The ups and downs of Chile

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New Zealand was always going to be a hard act to follow. We touched down in Santiago at midday on a gloomy Winter's afternoon following a 12 hour flight from Auckland. We declared our food to customs and following a few seconds of toing and froing in pigeon Spanish/English informing the officials that we had cheese and tea and such other articles in our possession they waved us on, most probably relieved that they didn't have to to converse any longer with us Gringos. As we exited into the arrival hall a new country beckoned, with a totally different culture, language and smells. A quick visit to the Airport Gents reinforced the fact that I was no longer in NZ.

A short taxi drive ensued into the heavily polluted (both rubbish and smog) and graffiti infested Capital, taking me back to 'La Casa Roja' hostel, where I had previously stayed during an Overland trip in 2010 at the same time as the 8.8 Richter scale earthquake.

The next few days were spent visiting various consulates and embassies to obtain visas for my partner. Both the Bolivian and Peruvian consulates proved easy to obtain tourist visas. In fact the Bolivian Consul dressed in Jeans and a duffle coat was the most friendly diplomatic official I had ever encountered and he too was equally pleased to show off his country's culture by playing us videos on You Tube for an entire hour depicting Bolivian Girls in skimpily dressed costumes dancing away at some Religious Festivals.

The City of Santiago has never really inspired me much, but I nevertheless took the opportunity to revisit San Cristobal, a hill which towers 300 m above the rest of Santiago and gives commanding views of the City. Our stay was made so much more comfortable by the generosity of Grimme our Warmshower (cycling community) host who allowed us to stay in her flat for 4 days.

Of interest in the city were the number of young people performing juggling acts or demonstrating dribbling with a football, whilst the cars remained stopped at the red traffic lights. Equally music performers played to packed audiences in buses and on the tube, jumping on and off carriages to make a few quick bucks. The trend of dressing up dogs, which I first saw in Thailand has also appeared to have taken hold in Chile. Of course these are mainly Toy dogs owned by the wealthier members of society, whilst hundreds of street dogs continue to roam around the streets of the Capital.

Of other note were the white painted bicycles dotted around the city, usually accompanied by a photo and a candle where a cyclist had been killed. They are known as the 'Angels on Bicycles' memorials.

We were both glad to leave Santiago behind and head out to the coast to the city of Valparaiso. Our first night was spent in the small village of Tiltil, where with the help of the local Police we managed to find a site amongst derelict buildings and a railway track where we could pitch our tent. We gave a stray dog a bit of bread and we instantly became his friends for life.

The next day saw us climbing for an eternity as we scaled a small mountain range separating Santiago from the coast. Our day was made so much easier by the availability of food stalls selling nuts and raisins and other nutritious snacks along the way.

Our entry into Vina del Mar equalled Vietnam in terms of deadly risk factor with the local buses being the main culprits who completely showed disregard to cyclists and even cut me up on one occasion, when I didn't pull over onto the pavement. In fact, it appeared as if they were under pressure to meet stringent deadlines, with controllers stepping out into the road from time to time with their clipboards. We were both relieved to reach the sea and a dedicated cycle lane which took us all the way to our hostel in Valparaiso.

Valparaiso in comparison to Santiago has a buzz feeling to it with lots of interesting and impressive graffiti art instead of the squiggles evident in the Capital. Here we embarked on a boat trip around the harbour to see the obligatory sea lions resting on a red mooring buoy as well as former Royal Navy Type 23 and Type 22 Frigates sold to the Chileans about 10 years ago. Of historical interest was the fact that a British naval Commander Lord Cochrane, who had formerly been a Captain in the Royal Navy and dismissed for fraud on the Stock exchange, was hired by the Chileans in the 1820s to organise and command their Navy. He recruited an almost all-anglophone complement of officers and Midshipmen and crews of British, Irish and American Seamen and became a key figure in the war against the loyalist forces in Peru.

We also headed up into the hills of Valparaiso to take in the atmosphere of the colourful graffiti sprayed streets and cafe scene, using the 100 year old lifts which are dotted around the city costing around 10 pence one way and saving you from having to climb hundreds of steps.

We both enjoyed our stay at the Hostal Nomades in Valparaiso and one of our dormitory room mates added great value by talking out loudly to himself and laughing uncontrollably, resembling in some way Miguel the waiter from Fawlty Towers.

Departing the seaside town, our highlight of our Chilean trip was witnessing sea lions jumping out of the water onto a manmade structure and hundreds of Pelicans gliding along the sea surface and coming to a rest on a roof close to a fish market. I never knew that sea lions were so nimble and athletic on land and seeing one of the male sea lions protecting his harem against other male opponents was particularly fascinating.

As we headed north following along the coastline we came across the wealthier sections of Chilean Society with helicopters parked up on Garden roofs and swimming pools visible in secluded places.

Our first night was spent in Maitencillo where we were fortunate enough to be given accommodation at rock bottom price by a Chilean Guy called Francisco who had grown up in Switzerland and I was able to converse freely with him in German.

As we headed out onto the Pan-american Highway, I was startled to see how many crosses were erected along this famous road with little memorials in the shape of lorries and coaches depicting where a tragic accident had taken place. On one occasion we decided to count how long it would take to see one memorial after another and it was 300 metres before the first one appeared and the second one followed a mere 1.3Km thereafter. Real shocking. Luckily the Highway has a wide hard shoulder which afforded us some protection from the speeding lorries and coaches.

The Pan-american highway, certainly in the section north of Valparaiso is rather dull, with the scenery looking similar throughout. Fortunately, we found an amazing village along the way where they sold exceedingly good empanadas with lots of oozing cheese.

Very rare for the region at this time of year and as a consequence of El Nino, it bucketed down with rain on one day and with food running low and morale ebbing away, we were saved by a friendly Guy called Patrick (Pato) in a tiny little village, who was was a Copper Miner by trade and who was tending to his Mother's bakery. He allowed us to stay at his place for the night and fed us fresh bread with eggs and avocado. A little mad in a quirky way, he kept giving us 'High Fives' and remonstrating his love for a female Brazilian Bodyboard surfer.

Following numerous photos and videos we left Patrick's abode and continued on our way to Tongoy a small Fishing village. On our arrival we were aghast at the amount of rubbish and fishing nets washed up on the beach. It wasn't until somebody explained to us that they had had a storm surge a month and a half ago that we realised what tragic but thankfully not fatal consequences had afflicted this area.

We camped here for the night, listening to the waves as they crept up the sand and left the following morning for our final journey to Coquimbo. As we entered the urban sprawl we were surprised to see a mosque overlooking the city and following an explanation by our hostel's owner, it turns out that it was built by Moroccans 80 years ago despite there only being a Family of 5 Muslims living in the area.

With limited time on my partner's visa to cycle the whole of the country, we were booked on a 4 day tour of the Atacama desert to finally arrive in San Pedro de Atacama, close to the Bolivian border. Unfortunately, the driver of the tour company, on arrival at our hostel, became sick and the trip had to be cancelled. Taking bicycles on buses is not an option in this part of Chile. Driving a small hire car one way for a total of 3 days would cost in excess of £500 and using the cargo services of the bus companies would mean not receiving our bikes for an entire week, and more importantly beyond the expiry date of my partner's visa.

Thankfully our hostel owner, a former tour guide came to our assistance and helped us despatch our bikes to the North using Lan airlines at a cost of $58. We hopped on a bus from Coquimbo to Calamata, where we retrieved our bicycles from the airport and then made our way to San Pedro de Atacama, a Chilean Border town in the middle of the desert close to Bolivia.

Two days after arriving in San Pedro de Atacama, we heard that Chile had suffered a huge earthquake (Magnitude 8.4 on the Richter Scale) to the south and a Tsunami with a wave height of 5 metres had also struck the City of Coquimbo, where we had previously stayed. Having experienced the huge earthquake in 2010, I was relieved to have missed out on this one, but it seemed strange that I was in this country on both occasions when an earthquake took place despite it being 5 years apart.

Chile celebrated its Independence Day on 18 September and we were lucky to witness many Chileans dressed up in their traditional attire, with men resembling something out of Zorro wooing their female counterparts with handkerchiefs being waved frantically in front of their faces.

I have mixed feelings about Chile. Scenery wise, I much prefer the landscape to the south of Santiago which I visited on a previous occasion. However, for the first time in my entire trip I have been stretched by the bureaucracy of a country, with it's inadequate methods of transportation and a 'can not do ' attitude.

Fortunately, we have encountered many kind Chilean people along the way who have helped us with accomodation as well as getting the two of us and our equipment to our final destinations.

Chile's Pan-American Highway has been up and down all the way and so has our experience of this country. The journey continues.......

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Photos

Angels on Bikes
A memorial to a cyclist killed in Santiago

Gimme our Chilean Warmshower host
Who kindly looked after us for 4 nights. Thank you Grimme.

A friend for life!
We called him "Did you" because he looked so guilty