Valparaiso, just a really cool city.

Truely a port city

Valparaiso is a city that captures everyone’s imagination. The 300,000 people living around this city do so with the knowledge that its prone to devastating earthquakes. We were reminded of this when navigating the city; buildings and a major market that were supposed to be there were no longer. Last year a 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck the city, leveling much of the river front infrastructure. In time, Valparaiso was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site for its cobblestone alleyways, ancient yet operational lifts and rolling hills design.

New friends

The first thing that came to my mind when we got off of our bus in the CBD was that Valparaiso looked allot like Gotham City. The streets were deserted, the buildings tall and dark. Our hostel was a solid 20 minute walk up through narrow streets covered in impressive graffiti. Our home for the next few days that followed was Hostel Fischer. The hostel had everything that we could have wanted; a large kitchen, a big breakfast and very helpful owners. Here, by sheer coincidence we met up with a bunch of people that we had previously met in La Paz. Running into people that we had previously met in another country is always a fun experience. While people many do the same things and travel the same path, the experiences vary greatly. Needless to say this was another hostel at which we cooked up a storm. It all began with a simple offering of potatoes that was left over from the previous night and before we knew it the dinner had exploded to half the hostel with dishes from all around the world with lots of amazing Chilean wine.

The entire place looked like this

Our time in Valparaiso was spent exploring. The 3 days that we gave our self were not enough to really appreciate and take in the culture of the city. One could spend a week simply walking the alleyways, getting lost in amidst the artwork, the cafes and the stunning views of the harbor. As far as docks go, Valparaiso has the most impressive crane operation I have ever seen. Ships from all around the world come in to unload their crates, closely watched by military boats in the background. A couple of blocks away from the dock sees the dogs take closely guarded control of the city. They run in packs, tongues hanging out, begging for food or a pet. They were some of the friendliest dogs we met. At one random park we noticed a lady feeding a number of dogs. She would lay down a batch of dry food on the ground and would only allow one particular dog to it eat, kicking way any other dog trying to get to it. She would in turn then feed all the dogs, all but one. A pit bull did not want to have anything to do with her and would hobble away as fast as he could before she could come to him and give him food. He was having non of it. 

This is only a fraction of the street art

Our wanderings led us to many interesting places. One of our favorites was an ice-cream parlor that sold Rose flavored ice-cream amongst many other delicious flavors. Taking difference routes around the city, we walked in amongst the docks and high about the hills. We visited Pablo Neruda's house and through hand-held announcers were taught all about the history of the house and the artistic flair embroidered upon it by the artist. It proved to be a really popular destination with lots of people queuing up just to buy the tickets to get inside the house. 

Furthermore, Valparaiso's charm spreads further than what you can see during the day. By night the bars and nightclubs are packed with tourists and locals alike. Our hostel owner was kind enough to take everyone in the hostel to one of the local clubs near the docks. While dancing was fun, the main attraction was the drag show that happened much later on in the night. No pictures were allowed, however the following drag show left many people with cramps from laughter and wet from all the water guns and buckets thrown onto willing and unwilling participants. 

We had a great time. Valparaiso is on my list of places to visit again in the future when I have more money so that I can try some of the seafood restaurants. Its a place full of charm and artistic history.

Heading south to La Serena and Pisco Elqui

Japanese garden and the ducks

Funnily, while travelling in Colombia and Ecuador we never listened to our iPods on the busses. As soon as they were stolen, we were craving all of our missing music. At least in Bolivia they had the Andean flutes, which drove you mad for hours on end, but it was something. In Chile, there is nothing, no scary movies, no lady screeching through the speakers. The 12 hour bus rides through the middle of nowhere become hard, laborious journeys through pure boredom. 

This was the case when we travelled to La Serena. The respite came when we actually arrived to La Serena, a somewhat green city with a beautiful main street. Hostel Aji Verde was our choice of lodging as we decided that an HI hostel would have the right atmosphere for New Years. The hostel proved to be amazing. The staff working there were fellow travelers, who were working here and there or just taking stock of their journey so far. The city is very pretty, however the hostel is located a solid 45min walk from the beach. There is a nice Japanese garden in La Serena, big, green and lots of fish. 

Vicuña 

Vicuna

La Serena is a nice break from the desert tombs of further north, however it still doesnt offer enough to do during the day. We decided to head off to Vicuña, a 2hr bus ride east of the city. Our experience in Vicuña taught us a number of things. We found that the information that one obtains at an information center really depends on the person that is serving you. On our first excursion to the information office the lady behind the counter was more than useless, however the following day the guy behind the counter was a wealth of information.

We camped at a really cozy little place just off the main plaza. The camping ground was at the back of what appeared to be a fruit orchard. Our tent was surrounded on all sides by apple, nectarine and plum trees. It was one of our cheapest campsites and we managed to pig out on plums all day. We had two reasons for going to Vicuña, the first was to check out a pisco distillery and the other to visit the observatory. On the urging of the information office we visited the distillery owned by Capel, the major pisco producer in Chile. For me, the tour itself was delaying the inevitable, the tasting session. The tour guide, while knowledge Im sure, was not too kind towards the foreigners on that tour, mainly me, who did not understand the rapid fire Chilean accent. So I was lost as to what was going on the entire time. When the tasting session did arrive, a finger size cup of pisco was offered to those that wanted it. For a major distributor, it was pretty stingy.

The operation within the plant was very interesting, from the process of crushing the grapes, to the packaging, we go to see the entire operation. Apparently the grapes around the Valle Elqui region are far too sweet to be made into wine. As such, they are crushed and fermented until the alcoholic percentage hits the 90% mark. From there to obtain the desired alcohol level, water is added to the selected batch. In order to give it colour, some portion of the pisco will spend its time in the wooden barrels. We did learn one interesting tid bit. Peru and Chile both claim that they were the ones to develop Pisco and as such own the rights to it. Our guide told us that Peru actually tried to claim Pisco as there own through the legal system. To counter any claims, the town of Elqui, was renamed to Pisco Elqui simply to ensure a happy grey line. 

Our next trip was to the Mamalluka observatory located on a hill overlooking the town. Claiming the clearest skies in the world, this part of Chile is prime real estate for stargazing. The tour included laser shows and educational videos about the southern hemisphere. Our guide explained all of the constellations and how they could be identified. It was an amazing tour. Its cheaper to do it from Vicuña where the going rate is CH8000 with all the transportation rather then the CH16000 charged through the hostel in La Serena. We couldnt be in the area and not visit Pisco Elqui. It appears that it is clearly geared towards wealthy tourists. The town is tiny, with lots of over priced campsites all around and really not that much to do. One of the highlights of the entire journey into the Valle Elqui was that we got to try artisanal empanadas. These things were like calzones, however with amazing fillings and big enough for a proper meal. 

New Years 

Making Pisco Sours and eating fish ceviche characterized the first part of the night. It was a delicious event celebrated with 7 or so other people. Once again, everyone was from different parts of the world making the night even more memorable. Towards 11pm ish we decided to head towards the beach. We decided to catch the bus however it ended up taking us to the wrong part of the beach, about 40 minutes in the wrong direction but thankfully towards music. This part of the beach had a stage with live music and allot of people crowding together, singing and dancing.

 The Brazilians in our group explained their New Years traditions to us. First of all we had to jump over 7 waves. Of course everyone was a little bit tipsy so the jumping turned into a mad water thrashing frenzy. Those that wore jeans did not fare well that night. Dripping and cold but not caring, the next stage was to eat 12 grapes in the last 12 seconds of the year. A tasty event followed by fireworks. We hadnt realized that the bus had taken us far out out of town so instead of catching it again we decided to walk the 30 minutes back to the hostel. Unfortunately for us, the 30 minutes quickly turned into an hour and than an hour and a half. An epic walk but an awesome crowd to do it with.

Northern Chile and our route

The following is the map of the northern journey.

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A. San Pedro de Atacama
B. Calama
C. Arica
D. La Serena
E. Vicuña
F. Pisco Elqui
G. Valparaiso

Christmas!

Leather seats, lots of cushions and plenty of space characterized our first bus ride experience in Chile. At first glance the bus terminal in Calama looked well organized and systematic. That is, until the clerk ran outside to intercept the parking bus. Raging and screaming, however we had gathered enough information to ascertain that the wrong bus had arrived. They had been expecting another bus but nobody knew where it was. While this commotion was going on we heard a well accented scream ¨Bastard!¨, someone had tried to steal a bunch of bags from an obviously foreign family. A small scuttle and chase ensured, however everything was recovered.

We realized that we actually didnt know anything about Arica, so we occupied our time on the bus reading up all about it and the rest of Chile. After reading through the guide, we werent too hopeful about Arica. Upon getting closer to the city we were reminded of Mancora. A city on the coast surrounded by desert. Arriving early meant that we had the entire day to explore and decide on a hostel. The first thing that we normally do is go to the main square and get our bearings from there. Our dilemma was that there wasnt one, instead we made our way to the main street, perched our self on the bench right across the street from a lady selling cakes. Thankfully things started to open at about 1030am, waddling down the street full of cake is not my idea of early city exploring. To our dilemma, all the hostels that we had checked out were either far more expensive then Lonely Planet blabbed about, or that they were totally booked out. Our last chance was the hostel that we originally intended to go to. However being mentioned as one of the best hostel in Arica, we did not have our hopes up. The cab driver that drove us to the hostel actually spoke English. He had lived in the states and loved to call us gringo. On our way to the hostel, it seemed that he knew everyone, particularly one older lady who he proudly identified as one of his lovers, followed by one of his raspy laughs. Upon arrived, we received the last bed and were told to enjoy the all you can eat breakfast at 12pm!

Arica

Not having any expectations when coming into Arica is really the best way to go about it. It doesnt have much to offer, not particularly beautiful or charming. Our hostel was a 5 minute walk from the beach, so we took full advantage of killing the entire day on the beach, and the few days to follow...Arica turned out to be exactly what we needed. The hostel, Sunny Days, was an amazing place. The owners were super friendly, informative and served up belt busting breakfasts. They recommended that everyone try the surf lessons, from the guy living in his van by the beach. He looked more like an 80´s porn star rather than a surfer and would magically appear at the hostel day and night.

We decided to spend Christmas there, with all the friendly people and two kitchens at our disposal. Our Christmas festivities turned out to be far larger than we had anticipated. From the original 3, our Christmas dinner ended with 7 people in total. Funnily enough, we had more than enough food to feed everyone, even thought it was planned for 3...The table was littered with delicious Chilean wine and two deserts to boot. One thing that really impressed us was the range of cheap wines. For just $3 we could get a good bottle of wine, namely Carmenere, a type of wine mostly grown in Chile. It was a unique experience celebrating with people of different ages from different countries, cooking foods representing a number of nations. From Swedish meatballs, to twice baked potatoes, a grander feast would have been hard to find. Unless you are Polish and you make 12 dishes in celebration, which is what 3 Polish girls did.

After spending 5 days in Arica, it was time to move on. Our original ticket out was straight to Valparaiso, however we decided that we had enough time to break up the journey by visiting the Pisco Valley. Onwards to La Serena and New Year festivities!

Hello high season!

We spent an hour seating in the bus while the tourists ahead of us had their baggage scanned and checked, reinforcing the fact that we were no longer in the Andean countries. Of course the luggage scanning was more procedural than actually necessary, clothes were poked rather than taken out.

Arriving in San Pedro de Atacama was like crossing over into a little desert hide away. It felt so foreign from where we had just came from. For one, the people looked more european. The lunch deals included things like pasta and wine and not the usual rice and potatoe as we were used to. That being said, coming from Bolivia into Chile the first thing that one notices is that while there is a better variety of things to eat and drink, they are not cheap. In hindesight, we should have visited Bolivia last, that way we could have been amazed at the prices and stocked up on hats, jumpers, socks and paintings.

Arica

We encountered many firsts in Chile. Our travels in the northern part of South America have all been during the low season. However, we were now in a new country, facing peak of the season prices. Our initial plan involved getting to San Pedro and then catching a bus all the way down to Valparaiso. However this plan was quickly thwarted by the rather busy and exesperated clerks at all the bus companies. There was no room on ANY bus on the 21st through till the 26th. We were at a loss. Spending 5 days in San Pedro did not appeal to me or to Dorothee in the slightest. We needed to get out. Upon scouring the city and gathering as much information as we could, we found out that the nearest city of Calama had more busses and a bigger population to cater towards, it was our best bet.

Calama. It doesnt deserve a section titled as such. Simply a large, grimmy and dusty city in the middle of nowhere mainly populated by unshaven older men. Calama is a city build aorund the mining industry surrounding the region. With all of our gear, tired and wanting a break, we walked blocks upon blocks looking for bus companies. Several hours of walking later and approaching atleast 7 different companies, we were always greated with the exact same message, ¨Everything is booked through until the 26th¨. It was getting dark and we had no plan C. We decided that spending a night in Calama was not a good idea. A simple strawl through the main pedestrian street saw us diving out of the way of fully armoured riot police officers followed by police and ambulance vehicles. We happened to be in Calama on the day that their soccer team beat their rival, so the city exploded in noise and colour. Riot police and what looked like battleships patrolled the streets. Getting out was our first priority and crazily enough, going north out of Calama proved just as difficult! We bought the first bus company that had seats going to Arica, 8 hours north of our current position. Unfortunately we had to part ways with Dorothee as her plans were a little different.

The four weeks in Bolivia!

While we didnt get a chance to visit much of the country, we heard from other travellers that the rest of Bolivia is just as wild and remote as the places that we visited. By the sounds of it, there are amazing geographical features deep within the country very much off the beaten track. Its hard to get to them, but totally worth it.

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A. Copacobana
B. La Paz
C. Rurrenabaque
D. Uyuni
E. San Pedro de Atacama

The Salar!

Metal grave yard

After recovering in La Paz for a couple of days we decided that we´ve had enough of that city. Booking a bus to Uyuni wasnt hard, they are all the same price and leave from the same terminal. In the four months that we´ve travelled, that bus ride was the worst one of all. Whats interesting is that noone ever complains about the Uyuni bus ride but rather about Rurrenabaque. Compared, the Rurrenabaque bus is like floating on air with a slight tropical, mango infused breeze. Just to warn those attempting the torturous 12 hr journey; sleep will not be found aboard this vessel. Beyond missing basic shock absorbing equipment or even the ability to reclain the seats, someone went ahead and dispersed massive potholes and sharp, hard rocks all over the road. Everyone that we talked to agreed with us! 

Laguna Verde

In order to start the journey to Chile we decided that the best way to do it was through a tour. Luckily enough, tours start in Uyuni, Bolivia and end in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, after 3 days of travel. Getting to Uyuni we stayed in a random hostel that we found just off the main tourist street. The little old lady that ran the hostel was really sweet. She hunched like golem, had a smile of an angle and the memory of a gold fish. However, she did recommend a tour company, after telling us some truly gruesome stories about the bus ride that we had just done. The one thing that we learned before doing the tour is that 2 factors made it a good experience. First of all, it was critical that we had a good guide. There is a big problem with drivers drinking on the drive, cars crashing, drivers dumping all the gear in the middle of nowhere and leaving their group to fend for themselves. We heard all of these stories and they occurred quite frequently. Our lady suggested an older, more experienced company, called Relampago. We requested their most experienced and hence older driver, so check that requirement. The second important factor is having a good group of people on your tour. We met up with two friends in Uyuni and did the tour with them, so point 2 check. Our tour turned out to be amazing! 

The salar

Salt Hotel

Our driver was a really cool guy. At one point in time we made him lay down on the salt flat because we wanted to get a picture of all of us. The food on the trip was really good, a variety of meals cooked using the salt found all around us. One of the nights we stayed at the Salt Hotel. A structure made of salt bricks. It was actually a really luxurious experience. Day one of the tour was all about driving in the endless salt flats. Its stretched as far as the eye could see, reflecting the sky, a perfect mirror image. 

Arbol de Piedra

From there, day two saw us driving through ancient lava fields and weird rock formations. While climbing through some of these formations, it started snowing! We were in the middle of nowhere with rocks to one side and a vast desert with volcanoes to the other and out of nowhere a blizzard rolled in. Its amazing how varied the terrain was on our journey. After the blizzard the jeep sped away to the next destination, a formation of rocks, one in particular resembled a tree. 

Hot springs!

Lots of them, spewing smoke high into the air

The third and final day was just as spectacular as the rest. We got up at 4am and drove towards the geysers. Crossing the desert and over the hill we were treated to breath taking views of geysers below us in the valley. Smoke rose high in the air with the sun slowly peeking over the horizon. When driving away from the field our guide casually mentioned that we were at 5000m or 15000ft, the heights point of our journey so far! It was amazing to watch the sunrise right before us. The sand hills reflected the yellows and reds, splaying colour into every crevice and creating the feel of an alien landscape. Pictures could barely do it justice, its like having monkeys climb all over you in the jungle, seeing a photo just doesnt convey the same thrill. At around 6am we arrived at the hot springs. We had been looking forward to them the entire morning since at that elevation and time of the day its particularly cold. The pool´s water was a cozy 39C fed by underground water channels, with beautiful views of lagoons and flamingos. Later on, we drove over to the green lagoon. Flamingos’ didnt live there because the water contained arsenic, but that was fine because the red lagoon contained over 20,000 of them! 

James Flamingos, over twenty thousand of them

It was one of the best tours to date. We crossed the border into Chile and straight away noticed just how different the two countries were. The roads in Chile were actual roads with markings and signs! The busses actually had seatbelts and they worked! And now we are in Chile!