Vina del Mar, Valparaiso and Santiago

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After arriving safely in Santiago, we immediately transferred to the seaside city of Vina del Mar where we were spending Chris’ 30^th birthday. We flew from Calama after spending the previous 3 days crossing the Salar de Uyuni and Atacama Desert. Having not showered since we left La Paz I was extremely relieved when we were told the overnight buses were fully booked, leaving us no option other than to fly. We had to reach Vina, as it’s known by the locals, before the 4^th of November to ring in the 31^styear of Chris Stanton’s life and we were quickly running out of time.

After the 2 hour flight to Santiago we then got straight onto a 1 ½ hour bus to Vina. When we arrived we checked into our hostel, welcomed by the friendly owner Patricio. We were staying at Little Castle on Cerro Castillo, where Berni and I had a spacious double room with shared facilities for US$45.00 per night. We highly recommend Little Castle, it feels like a home away from home and Patricio is quite the entertaining host. Since entering Chile, we’d found the price for a double room had almost tripled, but from here on it would be something we’d have to get used to. Once we settled in, we gave Chris his birthday present – a bottle of the Panamanian rum the boys had become quite fond of – Abuelo Ron. We’d been lugging it around since we we’d left Ecuador and were eager to off load. We then decided to go check out the beaches. Patricio gave us some brief directions but somehow the boys managed to get us lost. When you are walking uphill, chances are you aren’t on the right path and are in fact walking away from the beach. However, after asking around we eventually found the smaller of the two beaches which we followed around to the lengthy main beach. It was good to be on the coast again, after so much time in the Andes, and to see a beach with actual waves like home. But as Berni pointed out in his blog entry (about Peru’s beaches) they don’t even come close to comparing to the like of Australian beaches. The main beach stretched on for kilometres, to a place called Renaca. This is where Chris was staying with his friend Pablo, a Vina local who’d met Chris during the few years he’d spent in Newcastle. When we made it back to the hostel around 7.30pm the sun had only just begun to set. Chris took off to meet Pablo, while Berni and I settled in for a quite night.

The following day was Chris’ birthday. In the morning Berni and I went to the beach. The sun was out and it was a perfect day. We lazed about on the sand, wishing the water wasn’t so cold to go for a swim. The water looked inviting enough, but it was absolutely freezing and I only ever managed to dip a toe in. The chilly Humboldt Current was to blame… traveling along the coast of Peru and Chile tormenting swimmers and eager surfers. Chris had to wear gloves when he surfed Chicama in Peru otherwise he’d lose the function of his fingers. Also while we were relaxing on the beach we spotted a sea lion playing in the waves, a telltale sign of the chilly temperature. We then met up with Chris and Pablo who Pablo introduced us to a new gastronomic delight. It is known as a completo and is essentially a variation on the American hotdog eaten in Chile. Besides bread and sausages; it’s usually served with chopped tomatoes and avocado, mayonnaise, sauerkraut and cheese. They’re extremely tasty and good for the backpacker budget too, so needless to say we sampled a few during our short time in Chile. After lunch we picked up ingredients for our Chilean barbeque to celebrate Chris’ 30^th. It was a perfect afternoon for a barbeque and spirits were high. We caught the bus to Renaca and set up on Pablo’s balcony. Pablo prepared the barbeque for our endurance feast – Chilean style. With chorizo, chicken pieces, whole onions cooked in their skin in the fire, slow cooked beef and a huge salad which I insisted on after seeing how much meat was bought at the supermarket. We watched the sunset from Pablo’s balcony overlooking the beach then danced to Rod Stewart’s ‘Rhythm of My Heart’ in front of a bewildered looking crowd of Pablo’s friends. After consuming Chris’ birthday present – the Abuelo Ron, we caught a bus into Vina to carry on the celebrations. I didn’t last too much longer, and neither did Berni. After we continued with where we left off with Rod, dancing up a storm in a bar full of people, but none of them dancing, I decided to call it a night. Berni walked me home with every intension of returning to the bar. But once we made it back to the hostel, I vomited, too much food, too much Ron. Poor Berni who was cleaning it up, was so disgusted, he vomited too. He was so disappointed that he’d broken is 2011 zero vomit record and placed the blame heavily on me. We then put ourselves to bed leaving Chris and Pablo to carry on without us. However, the next day we discovered that Pablo passed out at the bar and Chis, now the mature 30 year-old had to get him on a bus and back to Renaca. But despite its end, it was definitely one of the best nights we’ve had! So thank you Chris!

The rest of our time in Vina was fairly low key, except for Berni and Chris’ repeat of Chris 30^th the following night, this time to celebrate one of Pablo’s friend’s bucks night. I hung out at the hostel chatting to Patricio, who was babbling-on like a schoolgirl over a new love interest. He is 45 mind you. He’d only recently broken up with his girlfriend of 3 years because she was getting to clingy, when his mother met the mother of his high school flame at a funeral and passed on his details. When I caught Patricio in the lounge room it was minutes after she’d called him to arrange a meeting so needless to say he was fairly excited. The following day Berni and I got on a bus to Valparaiso. Only 20 minutes from Vina del Mar, Valparaiso is one of the country’s largest seaports, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and considered the cultural capital of Chile. Patricio gave us directions but neither of us retained the information, something about a big clock, so didn’t know when to get off the bus. We eventually did at a completely random intersection to find we weren’t too far off the hostel. We just had to walk a little bit further along the shoreline and up an enormous hill. One of those hills where you think you’ve reached the top, only to find it keeps on going. It was tough going with the backpacks in the blaring heat but now at sea level again and free from altitude related hardships we had no excuse. We tried to get a room at Hostal Luna Sunrisa to hangout with our new friends Scott and Julia but unfortunately there was no availability. We were pointed in the direction of Hostal Acuarela, directly across the road where we ended up in a double with shared facilities for US$50. It was a really quaint hostel with a beautiful wrought iron spiral staircase. We also had it pretty much to ourselves which was nice as we able to have Scott, Julia and Chris over for dinner one night. Most hostels won’t allow non-guests to enter, but as we were on our own it wasn’t a big deal. We spend the evening squashed around a tiny table on the rooftop terrace overlooking Valparaiso, sharing a litre bottle of vino tinto and trading stories. It was very cozy.

In the end we spent 3 nights in Valparaiso. During the days we explored the city on foot. We found it was the best way to appreciate the labyrinth of colourful streetscapes, cobblestone alleyways and street art galleries. The hillsides are worth exploring, but once we found the city centre we discovered it to be fairly grimy, still safe during the day but lacking in the boho charm of the upper suburbs. However, once you’ve arrived in the city centre, you then catch one of Valparaiso’s famous acensors (elevators) connecting the centre to its residential hillsides. We caught one of the oldest acensors, Ascensor Cordillera built in 1883. It gave me a fright as it jolted to a start but otherwise it felt relatively safe and beat taking one of the steep footpaths.

While we were in Valparaiso I came down with pharyngitis and a fever, so we when we eventually arrived into Santiago, our home for the following 4 nights, we kept our activities relatively subdued. We found a spacious double room with shared facilities at Casa Condell for US$50.00 per night. It was fairly central, just off Aveneda Providencia from where we could walk or catch the Metro to just about anywhere. When I started to feel better we ventured into El Centro, passing through one of the cities nicer barrios, Barrio Brasil on the way. When we made it to the main square, Plaza de Armas, we were confronted with a small student protest, still lingering on from the newsworthy August riots. Although it was a fairly non-violent affair, the city’s riot police were at hand armed with their riot tanks. Trying to avoid the crowds we quickly got a glimpse of the impressive Catedral Metropolitana before heading straight to the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. Berni isn’t too fussed over museums or galleries, so we don’t overload ourselves with them, but like our guidebook we can highly recommend this one. It’s filled with tonnes of interesting artifacts from pre-Colombian civilisation, including the fascinating and eerie looking Mapuche sculpters – 19^th Century wooden grave effigies, and the equally intriguing Chinchorro mummies, the oldest example of mummified human remains. Finally our last stop for the day was Palacio Cousino, built by the French architect Paul Lathaoud between 1870 and 1878. Unfortunately we the guided tours weren’t running as the building had suffered structural damage during the recent earthquake. Instead we were shown around its exterior free of charge by a guide who spoke English and pointed out as much she could without going in.

Also while we were in Santiago, we climbed the nearby Cerro San Cristobal, in Parque Metropolitano. It isn’t very hard considering you reach the summit via the funicular from Plaza Caupolican in Barrio Bellavista. But from the summit you get to appreciate Santiago in its entirety. You might even get a glimpse of the distant snow tipped Andean peaks which are only just visible behind the smoggy cloud that covers the city. Once the funicular delivered us back to Plaza Caupolican, we then walked to the Cementerio General de Santiago. It was a warm, sunny day so we appreciated the cemetery’s tree lined streets when we arrived. The cemetery was definitely a highlight and I recommend it immensely (we’ve just been to Buenos Aires’ Cementerio de la Recoleta and both feel that apart from the grave of the Argentines beloved Eva Peron, isn’t as impressive). It’s a city within itself with streets and streets of tombs each more impressive than the next. And it spans such an area it could be considered its own suburb. We got lost amongst the narrow streets which isn’t hard to do and found that the already eerie atmosphere heightened by the recent damaged caused by the recent earthquake. Parts of some of the tombs left crumbling. Once we found the entrance again we both agreed that it was worth the walk.

After our last night in Santiago we were up early for an 8.45am bus over the Argentina border and onto Mendoza, Argentina’s wine country. We were sad to not see more of Chile as we had enjoyed it so much. But now we just have more reasons to come back.

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Photos

Birthday in Vina
Celebrating Chris's birthday with Pedro overlooking Renaca and Vina del Mar

Chef Pablo
Pablo barbequed us a Chilean feast for Chris' birthday

You won't believe it, but this guy is 30!
We couldn't let the moment pass with out a cake and novelty candles

The colourful streets of Valparaiso
We spent a day wandering through the streets Valparaiso checking out all the colourful street art

One of Valparaiso's famous ascensors
There are several ascensors (elevators) in Valparaiso connecting the residential hills to the shoreline

Graffiti art in Valparaiso
Graffiti art is everywhere in Valparaiso. This one was en route to our hostel and was my favourite

Piano stairs
Another example of Valparaiso's popular street arts scene

Catedral Metropolitana in Plaza de Armas
We visited Santiago's Catedral Metropolitana in Plaza de Armas during one of the calmer riots but riot police and their riot tanks were present

Mapuche sculptures at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino
These interesting wooden sculptures are 19th century grave effigies carved by the local Mapuche indigenous people

Pre-Colombian Chinchorro mummies
At the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, The oldest mummified human remains

Overlooking Santiago and the distant snow tipped Andean peaks
The view from the summit of Cerro San Cristobal in the cities Parque Metropolitano

The funicular to Cerro San Cristobal's summit
On our way back down Cerro San Cristobal via the funicular. It was old an rickety and the conductor stopped it by causing it to short circuit

Comments

[Tahlei]

I love the piano stairs! I'll definitely have to get to Chile one day, especially to see this amazing cemetery. I do love a good cemetery, always have!