Santiago/Valparaíso...Little boxes on the hillside, little boxes made of ticky tacky

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Hello to everyone and welcome back to my blog after a somewhat lengthy absence. Since I got back from my trip I have been working a lot more, focusing on my monthly public health presentations and my weekly radio program. I would like to write about these experiences, but I feel I need to finish recounting my travel experiences first. I still have a few unique things to write about and have quite a few pictures to share, so I will try to wrap up my travel experiences in the next few days. Afterwards I will put you all back in the know about what I have been up to in Paraguay for the past month and a half.

So getting back to my trip, when I last wrote I was finishing up my time in Mendoza, Argentina. I woke up around 9 am on Thursday, January 22, feeling a combination of the effects of the night before and the lack of sleep. Jason and I had purchased our bus tickets out of Mendoza the day before and were scheduled to leave for Santiago, Chile around 10:30 am. I had purchased my ticket about an hour before Jason and had taken the last single cama (bed) seat, so he ended up riding in the luggage compartment (not really, but we joked about this as he had to sit separately from me in a ‘lower class’). We were told that the trip across the highest part of the Andes Mountains would be roughly seven hours, though we expected it to be longer. Nevertheless, I had heard that it was such a scenic drive that it was not to be missed by day. We started the journey winding along the Mendoza River, where we had done our whitewater rafting, and began ascending into the clouds. Although I slept some of the way, what I saw was quite breathtaking. Eventually we arrived at the border between Argentina and Chile at the highest part of the journey. I do not think the seven hour estimate included our time at the border because it definitely added a number of hours to the trip. We were all ushered off of the bus and into the immigration station where we needed to get our papers validated by both Argentinean and Chilean officials. First we all passed through the Argentina line, which was fairly effortless and quick. As we were ushered to the Chilean post we were told that one person from our bus had not been checked out of Argentina and that none of us could continue until the person was found. We thought that this was a bit ridiculous as we had literally walked a few hundred feet between the bus and the office. Nonetheless, we waited as the person was located (I am not even sure who the missing person was). Finally, we were able to get our passports validated by the Chilean authorities and then headed back to the bus. We then got back on the bus, pulled ahead about fifty feet, stopped, and got off the bus again. We and all of our luggage had to be taken off of the bus and pass through customs, x-ray scanners and all. From what I have heard, passing from Chile to Argentina is effortless while going from Argentina to Chile is a huge headache, mostly because the Chilean officials are very difficult for no particular reason. I am not sure if this is always true, but from my experience it was. After about another hour of procedures, which included them calling out specific people/bags for questioning, we were finally loaded back on the bus and we given the go ahead to leave. All in all I think we spent a minimum of about three hours doing what could have been done in about an hour. With that we passed between the two countries and began our descent of the great Andes. The Chilean side of the journey was much more scenic and involved us winding back and forth and back and forth down the side of the mountain. It was beautiful and at the same time a little unnerving as we were coming dangerously close to going over the edge of the road. I figured the driver had done the drive hundreds of time, so I really was not worried. After a few more hours, we arrived at the bus terminal in Santiago around 8:30 pm. We walked around a bit searching for a bus ticket to our next destination, Pucón, Chile (we always bought our tickets out of a place almost immediately upon arriving, something that was necessary in order to get to as many places as we planned to visit). With that we oriented ourselves as much as possible and headed out into the Santiago night.

We found the subway and figured out at which stops we needed to transfer and when we needed to get off. The transfer went smoothly, but after the doors had closed on the second subway they announced we were on the express train and that it would not be stopping at our destination. Therefore, we overshot by one stop, got back on a subway going the other way, which we assumed would stop where we needed to get off as it did not say express train. Not true. We overshot our stop again and doubled back a second time. Because we had already failed twice and there was really no explanation why the second train did not stop we were slightly confused. We figured we were just going to continue getting on subways that did not say express and hope they would stop eventually. Luckily, we eventually ended up at our stop and headed for the Andes Hostel. After a bit of confusion at the front desk, a somewhat normal occurrence at hostels, we were shown to our six person dorm room. We met a few of the guys in our room before unpacking a bit, showering, and making plans for the night (one of the guys was Asian, just for reference). We planned on checking out the rooftop terrace, maybe walking around the neighborhood, and then finding a place to have some dinner. Jason ran up to our room before we headed out and had a fairly hilarious encounter. He met another one of our roommates, who was also Asian. Jason assumed that he was friends with the other guy we had met earlier and told the guy he had already met his friend (he either said friend or brother, I can not remember). Either way, the guy responded, what are you talking about, I am traveling alone. At that moment Jason realized his assumption about our two Asian roommates being friends/brothers was incorrect and he had a bit of a special moment. Upon hearing about this encounter I could not stop laughing as he had just assumed that since they were both Asian they must be friends. This was just one of the many good laughs we had during our time together. After I laughed at him for about five minutes we headed out to check out the neighborhood. We walked around the Bellavista (translation, beautiful view) neighborhood, which is known for restaurants, nightclubs, and general bohemian culture. Although it was dark, we saw a number of interesting/colorful houses and buildings. I think a lot of the clubs and restaurants in the area are somewhat underground as most of the streets we walked down seemed deserted and lifeless. We tried to find a few restaurants recommended by the Lonely Planet but were unsuccessful, so headed back to the streets around our hostel. We ended up at a little Chinese restaurant (I know, what were we doing eating Chinese food in South America), which was actually pretty good. As we had an early morning planned, we headed back to the hostel and turned in early.

We woke up the next morning around 8:30 and had a quick breakfast at the hostel. Our plans for the day were to catch a bus to Valparaíso, a coastal town about an hour and a half from Santiago. We got back on the subway (with a lot less trouble this time) and headed for the bus terminal. We caught a bus around 10:30 and were set to get to Valparaíso a little after noon. Valparaíso is a vital port city of Chile nicknamed La Perla del Pacifico (translation, the pearl of the pacific). It is known for its commercial district/naval harbor, its seemingly endless rolling hills with colorful houses, its hillside elevators that traverse much of the city, and its overall artistic/bohemian feel. One of its best known and most famous residents was the author Pablo Neruda. We arrived in the city and immediately took off for a walk through the rolling hills. Within a few blocks of the harbor you begin ascending into the hills as the streets become increasingly steep very quickly. Looking up into the hills you see a variety of houses, from old crumbling mansions to houses made completely out of tin and scrap metal. Many of the houses are painted extremely vibrant, sometimes strange, colors. Oh yeah, and it kind of seems like many of the houses are built on top of each other. There seem to be far more houses than should be physically built in a given space, but somehow they remain standing. As I looked across the vast hillside of color the song Little Boxes came to mind, the one about little boxes made of ticky tacky. We wandered through the winding streets for about an hour and a half, taking a variety of pictures of both the houses and the harbor that lay below us. Afterwards we slowly wound our way back down towards the harbor, stopping along the way for a quick snack. After looping through the bustling commercial district, we swung past the harbor and then headed for the central plaza of the city. We saw a couple of monuments, some governmental buildings, and a strange artistic arrangement of wedding dresses that looked almost ghostly (see picture, I do not know how to explain this that well). Afterwards we decided to head back up a little way into the hills to find a restaurant for a late lunch. We found a nice little cliffside café that overlooked much of the city and had a leisurely lunch. Afterwards we wandered the hillsides a little more in search of the famous ascensores (elevators). Throughout the city of Valparaíso there are 15 of these elevators that were built between 1883 and 1916. The elevators are generally used by residents to get up to their houses, although I think they are used a fair amount by tourists as well. Basically, the elevators are little box compartments on metal tracks that move via a system of pulleys. We found one and rode it up, got to the top, and rode it right back down. In all honesty, it was not very exciting, but I guess it is something that you should do if you are in Valpo. After our thrilling elevator ride we worked our way back through the city and eventually ended up back at the bus terminal. We then caught a bus back to Santiago and arrived sometime around 6:00 pm. We had aspirations of checking out the nightlife scene in Santiago, although after showering, a beer on the rooftop terrace, and a dinner at a nearby restaurant we both decided it was a little too cold to go out and just played some pool at the hostel (when I say too cold it was still probably in the 40s, but that feels cold after living in a climate with average temperatures in the 90s).

The next morning, Saturday, January 24, we slept in a bit, had breakfast, and then checked out of our hostel. I had decided that in order to get back to Buenos Aires for my flight on the 30th I needed to fly, as I was going to be more than a days bus ride away and figured it would be a huge headache to get there by bus. Therefore, I needed to find a way to buy a plane ticket. We stopped at an internet café and I searched for tickets, but was unable to find much and decided I needed to get to the office of the airline. We followed Lonely Planet’s directions to the office, which was a bit of a subway ride away, but when we got to the location the office was no longer there. Someone told us that they had another office nearby, so we quickly caught a cab to get there. We arrived at 1:03 and, unfortunately, the office closed three minutes earlier. There were tons of agents inside but we were unable to persuade them to open the door and help me. Therefore, Jason and I headed for another internet café to take another shot at finding a ticket online. After about another hour and a half I was finally able to get a ticket from Bariloche, Argentina, our last destination together, to Buenos Aires, Argentina. By this point it was already mid-afternoon and we were ready for some lunch. We were in a somewhat upper class, developed area and happened upon a very American-style restaurant that reminded me of Chili’s or Applebee’s, with a much bigger menu. I was really happy because I was able to have a Caesar salad, something that I had not had for longer than I could remember (American style salad dressings are really not to be found in Paraguay, including my absolute favorite, Ranch dressing).

After lunch we finally were able to start what we had been planning to do all along, an exciting walking tour of Santiago, Chile. We started by walking along the Mapocho River on our way to the center of the city, passing a few parks and churches along the way. Afterwards we ambled through Barrio Bellavista, this time in the light of day. Barrio Bellavista is a very bohemian neighborhood and is very colorful, much like Valparaíso. We walked around and just took in the sights and sounds of the neighborhood. As we were walking we passed an older couple that Jason claimed was for sure American and he said they were ripe for a robbing (they may or may not have been American, but yes, they stood out like a sore thumb with tucked in shirts and high pants, socks and sandals, huge cameras around their necks, and travel books in hand). We then walked towards the central part of the city and passed a number of sights including some famous mansions, the ex-national congress building, the justice building, the municipal theater, the metropolitan cathedral, and La Plaza de Armas (the plaza of arms). We then tried to go to a park that overlooked the city that had been recommended to us, although, upon our arrival, we realized it would take a few hours to get to the top of the park and we really did not have the time. We had a few hours left before we needed to be at the bus station, so we decided to catch a cab back to the colorful Bellavista neighborhood for some dinner. We wandered the streets that were packed with people socializing at the countless curbside cafes in search of a place where we could get some authentic Chilean food. A running joke during my whole time with Jason was the theme of finding things that were rustic, both in ambiance and in food style. I am not even sure the word rustic can be used to describe so much, but we pretty much used it for everything. If there is one thing I will always remember about Jason it is that he loves rustic things and gets mad when he can not find the perfectly rustic restaurant. We found a place where Jason had some sort of cornmeal stew and I had a slop of French fries covered in onions and chunks of beef. After our nice dinner we caught a cab back to our hostel to pick up our bags, jumped on the subway, and headed for the bus terminal. We had already purchased tickets for an overnight bus headed for Pucón, Chile, about ten hours south of Santiago. We arrived at the terminal about half an hour before our bus was scheduled to leave and headed for the assigned platform. After we had been standing there for a bit I decided I was going to make sure we were in the right place, as I had remember arriving at a different place a few days earlier. It turned out I was right as there was an international platform and a national platform. We were taking a national bus so I figured we would be leaving from the national platform, although I got difference responses from about four different people I asked. Therefore, I returned to where Jason was waiting without any clue of where we were supposed to be waiting. We asked a couple of people waiting around us (when I say we I mean me, Jason was helpless) and nobody really seemed to know which platform was the right one. Eventually a bus pulled up that said Pucón and we thought we were home free, but its leaving time was five minutes before ours and was therefore not the right one. Finally another one pulled up and we were relieved to find out it was ours. We got on and with that we were on the road to Pucón, set to arrive in the morning. Oh, and one other side note. About ten minutes into the trip we pulled over along the side of road/highway and a girl from our bus (a chain-smoking European who we likened to Wednesday Munster) got off, grabbed her bag, and took off running for another bus. Turns out not everyone was on the right bus and it was quite funny to see as Wednesday made a break for the other bus. She made it, all was well, and we were finally on the way. I’ll cut this blog off now and get back to you in a few days. I hope all is well with you and that you are enjoying the NCAA tournament, if you are a basketball fan that is. Go Badgers!

-MWC

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Comments

[Clare Beer]

It's so wonderful to hear about you trip through Chile, Matt! If ever there is a moment when I'm missing Chile the most, it's right now as I look at your wonderful pictures and read about your adventures! Espero que lo pasaras increibleen la tierra de mi querido Chilito! Un beso y chau!