Category: Santiago and Nearby

Today is our last day in South America. ☹️

We had breakfast and then headed to Valparaiso, about 1 1/2 hour drive from Santiago. Valparaiso is on the coast and is dominated by hills, San Francisco type hills.  It’s known for its steep funiculars and colorful, clifftop homes.  It got foggier and foggier as we got closer to Valparaiso.

We decided to visit Neruda’s Valparaiso house first, hoping that the weather would improve while we were in the house.  I liked it better than Neruda’s Santiago house because I felt like I got a better sense of the man.  It was actually three houses blended together.  Pictures of the interior were not allowed however here’s a picture of the view of colorful houses from Neruda’s home.

After leaving there we headed towards Cerros Concepción and Alegre to see the colorful houses and graffiti.  We wandered for awhile, just taking in the grafitti.  There was grafitti everywhere you looked.  Also there were interestingly decorated houses.

Here’s picture of just some of the graffiti.

Here are pictures of the area.

We had a wonderful lunch in a small restaurant that we just wandered into.  After a late lunch we headed back to the car.

Our flight didn’t leave until 9:50 so we had some time to kill.  We decided we would stop in winery in the Casablanca valley.  A cool climate and temperatures that vary greatly from day to night have made this valley halfway between Santiago and Valparaíso one of Chile’s best regions for fruity Chardonnays, Sauvignon Blancs and Pinots.  Randomly we picked a winery called Viña Indomita.  We were lucky and got a private tour of the winery from a very nice young man who’s English was great and who was studying to be an industrial engineer.  We learned a lot.  Here are a couple of pictures of the winery.

After the tour we tasted the wine.  Here are the labels of the wine we tasted.

It had been a wonderful day but now it was time to head to the airport.  We had no trouble finding the airport or returning the car.  However at the airport I opened my suitcase to get some pants out for the trip home and the zipper on my suitcase broke.  Luckily I was able to get it shrink wrapped and even luckier TSA didn’t feel the need to open it.  We flew all night to Atlanta.  Unfortunately neither of us slept much.  Then we headed home to Boston.  Vacation is over.  Good news is the next one is about a month away!

We began our day by crossing the river (below is a picture of the river, it’s very, very low this time of year)

and walking over to the Cerro San Cristobal. We took the funicular to the top. Here’s a picture of the city from the the funicular.

On the top of the hill is an outdoor church with a 14m-high Virgin Mary. We explored the area for awhile.

We took a gondola back down the hill.

We have another day in Santiago when we come back from Easter Island and before our flight that evening. Someone in Puerto Varas told us we should go to Valparaiso so we are trying to organize a visit for our last day. We decided we would rent a car on our return to Santiago and drive there. So after Cerro San Cristobal, we visited the Hertz office and booked a car.

We went back to Barrio Lastarria for lunch and then went to Pablo Neruda’s house. He was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician, winner of the Nobel Prize for his poetry and lived from 1904-1973. It was very interesting but we couldn’t take pictures inside the house.

That evening we went back to Barrio Lastarria for dinner. There are a lot of restaurants in Barrio Lastarria so we never repeated a restaurant.

At breakfast this morning we saw the French family that we talked to when we were in Puerto Varas on February 22. They are staying at the same hotel. Small world!

We started our day by walking to the fish market.  Around the outer edge of the market there were many vendors selling fresh fish,  and there was a large restaurant in the middle. Here are pictures of the fish market.

There were vendors selling fruits, vegetables, and flowers near by.

We continued walking around town. Here are some pictures of government buildings and the Plaza de Armas.

We stopped for coffee and briefly talked to our waiter who had recently migrated from Venezuela. As we continued our walk we came across couple of street performers dancing.

While we were walking a woman told Rick that he needed to carry his camera tightly because there were many thieves. We also saw a lot of homeless people. We saw one guy protesting with a sign outside of the Chilean Supreme Court. It felt like there was a far amount of social strife.

Before lunch we went to Cerro Santa Lucía, a hill that was transformed into a park. Here are pictures

We went to the Barrio Lastarria for lunch. Barrio Lastarria is a funky little neighborhood with lots of cool restaurants. We talked to the hostess whose English was very good. She was from Venezuela and had recently moved to Santiago with her boyfriend. They were both working and sending money home because things are really bad in Venezuela. We gave her our email and told her to come visit us.

After lunch we went back to the room and I worked on the blog.

That evening we went back to Barrio Lastarria for dinner. We had a lovely dinner at a rooftop restaurant. There are a lot of street vendors in Barrio Lastarria, particularly in the evening. It feels like people come out in the evening and sell stuff on the street to supplement their day job income. Some of the stuff looks the person’s old stuff.

We left Pucón and headed to Temuco where we caught a plane to Santiago. We arrived in Santiago at about 1:30. We were picked up at the airport by George, from Protours, and he took us to our hotel. While driving he answered a lot of our questions. We talked about Chilean wine and the best valleys for growing grapes.  He told us that Chile accepts a lot of migrants and it is a burden on their social systems. He also said that their biggest export is copper, most of which gets shipped to China where they make it into other things. He told us some good restaurants and a little bit about Santiago.  He talked about how many people had to have multiple jobs just to make ends meet.  We covered a lot of ground in just 30 minutes.

We got settled in our hotel room. As I mentioned before Rick broke the viewfinder protector on his camera. We had tried to find another one in Punta Arenas without any luck. So once we arrived in Santiago Rick looked up the local Nikon supplier and we were off to find a new protector for his viewfinder. We took the subway which was quite easy to navigate and found the store but no protector so it will have to wait until we get home.

Then we went out to find some lunch, a very late lunch. We went to a place on the other side of the river that George recommended. Food seems very expensive here and lunch for two is typically about $50. After lunch/dinner we walked around a little bit before heading back to the hotel and calling it a night.