Santiago is only a two hour drive from Valparaiso. \u00a0We never know how its going to be, driving into a city of 5.4 million people. \u00a0It turned out just fine, we arrived on a Sunday afternoon and found a great camping spot at a truck stop south of town. \u00a0The truck stop was next to a large park called\u00a0Cerros de Chena – Parque Metropolitano de Santiago, so we felt an\u00a0instant\u00a0affinity with the park. \u00a0It also had an amiable, likable homeless man named Rueban, \u00a0the kind of homeless person who would give you wise advice in a romantic comedy. \u00a0The kind of homeless person you always want homeless people to be like – kind, wise, down on their luck (not crazy, psycho, muttering, shoeless & scary). \u00a0Rueban appointed himself the watcher of our camper, promising to keep it safe from Banditos. \u00a0And he did! \u00a0In return, we had fun buying Rueban things at the grocery store. \u00a0He begged for money at the gas station and lived in a tent in the Cerros de Chena so he pretty much ate what they sold at the gas station store. \u00a0We also gave Rueban our portable grill, the propane fitting and a small tank of propane. \u00a0He had never seen one before and we were worried a bit at first that he might sent the park on fire. \u00a0But as of this blog post, no damage has been done because of the propane grill.<\/p>\n

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