If Europe and South America had a baby, baby would look something like Chile. If baby then, for one reason or another, had a little too much to drink, baby would sound like a Chileno. "Buenodiaprecio..." Yep, total drunk baby. Still, despite baby's slurred speech she's just beautiful enough that I figured I would keep her around for awhile.
Chilean Coast
While Bogota, Colombia was pure latin spice, Santiago is something else all together. A forgotten European city.
My hostel located in Barrio Paris Londres
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Saturday October 24, 2009
Okay, so I feel like such a wimp. The plan for day one in Santiago was to arrive and go out and listen to some fabulous Chilean music.... but I was really really really tired when I arrived (tear tear) and after trying to sleep in a bumpy bus riding from Huancayo to Lima the night before, waiting in the airport for countless hours (I arrived in Lima at 5:30am and my flight was at 12:30), and flying in an airplane I just couldn't think of anything better to do than to wander the city a little bit before retiring to my lovely, quit hostel with a Corona (first time I've seen one in several months). So sorry, I wasn't too excited day one but here are some photos.
Modern architecture in Santiago. At night lazers images are shot up on to the side of the building.
Central Santiago.
Statue at sunset.
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Sunday October 25, 2009
So it turns out everything closes on Sundays... everything but the museums and parks. So that's exactly what I did museum, museum, museum, park, museum, museum, park, museum. A highlight of my museum tour would have to be the Pre-Columbian Art Museum.
Apparently gods dress themselves in the skins of other creatures: men, women, monkeys. This god just so happens to be dressed like a monkey.
Creatures covering up their jiblets.
Apparently, when you die (in pre-Columbian times of course) you get one of these above your grave sight. Sweet!
View from the top of the mountain
I also got to see this crazy catwalk during my tour of the city of Sunday. An architect's dream...
Crazy house in Santiago.
One of the many parks in Santiago.
After a long day of walking, it was finally time to eat (all day long I'd just been gorging myself on ice cream... one of these days I am going to have to figure out how to feed myself). Anyway, like I said, everything was closed so I searched my travel book and found a fabulous pizza place (and one of the only places open on Sundays) in a neighborhood far away from my own. So I decided to walk it instead of taking the metro. Why not, right? What else was I going to do? So anyway, an hour and a half later, I finally arrived (my feet are still crippled... I think it might be best to amputate my toes). So ya, I arrived and asked for a table for one.
"One!?!" hostess guy replied.
"Ya, one."
"You're alone?"
"Ya alone... table for one please"
And on and on in circles we went. I don't think people were meant to travel alone. For example, I wanted to go white water rafting. At first it was priced slightly over $100 for eight hours of rafting, a meal, blah, blah, blah... but then, when they found out it was just me, they hiked up the price to over $400. Seriously!?! Also, earlier in the day on Sunday I came across a travel agency, ran instead and tried to utter the words "I would like to go on a tour of... you know, wine farm..." Turns out the correct term would be "viña - vineyard." Anyway, once I finally got my idea across the tour guide set me up... only to totally take it back later. "Sorry, I just talked to my boss and we can't do it for just one person." Ugh! Oh well, actually, the wine tour ended up working out perfectly. I got to pay a low price, see more than what I was first scheduled to see and only had to do it all in Spanish. Totally good with me. Anyway, back to my meal. It was delicious! I ate the whole pizza and had an espresso martini as well. Love it. Then, I trekked the hour and a half back home, arrived around 11pm, and passed out. Nice!
Vegetable Pizza
Espresso Martini
Photo of people hanging out in one of the many parks and green spaces in Santiago that I came across on my way back from dinner. I think Peru could learn something from Chile (and Bogota for that matter). Green spaces and places to run, bike and roller blade make all the difference... seriously. I think in undergrad we even learned about the effects of having green spaces and trees around housing projects. It lowers the crime rate. Anyway, this was the first time I have smelled greenery in a long time. Being in Santiago strangely transported me back to Champaign.
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Monday October 26, 2009
Viña day!!! In the morning, I met up at the travel agency and was taken (along with a couple Brazilian girls) to Casas del Bosque, a boutique vineyard and winery. I had such a great time!
Beautiful beautiful barrels of goodness.
Baby Pinot Noir grapes.
Me and the barrels.
Trying some wines and totally pretending like I know what I am doing.
Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Syrah and some mixy wine (I totally forgot the name but it has four different types of grapes).
And while we were there, two women from California (San Diego to be exact. Do you know how hard I had to hold back the, "Do you know my Chrissy Barthel!?!") also came for the tour. Apparently they were drinking Chilean wine one night and decided, "Hey, let's go to Chile and try wine down there!!!" They were a lot of fun and it was so nice to see some Americans!"
After the winery, which took about five hours or so, we went to see the town of Valparaiso. It was a super crowded/somewhat poor port town.
Me and my Brazilian friends, Fernanda and Milene overlooking the port in Valparaiso.
Lunch! Yummy fresh fish right from the sea.
I am totally addicted to colorful S. American houses. If I ever buy a house in the U.S. I'm painting it lime green for sure.
After Valparaiso we went to Viña del Mar, a super ritzy ocean town. Apparently, the statue above is the only statue that's been taken off of Easter Island. Rummer has it that if you run around him three times and he smiles, you'll have good luck. Unfortunately, there was no smile for me. How sad!
Beach! And look at the people running!Beach shot two. I could have spent a whole day there.
So I ended my last full day in Santiago going to the Opera. Bet you didn't know that I was all types of fancy like that. Anyway, it was a good time. I saw La Italiana en Argel, about a bunch of Italian slaves in Turkey who dress just like Audrey Hepburn. Very funny... and I enjoyed the music too but I couldn't help but think of Adam Sandler as Opera man when they sang. I mean seriously, if the whole comedy thing doesn't work out Adam Sandler could totally go into Opera. I am sure of it.
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Tuesday October 27, 2009
So today has been an interesting day, to say the least. I had my first travel issue ever.... an ATM ate my debit card (a.k.a. my only access to cash). I can't say I handled it to well either and kept breaking into tears (f0llowed by laughter because I could hear how ridiculous my broken spanish sobs sounded) as I would try to explain that my card was stuck inside the machine. Anyway, all 500 of the silly Chilenos that I spoke to about my card could not do a thing, so I had no other choice but to leave my ATM card in Santiago. Thank goodness I have a few other credit cards and was able to talk to the kind people at VISA who gave me my pin number. Ahh, crisis adverted.
So now I am in Buenos Aires just for the night and tomorrow I'm heading up to Montevideo, Uruguay for a little fun on the beach! Cross your fingers that I am travel snafu free from here on out.
To be continued....
Baby Pinot Noir grapes.
Me and the barrels.
And while we were there, two women from California (San Diego to be exact. Do you know how hard I had to hold back the, "Do you know my Chrissy Barthel!?!") also came for the tour. Apparently they were drinking Chilean wine one night and decided, "Hey, let's go to Chile and try wine down there!!!" They were a lot of fun and it was so nice to see some Americans!"
After the winery, which took about five hours or so, we went to see the town of Valparaiso. It was a super crowded/somewhat poor port town.
Me and my Brazilian friends, Fernanda and Milene overlooking the port in Valparaiso.
Lunch! Yummy fresh fish right from the sea.
I am totally addicted to colorful S. American houses. If I ever buy a house in the U.S. I'm painting it lime green for sure.
After Valparaiso we went to Viña del Mar, a super ritzy ocean town. Apparently, the statue above is the only statue that's been taken off of Easter Island. Rummer has it that if you run around him three times and he smiles, you'll have good luck. Unfortunately, there was no smile for me. How sad!
Beach! And look at the people running!
