Before I tell you more about Easter Island, I’d like you to meet my new Chilean friends Karla Lodis and Carlos Reyes. That’s us below squinting into the morning sun at Santiago’s La Vega market.

I met Karla and Carlos due to my desire to eat at a hard-to-find restaurant on the outskirts of Santiago—Rancho Dona Maria in Chacobuco, about which more will be revealed later.

As you likely already know if you hang around here, I visit the foodie site Eater at least once each day. Coincidentally, two world-traveling bloggers there—John Sconzo and Bonjwing Lee—included Rancho Dona Maria’ pork ribs on their Top 10 lists for 2013 just a few weeks before Irene and I were due to head to Santiago on our way to Easter Island.

Well, you know that that meant. I had to get to Rancho Dona Maria!

I reached out to John Sconzo in hopes of contacting the guide who’d taken him there. That foodie ended up being unavailable, but he connected me with Karla, who pulled together a wonderful two-day itinerary that in addition to Rancho Dona Maria included visits to Santiago’s main markets, a day trip in Valparaiso with lunch at the fabulous Espiritu Santo, a stop to the best gelateria in Santiago, and more (which I’ll share about shortly). Karla also gave me the names of her favorite restaurants on Easter Island, which helped immensely, because there’s not that much info out there. (Which I’ll try to change a bit with my upcoming restaurant reviews.)

It was wonderful having day tours of Santiago and Valparaiso tailored specifically to the things we wanted to see but felt we couldn’t or didn’t want to do on our own. Hitting the Museo de Bellas Artes? That we could handle. Stopping at the Lo Vásquez market for a breakfast of pork sandwiches and hard-boiled eggs? Without Karla and Carlos, we wouldn’t have even known to seek it out, or having found it, which vendor to trust. Their guidance was invaluable.

The duo will soon be launching a company specializing in culinary tourism, so if you’re heading to Santiago and looking for experts on the ground who are knowledgable and friendly, you’ll want to reach out to them. There’s no site set up yet—I’ll update this post to include a link once there is—but feel free to get in touch with me if you’re heading down that way and need a guide. You won’t regret it.