Valparaíso

Looking at things from a new angle

We went to Valparaiso which is a coastal town 1½  hrs away from Santiago. The hostel we were in was at the top of a small hill and we got there fine. The inside of it was amazing. The living room had a ceiling that was about 15 meters high! The whole building had a very industrial look to it. But the funny thing was that there were a trapeze bar and a silk rope hanging from the ceiling in the middle of the living room … in case you needed circus practice I’m guessing!

The most amazing thing was that sitting at the dinner table quietly having tea were Giuseppe and Stephanie who we had met in Arequipa, Peru almost two months before. It is indeed a small backpackers world.

 



Enjoying a drink and the view in a café 



An example of Street Art

Valparaiso is the town where the Chilean congress meets today and it lies on the equivalent of the Chilean “Côte d’Azur”. The who’s who of Chile usually owns a beach house outside Valparaiso, usually in Viña del Mar.

The particularity of Valparaiso is that it had hundreds of wall paintings and most of the houses lining the steep streets (the town is built along and in between a number of hills) are painted in vivid colours. We walked along many of the streets snapping away at the beautiful paintings.

That makes for funny streets

Neruda's ship

We also visited another house of Pablo Neruda here. This one too was a beauty. Sitting on the top of a hill, overlooking the harbour and delightfully decorated, it is a masterpiece. From there we walked all the way back down to the city Centre where we had a great ice cream at Emporio La Rosa, probably the best we’ve had so far : Roxana chose Raspberry-Mint and Ginger-Orange and I went for Chocolate-Orange and Mango-Green Tea.  

The following day we took a collectivo (tip-top) to go to Concón. I’m not kidding, that’s the name of this town 30km north of Valparaiso. We went there for only one reason : to try out a fish restaurant that was highly recommended to us by Francisca, our guide in the Free Walking Tour in Santiago.



That`s a nice surprise!



Ceramic mosaics



They're waiting for leftovers from the catch of the day 

The collectivo left us on the far side of Concón and we had to walk 45 minutes along the sea front to reach the restaurant called “La Gatita” (The Kitten). When we got there at 12.30 there were no tables available and we were asked to wait. They only had about 30 people eating at any one time and outside were about 12 chairs for people to wait. They were definitely a very popular restaurant.

The view is spectacular even if the clouds loom

While we were waiting the queue got bigger and bigger with hordes of hungry, soon to be customers : from friends on their day off to the colleagues on their lunch breaks and businessmen entertaining customers. After about 20 minutes they called out our names and we went in. We had a wonderful sea food platter with all kinds of goodies from the sea. It was so big that we shared between the two of us.

On our way back, the driver of the collectivo who had heard us talking started conversing with us in French!!! That was unexpected but it turns out he worked for 18 years in Switzerland as a truck driver. Anyway he gave us a good tip to walk from one end of the main shopping street in Viña del Mar to the other to catch another bus back home.

We enjoyed Valparaiso very much but had to make our way back to Santiago. 

For more pictures : Valparaiso

Santiago de Chile - Part I

Day 1: Arriving in Santiago de Chile

The ex-congress house

Santiago de Chile is the country’s capital. When we got to the bus terminal we immediately rushed to the metro (tube) station nearby as we had read that the taxis in this bustling city can cost an arm. Walking was ruled out because of the sheer size of this metropolis: Santiago is big, no huge and is home to 7 million people i.e. 40% of the country’s population. We went to the EcoHostel which prides itself to be environmental friendly: sorting bins, environmental messages everywhere, a board for guests to leave comments on, etc. 

I think I will seize this opportunity to comment about some of the improvements they could easily do to save heaps of water. Investing in a dishwasher instead of letting each and every guest  wash up will reduce this consumption by about 10 and fix their showers because in the current state of affairs it takes about 2 minutes to reach the balance of temperature again resulting in about 40L of water loss. Anyway they’re trying… 

A metro Station in Santiago

We put our bags down and immediately headed out to the ticket office downtown to get tickets for two very important events : Chile vs Paraguay WC2014 qualifyers and the Pearl Jam concert. We took the metro there and back. It’s amazing how this metro resembles the metro in Brussels. They must have been built around the same time and using the same model. When we reached home we flung by the supermarket to stock up on food and booze!

People playing chess in Plaza de Armas

Day 2 : Beer festival

Enjoying a dark beer - refreshing and comforting!

With Roxana taking care of the organization there was no way that we would miss any happening in this city. So, sure enough she read about the annual Beer Festival going on in Santiago’s select country club in the week-end. Chile welcomed a sizable German influx after the second world war. They did not only bring leather shorts and 6-hour long operas but also a big beer tradition. The festival takes place every year exactly 2 weekends after the Chilean “Oktober Fest”. In any case we sampled about 30 different beers and headed back into town a little bit “intoxicated”. We met François and Capucine at the Plaza de Armas and went on a stroll in the arty part of town called Lastarria. We enjoyed the relaxed atmosphere and had a drink to unwind from being constantly on vacation! Even though it was happy hour and Roxana had a Pisco Sour, I only had a Sprite …

More pictures of Santiago Beer Festival

Of course Belgian beer is also present

Day 3 : Free Walking Tour

La Moneda filled with history and symbolism

On the third day we showed up in front of La Moneda starting point of one of the two Free Walking Tour of Santiago. It was a four hour long tour starting at 10am which would take us to all the interesting and important parts of town. Our guide, Francisca is a theatre actress with a great all round knowledge of Chile, it’s history and socio-economics. She also had a keen eye for the bars and restaurants in town. So we got the tour and excellent advice of where to go out and what to eat in Santiago and Valparaíso.

We saw and lot of Santiago and understood a little more what had happened on 9/11 1973 when a successful coup from General Pinochet ousted democratically elected Salvador Allende. We also walked through the university areas and stopped in front of Pablo Neruda’s home.

Street art are very common in Santiago

After the tour we climbed up to the Virgin of Santiago to have an incredible view of the city. That evening we went to an all you can eat Chinese buffet. It was finger licking good: the colours, the aromas and taste. They also had a BBQ station as well as Sushi and Ice Cream stands … I wish I could have gone with some of my cousins from Mauritius, we would have made them reconsider their commercial strategy!

Day 4 : Pablo Neruda’s home and Football

 

Pablo Neruda´s home in Santiago

Pablo Neruda is one of the greatest poets the world has known. Although he could not swim, he was passionate about the sea and built all 3 of his houses in the form of boats. The interior design also reminds that of ships. He even created an artificial pond around his house in Santiago to further enhance the impression of a sea faring vessel. He wrote thousands of poems about the ocean and received the Nobel prize for literature in 1971.



Mural Art close by Neruda´s house

As a member of the communist party he has had to live long years in exile while Chile was under military governments in the 40-60’s. He lived in Italy, Romania and France where he studied and taught French. When he returned to the country he was celebrated nationwide and the President (and long time friend) Salvador Allende bestowed upon him the important task to explain to the world that the socialist revolution going on in Chile in the early 70’s was not of the same nature as the ones that swept through the communist block in Europe or Cuba. He was therefore sent as ambassador of Chile to France. Unfortunately ill health forced him to return and the coup of General Pinochet and the heroic suicide of Salvador Allende that day finished to overcome this great poet. He died 12 days after Chile fell once again to a military dictatorship.

This huge sandwich would make any football fan happy!

That evening we were in for a treat as we went to the Estadio Nacional to see Chile cross swords with Paraguay for the 4^th leg of the 2014 world cup qualifiers. But before we went for a traditional sandwich in the center. I will quote the travel guide we´re using here regarding Chilean food: "What Chile lacks in spice and diversity it compensates in abundance". Spot on dear guidebook writer!

The qualifiers have rarely been so close. Brazil is already qualified as host nation and Uruguay (current South American Champions) is leading the pack. But behind 5 teams sit within 2 points of each other with this year Ecuador and Venezuela have shown that they are in contention too. It’s going to be tough for Chile especially after losing 0-4 to Uruguay (3½ goals from Suarez!) only 4 days before. 

Just before the game the tension is palpable

We took a metro to the stadium and immediately started soaking up the atmosphere. There had been a lot more red shirts in the city that day but this was something else. This was a red tidal wave, every one was chanting and street side vendors were selling cold beverages, grilled sausages in bread and all kind of unofficial merchandise: shirts, caps, wrist bands, you name it. Private citizens living close to the stadium were out on the street, trying to rent parking spaces for spectators who had driven there. Most of them were successful.

We entered the stadium and after a very slack body and bag search, we climbed to our section. There were no designated seats so we had to look for the best we could get given our position relative to the field. I think we did alright.

The Chilean goalkeeper fending off the opposition

The goalkeepers were already warming up and later when the Chilean national team trod onto the pitch the roar was impressive. The Chilean supporters are known to be the most devout in South America and they truly lived up to their reputation. The game was underway and Chile was playing well. But Paraguay was equally good on the deck and even better in the air. By the 30^th minute Chile had been pushing long enough to be rewarded with a goal. It was as if one million volts of electricity had gone through the stands, the atmosphere was INCREDIBLE. After a fairly eventful 2^nd half during which Paraguay could have leveled the score, Chile sealed their victory with a late second goal. We left the stadium and ran to the Metro station to beating the crowd to it. Surely the celebration must have gone on well into the night at Plaza Italia. 

More photos of Chile vs Paraguay

Day 5 : Museo de la Memoria and Pearl Jam

Listening to Allende´s last speech minutes before dying

We could not miss the Museo de la Memoria which collects all the elements of the General Augusto Pinochet’s Regime and masterly blends them into a superb ensemble. The Chilean people want to remember and want to share testimonies of this terrible period with as many people as they can, especially the younger Chilean generations. This is also why they make it a point to keep a free entrance to this museum. School parties visiting the museum may be seen everyday.

There are posters and texts that explain what Pinochet and his accomplices did to foment a successful coup. There is a timeline minute by minute of the 5-6 hours that fateful day of September 11, 1973 when Chile slipped into one of the worst periods of its history qua human rights violations and political freedom. They also present the findings of the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" which worked on the Chilean case.



Exposition on fascism

All in all that was one of the best museums we’ve been to.



The beautiful Estadio Monumental

That evening we went to something completely different : a Rock concert. We had booked those Pearl Jam tickets a long time ago over the Internet and picked them up from the ticket office in Santiago. We took a metro to the Estadio Monumental and we’re impressed by how it looked from the outside. Beautifully lit and ultra modern. Because of it´s roof, a section of it looked exactly like the Jacques-Chaban-Delmas Stadium in Bordeaux, France.



Eddie Vedder giving the hell of a show

We went in and 40.000 red hot fans were already clapping for the artists to come onto stage. When they did the crowd went crazy but when Eddie Vedder, a bottle of Chilean wine in his hand, addressed the crowd in Spanish we could barely hear his voice over the microphone! That’s how loud they cheered. The whole concert was a great experience and the South Americans live up to their party reputation. They knew the lyrics to each song, and jumped ALL the time! I can’t even imagine how it must be to watch a Latino superstar such as Ricky Martin or Shakira perform live here.  It must be an experience from another world. After the concert we took a bus that swiftly got us home and we were in bed by 1.30am.

For more Pearl Jam Pictures

Mendoza

Day 1

Roses and the rowing club in the background

We arrived in Mendoza in high spirits. The state of Mendoza, with about 1500 producers is the biggest wine region in Latin America and we were hoping to enjoy a lot of it. On the first day when we took our quarters, I resisted the urge to pick a DVD out of the huge selection of 600 they had at the hostel and we set off to discover the town. We first walked to the central market which unfortunately was half closed as it was lunch time. We nevertheless enjoyed a quick and plentiful lunch. Then we proceeded to the huge municipal park at the edge of town. It is an enormous park, built on the model of the “Parc de la  Tête D’Or” in Lyon. There is a lake and a rowing club inside the park. We walked a little under 15km that day in Mendoza moving from the super rich neighbouhoods with beautiful villas and top-end alarm systems to the more modest areas of the city.

Day 2



What a rush!

 We decided to take adrenaline shots on the second day by doing some rafting and zip lining. The tour bus picked us up at our hostel and after an hour’s drive we got to the rafting center. It was a beautifully built wood, steel and glass structure, perched high up and overlooking the whole valley. We were driven to the start of the course, given our briefing and put in the rafts. Diego was our instructor and he was fun. We particularly enjoyed the water fights with other crews when we caught up with them. The 6 man crew cooperated well and we swerved and dodged rocks and got through the 12km course without a scratch nor anyone being thrown overboard (as opposed to the other boats). When we got back to the center, we were cold, wet and starving. We were greeted by a sight from heaven : asado, gaucho (Gaucho) style!

For exciting pictures on Rafting...

That´s what I call a BBQ



That's my Kevin´s Special

 In the afternoon we geared up to do some zip lining. We climbed up to the first line and “zipped” away! There were 4 “warm up” lines and the last two lines were over 400m. When it came to it, I did my usual reverse flip. The instructors were surprised and one of them told me not to do it again! (They are definitely more strict on security in Argentina). Anyway I had some fun and showed them zip lining could be done another way.

And funny pictures of  Zip Lining

Day 3

Barely managing to bike after all the wine tasting!

On the third day we took a bus and went to Maipu to visit some wineries. We went there with François and Capucine who also stayed in our hostel. We got complementary bikes from Mr. Hugo. We started with a chocolate factory where we were given some liqueur to accompany our chocolates. Then we visited a couple of wineries. To be honest we were not too impressed by the wines. And at 20 Pesos per tasting (as compared to being free in Cafayate) I expected better quality.

When we arrived home late that day we only had time for a hot shower before dinner was served. We had signed up for the traditional Argentinian BBQ that our hostel organizes every Thursday. We put our feet under the table and let Javier and his team do their magic.

Javier in front of the Asado 

 

Day 4

Relaxing in a warm pool

On our last day we went to relax at thermal baths an hour away from Mendoza. We arrived there and entered the pools. There were big ones and small ones, cold ones, warm ones, with and without bubbles. We stayed there till mid afternoon and took a bus back in town just in time for the Argentina vs Bolivia game on TV. Now this is a sad story: Initially the Argentinian Football Federation had a disagreement with the River Plate Club in Buenos Aires and they announced that this game would be played in Mendoza, where we would surely have been in the stadium. But only a couple of weeks before the game, they announced that the game would be played in BA as they had reached an agreement with River Plate … bummer. In any case the game finished 1-1 and there is now some more pressure on Argentina as they lost the game before that away to Venezuela.

For more pictures of Mendoza

After these eventful days in Mendoza we took an early bus to Santiago de Chile.



Different liqueurs at the chocolate factory

Córdoba

The main Church of Córdoba

We came to the oven called Córdoba. I say oven because we really felt the heat here. 30-35 degrees every day all day. It gets better after 6pm though. Córdoba is the 2nd city in Argentina with 1.3mln people. It is a big bustling city with a lot to do.

At the art gallery

Paolo giving it his best

As usual when we get to a big city we dove into the cultural agenda of the city and started touring. We visited an art gallery and a photo exhibition. It was ok but not exceptional. There was a jazz festival going on in the city and we booked tickets for a Sunday evening concert. We saw a great Argentinian duo: Gaby Beltramino (singer) & Eduardo Elia (pianist) and an Italian quartet: Paolo Fresu Devil Quartet. Gaby had a golden voice and Paolo transmitted so much energy to the public through his trumpet. It was an excellent night out.

Roxana shopping away

We also went to a huge artisanal market in the Boehme neighbourhood of Córdoba. Roxana bought a few items she liked and set us back 150 pesos or so. So I retaliated with Ice cream and freshly baked filled calzoni, watermelon etc. I could not match the spend though!

Then on the last day we took a city tour in an open top double decker. We managed to see a lot of the city´s beautiful architecture and historical buildings. The city of Córdoba boasts the oldest university in Argentina and the 4th one in South America. It´s probably one of the biggest in Latin America with about 100.000 students. It is also totally free even for foreigners.

The Cloister in the Jesuit quaters

The visit of the Jesuit estancias was very interesting. Córdoba was the capital of all Jesuit activities in the 17^th and 18^th century. Many missions were prepared and coordinated from Córdoba. Then of course things got complicated for them when the Spanish crown expelled them from Spain and all Spanish colonies and Franciscans took over their estancias.   

The "Che" himself

The highlight of the trip around Córdoba was of course the visit to the childhood house of Ernesto Guevara (Che). Apparently this young man did not only ride a bike around South America but also fomented a few revolutions here and there … no seriously … the house now converted to a museum is set in a beautiful town called Alta Gracia 1hr away from Córdoba. The Guevara-Lynch family moved here in an attempt to cure young Ernesto from the chronic Asthma attacks he was suffering in Buenos Aires. The hot and dry weather in Alta Gracia did not only make him feel better but apparently pushed him on to greater designs.

All in all we liked the city of Córdoba and we now move to Mendoza, the biggest wine producing region in Argentina.

For more pictures : Cordoba

In the cloister of the Jesuit block

            

Cafayate

The Vasija Secreta vineyards - red grapes in fore ground

In Bodega Nanni - chilled Torrontes 

WINE country ! We are in Cafayate (pronounced ca-fa-cha-té) in Argentina. We were planning to come to this city 180km south of Salta with a car rental but unfortunately this did not happen. So we took a 4-hour bus down there. When we got to town we immediately proceeded to some serious wine tasting in the town bodegas (wine cellars).

Cafayate is a very small town which lives for its vineyards and it’s excellent wines. The biggest production of red wine are from Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon. Tannat is the Argentinian favourite and excellent to accompany asados (BBQs). There is also a little Syrah and Merlot. 

Idyllic place to have lunch

Wine in Cafayate are stored in 1m60 high cellars overground

The white “cépage” is almost exclusively Torrontes: a pure Argentinian grape. There is a little Semillon blanc too. The white wine here is fresh, crisp and has a lot of citrus flavours to it, perfect to have as aperitif or to accompany a cold salad during the hot days here. Unfortunately, none of the white wine in Cafayate ever mature in wooden casks which would have given them a more complex palate and peaty flavours. But never mind. They also make a delicious desert wine with a late harvest Torrontes. It is amazing. I’m sorry could not stock up on wine here.

Preparing the Asado. 

Talking the night away with good food, wine and company

We nevertheless enjoyed them (a lot) while we were here. We bought a few bottles ranging from 28 Pesos (4,50€) to 40 Pesos (6€) and bought some excellent fillet and ribs to have a great BBQ at the hostel we stayed (Backpackers). We had dinner with Monty whom we met in the bus on the way to here, Charmaine of course, Carsten a German and two other Argentinians, Ignacio and Federico, travelling in their country on vacation. We had an excellent evening when we could quiz the locals about football, economy, politics and in particular the recent presidential elections that saw Cristina Hirshner being re-elected directly in the first round with 55% of the votes.

The Romanian flag in plastic cups!

We're all ears while Mariel explains

The following day we decided to go get some real goat cheese from the cheese farm 2km away from our hostel. One of the major wine producers of Cafayate (Domingo Hermanos) decided that since cheese was a good complement to wine, they would start producing their own! So now they have 450 goats from Swiss, English and South African origins and they produce about 50kg of cheese a day. That's still very artisanal and the quality and the taste is there to prove it. We paid 20 Pesos for our tour and Mariel our host expertly guided us through the different stages of cheese making. Incredible fact: there is a race of Swiss goats whose males have got utters besides their testicles and they produce 2.5 litres of milk / day. So the phrase "Dilé Bouk" has all it's meaning and I think we all owe appologies to Nishal for all these years of bashing.  

That afternoon we went to the Quebrada de las Conchas for some amazing scenery. I’m sorry that my picture taking skills are not better because I do not do justice to the sites. This is a photographer’s paradise. There are 50km of amazing scenery and we visited 6 of the main sites. Got back to town around 7pm, procured ourselves a few extra bottles of wine a had a quiet dinner at home.

The three colour mountain - oxidised ores

The "Amphitheatre"

We are relieved to be there

The next day we did something crazy: we did not go wine tasting!!! But rather we rented bikes and rode the 5km to the foot of the hills we intended to cross. We left our mounts in the sure hands of a lady selling fruits  and continued on our 6 hours trek to the waterfalls.

We did not hire a guide as there were none at the start of the trek but in retrospect that was a bad idea. We got lost so many times and crossed places we should not have a few times. We climbed rocks and dodged poisonous prickles but eventually made it to the waterfalls and back … safely. 

2nd Waterfall of the day

Yummy - I had Rice and Chicken

After having a long warm shower we went out have a meal in small restaurant recommended by our landlords where the locals congregate to watch football while eating excellent home made delicacies. After these few relaxing days in Cafayate, we return to Salta to pick up some stuff we left there and we will proceed to Córdoba.

More pictures on Cayafate

The usual ...