My year on the road had almost come to an end, and the final stop was to be in Santiago, Chile. Besides the exorbitant prices (compared to the rest of South America), it was a great place to end the trip. A well developed, clean, accessible city with temperatures lingering around 30 degrees all week, a superb hostel, and most importantly, great company.

On Sunday afternoon I met up with Constanza, a girl I got chatting to on Couchsurfing. We went to the nearby Parque Arauco with some of her friends from the United States, and spent the evening enjoying the sunset over a picnic and some beers, gazing at the impressively large moon hanging low over the horizon.

The next day over breakfast I made friends with a few Aussies and Brits, and we spent the afternoon on the city walking tour. We learned about the infamous Salvador and Pinochet governments of Chile's past, but perhaps the most interesting story for me was that of Chile's dog culture. With so many stray dogs to be seen all over the city, our guide explained why they looked perfectly groomed and healthy. It turns out a lot of people in Santiago will care for and feed the dogs, some even going to the trouble of giving them the required vaccines and neutering them. They get enjoyment out of sitting in the park and being able to enjoy the company of a dog for a while, without having to take them home and pick up their poo.

The dogs there really are a different breed (pun intended) however. They look both ways before crossing the street, or sometimes even wait for the green man to light up before walking. They walk around with a focussed look on their face, as if they legitimately have an appointment to make, and I even heard stories of them taking buses to other neighbourhoods.

Another interesting facet of Santiago culture we learned about was the "Coffee with Legs" phenomenon. At some point in the past, someone decided that more men would come to coffee shops if there were girls in short skirts serving them. So, a bunch of these sexy coffee shops sprung up over the city, some even going to the extent of being a strip club, with a side of coffee. Of course, being a group of young boys, we made a beeline for one of these places as soon as the tour ended.

We walked back to the dodgy looking establishment that was pointed out to us during the tour, complete with black tinted windows and a small neon sign showing "Cafe". We walked in and immediately stood out as the overexcited gringos, and sat down for one of the most interesting, and surprisingly decent coffees I'd had in a long time.

With the Aussies and Brits leaving the next day, it was time to find a new gang. So on Wednesday I went out with two Americans to Cerro Santa Lucía to get a nice view of the city. Afterwards we walked around the Bellas Artes neighbourhood, sampling a few delicious empañadas, and then visited the fish markets. In the evening we went to the upscale wine bar Bocanáriz, and proceeded to down a bunch of incredible Chilean wines. Luckily, one of the Americans was in Santiago to progress his career as a Somelier, so we were guided by someone who knew what he was tasting.

On Thursday I hiked up Cerro San Cristobal, to get an even better view of the city, stopping by the Zoo halfway up the mountain. On the way down I popped in to La Chascona, an intriguingly designed house built by famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, for one of his many mistresses.

The next day I went shopping with Jessica, a girl from Buenos Aires who was staying in my dorm at the hostel, and made good use out of my credit card, replacing many of the clothes that had over the past 12 months become increasingly dirty, small and worn out. We had an ice cream at Emporio La Rosa, voted by one website as one of the best 25 ice cream shops in the world, and spent the afternoon in Parque Arauco taking in the beautiful weather.

As I was enjoying Santiago so much, I only had time to do a day trip of Valparaíso and Viña del Mar. I'd definitely have stayed longer if I had the time, but I already had plans for the next day.

Funnily enough, I have a relative who lives in Santiago, and so a couple of days earlier I got in contact with them. They invited me over for a barbeque, and some delicious Chilean beer and wine. It was a bit strange to be in the heart of Santiago, and having a barbecue and a chat with 3 strong Scottish accents, but it was a great way to end the weekend and my time in Santiago.

On the way back, I stopped by Paruqe Arauco once more to enjoy the final sunset of my trip, and briefly reflect on the year that had been. There wasn't one prominent feeling or emotion at the front of my mind, it was more like there were dozens of them floating around, cancelling the other one out. I was sad that it was over, happy that I was going home, dying to see my family and friends again, yet devastated that some genuinely special people I'd met I will probably never see again. I was completely exhausted from the entire trip, yet excited for the next one. I was upset that some of the most incredible experiences of my life were over, but glad the bad ones were too. Having got nowhere on deciding which feeling would win out over the others, I made my way back to the hostel and begun to pack my bag. That was one thing I certainly wouldn't miss doing for a while.

Over the past 12 months travelling around South and Central America, I’d only ever met one person who’d been to Easter Island (Isla de Pascua in Spanish, or Rapa Nui as it was originally named), and he highly recommended visiting. I’ve always been interested by things a little different to the norm, and the idea of setting foot on one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world intrigued me. The problem was trying to find reasonably priced flights. The first time I checked several months ago, return flights were in excess of $1,000.

I kept my eye on the prices, until the start of the new year when I found return flights from Santiago (Tahiti is the only other place in the world that flies to Easter Island) for about $600. This was enough to tempt me and I bought the flights immediately.

Before I begin to cover my time in Easter Island, I need to go over my flight from São Paulo to Santiago. Before I left home last year, I’d spent the previous 12 months racking up up a considerable amount of Frequent Flyer points by signing up to credit card promotions, and so I used up a chunk of them in upgrading my flight to Business Class. This was my first time ever flying Business, and I can now safely say that it’s ruined Economy flying for me for life. Now every time I fly, I know exactly what I’m missing out on behind those curtains.

The differences are incredible. First of all, the hostesses are considerably more happy to see you. You’re first to enter the plane (you want to get the most out of your next couple of hours of luxury), upon which you’re given a glass of water, a small bowl of nuts, and a hot towel to refresh yourself. After taking off, a meal soon comes out, and this is probably the greatest benefit over Economy, because the food is actually a LAND SIZED SERVING. Not crammed into a tiny tin foil container that you have to wrestle your food out of, trying not to not burn or cut yourself in the process. The wine (you get to chose out of 4 different ones) and bread are seemingly infinite in supply and are constantly offered to you before you can finish the previous one.The toilets are nicer, and also include hand wash, body lotion, and aftershave - all of which I made good use of. Whilst only going for a quick wee, the other passengers must’ve though I left a horrible surprise in the toilet, because I came out smelling way too good.

You get proper, over-the-ear headphones, and a higher quality screen to watch your movies in. Not to mention, the whole movie experience is enhanced by the fact that your chair (bed) FULLY RECLINES into an almost 180 degrees position. You get a pillow and a soft, thick, fluffy blanket, which the hostess gently drapes over you with a smile. I watched The Martian with Matt Damon, then after a few more wines I drifted off to sleep. 20 minutes later I had probably the second sweetest wake up of my life, as the air hostess slowly stroked my shoulder and whispered “señor, señor” as we begun to descend back to my economy class reality.

I spent less than 24 hours in Santiago, then was back in the air towards Easter Island, some 5 hours of flying and just under 4,000km out from Santiago. Luckily, the adjustment back to Economy Class was aided by getting an exit row seat. The runway was actually extended in the 1980s by the US for use as an emergency landing strip by NASA space shuttles, and since then it's allowed for full size aircraft to move to and from Easter Island.

Patricia, the owner of the hostel I was staying at, was waiting for me at the airport, complete with a sign and flower necklace which she presented to me upon arrival. We walked back to her hostel, chatting in broken spanish and admiring the incredible view of the night sky.

On Tuesday morning I hired a bike and planned to ride over to Orongo and see the Rano Kau crater. I rode for a while, stopped when I saw the sign for “Orongo Trek”, locked my bike up and walked the next hour or so to the top, only upon arriving to realise there was a tarmac road I could’ve taken my bike along the whole way. Great. In the afternoon I joined up with a tour group, which took us to Puna Pau, the quarry from which the Rapa Nui locals made the hats for their moai, finishing up at Ahu Akivi.

The moai statues really are incredible to see up close. And they get even more incredible when you learn how they were carved using such primitive tools. Then your mind is blown once more trying to figure out how they moved these enormous and ridiculously heavy things tens of kilometres across the island. I won't try to educate you on the entire history of Rapa Nui, so if you want to learn more, go to the Wikipedia article.

I had a full day tour take up all of Wednesday, taking us to some of the best spots of the island, such as the moai quarry at Rano Raraku. An incredible place where the moai were all sculpted from, and there you can see moai almost everywhere. We visited Tongariki just before lunch, then spent the afternoon a tthe beautiful Ahakena beach. In the evening I went to a show of local song and dance, and enjoyed a few of the Rapa Nui pale ales.

In between scouting the many moai on the island, I visited the local museum, and spent a great deal of time haggling at the local markets for souvenirs. I don't usually buy a lot of souvenirs, as my backpack is incredibly small for a one year trip, and most of the things you see are cheap and tacky anyway. Yet the same tacky items seem to have a bit more charm when you can tell people you bought them from Easter Island.

On Friday I went scuba diving all morning, which included a dive to see an underwater moai (unfortunately it’s fake and was placed there for a movie. Nevertheless, it was still impressive). The second dive took us through some coral reefs, where the visibility was incredible, however there wasn't much marine life to see.

In the afternoon I visited the post office to get a "Isla de Pascua" stamp in my passport, then went to see the sunset down at the beach, before heading over to a hotel to see a screening of Kevin Costner's 1994 film Rapa Nui. The acting was at times laughably poor, yet it was cool to get an idea of what life might have been like on the island back in it's heyday.

Easter Island is a place I feel extremely privileged to have had the chance (and the money) to visit. However, It's super expensive - I realise just how adjusted I am to South American prices when I baulked at having to pay $6 for a beer - yet you can't blame them, considering the extremely remote location.

It feels more like a country town squeezed into an island, and the way the locals all know each other sometimes makes it feel like you're in the middle of an episode of Postman Pat. It's a place you can quickly slip into the rhythm of. There's little care for time, as most places don't really get going until 9 or 10 a.m., and the fact that the sun doesn't set until 9 p.m. means no one is in a rush to get home either. It's a place I remember learning about in early Primary School, and thinking I'd love to visit, but probably never get a chance to in my lifetime. Now, it gets added to the list of places I've been on this trip, and one that I feel incredibly lucky to say I've seen.