This is our last full day in Chile. We return to Santiago this afternoon and then fly home early tomorrow morning. We have been here for a month. In some ways the number of things we have seen and done make it feel like we have been here much longer; in other ways it seems only a moment since we arrived.

I think it is fair to say that we have fallen for Chile and its people in a big way. So this is definitely ‘au revoir’ and not ‘goodbye’. We are looking forward to returning again and exploring more of this country.

It is hard to pick out particular highlights from the trip but the visits to Torres del Paine and the Atacama desert took us to two places of wildly contrasting but extraordinary beauty which we shall always remember. The churches of Chiloe also remain strong in the memory and I hope that on our next trip we can see more of the churches, and of the island more generally.

The people have been universally hospitable too, supportive of our pathetic attempts at Spanish. We have vowed that we shall have to improve our Spanish before our next trip because there is obviously so much more to learn when you can talk properly to your hosts.

A great trip and we look forward to coming back.