Sitting on the dock of the bay

February 8th-9th, Valparaiso Chile

We decided to go for a 'Tour for Tips' walking tour of the city which came highly recommended by everyone. As I was eating an ice cream in the main square while we waited for our tour guides in Where's Wally T-shirts, Bernie suddenly saw one of the Australian couples we'd met and partied with in Sucre! Sometimes this continent can be so small. It was a happy reunion and turns out they were also going on the same walking tour. 

Our guides were really funny and sweet but most of all I love history so I really enjoyed the entire 3 hours. In brief - Valparaiso was the first and most important port in Latin America in the golden era from 1848-1914 when Europeans were trying to get to California during the gold rush. In 1914 came the Panama Canal and thus began its 'decline'. That being said, it was the first city in Latin America to have the first fire brigade, post office, newspaper, bank, money exchange and even hot shower! 

We stopped outside the first historic fire station and there's an interesting story behind it. Because of the geology and weather in Valparaiso, it's a fire prone city. They couldn't afford the fire safety equipment so they reached out to the United States for aid. The US agreed to fund their fire station, but on the condition that they name the station after them - so the first fire station in Chile (and Lat Am) was named 'The American Fire Station'! Similarly they also got aid from other countries for more, so the other fire stations are called 'The French Fire Station', 'The Italian Fire Station' etc... They even have a 'Saudi Arabian Fire Station'! Additionally the fire fighters are all volunteers so they are highly respected as they have to work other jobs to get paid.

We then walked by the 'richest street in Latin America' which isn't so rich anymore, but with a little imagination you could see what it was like in its hey day. Passed by the Naval Headquarters guarded by handsome shaven sailors and the dock full of navy and cruise ships. There are also monuments to Arturo Prat, a Valpo local, who is said to have inspired the Chileans with his bravery against the Bolivians and Peruvians in the war over nitrates and land, and thus Chile won. 

It's a hilly town and each hilltop has it's own community and culture. They have 'funiculars' (like public lifts but not 90 degrees) to take you up if the stairs looks too daunting. In the early 2000s the whole town was declared a UNESCO heritage site, so they appreciate being on the map and having their beautiful city being recognised, but on the other hand it stops a lot of development as people can't afford the bureaucracy involved with rebuilding.

We saw amazing views of the sea, walked through the graffiti streets, drank pisco sour, ate local chocolate biscuits and all in all had a lovely day and got very tanned. After the tour, the 4 of us went to a highly recommended local restaurant to eat 'Churillana' but it wasn't too great. We then began bar hopping and that's when the night gets blurry! Lots of pisco, wine and landed up at a club playing 80's and 90's music. Then we made friends with some Valpo locals (who thought my Spanish was very good!) and they took us for a typical Chilean snack while drinking - hotdogs with avocado. It was quite a funny night talking to random people on the street, making friends and just having a good time. 

The next morning we decided to leave Chile as it´s a long country so just traveling from one city to the next takes up a lot of time. We missed the morning bus to Mendoza, Argentina at 8 am so we had a lovely pasta lunch (they do pasta extremely well here) and then hung out at the bus terminal waiting for our 9:30 pm bus to Argentina! Woohoo we´re so excited to get to Mendoza.

Navy Headquarters

Dock

Funicular on the right

Glass cube in a historic building, before UNESCO declared the city to be a world heritage site

 

 

Churrillana

Best meal ever

February 7th, Santiago, Valparaiso Chile

Once again, Kurt absolutely made our day with a breakfast of tortillas, fresh strawberry juice etc. It was so hard saying goodbye to this sanctuary of peace and luxury, but we had to head to the town of Valparaiso 2 hours away. We met an Australian couple and traveled with them to the Tur Bus terminal. It's so organised and clean compared to what we've seen in Bolivia!

Valparaiso is a really quaint pretty portside community. I was expecting a small village but it's pretty huge with lots of unique boroughs. This town is known for its graffiti, and I got tonnes of pictures. It's a popular tourist destination for both local and international travellers and you can immediately see why once you're here, it's serene and got amazing views.

We walked about a bit, had a pisco sour at a random bar and later in the evening went for dinner to an Italian restaurant called 'Il Paparazo'. It's situated on a quiet side lane close enough to the port to hear the sea gulls. We ordered a lovely bottle of wine along with mixed seafood ceviche and seafood pastas. Honestly I have to say that it was one of my top 3 meals ever. The seafood, especially the octopus was so perfectly cooked, and the ambience was just the cherry on the top.

That meal could only be followed by watching TV in bed so that's exactly what we're upto this exciting Friday night :)

Santiago - like London but better

February 6th, Santiago Chile

A relaxed day in this beautiful warm city. We woke up to a luxurious breakfast in the luxurious zen garden and felt great. We chilled out all morning as it was pretty hot outside, finally making our way to a traditional sandwich restaurant that Sophia recommended. It was pretty cool, felt like an old school diner, older ladies with uniforms and hairnets and a young waiter even gave me a note trying to flirt with me (giggle giggle - though left after I confirmed I was with Bernie!).

We walked around a bit and there are so many ice cream shops with exotic flavours here, my dream! Ofcourse I still only got chocolate, would've got mango but they didn't have this basic flavour.

Back at the hotel, the owner was having a party so Bernie and I tried to sit in a corner inconspicuously drinking a bottle of wine in the garden but we soon got pulled into the festivities. You know what I miss the most in Chile? SPANISH!!! They speak so fast and skip so many letters with a lot of slang. Basically we don't understand most of what they're saying and our most used phrase is "mas lento por favor" (slower please). It's quite hard having conversations and I really respect all the people who try, it can be quite frustrating even to talk about the weather! Their broken English is much better than our hard learned Spanish. Thanks to enthusiastic Bernie for talking so much, people instantly love him and it makes our lives so much easier. Also thanks to the bottles of pisco he keeps buying, my new favorite drink.

The best part is that even in Chile, everyone has heard of Goa! So Mama, if random south Americans show up at our door, its because I've enthusiastically sent them there! The high point of the night was the food. Kurt who owns 'Almorantes Riveros' is the best cook, he had a gourmet spread of snacks - ceviche, clams, mini tortillas, cheese sticks, fresh fruits... honestly some of the best food I've eaten.

At about 12:30 am, we headed to a club where the birthday boy was performing with his band "Ocean Soldiers". They play surfer rock/jazz and are pretty big here (look them up on Youtube). It was a really nice gig, I was glad to be there hanging out with the groupies who were passionately singing all the lyrics. When we finally decided to head home, we got fleeced by our taxi driver who purposely tried to take us on a city tour and we were super annoyed but I guess it comes with the tourist territory. This is a great city, like London but better because of the weather.

Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right, here I am stuck in the middle with you

February 4th-5th, San Pedro de Atacama, Santiago, Chile 

Today was our epic 23 hour bus ride to the capital of Chile, Santiago. I was actually excited about this because Chilean buses are renowned for being luxurious and Bernie and I were planning to take the premium seats on 'Tur Bus Chile' which recline into full beds and they give you meals and drinks! Unfortunately, you cannot book tickets online as you need a Chilean ID card number as well as a Chilean bank account. So by the time we got to the actual office, there were only regular semi sleeper tickets left.

Bus tickets are pretty expensive here ($70 for semi sleeper compared to $20 or less in Bolivia). Bernie was really dreading this drive, I didn't even think about it. I vetoed taking a flight as it cost more than $250 per person and we have super expensive Brazil coming up where we will ultimately be forced into taking a $700 flight to Colombia. 

The bus was really nice and clean with a working toilet, and they even gave us a snacks! They played English movies the whole way (The Proposal, Thor 2, The Boat that Rocked etc.). In true form, I fell asleep at 10:30 pm and only woke up at 7:30 am the next morning. Love when this happens! Even Bernie slept for atleast 7 hours which he doesn't even do normally. This morning, I looked out the window as we passed through a town called La Serena and felt like I was in the USA! Huge long malls, lots of open space, wide roads, clean and well kept gardens... And McDonalds!!! Didn't see a single one in Bolivia so I'm very excited to try it out. 

We got to 'Almirante Riveros' and it is so calm and beautifully decorated I want to stay right here for a month! Seriously it's the best place we've stayed at so far and there's a lovely black lab pup here called Xika Da Silva who just made our day. We walked around for a bit in the warm sun (yayy finally!) and ate sushi and ice cream for tea. It feels like we're back in the first world, Santiago is such a huge city filled with beautiful gardens and parks and skateparks. It's really nice to see people lying in the grass and playing in the parks with their kids and dogs (they really seem to love dogs here). We walked a lot today but the main road that runs across the city is very long so I don't think we've seen anything really, maybe tomorrow we'll try the metro. Shipra put us in touch with her friend, lovely Sophia, so we met up for dinner. She's a Santiago local so she knows the good haunts and we ended up eating some yum steak and chips (again) in a traditional restaurant. I'm really interested in Chilean history as I know nothing, and since Sophia works in Politics, she was the perfect person to get us up to speed. Now I know why the Bolivians and Peruvians are so negative about Chile. 

Most tourists we've met who've already travelled through Chile didn't actually like this country as much as the rest. Maybe because it's expensive (though it offers quality so I'd expect it to be), so originally we'd planned to stay here not more than a week. However, so far I love it here and the people are so warm, so let's see what happens.

Waiting for the bus at San Pedro de Atacama

Xika

Next to the fountains in the arty garden

Lovely garden seating

Bernie and Xika