Gringo star

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So a new month......a new continent.........a new country.........and a new city. We left Newzealand after almost 8 months on the road and headed for the 8th country of our trip and its most untrodden and unplanned section - South America.
Arrival was strange to say the least, our LAN Chile flight left Auckland for its 11 hour journey across the entire width of the Pacific ocean and arrived 4 hours before it left! The whole crews (including the captains) refusal/inability to speak any english was only a sign of things to come and the sheer rudeness of the air hostesses played out like a Latin American Lee Evans sketch. The only positive to the whole experience was flying over an invisible line where you instantly re gain 24 hours of your life and 8pm on Tuesday the 1st of April becomes Monday the 31st of May as quick as you can say "tengo saroche"

Santiago


Arriving tired/dazed/confused in any country can be daunting, but when the countries Chile, its even worse. Thankfully our transfer to our hostel was pretty smooth and thanks to that invisible line we arrived just in time to watch Liverpool beat Chelsea with a group including a lad we spent 2 days with on the slow boat in Laos 7 months ago, before hitting the sack pretty early (or was it late?) not knowing where the hell we were. After waking at midnight thinking it was time for breakfast, we finally got some sort of nights sleep and headed out to take in our new surroundings.
We were staying in an area of Santiago called Bellavista which is billed as the Bohemian district of what is an otherwise pretty uninteresting and functional city (once you have seen the cathedral, main square and dirty river...thats about it). Bellavista however has old spanish colonial buildings, bright colours, graffiti and a much more laid back feel - and even though its pretty small, its strange layout means that even a short walk can get you lost amongst its many streets.
The only land mark is the huge hill which on our second day we attcked on foot with a group from our hostel (Ronan and Lorna from Ireland, Dave from the slow boat and Min from Singapore). The 5km walk is hardgoing but the views and the huge white statue of the Virgin Mary at the top make it worth the effort. This was our first taste of the powerful Catholic imagery that we expect to continue seeing over the next few months and the bright white statue against a brilliant blue sky, softly piped music and peaceful views above an otherwise manic city made it a pretty inspiring experience.

The hostel we were staying in was called La Chimba and although a little ramshackle it proved to be a great choice, especially because of the people staying there. As well as being very friendly, most of them had done our trip in reverse and were heading off to New Zealand next which meant that they were all fantastic sources of information and advice, so guide books were swapped and stories told that will prove to be very useful on our onward journey.
On our second night at La Chimba we all took part in a Chilean wine tasting which was organised and led by the hostels manager Ian (an American who has lived in Chile for 16 years - looks like DLT) after tasting and emptying about 15 bottles of Chilean red wine between our small group we all staggerd out to find a local salsa club. I think our general state plus the fact that it was 2.30am meant we were turned away and instead ended up at the only place that would take us - a reggae club called "Were Jammin". Here 2quid not only gained you entry but a litre bottle of Escuda beer and a hangover worse than you could ever imagine. The night finally ended about 5am when me and Dave eventually gave up trying to remember the words to Wonderwall after I had found a guitar lying around in the hostel.
The following night we all vowed to take it a little easier, especially Ronan who had woken up in bed with an American guy named Mason - not his girlfriend Lorna who had opted for the upper bunk in their small dorm room.
After a meal in a neaby restaurant we all returned to find that Ian had organised a free salsa dancing lesson with a local expert and all made fools of ourselves to music before a massive game of "King of the shit-faced A-hole" finished off another great night in the company of some great people.

Our original plan was to make Chile a 2 night stop over en route to Peru, but after reading about a place 2 hours west of Santiago that had been granted UNESCO World Heritage status we prolonged our time in Chile - and that proved to be a fantastic decision when after taking two hours to find the Santiago Bus Station (I swear no-one speaks English) we took a two hour bus ride to Valparaiso.

Valparaiso


About 150 years ago Valparaiso was one of the busiest ports in all of South America, it being the first stop for ships having passed around Cape Horn. A major earthquake in 1906 and the building of the Panama canal in 1914 sent it into decline until recently when UNESCO recognised its unspoilt charms and granted it a World Heritage sight.

We arrived to accomdation recommended by our hostel in Santiago only to find that we were staying at someones house. Rene is half Cuban, half Chilean, a little camp and rents out 3 rooms in his house to travellers. All a little strange but his home´s location right in the heart of Valparaiso´s trendy hillside makes it as popular as it is and he has a constant flow of visitors from all around the world. Valparaisos beauty isnt obvious as it doesnt present itself to be clean and easy to appreciate. Tourism is still developing here, mainly because the years of neglect and decline left crime, poverty and prostitution leaving many areas a "´gringo no go zone" still to this day.

After Rene has finished marking off the areas we shouldnt step foot into he invites us to a concert that evening by Chiles most famous Pink Floyd tribute band, Prism. This seemed to bizzare an opoortunity to miss and although we were still suffering from jet lag (more of this later) the 3 quid ticket price made our minds up and later that evening we jumped aboard a local bus with Rene and headed for Valparaisos Teatro Municipal in the centre of town. The 500-600 capacity venue was full and thankfully all seated and the dry ice machine missed the stage and blinded the first 10 rows. After half an hour the band had played all the better known numbers and had drifted into synthesiser solos and more obscure album tracks sending Carla and about 5 Chilean guys in the row in front to sleep. 15 minutes later I began drifting off during 'Shine on your crazy diamond' so we called it a night even though the security guards initially refused to let us leave through the highly barracaded front doors.

The following day the sun shone and after a long lazy and lavish breakfast laid on by Rene we spent the whole afternoon exploring Valparaiso´s wonderful streets. It may be ramshackle, mismatched, a little dirty and full of stray dogs (who spend all day playing dead - making you have to step over them) but it has a wonderful bohemian charm and its 100 year old 'Ascensores' which are wooden lifts built into the hillsides, look like each 10p ride might be its last. Needless to say its a pretty unique place full of character and wonderful street art where one street may look a little dodgy and off limits but the next is full of street cafes and trendy restaurants. On our final night we sample one such' trendy' eaterie above an art house cinema where for 15 quid we eat the sort of meal in the sort of setting that would cost at least 5 times that at home.
Santiago


Our return to Santiago was for a planned one night before catching a flight to Peru. But after 8 months one of us finally succombs to the sort of stomach bug that keeps you up all night hugging the toilet and the whole next day sitting on it. And as I write we have had to delay our flight for 48 hours whilst I lie in bed sulking and telling myself I have Cholera.

It´s been a short, one blog stop in Chile and I think we will get a much better flavour of the continent from our onward stops. But Chile has its charm and is an eccentric country with a modern outlook, and whilst sulking in bed with man flu I have read up on a few more facts about its famous residents (including Pablo Neruda whos house we visited in Bellavista) and its turbulent history - and the following one I thought was pretty ironic......

There is a square (or plaza) in Santiago named September 11th which American tourists will often visit and commend Chileans on their thoughtfulness towards that day in US history. Truth is that it is in memory of Chile's (and the World's) first democratically elected Socialist leader - Salvador Allende - who on that date in 1973 was murdered in the US backed coup which brought to power the now infamous General Augustus Pinochet.

Paz

MandC

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Photos

Santiago old and new
A view from Plaza de Armas of the Cathedral and a nearby office block

A Bellavista house front
Beats stone cladding any day !!

Valparaiso hillside
I wouldnt fancy being the local postman in these parts

Going down
For 10p a time, Valparaisos many ancient Ascensores save you a calf burning walk through the hills

Nobody puts baby in the corner
Salsa dancing takes rythm, timing and patience.....which means we were sh$t at it !!!

Valparaiso back streets
Colourful, crazy, crumbling and cobbled.

Were Jammin
Matt and Dave ´get wi the wicked´ at Bellavistas number one Reggae venue

Valparaiso Ascensore
the oldest one in the town dates to 1883 and I dont think its had a service since then

Like a Virgin
Carla in the shadow of the statue atop Cerro San Cristobal

Classic admiring the view stance
L-R Lorna, Ronan, Carla, Minn and Dave try to see the nearby Andes thru the smog a top Santiagos Cerro San Cristobal

Too many cameras and too many beers
The gang from our Santiago hostel get all confused at ´Were Jammin´

Comments

[Chris]

SOLO YONKIS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hello to both of you (in a robot voice) I like Chile it looks fun. I was thinking of you two today as at work.. no word of a lie we have a tea machine called Parry and a.... lets say.. ladies bin called CLD!!!!

[james st. james]

your amazing adventure
you guys are living the dream. i imagine spending so much time "on the road" must take its toll, but it's an incredible (and enviable) adventure. i just wanted to say a couple of things about your chile entry. barrio bellavista has no colonial buildings. there are probably only about a dozen colonial buildings in santiago, since earthquakes have taken their toll over the centuries, and what nature has not destroyed, poor human decisions have done in and replaced with less than spectacular buildings (most, but not all). also, salvador allende was not murdered. he committed suiced, with a rifle given to him by fidel castro no less. i consider myself a leftist, so this isn't coming from some pinochet apologist (which includes about 1/3 of chileans) but his suicide is a fact. one can say that chilean democracy was murdered that day, but allende preferred to die at his own hands in the moneda than surrender democracy to the military junta. cheers!

[chilled2thecore]

Thanks for the Info
Hi James, thanks its always difficult to get the true facts from guidebooks and as our spanish is still shamefully below par its difficult to engage locals in conversation about their own countries even though this is always the best way to get a true picture of a place. (i presume your Chilean) Our guide book tells us a bomb killed allende, but the truth seems much more apt if not any less horrific so thanks for putting us straight. MandC

[rosalyn]

loving the blog guys! you should seriously consider a future in travel journalism when you're back! hope you're feeling better matt, have fun and miss you both x

[Pablo Mura]

My house !
Hello !! i'm From chile and this is my house ! :) nice picture ! Un gran saludo desde Santiago de Chile y bellavista house Only yonkis. Espero que hayan disfrutado mucho en mi país.