We loved our time in Colombia, and are so happy we started our trip there. But the day came to move on, as we had a flight to continue our adventures in Chile. It probably has something to do with the fact that all days are Saturdays, but that was the easiest 6-hour flight I’ve ever done. And it put me south of the equator for the first time! Look at me go.

The ground transportation at Santiago airport was so wonderfully civilized. As you’re waiting around for your bags to show, there are signs describing your options: a shared minibus you prepay for, or a private taxi that you also prepay for. I don’t have to google my options and then battle with all the salesmen outside? This is great! We took the taxi, because we don’t share (not really, it was just late local time is all. And we don’t share)

We’d bought these flights a while back, so we didn’t think about the implications of the day. However! We got to our hotel, and got checked in, and fumbled with the TV, and found it with just 23 seconds to go: We got to watch the Philadelphia Eagles win the Super Bowl! E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES!

Valparaíso

Whew, I’m getting all hyped again… anyway, I finally got to sleep that night, and managed to not give Erika too much grief over the game. We stayed at a hotel near the bus terminal that night, because the next morning we were taking a bus to Valparaíso. The bus was great, a far cry from the sea-sick experience we’d had in Colombia. We walked up to the station, asked to go to Valparaíso, and got 2 seats on a bus that left in 20 minutes. It was cheap, on time, and a very comfortable and easy ride, just over 1.5 hours.

We’d rented an AirBnb for three nights there, and our host was sweet and offered to pick us up at the bus terminal, which was amazing. She was great, and we enjoyed talking to her during the car ride. She nervously asked if we spoke any Spanish, and was happy when we said that we did. Mostly, this went like other conversations with Spanish speakers: Erika held the conversation, I could follow along, but didn’t have the words to actually participate. Sigh.

Anyway, we got settled in and headed out to find what we’d really come to Chile for.

Pfff, Not Patagonia–Pisco Sours!

Erika had been here about two years ago, and wanted to go back to a restaurant that she said had great views and great pisco sours. The restaurant is called Fauna, and she was right on both counts.

They weren’t serving dinner yet, so we just instead had a very expensive pre-dinner drink and snack. We did want to come back here for dinner though, so we headed back to our place to wait for dinner time and get ready. And here it was revealed that, apparently, pisco sours knock Erika the hell out. She laid down on the bed to read some, and just passed out. Like, pretty much catatonic. Remember our last blog post, that super long one I wrote about our hiking trip in Colombia? I wrote the entirety of that while Erika was ‘napping’. It would not be her last pisco sour based nap in Valparaíso.

So, because all days are Saturdays (and because Chile is 2 hours ahead of Colombia time, so we were still all screwed up), we headed out for dinner around 10 pm, like you do. Thus began a bad trend of staying up late/waking up late, that we’re still suffering from.

Street Art

One of the things Valparaíso is well known for is its street art. The street art here is complex, beautiful, and everywhere. Like, even on the side of the trash trucks, everywhere. Some of it spans the walls the length of a city block. It scales multiple stories up the sides of mid-rise buildings. It covers staircases in such a way that you can only see it properly from one spot. The street art we found in Cartagena, Medellín, and Bogotá were pretty incredible (and if I ever get around to processing the pictures on my Nikon, we’ll get more of it up), but the art in Valparaíso was something else.

La Sebastiana

The poet and politician Pablo Naruda spent a significant amount of time in Valparaíso, and had a house there that’s been preserved as a museum. It’s called La Sebastiana and it’s a great visit. The visit includes an audio tour with fun details about the house and the various decorations and furnishings he’d put there. There is a little bit of historical context given, in the sense of details on Neruda’s life as an ambassador and politician. There’s just enough context to remind one of America’s shameful history in Chile, with Pinochet and all.

Anyway, the house is cramped but very cool. We went during the week, which has to be better than weekends, when I imagine it’d be far more crowded. Even when we went, the house was pretty full of people. The gardens outside are beautiful, and the house, situated up in the hills of Valparaíso, gives wonderful views of the city.

OMG The Hills

Valparaíso is built on the side of cliffs that rise sharply from the ocean. There is flat ground to be found down in the denser portion of the city closer to the shore, but a few blocks further and the city rises quickly, small streets winding steeply up the hillsides. To walk Valparaíso is to embrace this, to fully exhaust yourself mounting these precipitous hills. It’s to look at the tracker on your iPhone and see that you’ve only walked one mile–but have climbed more than 30 flights of ‘stairs.’ It’s to wake up with tight calves and sore knees.

Or, it’s to rely on the funiculars to get you up and down.

There are several ‘ascensores’ scattered around the city that will take you up and down some of the steepest ‘cerros’, or hills, in the city. These are fun, and dirt cheap to take: about 20 cents per person, per ride.

But, when your AirBnb is at the top of a hill that’s not served by an ascensor, to walk Valparaíso is still all of those other things I said.

Alberto

I can’t finish this post without talking about our new friend we made in Valparaíso. Our apartment didn’t have air conditioning, so we’d open the door to the terrace to let the place cool down in the mornings and evenings. One morning, while I was having breakfast, and Erika was struggling to get out of bed, Alberto stopped by and introduced himself. He came right in and made himself at home, which was surprising, but not unwelcome really. It at least inspired Erika to get out of bed, as she came down to meet him. Then Alberto was trying to go upstairs to look around, but we told him he couldn’t do that. So he left, which was pretty abrupt.

Alberto lived nearby, and he ended up stopping by most mornings while we were in town. Fortunately, he stopped by on our last morning, before we had to leave for the bus station, and we realized we hadn’t gotten a picture yet! Alberto was kind enough to pose for a picture that we could put up on the blog.

We miss you Alberto, and hope to see you again!

What’s Next

We’ve got a crazy month in Chile, including wine, penguins, hiking, glaciers, and more! First, we’re heading back up to Santiago to spend a little over a week exploring the huge capital city of Chile. See you then!