Blogs from Valparaíso Region, Chile, South America - page 12

Valparaiso, c’est aussi la ville de prédilection du poète Pablo Neruda et ce matin nous allons voir une de ses 3 maisons chilienne, La Sebastiana qu’il a faite construire. Coup de chance, elle est sur la même colline que l’auberge, juste au bout de la rue, oui, en haut de la côte. Et là, je découvre la fantaisie, la joie de vivre et le génie multitâche de Neruda, architecte collectionneur et bon vivant. Une petite maison fouillie avec une vue magnifique et des objets causy qui donnent envie de s’y installer. Puis nous passons le reste de la journée à déambuler dans les rues de la ville, a monter et descendre les collines, à mitrailler de tous les cotes. >PDJ : 45 collines à Valparaiso, même les locaux soufflent et s’arrêtent en montant les escaliers (car ... read more

……….back to reality The flight arrived back into Santiago at 12.30am (there is a 2 hour time difference) so we got a taxi into the city and got into the apartment we had booked about 1 in the morning. It was booked with a different company and this time it was all ok and the place was lovely. 4/4/13 Pavement pounding in Santiago Walked a million miles, through a park, onto Pablo Neruda’s house in a little side street, then onto the Funicular, which was shut until 1 so carried on walking and did a circuit of the university area. Lots of students all grabbing burgers from small stalls so we ended up with one for lunch too. Went back and up the Funicular to the hill top where you were supposed to have great views ... read more

Eduardo presented about all things marine this morning, from Chile’s maritime sea claim to Easter Island to fishing life in the archipelago. He reviewed the key points about the various disputes with Argentina and Bolivia without getting too serious. His knowledge of fish was limited. We got on the bus for what I expected to be a fairly routine city tour. Quite fun actually. We were soon off the bus, wandering through the gardens of a hacienda that once belonged to the father-in-law and subsequently the daughter of the founder of Viña del Mar, Jose Francisco Vergara. His daughter had a fraught life and the family all died out. The hacienda became the property of the municipality. This is a remarkable common story in Chile, supplying the municipalities with some beautiful buildings for museums, libraries and ... read more

At 5:45 p.m. we are on the bus, rushing along a major highway, having spent a long afternoon at an alpaca farm. At Quintessence we learned to identify alpacas by their topknot that looks like a bad hairpiece. A few llamas were there also – almost twice the height and stiff necked. Over twenty years the owner (who wasn’t there) has been breeding her animals to purer but still natural shades. When we arrived the animals were in pens, curious about the commotion and peering at us as we took pictures of them. Then one of the workers let some out into a grassy yard. They ran out in obvious delight, some jumping and gambolling. Others had a good roll in dusty patches. Most of all, they pecked the fresh grass. One liked to zoom repeatedly ... read more

This weekend, I will be heading out on a camping trip with some friends! We will leave Thursday night and take an overnight bus 7 hours north to a city called La Serena. We will spend some time there and then we will also go to Valle del Elqui, where will camp for a couple nights. I am sure I will talk more about it in my next entry, but it should be an awesome time and a great way to see some of the beautiful land to the north of where I live! In this post, I have decided that I want to talk briefly about some the random/ interesting/funny events that have happened to me so far that I may not have touched on in other posts. I am realizing that there are some ... read more