Category Archives: Chile

Today we were headed out of Santiago to the coast. We breakfasted early and packed our backpacks for an overnight trip. (I felt a tiny bit guilty about my kind sponsor for the trip paying for  the room when we weren’t using it but I got over that!) Then we hopped in the hotel car and headed for the bus station. Yup, we were traveling like locals – except for the hotel taxi part. We  would have taken the subway but it was rush hour and we’re not that adventurous!

Granted we weren’t taking the local bus where you stand a the bus stop until one arrives. We had reserved seats on the 8.25 bus to Valparaiso using one of the local bus companies – think Greyhound or Stagecoach.  The first challenge was to finding the right bus station: apparently Santiago has 7 of them! And of course the driver dropped us off at the wrong one!  How did I know? My toddler Spanish of course! ¿Está este autobus aqui? ¿No – donde?. We were able to figure out we needed to go the terminal next door and managed to board the correct bus.

And then we barreled to the coast through the mists of the Casablanca valley where the white wine grapes grow well. We passed through a range of hills and then were at the coast. We disembarked and started walking to our hotel through some very interesting parts of the city. I’ve often wondered if they choose to put bus stations in unsavoury parts of town or if the causality runs the other way. After about half an hour we appeared to have arrived at the center of town and faced our first experience of Valparaiso – hills. 42 of them to be precise (or 44 according to some accounts so maybe not so precise!) We managed the slog up Cerro Allegre to San Enrique street and our home for the night.

I don’t always randomly pick a good hotel from online websites but this time we hit the jackpot. The Augusta Apart Hotel is a small boutique place with just 6 rooms. Ours was number 4 with an AMAZING view of the city and the harbor – if you look at the hotel website, it’s the second from the top. The owner allowed us to check in early so we could drop off our backpacks and do some planning. She also walked us through some suggestions for what to do and where to go and then made dinner reservations for us at her recommended restaurant. Perfecto! So it was off to do some wandering which is definitely our thing. Valparaiso is built on a series of hills with funky architecture and pretty random buildings stuck to the sides of the slopes. Colorful houses, a definite bohemian vibe and more street art (and graffiti) than you an possibly imagine.  And we wanted to see it all plus eat some fresh seafood and enjoy the coast.

It was chillier here than in Santiago but by the time we got moving the morning fog had burned off and we had lovely walking weather. It would have been lovelier if there was some part of the city besides the harbor that was flat but at lease we’d be earning our lunch! We wandered all over (read: up and down) taking in the sights before heading to a lovely place for lunch. I had “sealed tuna” – Google translate doen’t ALWAYS get it quite right – and Frank had the flat iron steak – both with Chilean wine of course! The fog/mist moved in and out through out the day so some photos are better than others.

I know that I tend to post a LOT of photos of street art but this time it just isn’t possible to show it all. I have posted below the art of a duo known as Un Kolor Disntinto from Santiago who have really covered the spaces of Valparaiso with their oddly intriguing work.

So after covering at least 3 of the hills, we needed a break. Back to our lovely hotel for a glass of wine and some down time. A shower and several hands of cribbage later, we were back out wandering the streets – this time in search of sunset views. While Valparaiso does look over the Pacific, the part of the city we were in faced north which doesn’t do much for sun rise or set. I had read a recommendation for having a drink on the patio of a particular hotel so we toddled along, glad that it was close to the restaurant. The “sunset view” was a bit of a disappointment but the pisco sours were lovely. Then it was time to go to La Concepcion for our 8pm dinner reservation. What a fantastic meal! The view over the harbor was outstanding – made even more so when we go to watch the moon rise. We had a local savignon blanc (I’m coming around to this wine!) and ceviche to start. Then it was Frank’s turn for tuna while I had some local fish that I never could translate correctly (I suspect it was hake) but everything was delicious! Then back to the hotel for a breathtaking view of the city at night for the 10 minutes we were able to stay awake.

Data for today:

• Steps: 20,909 or 9.7 miles
• Flights climbed: 62 (felt like 1,062!)
• Cribbage standings: Frank 2, San 1 (this round!)
• Minutes to fall asleep: <Missing>

Today is one of the few days where we have something formal planned: a wine tour! We are usually the “we’ll do it ourselves” type but that would involve driving after wine tasting which is no fun at all. So we booked a tour and joined 10 others plus a tour guide and driver for a day of vinotourism in the Maipo Valley.

After a hearty breakfast, we were the first pickup for the tour. In the 1 hour that it took to get through the city with the additional pickups, we were joined by a father and daughter from Stornaway (LOVE the island accents!), two new lawyers from England, two young lassies (as they say at home) from London, two more from the Netherlands, and then two lovely ladies from Austrailia. In our comfy minivan with Juanito at the where and Carmalita doing commentary on Chilean history, we were off to the Maipo Valley. (Side note: our van apparently interupted a news conference that the mayor of Santiago was having on the stree outside the government building. If anyone sees that footage with a van of waving tourists in the background, please let me know.)

Our first stop was a family farmsted/winery that produces a relatively small amount for local consumption. We learned about the history and the “production process” – very human capital intensive! And then we got to taste the wine – the most generous pours I have ever had at a winery. Interspersed with the wine were generous shots of pisco, the distilled grape liquor that is a staple in Chile and Peru. So our Chilean breakfast was an excellent first stop.

After our tasting and visit to the family alpacas (so cute!), we were off to the next vinyard. A slightly larger establishment with fabulous views and an equally lovely carmeniere (which may have purchased a few bottles of… 😯

Then to another winery where there was no formal tasting but instead we got lunch. To accompany some delicious risotto, we polished off a bottle of lovely rosé. By this time we were all very friendly and a wonderful time was being had by all. Our final stop was a very established winery where we toured the vinyards and then tasted a variety of both red and white wines. While I consider myself well versed in the production of wine, it was very interesting to hear how different families decided to implement their dream in the southern hemisphere.

After much imbibing (muchas bebidas!) it was time to head back to the city. On the way I got word that my case had finally arrived from Madrid. You may recall that we were never in Madrid but apparently my luggage got the opportunity. (I feel like this is the old Groucho Marx joke about shooting an elephant in his pajamas!) We returned from a day of drinking to my lost belongings and were very happy to celebrate with dinner at a local restaurant that featured a bottle of carmeniere from one of the visited wineries.

Data for today:

• Wines/piscos tasted: 13
• Kilometers traveled: Who knows? Ask Juanito.
• Bottles acquired: 2 full/2 minis.
• Laughs had: Uncountable.

After a good 10 hours of sleep, we finally felt like things were on the right track. Of course we are still missing half our belongings – mine – but we are trying to make the best of it. So we started the day with a lovely hot shower and a nice breakfast in the hotel. Well mostly a nice breakfast with whatever the teenage soccer team was kind enough to leave for the rest of us. If you’ve ever fed a teenager, you know what a whole group of them can consume. I think locusts eat less!

Nonetheless, fed and wearing clean clothes we headed out to see what Santiago had to offer us. The morning was misty and cool and we headed toward the touristy area because we knew that most things in Santiago are closed on Sunday. So off we went. But first we had a very important quest: to find deoderant! For reasons I can’t recall, Frank packed his deoderant in my errant case. So we had already gone a full day without any sweat-and-odor blockers. Going another day, even as freshly showered folks was just too painful. We covered an extensive amount of the city in search of an open shop that might have what we need. Not only were they few and far between but most of them didn’t have what we needed. (Interestingly they ALL had fabric softener. I wonder what’s up with laundry here?!)

Finally we stumbled upon a pharmacy that was open so we were able to procure the necessary Speed Stick (gotta compromise sometimes!) and then it was off to the Barrio Bellavista. It’s a lovely neighborhood with shops and restaurants – many of which were still closed – that is very fun to wander around. (Warning: Street art photos coming!). After a lot of window shoping and general meandering, we stopped at a restaurant in Patio Bellavista to get some drinks and use some wifi to plan the rest of our day. We decided to grab something to eat too. We should have stopped at drinks. The sangria and pisco sour were very nice. The food was mediocre. But refueling is necessary so we chalked this up as a lesson learned and headed out for more exploring.

So it was street art time! The Bellavista neighborhood is positively crawling with it so we are only posting a small sample but as new converts to this type of art, we thoroughly enjoyed the discoveries. Of course some parts of the neighborhood were challanging – not used to stepping over fresh human urine on a sidewalk on Sunday afternoon – but it’s all part of the experience!

Not content with just wandering at street level, it was time to go UP. To the Shrine of the Immaculate conception on the top of San Cristóbal Hill. It’s about 850 meters above sea level and about 300 meters above the rest of the city. Although climbing up such a hill would be right up my alley, we chose to take the funicular up and then walk down. The day had cleared and brilliant sunshine was the weather for the day. We got some amazing views of the city and the Andes from the top of the hill before our trek back down.

During the course of the day, I received a text and email saying that my luggage was on its way. Of course BA decided to send it to Madrid before sending it to Santiago so it wasn’t due to arrive until tomorrow. Now, this is the third message from the delivery company in two days with a different arrival time/date/route so I have ZERO faith that anything will arrive at any time soon. So guess what: British Airways is buying me some stuff! I only packed one spare outfit in my carry on because I’m apparently an optimist. But now we are in dangerous territory: I don’t have much in the way of clean clothing and in 2 days, I’m in business “time to take me seriously” mode. Nothing about a linen tunic, leggings, and sneakers says “I’m a data expert” so there better be some delivery happening soon!

But one step at a time. On our way back to the hotel from the top of San Cristóbal Hill, we had to pass the Costanera Centre which is a GINORMOUS MALL. Not being a huge fan of the favorite American pastime of shopping, I reluctantly entered the megamall.  I was just impressed that it was open on Sunday and allowed me to acquire a change of clothing that was, quite frankly, desperately needed. 

We found the shop that appeared by the layout and prices to be the Chilean JC Penny and headed to find something comfortable that I would actually wear again.  I grabbed some grey leggings-that-look-like-trousers and a respectable if somewhat lightweight top and headed for the dressing room (probador).  Here my inability to actually understand spoken Spanish became quite evident.  Once at the front of the queue for a changing room, the very kind woman keeping things in order told me something that appeared to be important.  Of course, I had no idea what it was so I tried to ask nicely what on earth she was saying.  Eventually it came out that she was trying to tell me the rooms were all full (occupada) which I would have totally gotten if it was written down.

Then it was on to underwear and socks. Fine. Got those. Now we need to check out. (Necesito pagar). I follow the signs to the checkout only to find a bank of self scan computers. Weird but whatever. I try to use one and a woman appears behind the bank of computers and barks something completely incomprensible at me. So of course I run away like any respectable chastised tourist. After wandering around looking for another option to pay for my purchases and finding no obvious options, we head back and wonder if I had somehow made a different error. There was a customer at the counter who was clearly buying something so was it possible I jumped a queue? I tried again to stand patiently behind the gentleman who was in the middle of a transaction and the same woman barked EVEN LOUDER at me something I was never going to decipher and pointed across the shop.

So off I scurried wondering how I was going to manage this. There was a customer service type area with a kindly faced man behind the counter. I remembered enougth Spanish to ask where I should go (Necestito ayuda. Engles? Where do I pay? Donde pago?) and he pointed me to another stand where I was able to finally hand over my $70.000 CL (about £70) for my purchases so we could escape my shopping hell.

But not yet apparently because there was the most AMAZING grocery store in the megamall that cried out for exploring. I have never been in such a large shop in my life. They sold everything under the sun from clothing to cameras to cheese (the cheese counter was to die for!) so we picked up a few more things that we needed either because they were still in the errant case (hair gel) or because it was time for some fun (£5 bottle of Carmenere, GF cookies, and chocolate). So now it was time to head back to the hotel because, frankly, we were beat.

We took a little time to have a glass of wine and google where to eat. Yes the hotel restaurant was an option but no one goes to another continent to have a meal in the Intercontinetal. Unfortunately, Chilean culture seems to dictate that people eat at home on Sundays so most restaurants are closed. We did find one nearby that had the right combination of good wine, reasonable prices, and not a long walk. So off we went to Baco and what a lovely place it was. Technically French food but fantastic nonetheless. I had a filet with Bernaise and funky chips. Frank had beef bourguigon. And lovely deserts. Two glasses of wine each. And it was cheaper than the mediocre tourist lunch we had. Lesson learned. (Note: A Duolingo fail is that I had no idea how to order my steak. Medium isn’t a thing apparently so after much negotiating with the camerara who didn’t speak much English – but was trying – I guessed at something that turned out to be medium rare. Very acceptable!

Data for today:

• Number of steps: 30,598 (or 14.8 miles)
• Amount BA owes me so far: £75
• Number of time I had to aplogize in Spanish (¡Lo siento!):5

I’m fairly certain that anyone who has traveled any distance lately knows that it is no longer an enjoyable experience. Without ranting about lack of services, tiny spaces, and rude/entitled passengers, one of the hardest parts is just the amount of time it takes to get places. Of course when timetables and schedules aren’t adhered to, it just makes things even more ugly.

We knew that travel was going to be difficult if for no other reason than we were on separate tickets which meant that if things went south for one of us they wouldn’t necessarily be bad for the other. So we decided to get to the Aberdeen airport super early to make sure we could chat with the folks and check in and get everything sorted. Except no. The check in desk for British Airways doesn’t open until 2 hours befor the flight so we already had time to kill. So first round of drinks was in order!

By the time we got to check in, we already knew that our flight to London was delayed by about 30 minutes which would make the connection tight if not impossible. We phoned BA to ask about alternatives but all they said was “there’s an alternative route to follow” but who knows what that meant. They checked the bags through to Santiago and then we had nothing to do but wait. For another 3 hours. Because our flight was delayed by more than an hour making the connection impossible. We landed in Heathrow and found that we had been rebooked for first thing in the morning (6:15am!) to Barcelona (in the entirely wrong direction) where we would connect to an Iberian airlines nonstop to Santiago (14 hours!). We had vouchers to get food at the M&S food shop in Terminal 5 – which you couldn’t use for alcohol so we tried to figure out how to spend £40 on thing that didn’t need cooking and could go on the plane with us the next day. {sigh}

Then a bus to the Renaissance hotel where we were staying for approximately 4 hours. They orignally gave us a room that had been stripped but not made up -ugh! Now I know what hotel matresses really look like. 😦 We got another room and proceeded to try to get a few hours kip. Up at 4am, shower, and Uber back to the terminal because the shuttle service didn’t start for another 45 minutes. We get through security and find somewhere to spend our £20 in vouchers for breakfast. The flight to Barcelona was short and uneventful. Then things got weird.

As soon as we landed, it said we needed to go to the gate for our flight to Santiago. Although we had an Iberia Air flight code, the airline we were actually flying was called Level and might be the Spanish long haul version of Ryan Air. The boarding process was supposed to start at 9:40 for a 10:55 departure – it takes a while to board an Airbus 330 – but no one showed up at the gate until 10am. Then the boarding process was an absolute nightmare. After waiting our turn in Grupa 4 (out of 4), our BA boarding passes didn’t work so we had to stand in another line to get Level boarding passes. Which also didn’t work. So we had to get back into the boarding pass line to get our passport info updated in the system. THEN we could board the plane.

The flight itself was fine. There was nearly enough leg room. There was a handful of movies we could watch – not nearly enough to cover 14 hours but I can watch the Lego movies over and over. We did get meals and even though my GF meal request didn’t transfer, one of the meal options they had was marked as GF in the menu. Because not all the tickets included a meal so some people had to buy them. As you had to do with snacks during the flight. We consumed mucho wino which we expected to claim back from BA but they never got around to charging us so I didn’t complain.

And then we sat. And sat. And sat. I finished the new Richard Osman book (warning: there is a sad part which had me crying on an airplane) and proceeded to watch old movies (Zodiac, I am Legend, Lego Movie 2) and tried to keep my keester from falling asleep.

Eventually we landed at 8pm local which would be 1am UK time or about 21 hours after we woke up in London. Then to passport control – fine – and baggage claim – not fine. BA is now 0 for 2 for delivering Cannon luggage this year. In March it was Frank’s stuff that took 2 days to find us in Switzerland. Now it was my bag that was missing. Luckily I had packed a change of clothes in my carry on but that would only do for one day. I went to the lost baggage desk and realized that all the Duolingo baby Spanish would actually come in handy because not everyone speaks English. Like the woman at the lost baggage desk. Luckily I know enough Spanish to tell her the color of my case (gris) and to know when she wanted the address of the hotel (dirrection) and my email address (correo electronico). I also understood that the bags would come tomorrow (mañana) and then a flood of emails from the airline- also in Spanish – told me the same thing except in contradictory information.

Luckily we had transport waiting for us so off to the hotel to check in, grab a glass of lovely Chilean Malbec, get ourselves sorted and off to bed nearly 24 hours after waking up more than 7000 miles away.

Data for today:

• Number of times I said “Gracias” – 2,000 give or take
• Number of flights boarded: 3
• Number of flight my suitcase seems to have been on: 5
• Number of ibuprofen consumed: 6
• Level of gratitude for finally arriving: 14/10