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Published: October 29th 2012
Valparaiso
Colourful and Cheerful...the buildings encapsulate the atmosphere of the townIn the early evening we arrived into Santiago after a rather pleasant bus journey from Concepcion. The bus pulled into the bus station...which doubled as a shopping complex; I have loved to have been in the room when the architects came up with that idea! I'm not sure why it's necessary, it's not like it's duty free or bus related shopping, just a regular mall with regular shops. Who travels 5 hours and wonders if they have the right fridge freezer? It must have made logical sense to someone, but they likely suffered some sort of frontal damage and couldn't quite the breaks on their train of thought! But as enterances to cities go it was an unexpected one! We made our way to our Green Peace loving, wind farm advocating, solar powered Eco Hostel (I'm not sure how much of that is true, it's like saying they were all hippies. They weren't but it was an enviromentally conscious place and pleasant to boot). It was quite late so we just bought
Street Art
Van Gogh Imitation some wine and fell asleep.
In the morning, a bloody Sunday again (why we plan our visits to coincide with Bono's favourite day I do not know), and inevitably nothing was open and not a soul was stirring. The fact that the previous night was part of the bank holiday weekend probably contributed to the lack of bodies on the streets of Santiago; the only other plausible explanation being that we were partaking in our very own Zombie Apocolypse. So, we headed down town to the history museum, the only people we heard were the Evangelical Christians making the Big Man's hang over a bit worse with their "singing." As we entered the main plaza we were greeted by hundreds of the Christian brothers (and sisters, this blog isn't sexist) enjoying the sun in an outdoor ceremony, rendering the Cathedral behind them a little bit redundant, if somewhat grand. We headed past them and into the museum. It was free on Sundays! Bonus. Eleanor's Scottish half leapt with glee at the thought of saving a few pennies! The musuem is in rather plush surroundings, I believe it was once an important colonial building and it is elegant as befits
Street Art
Great example a building of status. The central courtyard leads off to the museum exhibitions and, conveniently for a history museum, starts with the earliest known human activity in Chile. No written accounts were created by PreIncan Chilean peoples and the Incas didn't have literacy either so it's not until Columbus and Magellen show up that the museum really gets going, thankfully this is in room two. I learnt a hell of a lot in the space of a couple of hours. South American history is something that few Europeans know anything about. Everyone knows the Columbus rhyme, some may even be aware of the Spanish Empire, or the tobacco story. We hear bits of Incan civilisation and then that's about it up until after the Second World War when dictators and Juntas started tearing the continent asunder with megalomanic ideas and military hardware. It's a shame as it's fascinating stuff. The museum takes you on a journey from the Conquistadors, Mapuche (a native people) rebellions, Bernardo O'Higgins and the Liberation and then the inevitable post colonial implosion and on to the 20th Century and many of the natural, political and economic disasters than beset Chile. Then in 1972 the museum finishes!
Someone's Garage Door
Yet Another example...follow the hidden web address for more! No Pinochet and the Junta stuff. Modern history is poigniantly given it's own museum across town; The Museum of Memory and Human Rights.
We visited the Human Rights Museum on our last day, well a two hours before our bus left for Mendoza. We'd been wrongly guided to Parque Bernaado O'Higgins by a well intentioned English lady so had been on a wild goose chase days before. Luckily we were corrected and sent here, it was near the bus station so it made sense. The museum is a must see. It is excruciating in detail, graphically explicit and emotionally shattering; I felt close to tears on several occasions and nauseated once. There is little actual gore, but the Junta under Pinochet committed so many atrocities (the museum doesn't just focus on The Disappeared) and these are recounted and unravelled with personalised accounts, declassified documents and newspapers/video footage. What also disgusted me was the ineptitude of the UN and the behaviour of governments in enabling this to happen and for few repercussions for those who were responsible. But enough of my grand standing, suffice to say that it is a very powerful museum and had a profound impact on Eleanor
Funicular Fun
Emblematic of Valparaiso and me.
We met up with Carolina, Steve's cousin, she took us for drinks in the upmarket area of the city and gave us some advice on where to eat and what to visit, she also gave us a lift home, intending to drive in the road that runs under the river, not like a tunnel that goes from one side to the other (I could jump across the bloody thing, it's so small, a large stream if anything) but a road that follows the course of the river! Human engineering achievement gone mad! But we took a wrong turn and had to cross using the road bridge which is just a bit passe really, so bland in fact I can't believe it made the blog. Carolina was great fun, even if she spent a month in Edinburgh once and never made it to Glasgow (shameful behaviour). She deliberately ordered too much food so that I'd have to seat some empanadas, I protested, but not too strongly, but they were vry tasty. Ellie and I managed to consume a couple of pisco sours (grape liquor a bit like grappa with a citrus crushed ice mixer) and some local beers
Cathedral
Not really needed... which went down a treat, I was worried that I'd bee suffering the ill effects in the morning. But it was probably our latest night out in SA, 1.30am, which is really rather lame compared to the locals who will probably be out until 5am or so. I just can't hack that pace and be expected to fulfull my traveller obligations the next day. Quiet evenings with a bottle of Carmenere or such delightful wine and I'm happy. Plus the music here is dire, which is a shame since I've seen some great bands advertising tours (Pearl Jam!!), but awful synthesised pop music, middling R&B and bloody Shakira dominate the airwaves. Still could be worse, could be Cheryl Cole and One Direction.
Anyway, next day we dodged the Mapuche rally and the armed riot police and water cannons in the Italian Plaza and hotfooted it to the top of San Cristobal. Rewind, two second, the Mapuche were having a protest about the government and it's treatment of them as a people on the bank holiday celebrating Columbus "discovering" Latin America, the irony being that they were already here if you didn't get it. Anyway, I'm not sure we can
Parliament
Look at how shiny my head is! Also there are 19 flags in this plaza! Very patriotic. cover too much politics in a blog or people may start getting angry and thinking it's a broadsheet. at San Cristobal there is usually a funicular to take you to the summit. It wasn't working (on a bloody bank holiday!) so we had to climb. It wasn't exactly arduous compared to Villarica but it as about 30C and I was melting. At the top we encountered a clustergaggle of cyclists (anyone know the collective term for lyrca clad sportspeople?) who were clearly all insane. There is a statue of the Virgin Mary and another open air church and view across the city was spectacular, especially with the snow capped Andes forming a natural breakpoint for the suburbs. We looked down on the Santa Lucia park (a seriously cool piece of rock with a park on it that must be visited), the "river" and the market where we had some amazing food! The city is a sprall, but is very safe and the people are very friendly; Londoners take note, you don't have to be quite so rude just because the 14.00 train is about to leave, there's always the 14.01!
Since it was the holiday and, logically, nothing was
Andes
Faint, but they are there! open, Ellie and I created our own fantastical walking tour of Santiago. Armed with no facts and only a crappy, worn map we headed to all the points of interest and created our own back story and history. Did you know, for example, that the Stock Exchange building is just a front for the lab in which Donald Trump's hairpieces are created? I bet you didn't. We tried to out do each other, but it was just a bit of fun to pass the time as we took in the architecure and atmosphere of the city. Even though earthquakes damage the city the architects at least attempt to preserve some of the original feeling and grandeur with modern materials, not constructing some horrific monstrosity of glass and steel that lacks any soul!
One of the places that both Steve and Carolina recommended was the museum at Pablo Neruda's House. I'd never heard of the guy, and assumed he was an architect, but it turns out he was a larger than life character, a poet, a diplomat and a communist (albeit a rich one). He designed this house and it is set across three buildings at the base of the
The Bard at Neruda's House
Ellie mimicking the "Watch Your Head" Eyes san Cristobal hill. Neruda was known to be a fun guy and his home is a testament to that. It's quite colourful and he collected all sorts of items from all over the world, paying no attention to trends or patterns when displaying them in his homes. When in Valparaiso we visted another of his homes and it was the same, he had a carousel horse in his front room, two protraits of royalty/nobility, numerous glass bottles, mismatched furniture and a stuffed, plastic-encased flamingo! He was clearly an eccentric but he never lost his sense of childhood fun; he once said that a man that forgot how to have fun had lost himself. My favourite part of the house was probably the hidden doorway from the dining room to the bedroom above, it was most enchanting. All homes should be like this!
Ninety minutes from Santiago is the port of Valparaiso. We headed here for a few days thinking it was a quaint seaside town. It's more a small city by the sea! However, it is renowned for the street art and many of the walls of the town are paintd in different styles, from landscapes to graffiti inspired
San Cristobal
Virgin Mary and the open air church work. It's also rather hilly, if you're unfit, it's not that much of a problem as they have funiculars to most rises and if they aren't your thing, there are special taxi services for the same purpose! Despite hunting for seafood empanadas we were again unsuccessful and so will be leaving Chile having never tried these tasty delicacies! We did, however, get to try some local dishes at Vinlo; I had rabbit with lemon and organge and Ellie went for the Salmon. Our hostel, Luna Sonrisa had some great coffee, which was a fantastic turn of events, except I over indulged of this priviladge and was subsequently buzzing all morning. Janat, the owner, was excellent. He is from London but has lived here for ages. He booked us onto a wine tour in Casablanca, one of Chile's primary wine producing regions, after giving us a good insight into what was good/bad in wine here.
Unfortunately, we missed our bus and the tour, but did make the tasting. The Sauvingnon Blanc was marvelous, the smell alone was bewitching and the taste was devine. Their Pinot Noir was wonderfully fruity and smooth. It was a very lovely way to spend a
Downtown Santiago
The city centre from Santa Lucia sunny afternoon and it was made even better by John and Midge. This American couple were at the same tasting and offered us a lift to the bus station but it was in the opposite direction to their journey so we politely declined. However, they then insisted on buying us lunch at the vinyard, incuding fondue or desert and dropping us off. We clearly looked like poor, dishevelled backpackers (probably the shorts and flipflop combo I was rocking) and they must have took pity on us. We tried to pay but they used the parental strategy of paying in secret! They were very sweet people with similar interests and backgrounds to ourselves making lunch an engaging and enjoyable afffair. The food was sublime. My salmon with shrimp sauce and sweetcorn mash was full of flavour and very filling, it complimented the Sauvingnon Blanc superbly. It was a rather nice way to finish our trip to Chile before heading back to Argentina.
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