We started off our day with some more yummy breakfast in the restaurant (complimentary buffet). The hotel has a "kids club" thing that provides activities for the littler guests throughout the day. We were actually leaving to head back to Tacna that morning, but we thought we could fit in some art time at 10am, since Henlie kind of wanted to do it the day before.
We headed down to breakfast and then back upstairs to finish packing our things. We headed over to the kids' area at 10am. Unfortunately, Chile seems almost as bad as Peru in timeliness, and there wasn't even anyone there. So, we went "sploding" again around the grounds and then headed back for some second breakfast. Okay, mostly I was thirsty and in need of water, but Henlie decided she also needed a roll and some milk :)
At second breakfast. Don't you love Matt's genuine smile? :)
Henlie was pushing him with her head.... lol
She picked out her rock!
Starting with some blue.
Then some red.
Oops! Need to clean the brush between colors!
She loved painting her rock. Not that she had anything in particular in mind....just had fun painting multiple colors all over her rock. She looked at me a couple of times and said, "I painting, Mom!" So cute :)
"I painting, Mom!"
Her "cheese" face lol
Hey look! Not all of the rock is brown haha.
Then we had to go. We left the rock there. (There is no way it was going to dry anytime soon with that much paint on it! lol Besides, they had a little rock garden of painted rocks, so we didn't feel bad :)) We collected our things and headed downstairs to check out. (We spent like $320 USD for two nights at a beach resort, 1 meal in the restaurant, and 1 meal room service. Not bad!) We had arranged with our same taxi driver, Aurelio, to pick us up at the hotel and take us back to Tacna. We said 12pm would be fine, and he said he'd try to be there between 11:30am and 12pm. I think he was there shortly after 11am lol.
Our favorite staffer helped haul our luggage downstairs, and we said ciao and loaded into the car. The drive was very uneventful, although the border lines were much longer to wait in, and it was hot. But we eventually made it out of Chile and back into Peru and continued driving back to Tacna.
On the drive between Tacna and the border, there are lots of poor houses.
Cinder block ones are nice.
These ones, not so much.
Sometimes they lived in communities.
Other times, not so much.
Anyway, being back in Peru, we knew we could get snacks and whatnot, and we needed some water and breakfast for the next morning. They watched our luggage for us and told us where the nearest grocery stores were. We walked down to the Plaza Vea. It was fabulous. Plaza Vea is like Peru's Walmart lol I was so at home lol. Matt, no surprise, hated it. But, there is only one so it was kind of crowded. Anyway, we bought some snacks (because we were hungry) and bought some cinnamon rolls for breakfast, along with some water. Then we took a taxi back to the hotel (which was like S/.3 or something ridiculous like that. Matt says he doesn't think he's ever paid less than S/.6 in Lima for a short drive.) and hung out in the lobby waiting to check in.
Eventually, we got checked in and checked out our room. The room was decent, but toasty. Fortunately, there was a fan. I certainly missed the ocean breeze! Then we decided to head to a local restaurant recommended by the hotel staff for some lunch/dinner.
I was amused we found the Luxor on our way to the restaurant :)
Matt at Da Vinci.
She started falling asleep with her head on the table. We moved her to my lap so she wouldn't hurt herself :)
Matt's food.
That plate was HUGE!
My personal pizza (SO GOOD!) and garlic sticks.
She relocated from my lap eventually. It was really hot under her....
Fell back asleep on the bench.
We walked a few blocks over to The Da Vinci Restaurant Cafe. It was pretty crowded when we got there, but we found a seat. Henlie totally fell asleep for a nap while we waited for food, and stayed that way until we were ready to leave. However, the food was amazingly delicious and bigger portion sizes than we were anticipating. We took the leftovers with us back to the hotel in case we wanted an actual dinner later. (We didn't - so much food!) Matt changed his $10,000 pesos into soles at a street exchange and we walked back to the hotel, where we hung out all night watching TV. Henlie ate Daddy's leftover fries and snacked on cookies for lunch/dinner.
Henlie watching some Netflix.
The internet was a little better in Tacna than in Arica, at least :)
Good to know.
Shoe polish is part of the toiletries.
Yeah, that's a bottle opener on the door frame of the bathroom lol
Snacking on Dad's fries watching some Netflix.
Check-in was fun. Lots of people were there waiting in lines before even the staff had arrived. Tacna is a tiny airport with only one gate, so it wasn't too bad. We got through and sat down. They had a little cafe and gift shop, but their cafe only sold coffee and maybe a few pastries. We already had our cinnamon rolls at the hotel (not as good as I was hoping :( ) and we don't drink coffee.....but we did kill some time wandering through the gift shop. Henlie, more than once. She went through with me, and then she made Daddy go through with her lol.
Mommy and Henlie on the plane ready to go back home!
Family plane selfie!
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