Random thought

I need to stop waffling, but re-reading the previous post, it occurs to
me it might make sense to go from Santiago direct to Copiapo, and
instead do Valparaiso/Vina del Mar on the way back south.
Valparaiso/Vina del Mar are so close to Santiago that they're almost as
good as being there in terms of comfort about getting the flight back,
so it would seem sensible to spend time in them at the end of the trip
when there's less time remaining to deal with unexpected problems.