Chile - Santiago, Valparaiso and more...

Day 12

Santiago

Border crossing at 2 in the morning from Argentina rendered us a little tired when we arrived in Santiago, the capital city of Chile. However, we were able to sleep a little before finally stepping off the bus at 7am, after leaving Mendoza at 10pm the night before. This gave us a full day to explore the city after checking into our hostel. To get there, we took the metro, had a little rest in the lobby, caught up on some blogging and emails, before heading on a self-guided tour.

Firstly, we had to visit an Apple service centre in an attempt to fix my phone, which died a few days ago. Unfortunately, it decided to have a faulty logic board, an unrepairable fault. Even more unfortunate is the fact it was 10 days out of warranty. Conspiracy theory? It was difficult translating the problem and lack of solution but we got there in the end.

Following on from this time wasting, we visited the La Moneda palace, which is a nice building in Downtown Santiagio. As it was around lunch we continued waking through the city to the Mercado de Abastos market for lunch via the Plaza de Aramas (town square). The plaza had numerous nice buildings including a church, proving to be a much nicer city than Buenos Aires from our first impression. When we got to the market hall there were also exterior markets in the surrounding streets. They were just like any fresh produce markets in Australia or London, except these were really cheap in comparison. So, we purchased a bunch of tasty grapes and fresh blueberries for a total of $1.85 (less than £1) from markets outside our intended lunch spot. The amount we got would have cost us about 3 or 4 times that amount in Australia or England and they were very tasty. As we ate the fruit, we walked through the market, which was a huge indoor building, but only sold seafood from a range of shopfronts and had a few restaurants inside. It was a bit of a letdown, especially as I don't eat fish, so we continued on to another market.

The first part of the second market was a flower hall, with loads of colours and it was particularly busy because of the date, the 14th of February. Ellie declined some roses as we considered the budget and practicality. As time drew nearer to lunch we stopped in the next section of the Tirso de Molina market and sat at a restaurant on the terrace, overlooking a dirty street and brown water canal. We ate traditional Chilean, with Ellie having a prawn and curry pasta, while I ate steak and eggs on a bed of fries. Both were good, especially for market food and only cost us $20 AUD. With lunch in the books we continued our self-guided walking tour, we went to the Statue of the Virgin Mary on top of San Cristobal Hill, walking through an area called Bellavista. This area was full of nice graffiti art and one really nice mosaic representation of the city.

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There was a bit of a queue for the funicular to ride to the top of the hill as it was school holidays. We did however wait and head to the top of the hill to see the religious statue overlooking the city. This statue was positioned similarly to that of Christ the Redeemer in Rio but was a statue of The Virigin Mary, with great views of the city and it revealed how big Santiago is. The population of 5.1 million took up as much space as the eye could see from the viewpoints.

After this trip to the top of the hill we headed home via some more street art, markets and main streets before heading out for a Valentine's Day dinner. We were so tired that we didn't want to go far and found our favourite cuisine less than a kilometre from our hostel. Ellie had some sushi and gyoza and I had teriyaki chicken from a Japanese kitchen. Not our usual style when it comes to eating traditional food from the country we are in, but we were just too tired. Evidently, we headed straight to bed following dinner and called our time in Santiago, the biggest city of Chile and a busy one at that.

Day 13

Valparaiso

The best hostel we have been in so far was easily in Santiago - Hostel Provedencia, with clean rooms and relatively nice bathroom and toilet facilities. We woke to a fantastic breakfast that sealed the deal and then made our way to the bus terminal via the metro once again. This time we were heading for Valparaiso, the 3rd biggest city in Chile. It is a coastal town well known for its colourful seaside neighbourhoods amongst the hills. We didn't know this, but had heard some positive things about the city. After checking in to our hostel following the 1.5-hour bus ride we went for a walk along the esplanade and were shocked. We couldn’t find any access to the waterfront for an age until a limited opening for commercial transport at the port. The rest was a part of the port with factories and shipping containers giving us an ugly first impression of the city.

As we walked along the 'esplanade' we arrived in the main square of the city, called Plaza Sotomayor. Here we would take a walking tour for the afternoon but first we needed lunch. It was around 2pm after having left Santiago at 10am so we got a quick bite off the street and a snack (chocolate) before the free walking tour at 3pm. We ate empanadas for 1000 Chilean pesos or 1 Aussie dollar and that definitely helped the budget and then waited in the square for the tour to start.

In a very smart move by the smaller free walking tour company known as Spicy Chile walking tours, we mistakenly met the guide and began talking to him about the tour only to find out the tour we registered for was 50 meters away. Having had a great discussion about Chile and Valparaiso we couldn't leave and decided to go with the guide named Anthony. The other tour had around 20-30 people in two groups while Ellie and I were the only guests to be shown around on a private tour. This turned out to be the best mistake we have made on the trip; the worst was probably eating intestines in Uruguay. Anthony was fantastic, providing a great tour of the city and an in depth historical perspective of not only Chile but much of South America. The tour went through the city and up a funicular to an old Spanish fort, then down some decorated steps, like those in Rio. Then we took a local bus up and around the hills through some neighbourhoods to get to another viewpoint at Plaza Bismark, then walked the remainder of the tour. We visited a cultural centre, saw lots of street art, learnt about the indigenous people of Chile, viewed some churches and the main touristic neighbourhood known as Concepcion, before wrapping up the tour overlooking the Pacific Ocean once again.

With the tour completed around 6pm we decided to have a drink at one of the bars that sat on top of the hill side overlooking the city and the port. The view was incredible, the breeze was lovely and the drinks refreshing. Following a nice cocktail, Ellie and I thought we would have a night in cooking at the hostel as we haven’t done so during the entire trip. Grocery shopping was a bit tricky as we aimed to make fajitas, but could only manage a gravy rather than a spice mix and couldn’t find sour cream. It was still a nice meal and good to eat ‘home cooked’ food for once. This had us in bed relatively early and ready for a big day tomorrow.

Day 14

Concon and Vina del Mar

Having woken up in our hostel in Valparaiso with a little sleep in, Ellie and I prepared ourselves for a day out before having to return later to bus back to Santiago. Later we would be staying the night in an airport hotel to make things easier as we would fly out early the next day to the north of Chile. But the bus wasn't until 7pm so we walked down to the beautiful 'esplanade' and caught a local bus to Concon, a small beach side town 30 minutes from Valparaiso. We decided not to take swimmers and towels as it was quite 'Chile' but I would need them as we found many places offering surf board hire. After some ‘umming and ahhing’ I decided it would be pretty cool to surf off the coast of Chile in the Pacific Ocean. For 8000 pesos (16AUD) I got a board and a wetsuit, which was good for 2 reasons. 1, I didn't have board shorts and 2, it was 'chile' as mentioned before. So off I went.

Never before have I surfed or taken a lesson and easy as you like I was able to put on the wetsuit, with Ellie helping to zip me up. Then easy as you like I managed to get to the water, get into the (cold) water and paddle out into the ocean. Without as much ease, I struggled to position myself between waves before moving further along the shore to start riding some consistently. I was able to stand on an occasion and even maintained balance a whopping two times. Twice in about an hour and a half, I think I'm a natural. Neither time did Ellie capture this magic on the camera from the shoreline. So, you will have to settle for these 'inaction' shots. I had a great time exhausting myself on the water before resigning to the shoreline to meet a relaxed Ellie sitting on the beach.

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Content with her peaceful time sitting in the shore, Ellie then convinced tired old me to climb a hill to find a restaurant we had been recommended. When we couldn't find it, we settled on a place called Santa Brasa, which is a really nice steak restaurant overlooking Concon beach. It was a little expensive for our budget but after spending $2 on lunch and a home cooked dinner yesterday, we thought we would treat ourselves to a nice meal. And it was, we both had steak, Ellie with a sirloin and I had beef de Chorizo with ribs and shared some fries as per usual.

After some good food and taking in the great view, we took another local bus to Vina Del Mar. This is another beach that runs from Concon all the way to Valparaiso, a huge 3km in distance of beach and more of waterfront that we initially planned to walk. The bus took us about 40 minutes as it wound through all the back streets picking up locals from anywhere on the side of the road. As we had learnt on the walking tour yesterday, bus drivers compete against one another for clients so they will happily pick you up from anywhere. They also drive like maniacs racing along the busy streets to get ahead of their peers to ensure they collect the most fares. They hardly stop to pick up or drop off passengers and often drive with the door open to make getting on and off quicker. It's like nothing we have seen before, old people were jolted back and forth before they could reach a seat. I hope I haven't given my uncle any ideas when he drives the Sunbus in Townsville.

Having jumped out of the moving bus about halfway along the beach we walked and walked and walked towards Valparaiso, never seeming to make an indent on the map. We stopped to watch some really talented slack line acrobats performing on the beach (see video below) and also for some ice cream on our way to the flower clock. It's a tourist attraction that's known to Vina del Mar but wasn't worth the kilometers and kilometers we walked to see it. With the tourist photo done, we waved down another speedy bus driver who let us on in the middle of the road and returned to our hostel and gathered our belongings. Then, we caught the bus back to Santiago before taking an uber to the airport hotel. Our first Uber since Rio after our overuse ban was lifted. That was it for our time in Santiago, Valparaiso, Concon and Vina Del Mar. For now it was a nice airport hostel; some rest and onwards journey to San Pedro de Atacama.

Day 15

San Pedro de Atacama

After the night in the airport hotel, which was easily the nicest place we have stayed (although it was not budget friendly), we flew out from Santiago airport and flew to Calama in the north of Chile. Ellie had booked a transfer from the airport to San Pedro de Atacama, a city in the Atacama Desert and near the Bolivian border. The flight left mid-morning and by the time we arrived at our hostel it was close to 5pm.

The town is quite small with dusty dirt roads and small mud block (concrete) buildings. From our hostel, we went into the Main Street which was a 5-minute walk away. Here we found lots of tourists and tour operators. This is because many travel agencies offer tours to the desert, national park and salt flats of Bolivia. Indeed, we were going on one of these tours. Our first task was to visit our tour agency - Green and White Expeditions, where we cleared up a few of our questions.

We then exchanged money to bolivianos, as this was necessary for the coming days, where we would have no access to such facilities. We ate a late lunch / early dinner at a vegetarian restaurant, with El having a vegetarian lasagne and I had a vegetarian hamburger. This was more like a dim sim patty and side salad. I didn't realize it was a vegetarian restaurant but wasn't that disappointed with my meal.

From here we walked the streets looking at the many souvenir shops and getting supplies for the next few days. This included, 12 litres of water, 2 rolls of toilet paper, sunscreen and some snacks. We also got some crackers to have Vegemite biscuits for dinner but had to buy avocado and tomato instead as we realized we had lost our beloved tube of Vegemite. Ellie is devastated and won't stop bringing it up. With a big few days coming up, we had an early night. Something of a common trend for us grandma and grandpa combo.

It signalled the end of our time in Chile, an up an coming country, fast paced and quite modern compared to our preconceptions. The traditional food was good although it didn't stretch far from food we have eaten before. The people were friendly and we enjoyed our time here. But it's that time again.

Seeya later Chile.