I went down to Pichilemu on the recommendation of a friend and I definitely haven't been disappointed. It's a (not so) little fishing and surfing town about three hours south-west of Santiago and has been the perfect way to cap off my time in South America and my trip in general. It's a small enough town to walk around but they also (for tourists, I guess) have what New Yorkers would call "handsome cabs" being your standard two horses and a carriage type arrangement. I think the drivers must pride themselves on giving the horses a proper full-fibre diet, because apart from the general sea smell and fishing smells there is also a pervasive horsey earthiness to the town (and especially its streets).
Yesterday I left my guesthouse at night to go and get some food and have a walk around and I realised about two hours later that I'd left my lanyard with my keys on it inside my room, so I figured I should return and sort it out while everyone would still be awake. I explained to the (old and somewhat frumpy) landlady what had happened and she made a shrugging gesture and for a while continued her sweeping up. After about five minutes she sprang to life, went rummaging through the kitchen and returned with a large jar completely full with keys. Given that I had lost the keys I had to find the match - I got it down to about twenty "possibles" and then went upstairs to try and get into my room, but of course absolutely none of the keys worked. This didn't seem to bother the landlady (Elsa) too much. Then someone, I think her grandson, but possibly another guest showed up with a ladder so without too much difficulty the grandson scaled the ladder and got into my room (I offered to do it, but he thought he'd be better at it - I must really look uncoordinated too) and retrieved the keys.
Having sorted the problem out I was free to go out again (this time with the keys!) but I made a point of explaining (in Spanish) that I always keep the lanyard, forgot it this one time, thanks and sorry and all that. Elsa stopped her sweeping for a second, looked at me, smiled and said "todo es salvado" (all is saved) - which was good because I don't think her locksmithing skills were up to scratch.
I returned to Santiago to begin the last week of my year long tour (as such). The weather was at least a bit warmer than Mendoza. I think the combination of going rafting, to be fair a bit too much vino tinto, and air conditioning in my hostel that was turned up way too cold; all came together to make me a bit sick so I didn't really do much. I caught up with my folks who were passing through Chile on their way home after spending most of January checking out Brazil and Perú. It occurred to me after they left that I didn't take any photos - which is a bit redundant I guess because my mum went a bit nuts! The only other thing I did was organise a bus ticket down to Pichelmu - much easier than it says in all the guidebooks (there are direct services) where I'll spend my last few days by the beach before returning to Santiago to go back to Melbourne.
It was only a short two hour bus ride from Santiago to Valparaíso but the two cities have a very different vibe to them. Valparaíso (or simply Valpo as the locals call it) is a port town, home of the Chilean congress and has a buzz (but not a sense of importance) about it that I found lacking on my first visit to Santiago (keeping in mind I was there on a weekend etc). There's been a dubious sort of music festival on for most of the time I've been here in the Plaza Sotomayor . It's pretty cheesy sort of stuff and for the most part ridiculously loud - but the locals love it and will seemingly dance to pretty much anything.
My bad run of luck with cameras continues - my little Olympus pocket camera (the one I called "trusty" a few posts back) gave up the ghost after two years, five continents and somewhere in the order of 7-8,000 photographs - so I spent about a day and a half researching a suitable replacement which I'm still learning how to use. It wasn't the best timing for the old one to fail this late in the trip - I had wanted to cash in my insurance, tax rebates etc when I got home and get myself a "proper" dSLR camera, so the last thing I need to be spending money on is another pocket camera, but these things happen I guess.
Both yesterday and today, I hopped on Gran Valparaíso's brand-spanking-new metro system (the trains are exactly the same as the new ones in Melbourne - at least the ones on the old "Hillside" lines) to go out to the nearby town ofViña del Mar (Vineyards by the Sea) which made for a nice change. It's the part of this area that is more or less exclusively people relaxing rather than also a working port likeValparaíso proper. It reminded me a bit of Port Macquarie or even Torquay except without the bogans. Some of the early German immigrants built little castle type forts - Castillo Wulff isn't really the type of name you expect to see in South America!
I think I can now safely conclude there isn't much to do in Santiago on Sundays - it's awfully quiet. Slightly foolishly, I decided to stay an extra day here to see what goes on during the week - although a lot of the interesting stuff is closed on Mondays, so I've had a rather unproductive day. Luckily, I'm going to be passing through Santiago a few times so hopefully I will get to see some of its other sides before I return for the final time to catch my flight home.
I'm staying in the Bella Vista district - it's a nice little area where there are numerous really low key bars where you can sit on the street, in the sun drinking beers and watching the passing parade. The other thing to see in this barrio (district) is the Parque Metropolitano which is home to the zoo, two pools, places to eat etc. I decided to walk up to the top of the Cerro San Cristóbal to see the view and the statues. At the last minute though I decided to catch the funicular railway back down to ground - but at least I can say I got some exercise today if nothing else!
It was so nice to get back to sea level and to see the beach again after about six weeks at some sort of altitude. I didn't see much of Iquique except for the beach - the coffee wasn't great in town so there wasn't really any other place to hang out. It was also good to be in a city (well, a country even, after Bolivia) that has proper supermarkets and be able to cook a bit of proper food - washed down with a bit of Chilean wine of course! Iquique made the perfect spot to relax before braving the 27 hour bus trip down the coast to Santiago.
Profile
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
peregrinari7- peregrinari7
- My photos at Flickr
Syndicate
