Chile
A warning to begin...always check your tickets that you buy online for the sentence that states whether it will be an e-ticket or if they will be mailing a paper ticket to your house. My dad, in trying to get us the cheapest tickets from Cusco to Chile, accidentally bought paper tickets and they were mailed to our house in Texas. Seeing as we had called him from my satellite phone to buy the tickets the week before, there was no way that they were going to make it to Peru. Even though the airlines wouldn't change his tickets to electronic ones in the states, the people at LAN in Cusco did, for a measly charge of 190 dollars. So expense number 1. Expense number 2 was not explained in our guide book. You have to pay 100 dollars as a visa when you enter the country. Thanks to our government, to travel to some countries, you have to pay extra fees or get a visa far in advance. We made it to our hotel at 3 in the morning, and I realized personal expense number 3 the next morning. Somehow, in the dark and being tired, I left my small bag with my portable hard drive and my travel camera on the shuttle. Despite talking to many people on the phone, it was never found. I ended up buying another camera...who knows if and when I would come back to Chile.
We arrived in Santiago, and the hotel where we had reservations at was a Best Western. Not the best one ever, but tolerable. When we woke up the next morning and I had talked to the shuttle on the phone, we left to explore. Some guy helped us and led us to a restaurant. Donde Augusto´s was actually one we had starred in our guide book. I ordered seafood and meat stew...and I got seafood and meat stew. Clams, mussels, eel(I think), a whole chicken breast and two porkchops...and nothing else. When I was full, you couldn't even tell I had been eating. My giant bowl was still food. We walked to San Cristobel, which is a hill that has the zoo and you can take a funicular up to the top. We met a guy from Brazil, and had some interesting conversation with him. That night, we ate at our hotel's Indian restaurant, which was excellent. They even give you free bindis to wear on your forehead. The next day, we visited the art musuem. It had some very interesting contemporary work, and an artist with the last name Ovalle who worked with giant logs, forming them into tree sculptures. She was very talented. We walked around more, and saw the former Chilean mint. That night we ate Japonese, after almost walking into a girly bar. This little girl who was the daughter of one of the waiters climbed up into my lap and sat with us for a while. We thought about trying to enter a bar on the way back, but the one we saw had a girl in s&m lingerie serving the drinks, so we decided to pass. The next day, we took the subway to the bus station. Note: watch out for tourist maps, they are not always entirely accurate. We ended up walking past another subway stop to catch the bus to Valparaiso. We ended up walking more in Valparaiso due to our map. Our hotel was on top of a hill and this orange color. It had a fantastic few. We visited happy hour and then returned to our b&b for some live music. We met a couple who were wonderful dancers and some ladies from Santiago who informed us that we had stayed in the bad part of Santiago. The next day, we visited Vina del Mar and the beaches were very pretty, but covered in people. We got our excercise for the day walking around and seeing the sights. The next day, we decided to lay out at the beach in Valparaiso. We had to walk by the industrial part with few people around to reach the first beach. It was not very pretty, so we decided to continue on. When we reached the more popular beach, it was full of people and even worse, so we had to walk back to the first. After 5, the beach really started to fill up. It didn't help that the navy started blowing up pontoon boats for some excercise, using really large trucks to put the boats near the water. One of the trucks almost got stuck. That night we ate dessert first at a bohemian cafe, and then met some guys from Britain who had been working in the southern part of Chile at a camp for British kids. It is interesting how many people you can meet just by being friendly. We took a bus to Talca the next day, and tried to make reservations for a wine tour. We learned that it is easier to make your reservations in advance and to have your own car. We also learned that Talca is not a place to encounter very many tourists. But we enjoyed it, it was the really relaxing part of our trip. We could sit by the pool and read. We explored all of the town, and wanted to take a train trip to the coast. But we arrived too late to get a seat, and our conditions of not perfect health helped us to decide to relax instead. Many of the stores here are closed between 1 and 4, so we had problems finding a jewelry store. We did find an older movie theater and watched the Lost Boys in English. We ate some awesome Italian food, and enjoyed some of the local wine. The wine areas in Chile are divided into 5 sections, and ours was excellent. After several delays, we made it on our wine tour. We first visited Vina Calina, which has connections with Kendall Jackson wines from the U.S. It was very modern and clean, and the wine was fairly good. Most of the wine in Chile is produced for export. After this, we visited Casa Donoso. It was very pretty and older. Their wine was excellent. They also have a 3 room hotel that you learn about by word of mouth or internet. Our guide showed us the rooms, and they were excellent for peace and quiet. If you are looking to relax away from society, this place was awesome. I bought some wine there, and it was entrusted to Keri to make it back to the States. After our tranquility in Talca, we returned to Santiago where at the airport Keri thought she had lost her passport. It was a tense 5 minutes before she found it. Then the flight back to Peru, which was normal. The next night, we made to watch the Superbowl before I returned to Cusco. We got to watch it in a betting room with our own tvs. It was alot of fun, except for the blood sausages on our plate. Chile was fun, but overall I prefer Peru. Chile had a lot of European influence, and the prices were comparable to the U.S. Peru is cheaper, and a different cultural experience.
We arrived in Santiago, and the hotel where we had reservations at was a Best Western. Not the best one ever, but tolerable. When we woke up the next morning and I had talked to the shuttle on the phone, we left to explore. Some guy helped us and led us to a restaurant. Donde Augusto´s was actually one we had starred in our guide book. I ordered seafood and meat stew...and I got seafood and meat stew. Clams, mussels, eel(I think), a whole chicken breast and two porkchops...and nothing else. When I was full, you couldn't even tell I had been eating. My giant bowl was still food. We walked to San Cristobel, which is a hill that has the zoo and you can take a funicular up to the top. We met a guy from Brazil, and had some interesting conversation with him. That night, we ate at our hotel's Indian restaurant, which was excellent. They even give you free bindis to wear on your forehead. The next day, we visited the art musuem. It had some very interesting contemporary work, and an artist with the last name Ovalle who worked with giant logs, forming them into tree sculptures. She was very talented. We walked around more, and saw the former Chilean mint. That night we ate Japonese, after almost walking into a girly bar. This little girl who was the daughter of one of the waiters climbed up into my lap and sat with us for a while. We thought about trying to enter a bar on the way back, but the one we saw had a girl in s&m lingerie serving the drinks, so we decided to pass. The next day, we took the subway to the bus station. Note: watch out for tourist maps, they are not always entirely accurate. We ended up walking past another subway stop to catch the bus to Valparaiso. We ended up walking more in Valparaiso due to our map. Our hotel was on top of a hill and this orange color. It had a fantastic few. We visited happy hour and then returned to our b&b for some live music. We met a couple who were wonderful dancers and some ladies from Santiago who informed us that we had stayed in the bad part of Santiago. The next day, we visited Vina del Mar and the beaches were very pretty, but covered in people. We got our excercise for the day walking around and seeing the sights. The next day, we decided to lay out at the beach in Valparaiso. We had to walk by the industrial part with few people around to reach the first beach. It was not very pretty, so we decided to continue on. When we reached the more popular beach, it was full of people and even worse, so we had to walk back to the first. After 5, the beach really started to fill up. It didn't help that the navy started blowing up pontoon boats for some excercise, using really large trucks to put the boats near the water. One of the trucks almost got stuck. That night we ate dessert first at a bohemian cafe, and then met some guys from Britain who had been working in the southern part of Chile at a camp for British kids. It is interesting how many people you can meet just by being friendly. We took a bus to Talca the next day, and tried to make reservations for a wine tour. We learned that it is easier to make your reservations in advance and to have your own car. We also learned that Talca is not a place to encounter very many tourists. But we enjoyed it, it was the really relaxing part of our trip. We could sit by the pool and read. We explored all of the town, and wanted to take a train trip to the coast. But we arrived too late to get a seat, and our conditions of not perfect health helped us to decide to relax instead. Many of the stores here are closed between 1 and 4, so we had problems finding a jewelry store. We did find an older movie theater and watched the Lost Boys in English. We ate some awesome Italian food, and enjoyed some of the local wine. The wine areas in Chile are divided into 5 sections, and ours was excellent. After several delays, we made it on our wine tour. We first visited Vina Calina, which has connections with Kendall Jackson wines from the U.S. It was very modern and clean, and the wine was fairly good. Most of the wine in Chile is produced for export. After this, we visited Casa Donoso. It was very pretty and older. Their wine was excellent. They also have a 3 room hotel that you learn about by word of mouth or internet. Our guide showed us the rooms, and they were excellent for peace and quiet. If you are looking to relax away from society, this place was awesome. I bought some wine there, and it was entrusted to Keri to make it back to the States. After our tranquility in Talca, we returned to Santiago where at the airport Keri thought she had lost her passport. It was a tense 5 minutes before she found it. Then the flight back to Peru, which was normal. The next night, we made to watch the Superbowl before I returned to Cusco. We got to watch it in a betting room with our own tvs. It was alot of fun, except for the blood sausages on our plate. Chile was fun, but overall I prefer Peru. Chile had a lot of European influence, and the prices were comparable to the U.S. Peru is cheaper, and a different cultural experience.
posted by Becca at 12:58 PM
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