We arrived in Santiago at 11am after an uneventful flight but little sleep. Getting into Chile requires paying a “reciprocity fee” which is the cost of a visa and is the equivalent of what Chileans have to pay when they enter another country. It seems that there are only four or five countries that charge Chileans so not everyone has to pay. However, it is a drawn out process involving gruff looks, dot matrix printers, some heavy stamping and stapling of documents to a page in your passport. You also get a slip of paper inside your passbook which can easily come out and that piece of paper is crucial to you getting out of the country without having to pay again.
We went to our hotel, the Aubrey, and were able to check in straight away. The Aubrey is a grand old house that has been renovated and converted into a boutique hotel.
We were very tired from the trip so had a nap for a couple of hours and then went downstairs to the bar to have a drink and seek out some food. In the bar we met up with the hotel co-owner who is an Australian. We had a Pisco Sour, which is a traditional Chilean drink, and then ordered a glass of wine and tapas. The tapas were excellent and just what we felt like.
The next day we were picked up by our guide and taken on a tour of Santiago.
We visited the Centro Market and the Fish Market
Then we walked around the centre of the old part of the city for an hour or so, saw the Presidential Palace and Palace Guards.
We visited the cathedral
We decided to have lunch at a Chilean restaurant that serves food in a traditional Chilean manner. We ordered three dishes to share and a salad but the food we received could have fed six.
After lunch we drove around Santiago, including to the top of San Cristobal Hill. The vista from the top of the hill is amazing and you can see snow covered mountains in the distance.
Once we got back to our hotel in the late afternoon we decided another nap was necessary as jet lag cut in so we had a repeat of the previous night: nap, wine and tapas.
The next morning we checked out and were picked up by our guide at 9am for our transfer to Valparaiso and touring en route. First stop was a winery in the Casa Blanca region where we had a tasting. Unlike what we are accustomed to, tasting is done with full glasses and tasting four wines means four glasses of wine. Even sharing that between two meant an unusual morning tea break!
We stopped at Isla Negra, a popular local attraction and home of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. We were going to visit the museum but the line to get in was so long we abandoned the idea and did a quick walk around the outside.
From there we headed to a small fishing village where we had lunch. We had Chilean sea bass which was very nice. The serving sizes were what we are getting accustomed to in Chile – enough for a small family with left overs for school lunches. The restaurant was right on the water and the ambience was fantastic.
After lunch we drove in to Valparaiso. Valparaiso is built on very steep hills and our guide wanted to show us around some of the steeper areas as he didn’t think we would get back there on our own by walking.
The streets are very narrow and steep and buses couldn’t negotiate them so Valparaiso has a shared taxi system where the taxis act like buses, running a set route. The person on the left of the image is waiting for the taxi coming up the hill.
One of the places we went to see is the cemetery. The cemetery seems to be a lot more cheerful than what I am used to and most graves and mausoleums were decorated with flags, tinsel and flowers. Interestingly a lot of the flags were for the football teams they supported rather than national flags.
The mausoleums are many levels high and there are dozens of blocks of them throughout the cemetery.
We finally made it to our hotel, the Alcontraluz. We have a room at the top of the hotel with a private terrace overlooking the bay, city and hillside which is a magnificent view. We will get an excellent view of our ship doing in on Saturday morning.
Jim and Sue's Gray Nomad Adventures 