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Published: January 16th 2014
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Having spent a relaxing and very hot festive period in Mendoza, sampling the wine, barbecuing Christmas dinner and celebrating New Year's Eve with a gluttonous seven course meal, we decided it was about time we got a new stamp in our passports. So, early on the 2nd January we decided to cross the border to Chile, which involved scaling the Andes (in bus of course) and being searched for contraband items, such as a rogue piece of fruit. Luckily, we'd been warned of the trouble a hidden orange could get you into in this part of the world, so we took no chances and ate or donated all our food in Mendoza.
We had decided to head for Valparaiso (Valpo to its friends) Chile's third biggest city, famous for its colourful houses and street art. Valpo is right next to one of Chile's most popular beach resorts, Viña del Mar (known as Viña). We'd heard from Argentine locals that Viña del Mar could be a good place to stay as you could enjoy the beaches and visit Valparaiso during the day, however, we decided to disregard this advice and head straight for Valpo. When the bus almost entirely emptied in
the pleasant streets of Viña, we questioned our decision. We questioned our decision again when, on stepping out of the bus station in Valparaiso, we were hit by the stench of fish guts and rotting vegetables. Undeterred, however, we jumped on a "micro" bus to a plaza close to our hostel, remarking on how helpful the bus driver was. Only later did we realise we'd been significantly short changed by this chirpy chap, although we like to think it was a mistake and if not he can consider it a festive bonus.
On arriving at our hostel, in the colourful and quaint hill district of Cerro Concepcion, full of little coffee shops and restaurants, and with a great view over the city out to sea, we concluded that we had definitely made the right decision in staying in this part of the city. We agreed the first thing that we should do in Chile was to sample the local beer, which was fortunately to Ross' approval. What Ross wasn't so keen on though was the earthquake that occurred during the beer sampling, which he, of course, blames Liz entirely for. Luckily it was just a mere 4.8 tremor, so
no damage was done and more importantly, no beer was split.
We spent three days in Valparaiso, wandering about the different Cerros (hills), photographing the street art, making friends with the stray dogs (apparently they sniff out the tourists and follow them), sampling the local sea food (which was a wonderful change after the steak of Argentina) and planning our next steps. After one more small but noisy earthquake, we decided that a ramshackled hill city, in a very tectonically active region close to the sea, was not the place to hang around in for too long (particularly with Liz's track record of being in the wrong place at the wrong time with regards to South American earthquakes), so we headed south to Pichilemu, Chile's surfing capital, with a one night stopover in San Fernando, ideally located close to one of Chile's many wine capitals.
Pichilemu is famous for surfing and for being a failed beach resort someone called Ross tried to create (the wind, rough seas and chilly water meant the resort never really took off). As a result, there's a large "casino Ross", a "parque Ross" and various Ross streets, which pleased Ross (Whinnett) a lot.
The next day we braved the chilly Pacific waters and went for a surf admiring flocks of pelicans overhead.
A couple of days later, following advice from the owner of the hostel in Pichilemu, the very helpful Nacho, we spent a day hoping on and off buses and ended up in the small town of Molina, with the aim of visiting the "Siete Tazas" (seven cups in English) national park the next day. We either looked entirely lost, foreign tourists are a novelty or the people of Molina are very helpful, but virtually everyone on the bus and in the bus station seemed to want to help us with tourist advice, which was actually very useful as we are yet to find a tourist information office in Chile.
After sorting out our transport to the park the next day we set off in search of somewhere to stay. After walking around the town aimlessly for quite some time, we were directed to a "residencia" which turned out to be the cheapest room we have had so far. Unfortunately after we checked in, we realised the room was cheap because you paid for everything else, even the toilet paper.
Despite the slightly odd accommodation, we had a great stay in Molina, visiting the Siete Tazas park the next day via a beat up old service bus bumping along an unmade up road. We hiked around the Siete Tazas park, ending up by a pool with a waterfall where you could swim. Needless to say Liz was in in a flash, but Ross was content to dip his feet in the slightly chilly (aka icy cold) water.
After a couple of days in Molina, we headed slightly south to Talca on a local "micro" bus where we are now. On arriving in Talca, we again found no information on the city or places to stay, so wandered aimlessly towards the centre, asking various friendly locals for directions on the way. Unfortunately, Talca was hit really badly by the 2010 earthquake and many buildings in the centre are still ruined and abandoned and whilst wandering around we started to wonder whether we should stay here, however, after a long walk in the mid day sun, we found a nice area of the city by the river and a hospedaje (B&B) with a pool. After the long walk to get
here, we've only strayed as far as the local supermarket for dinner and a bottle of the local Cabernet Sauvignon. Tomorrow we plan to catch the excruciating early local "micro" bus to the Altos de Lircay national park. We are looking forward to the bus trip to the park, as the lady at reception raised her eyebrows and chuckled when we told her we were taking the local bus instead of an organised tour...
So far we have learnt in Chile:
- The Pacific Ocean is definitely not warm but the surf is great (thick wetsuit and booties required).
- Chile has a fine beer, cake and wine selection. All of which we feel it is our duty as a tourist to sample.
- The Chilean wine we have at home is on the second to bottom shelf in Chilean supermarkets (i.e they are the second cheapest wines on offer). The bottom shelf wines also taste good.
- Toilet paper is a valuable commodity in Molina.
- Chile has a lot to offer. We like Chile.
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Meg & Paul
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Legless
Grrr8 to see you are all having a good time! We have enjoyed looking at the pictures. Take care on your travels. I am back to work on Monday, after a long break. We managed to get to the Cook Islands before Christmas, so we have had a good measure of sunshine. But it hasn't been good weather here in NZ considering it is supposed to be summer. All the best & love from us all in NZ