In November 2022, Mark, Maya, and I started our latest adventure by staying at Airbnbs in Cartagena, Colombia, stressing about the arrival of our home on wheels. One rental apartment turned into five different ones, just like the expected one week of waiting turned into five weeks.
All the while, we had no idea if and when we would be reunited with Thirsty Bella as we refreshed the page of the shipping company schedule every hour for updates. Day after day, things went wrong and delays continued. We could not plan or prepare for anything and our stress level went through the roof, as we wasted precious time and money. We almost flew back to Texas and abandoned this journey. I wrote about that giant ordeal here.
Fast forward three years and we found ourselves at an Airbnb in Chile’s capital, Santiago, stressing again, but about different things. Ironically and fittingly (as irony and bad luck keep finding us, the perfect victims of Murphy’s Law), we ended our three years in South America in a similar way as we’d started them.
(As always, hover over or click on photos in galleries to read their captions.)
When Mark, Maya, and I handed over our truck camper Thirsty Bella and arrived at our city accommodation for three weeks before flying out of Chile, we had three goals: finally rest up after the stress and commotion of the last months, eat good food at home and in restaurants, and make a plan for 2026. One would think that three weeks would be plenty for this. Of course, we still had to take care of the usual work, living, and dog requirements while being “homeless.”
We splurged a bit more than usually on our Airbnb, picking a modern apartment that had air conditioning and a washing machine. Both were well utilized and appreciated! Unfortunately, buildings in developing nations aren’t built the same as in first-world countries.
Which brings me to our craved rest. Our Murphy bed was extremely creaky each time one of us moved and the mattress was hurting our backs. We usually like hard mattresses, but this one was too much. After a few painful nights, we took the mattress off, stuffed extra duvets between it and the bottom sheet, and stored the frame of the bed in its cabinet. Yup, we paid good money to sleep on the ground, but this change helped our poor backs and ears.
The next issue was the person who lived above us. She (since we heard what sounded like high heels clicking back and forth) was awake every and all night, walking around, moving furniture, frequently dropping items. We heard it all. Even her bathroom movements and toilet flushes. Once we were asleep it didn’t bother us too much, but, when awake, there was no way of dozing off again. The noise also kept Maya up and restless, because she hates stuff “falling” on the ceiling — whether it is in a camper or an apartment. A USB fan we brought from Bella helped create “white noise.” When the pounding was too loud, I used our broomstick to hit the ceiling.
Our kitchen was missing necessary items, but that wasn’t an issue as we’d brought stuff from the camper that were duplicates or gifts. Construction in the hallways happened about half of our days there and every bit of commotion seeped through the thin door, but we did appreciate being on the back side of the building instead of alongside the busy road.
