Charming Chile part 2 - Pisco Elqui and Valparaiso

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(M) Nina always says it’s impossible to be inspired to write unless you’re in the right surroundings. Well, we’ve just touched down in El Calafate airport in southern Patagonia and are on a bus headed up to El Chalten. We’re just passing Lago Argentina, the largest lake in Argentina, with it’s bright turquoise water set against a backdrop of dramatic snow-capped mountains which form the border with Chile. While I can’t vouch for what inspiration this might bring, I can tell you that better surroundings you’ll be hard pressed to find... so here we go.

As Nina said, our cabana was near a little town called Vicuna, in the heart of the Elqui Valley. It’s all vineyards and lush greenery along the river banks surrounded by sparsely vegetated mountains, and it really felt like a bit of South Africa so far away from home, which I have to say was pretty great. Having our own braai for the first time with some great Chilean steak and red wine no doubt also had something to do with it! But whatever it was, it was such a great stay for the precious two nights we were there and it really was difficult to leave. But it was expensive and common sense prevailed so we reluctantly headed off to Pisco Elqui town, further into Elqui Valley for the weekend. As luck would have it (or not), it was a long weekend and there was a huge festival taking place so the place was packed with Chilean tourists (thankfully not many gringos in sight). Our host who owned the cabanas, Enrique, was an absolute hero and drove us all the way into town and around to three different hostels until we found a place to stay, on the premise we’d come back to the cabana if they were all full. Sadly (you should have seen Nina’s face) we found a room at a little hotel and Enrique bid us a fond farewell after treating us to a beer at an awesome rooftop bar in the middle of town. Not only that, but on the way to Pisco Elqui he told us all about the valley and took us to its only winery for a wine tour and tasting. I think he is possibly the nicest man in the world, or at very least a strong contender for the title. It’s people like Enrique that make travelling a pleasure and help to restore one’s faith in humanity. And as Nina referred to in her entry, he was the kind of guy that epitomised the Chilean people as a whole. What a great country and what lovely people.

You gotta love towns that are named after alcohol. We spent two days soaking up the atmosphere of the festival celebrating Chile’s colonisation (really) and drinking a lot of pisco - awesome. The main event was a parade on the Sunday, which involved taking an elaborate statue of the Virgin Mary around the streets and back into the colourful church on the square (after possibly the longest church service in history), with much fanfare and lots of great costumes. Then everyone just got hammered! The following morning we decided to go hippie hunting and hitchhiked up to Alcohuaz, the furthest village up the valley. After a slow start (it was a public holiday so virtually zero traffic) we got two great lifts straight into town. Unfortunately Nicole - the hippie who had given us a lift a few days earlier and invited us to come and see them - had guests over for family lunch (it seems even hippies observe the same basic tenets of everyday family life) so we picnicked down at the river in the most idyllic setting. We spent the afternoon swimming, playing games and drinking red wine with our own private waterfall through a weeping willow and with the snow-capped mountains towering in the background. Not a bad plan B if you ask me...

After a super quick lift back, we caught the last bus out of Pisco Elqui to La Serena to catch a nightbus straight on to Santiago, and from Santiago we got another bus to Valparaiso, where we finally arrived about 16 hours later. But the long journey was well worth it - Valparaiso has got to be one of the coolest cities on the planet. It’s basically one giant bohemian melting pot - with a kaleidoscope of the most colourful houses running down steep hills to the bay. Nina kept saying it was like the San Francisco she had always imagined, having been bitterly disappointed when visiting there a few years ago that it wasn’t still stuck in the seventies. After we’d spent a couple of hours finding the right hostel (we were pretty spoilt for choice) we went for the first of many walks around the city, which is really what you want to do there. You can also catch one of the only remaining vernaculars (“ascensores”) in operation up the hills or the old trams or buses which run through the city. When you get bored of looking at all the amazing houses and street art - which you don’t - you head for one of the plethora of amazingly funky bars and restaurants before hitting a night club until the early hours. Despite only being there on a Tuesday and Wednesday night we managed all of the above spectacularly well, including taking in a visit to La Sebastiana, one of the three houses of Chile’s most acclaimed poet and Nobel Prize winner, Pablo Neruda, which was quite inspiring.

One night in particular warrants a mention. It started with a few Pisco Sours (our new favourite cocktail) while watching the scenes of jubilation around the whole of Chile as the last of the trapped miners was freed - a massive boost to a country still reeling from the devastation of February’s earthquake. Everyone’s good mood was infectious and we headed for Valparaiso’s most popular nightclub, which sported five different rooms and genres of music. Unfortunately being a Tuesday only two were open, so we occupied our time by joining an advanced salsa lesson (joke!) and befriending some locals at the bar. We headed home far too early and a little disappointed, but on crossing the street outside the club spotted flashing lights to the tune of some banging house music about 400 meters down the main road. So we went to go and check it out. It turned out to be a massive student club so naturally we tried to blag our way in. I might have had a little trouble convincing the bouncer that I was a student(?!) but Nina flashed her press card and we were waved straight through. After coughing up the strenuous £1.50 cover charge we went to check the place out, despite the fact that everyone in the place was half my age! The top floor was playing some awesome tunes but there weren’t many people there so we headed downstairs. On the second floor a Chilean salsa band was playing what seemed like some old favourites and the students that could still stand were busting some serious moves. With out salsa prowess not quite up to scratch we headed for level 3, only to be greeted on entry by hoardes of screaming 18-year old girls as a male stripper was strutting his stuff on stage wearing pretty much nothing. Nice. Thankfully he was just finishing his act so we necked a beer at the bar and I dragged Nina out of there before any more nasty surprises.

As if that wasn’t enough, on level 4 there was a Pearl Jam cover band playing who were actually half decent and we stuck around for a while to listen to the music, but mostly to watch their groupies (all guys) going absolutely mental right in front of the lead singer, playing exagerrated rifts of air-guitar and putting on the most colourful Eddie Vedder impersonations imaginable. Cover band groupies - surely only in Chile, and only in a student bar! Then just when we were reaching saturation point, Nina went down to the basement level to the bathroom, only to appear five minutes later with the biggest grin on her face announcing that there was an Iron Maiden cover band playing downstairs. So off we went to check it out. The band was actually pretty amazing and after a few more beers we found ourselves moshing to Iron Maiden with a throng of 18-year olds until the early hours. I tell you what - if you ever want to feel young again, this is the ticket!

At about 5am when the band finished we finally called it a night and walked back to the hostel. Apart from lots of students, Valparaiso also has lots of street dogs which hang around in packs, quite a common thread in most South American cities actually. So after befriending a couple of the bigger dogs on the way home, they decided to follow us. Very quickly the couple of dogs turned into six or seven as others devotedly started following their leaders. Now normally this would be completely harmless, except the dogs actually started attacking people who got too close to us. The first attack was just aggressive barking but then they started viciously biting some poor guy on his way home. We tried shouting at the dogs but there was nothing we could do to stop them so at this point we tried to bail. But you try losing a pack of dogs... even when we eventually got back inside the hostel, the dogs sat outside the door waiting for us. Hectic stuff. But hey, there are two sides to every coin - if you’re ever in South America and don’t want to get mugged, just go and befriend a street dog. Simples!

Sadly after two great weeks, we had to leave Chile as we had decided not to go further south but rather to spend time in the north of Argentina where the weather was better. So we caught a bus from Valparaiso across the border to Mendoza during the daytime, as the pass is spectacularly beautiful. Mendoza produces 80% of Argentina’s red wine, so with our thoughts now firmly fixed on the prospect of great steak and lashings of cheap red wine, we entered Argentina in high spirits.

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Photos

Colonisation celebrations
Yes really - we thought it was a bit strange that the Indians would also be celebrating!

Picnic spot
Alcohuaz

Colourful houses
Valparaiso

Outside our hostel
Valparaiso

Celebrations in the square
Pisco Elqui

Comments

[Fooches]

Pretty Panini getting pisssss...co'd!! Gotta love that sneaky sour, almost as hallucinogenic as those Brazilian caipirinha's!! xxxx