Blogs from Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America

Chile is an extremely long country, apparently as far from top to bottom as from Scotland to Nigeria (thanks Barney), so before we faced another long bus journey, we decided to take it easy with a short hop to Valparaiso. The city was an important port during the Gold Rush, used by European and American ships on the route from Cape Horn to California, but fell out of favor and fell into disrepair early in the last century. However, the city has now been revived as the cultural capital of the country and is certainly a unique place, with 42 cerros (hills) surrounding the city center and port area, full of colorful houses and beautiful restored mansions, with chaos still in between. dilapidated.We forgot that it is also the second largest city in Chile, so when ... read more

Our port-of-call on Sunday, January 22, 2023 was Isla Robinson Crusoe, Chile, the foundation for the book Robinson Crusoe. There are no shore excursions available for this port. There are about 700 inhabitants. Why, then, make this a port-of-call? That’s a good question with only one logical answer – it’s famous. Somewhere along the line, I didn’t have a requirement (or seize the opportunity) to read the book Robinson Crusoe, but it is based on a true story. Alexander Selkirk (1676 – 13 December 1721) was a Scottish sailor who was an unruly youth and joined buccaneering voyages to the South Pacific during the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714). One such expedition was on Cinque Ports, captained by 21-year-old Lieutenant Thomas Stradling. When Stradling's ship, Cinque Ports, stopped to resupply at the uninhabited Juan Fernández ... read more

Thursday. We took a double decker bus to Valparaiso and had front seats upstairs. It was about a 90 minute ride. The landscape was arid with wineries. It was relatively flat at first but got hilly. We went through a long tunnel and crossed low mountains and through an area that had suffered a very recent fire. Near the bus station is the less than beautiful modern Chilean Congress that the dictator Pinochet had built after he came to power. We took a taxi to the Pablo Neruda House on a hill with sweeping views of the old city center and the port. It is one of his three homes. It has five levels of small rooms that are packed with interesting memorabilia and architectural details. After our self-guided audio tour we set out on foot ... read more

It’s summer in Chile, and that means Santiago drains of people and everyone heads off for summer vacation. Traffic is lighter and the city is quiet. Everyday is sunny and 30-35, every Sunday includes an afternoon BBQ at your friend’s (including lots of wine) and really, my favourite, most evenings include sitting out on our terrazza and enjoying the beautiful Santiago summer nights. This also means that the protestors, politicians and maybe police have all gone on vacation too, as despite the ongoing turmoil in the country, there has been relatively little protesting going on, except for the usual Friday night shenanigans in Plaza Italia/Dignidad that have been ongoing since the social crisis started in October. It is however, still on everyone’s mind, as right now there is a lot of anticipation for the return to ... read more

So, if you recall when you last joined us, our car was viciously attacked by some sheet metal on a Chilean highway. And so, since then we decided to jump headlong into the wild world of Chilean car insurance claims, and the car disappeared for about a month and after jumping through some hoops, actually many hoops, we got it back (not fixed of course)...and so hopefully someone got my reference to an 19 year old stoner comedy with Aston Kutcher and Stifler with the title of this blog. Ooof....although to be honest, is this at all worse than ICBC? So what has happened since my last entry...every day I think about so many little things to write about, and just wish I had the time to do so...including our current insurance situation (when we bring ... read more