...we eat a McDonalds breakfast which turns out to be poor value (not enough food, overpriced) and we set off for the Grand Canyon. After calculating pros and cons we decide to buy the annual all national park pass at $80 instead of just paying $30 for the canyon....we get used to driving to get any meal including breakfast even if the restaurant is just 5 mins walk from the hotel for example. Oh God!!!...we take a loooot of pictures at various viewpoints along t...

...we rise early, do some minor shopping (well I buy some clothes :)) and set out for Joshua Tree, the first park on our itinerary....we pass one giant mall after another, which is nice when you wanna shop but becomes annoying when all you need to do is pull over for a quick caffeine shot - it always turns into a 30minute navigation adventure titled: "Find the Starbucks in a roadside shopping town the size of Bruges"....we become lazy: mostly drive everywhere and...

...we drive to the UPS store where there is a small misunderstanding as to the fees I owe for holding my packages - the UPS want to charge me US$5 per day per shipment. We get into an argument after which I tell them they can send it back and we work out a mutually agreeable solution (me paying much less) and then I collect them and we part ways....we drive a lot in this city - to Burbank to Warner Studios to do a tour (where we enjoy the Friends set the most but...

...I organize my stuff and this time manage to notmiss the connector in the US heading to LA - unfortunately the flight is overbooked so another passenger gets issued the same seat numbers as me; on the plus side I sit there first so I keep the seat; on the down side the flight is full and I have the middle seat and the comfort is like RyanAir's wet dream (a budget version of RyanAir!!!) Oh well ticket was cheap... 5 hours of the flight drag on impossibly... ...

...we get up, store our stuff at reception and headfor our last shopping and lunch in Santiago....I buy two Pisco bottles for those cocktails :)...I say goodbye to friends, to one of my favorite cities in the world and Uber for the airport because I am as always late....city is empty for the holidays so I arrive early and attempt shopping for an Easter Island moai shaped Pisco bottle, find one, get in an argument with a guy from the store saying I can't impor...