Traveling to Chile

The hard part about traveling with a new girlfriend is the discomfort of not knowing what will happen before and after you get to your destination. We hopped on a metal bird to Santiago, Chile from Lansing, Michigan, and then after that drove out her family’s cabin in a place called Tunquen on the Pacific ocean. And before I get all goosebumpie and tell you the spectacular beauty of this Tunquen place and how love travel stories are the best, I’d like to say this:

Parts of Chile are two hours East of the Eastern Time Zone.

WTF.

Yes, you heard it here first, parts of Chile are East of New York City and it’s on the Pacific. And maybe that won’t blow your mind, but it blew mine when I realized I was on the Pacific and I was still two hours ahead of my friends who reside on the Atlantic.

Like, what kind of shit is this, Chile?

“Wait — what, how is this possible?” I asked my girlfriend, touching her shoulder as I packed my Osprey bags. “We’re at what latitude and longitude?”

“Look at Google Maps, you’ll see,” she said, in her Chilean accent.

Naturally, I took my smart little iPhone 10 out and opened the map with my fumbling thumbs spreading and spreading and spreading.

She was right.