A Holiday from My Holiday

Recent weather: low 60s, overcast and light rain on Thursday and Friday; low 60s, mostly cloudy Saturday; mid 70s, sunny on Sunday and Monday.
Recent reads: Joshua, Judges, Ruth. What I love about the book of Ruth is how little dating and women have changed. Naomi devising a plan for Ruth to uncover Boas's feet and then asking Ruth excitedly afterwards, "How did it go??" Reminds me of how my grandmother would love hearing about my dating stories:)

I left Santiago for Valparaiso on Thursday afternoon. I didn't do much in Valpo on Thursday since it was cool and damp. Fortunately, Valparaiso isn't a big town and doesn't have an endless list of must-see tourist sights and activities like Santiago or Buenos Aires. In fact, Valparaiso is quite the opposite. It is a sleepy town whose cultural experience is best absorbed by strolling along its streets and taking in the ubiquitous graffiti and its eclectic hillside neighborhoods.

Shortly after checking into my hostel, I met Marie. Marie is Danish and has been traveling for 17 months! She started in New York City and has worked her way down America with her flight home in about 6 weeks. Marie and I hung out for most of the time in Valparaiso. What I liked most about Marie was that she was even taller than me (apparently very common in Denmark), had no interest in discussing politics, and, most importantly, she laughed at my jokes.

On Friday we did the Tours for Tips walking tour with our lovable guide, Priscilla. Priscilla was a knowledgeable and endearing guide and I would like to believe all her jokes were 100% original and non-rehearsed. Valparaiso's golden era was in the late 1800s and early 1900s when Europeans needed to sail around the tip of South America in order to reach California and the Gold Rush. Valparaiso served as the perfect stopover for ships and sailors becoming a very important port city and attracting all kinds of European immigrants. Quickly Valparaiso grew to be a very rich city and the first city in Latin America to have a volunteer fire department and Latin America's oldest stock exchange. But the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 hit Valpo hard with the sudden lack of traffic. Many immigrants had built elaborate mansions on hills or fancy new hotels which were never opened. Among other reasons, Valparaiso climaxed in the early 1900s and isn't even the major port of its region today.

Priscilla, our tour guide.

Valparaiso is a steep city with lots of epic staircases and ascensors (electric run cars that ascend and descend the hills for about 25 cents USD). But what better way to turn these abundant staircases into epic culitural pieces than by painting them! Graffiti and street art is everywhere and if you thought the La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires was colorful, Valpo is just as colorful. Supposedly, ships used things like sheet metal and paint cans as weight for navigating around Cape Horn and often ditched the heavy stuff in Valpo once they had passed the more difficult waters. So the people of Valparaiso made lemonade, building their homes out of the metal pieces and using the random paint colors to prevent rusting. More recently, people have hired graffiti artists to paint murals on their homes which also decreases the chances they'll get tagged (the typical black signature type graffiti that is associated with gangs or crimes).

Me and my new friend. He never disagrees with me.

We finished off our tour with a bit of pisco and I didn't complain.

That night I came down with a fever randomly and spent much of the evening and night shivering under 3 blankets. I seriously think it may be medically necessary for me to live in San Diego. I should consider getting a doctor's note. This was one of those moments when I wished I wasn't in Chile but rather in my childhood bed where my mom would do the hand to forehead fever test (does this even work?) and bring me Campbells soup. The fever broke and I was back on the cobblestone streets of Valparaiso on Saturday again.

I wasn't lying about the colors. 

Chorrillana, fries with meat, grilled onions and cheese. But it's on a piece of lettuce so I'd call it a salad.

At the harbor

Valparaiso, behind bars. 60 minutes edition.

Sunday I took a city bus to nearby Vina Del Mar where I spent the whole afternoon reading at the beach. Time well spent attempting to even out my sock tan line and naturally exfoliate my feet with a stroll on the beautiful wide sands of Playa Caleta Abarca. Monday I meandered through the downtown of Vina Del Mar, through its various fruit, veggie, clothes and handicraft markets.

Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.

What time is it? Beach time!

Highlight: In Valparaiso we had a beer flight at Casa Cervecera Altimira. Now the beers were just okay. My favorite was the German Amber. The part I really enjoyed was chatting with the brew master. He came by our table and asked how our beers were tasting. And it wasn't that run of the mill, "How is everything?"  where they expect the answer to be "fine, thank you," but he genuinely wanted our opinions. He studied beermaking in Ireland and worked in Belgium and northern California. Recently, they hired a historian to dig up and certify the original beer recipes that were first made in Valparaiso. Valparaiso had the first brewery in Latin America, by the way. When I asked him about the chances I'll find an IPA anytime soon, he stated that at his brewery, they are just making the original recipes of the first brew master but that in general, Chileans have sweet tooths and a hoppy beer doesn't make for many happy Chileans.

Low point: I found a gray hair. Perhaps traveling is more stressful than you'd think. Or I'm getting too old for this. Oh yeah, and then at the bus station a drunk (I'm guessing) homeless (I'm guessing) man threw up. And then a stray (I'm guessing) dog licked it up.

Monday night was an overnight bus to La Serena. Heading north!

Santiago, Oh, Santiago

Recent weather: sunny, high 70s/low 80s everyday.

I arrived in Santiago the afternoon of Easter Sunday and started exploring on Monday. Museums are closed on Mondays but I did find myself a lovely pale ale. 1 for 1. Already the beer situation in Chile is looking up.

Artesian Pale Ale from the Elqui Valle in Chile.

Later in the afternoon I took the free walking tour (works on tips) in the afternoon. The tour guide was a local, born and raised, but spoke great English with an accent I couldn't quite place. Turns out he's an actor which explains his enthusiasm. I learned a great deal about Chile's tumultuous past, including its time under a socialist regime, dictatorship, civil war, and its democratic rebirth all within the last half a century! Similar to my reflection on Argentina, it's unbelievable to me to experience persecution, coups, government overthrows and an internal domestic war all within my or my parents' generation.

On the walking tour we saw La Moneda, previously Chile's mint, the president's home, and now the president's office. La Moneda was bombed during Allende's overthrow by his own air force lead by the current general and soon-to-be Chilean dictator, Pinochet.

La Moneda, previously the mint and now the president's office.

Monument for Allende, still beloved by many Chileans.

On the tour we stopped for a refreshing beverage and my first pisco sour of the trip!

We walked through one of the cute neighborhoods of Santiago, BellaVista.

And we ended the tour at Pablo Neruda's house. The infamous Chilean poet is known for being an eclectic collector of random pieces of furniture and of course, women as well.

Pablo Neruda's home in Santiago.

On Tuesday I went to the Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos. The museum was built to commemorate the human rights violations that were committed against the people of Chile from 1973-1990. Many chileans were tortured and murdered during the military dictatorship and the museum's goal is to bring these deeds to light, promote education and respect to make sure this type of tragedy never happens again. Nunca mas.  This museum was extremely well done, with a variety of exhibits including paintings, photographs, newspaper clippings, handwritten letters, videos, music, etc. The most memorable exhibit for me was a collection of children's drawings from this dark period. There were stick figures of men holdings guns pointed to the family with the handwritten words (in Spanish) "I am afraid I will always be hungry" or "I don't want to die like dad." It was a tough exhibit to get through but had a strong impact.

8 foot tall photo wall

Londres 38 was another small exhibit that is maintained in memory of the people and families affected by this tragic and violent time period. The house at Londres 38 was a torture center maintained by the dictatorship.

Sidewalk plaque for Londres 38.

Painted across the wall in one of the rooms. 

A photo as part of an exhibit calling for free university education.

Another photo part of the exhibit, free university education is the most popular political topic.

After these very heavy, depressing exhibits, I headed to Mercado Central the great fish and meat market where I binged on a bowl jam packed with oysters, crab, shrimp, mussels, lobster--a seafood lovers dream!

It's a meat market in here...

Yes, that's right, I'm drinking Cristal. 

The next day I hiked up Santa Lucia park for a view of Santiago. Or at least the best view you can get with all the pollution.

I stopped at a street cart for a mid-afternoon snack as I continued to stroll about Santiago. Copihue is a very popular drink/snack in Chile. It's cup filled about half full with wheat, throw in a whole peeled peach and then top off with peach juice. Pretty sweet, and very peachy.

I finished off my time in Santiago with another tasty brew. Now it's time to catch my afternoon bus to Valparaiso!