully sunny if chilly stroll along the beach in Rhode Island. We picked up some beautiful fresh scallops (one of my absolute favorite foods) on the way home and made fettucine with scallops for dinner, capped off with a delightful hour or two drinking wine and chatting at the dinner table. Sunday we slept in, then took a trip to the grocery store to load up on supplies for Easter dinner. Glenn’s son Eric came over, and before we could proceed with dinner the kids had an easter egg hunt, where the three of us walked around the first floor and picked up what must have been 5 giant bags of candy that Anne had covered every visible surface with. Our baskets were also spiked with an entire bag of Cadbury eggs each to start, so I can safely say that I highly recommend going to Anne’s easter egg hunts.

The rest of the time in New York was less about activities and more just about spending time with Liv – I’ve visited before and seen some museums and attractions and such, so I mostly just spent the week following Liv around to work or school, which she graciously minimized to spend time with me. The good news is that she somehow isn’t sick of me yet, and we agreed that this whole distance thing is getting old, so the plan now is for me to move to New York sometime in June. I’m not exactly sure what I’m going to do in between but the rough plan is to head north through Chile, with the Atacama desert as the main attraction, and then cross into Bolivia or Peru (or both) and, after touring around a little bit, hopefully spend about a month volunteering. I haven’t figured out what I’d like to do yet but I’m going to be looking online and contacting organizations tonight and in the next couple of days, so hopefully I’ll have a better idea soon. Tomorrow I’m heading to Valparaiso, almost straight west of here, where I should hopefully find a cute, interesting city and some beautiful beaches. Not sure what the next stop after that will be but I think I’ll be just working my way north along the coast before cutting inland to San Pedro de Atacama. I’ll keep y’all updated!