Being that I’m the Queen of finding flight deals, when I heard there were flights from Washington, D.C. to Santiago de Chile for $181 round trip, I jumped at the opportunity. We ended up getting our flights for a little over $200 and I reserved exit row seats on Copa Airlines for no additional fee.

I’d flown Copa before last year when I went to Guatemala for a whopping $124 so I already knew what to expect. They are part of Star Alliance, not a low-cost carrier, they just seemed to offered some extremely low fares to specific destinations every once in a while. Quick tip for if you’re seated in an exit row, be prepared for them to ask you if you speak Spanish. Even if you don’t, just say un poco (which means a little or a bit). As long as you can understand basic Spanish they usually don’t have a problem, we’ve yet to be booted from our exit row seats unlike people who flat out said they didn’t speak Spanish.

Prior to going to Chile, I knew we’d be going during the middle of their fall, so the temps would be in the 60s/70s during the day with cooler weather at night. We were only going to be there for a week so my lofty ambitions of trying to hit a second country, mainly Peru to hike our way to the top of Machu Picchu or Argentina to take tango lessons in Buenos Aires, were just that way too ambitious. Chile has so much to offer, I’m glad we didn’t tire ourselves out by trying to do too much.

We decided to focus our time on Santiago with a trip to Valparaiso and a daytrip to Cajon del Maipo. Since we paid so little for the flight and used SPG points for our entire stay at the Sheraton Hotel & Convention Center, we figured that would leave plenty to splurge on other things like food, wine, and other experiences.

Also, I’m typically a very detail-oriented trip planner. You know one of those people who has an itinerary down to the hour but this time I decided to try to go with the flow. Part of it was likely because I’d recently found out I was pregnant so I definitely didn’t want to overdo it.

With that said, before leaving the States, I booked free walking tours, one in Santiago and one in Valparaiso. I don’t know who came up with the concept of a free walking tour but I take advantage of them everywhere I go and I have yet to have a bad experience.

As a foodie, I definitely judge places on the flavors of their food. The cuisines of Chile were definitely a miss for me, but I will say when I was there it was early in my pregnancy, so maybe that had something to do with it.

Nonetheless we tried out Boragó, a lovely Michelin starred restaurant that had also been listed several times as one of the top restaurants in the world. While the service was amazing and the various presentations of the items on the tasting menu were extremely creative, none of the flavors in the dishes were remarkable.

Did I mention that there were several earthquakes while we were there! I was freaked out at first until I realized it was a common occurrence and people acted like it was as normal as the wind blowing.

All in all, Chile had a very low key feel and I enjoyed the street art in both Santiago and Valparaiso. Don’t know if I’d go back to Santiago, but I could definitely see making a return visit to the lovely port town of Valparaiso.