Valpraiso

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HOLA! Here I go again....another attempt at blogging...

VALPARAISO (CHILE)

I´m now in Valparaiso. The postcards don´t really paint a true picture of this place. I expected a small quaint fishing village with houses perched on the hills close to the sea, but instead I was surprised by the sprawled out city-like environment ... busy with traffic, huge vegie market along a main road, commercial buildings along the coast...as I arrived by bus this evening from Santiago.

So tomorrow I shall venture out into this city-like town and ride one of their funiculars to one of their cerros/hills. Seafood would definitely be on the menu ...again. Hopefully I would not fall into a tourist trap like I did today at the Central Market in Santiago. I should have steered clear away from the neon lights, red checkered table cloths and dressed up waiters who reminds you that the 10% tip is not included in the bill if you haven´t already noticed it on the menu. What can I say....I got lured into the nicer surroundings to counter balance the fishy smell of seafood displayed around the market :P

SANTIAGO (CHILE)

The postcards show a beautiful city on a relatively flat plain with a mountainous backdrop. It is true but for the smog. It is a smoggy city so it is difficult to see the Andes mountains. Nonetheless the city is like Buenos Aires ...grid like but a bit more compact as the streets are narrower.

Besides smog city, it´s snog city. Green spaces + shade = snogging opportunity. The young Chilean couples aren´t shy about their affections for each other. Lots of snogging in parks, or in funicular or even in the line waiting for a funicular (yes yes...I had to ride the funicular up San Cristobal to get a panoramic view of the city). It´s everywhere (exaggerated of course)!!

Santiago is definitely a happening place. Lots of suits walking the streets and people are just everywhere. Most of the time I wonder what are these people doing shopping, sitting on benches watching people....don´t they need to work?

Other observations
...shoe shiners everywhere (not an exaggeration)
...hotdog (called completos) stalls everywhere (not an exaggeration)...´apparently Santiago has been called fast food city ...McDonalds and KFC do have a huge presence here...
...despite similar immigration patterns from Spain, Italian etc like Argentina or Brazil....the Chileans have more people with an indigenous look...broad face, darker complexion, and on the shorter side. I guess this is because Chile have a larger indigenous population that has not been wiped out by wars relating to land colonisation issues (cf Argentina´s Yamana tribe which apparently has only 1000 left)


PATAGONIAN TOUR

I can´t really say that I have learnt much about Argentina and Chile during my 3 week tour through Patagonia with Tucan Travel from Ushuaia (Fin del Mundo) to Santiago. I was travelling in a yellow truck with 26 other tour companions, tour leader and driver from UK, Canada, US and Australia. Not much interaction with the locals. A pity. This was more of a tour around mother nature - camping & hiking & horseriding in National Parks, walking on glaciers, ice climbing, cruising the Beagle Channel and Magellan Straits, visiting a penguin colony, hydospeeding (boogey boarding) down Grade 3 rapids, mountain biking around the lake district.

I´ve got yucky bruises on my knees from ice climbing (I didn´t quite feel the pain as I was bashing my knee against the ice wall as I was trying to kick my crampons into the wall ), a sore bum from mountain biking and rope burn on my right pinky finger from pulling myself across a river hanging upside down on a rope with a pulley system. My free souvenirs from my trip 😊

In terms of travelling in small groups. I reckon it is like Survivor. Wondering who is going to be 'voted off' or given 'labels' or roles by the rest. That´s all I have to say about that!

That´s all from me. Short isnt´it? I´m looking forward to returning back home to the comforts of my own bed, bathroom, toilet that takes toilet paper and not having to live out of my backpack. At this stage, it seems like this is the last of my big trips ...... at least maybe in this style :P

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