The flight from Australia to Santiago was relatively painless, even
for a flying hater such as Niamh. They fed us regularly and everyone had
a TV screen with loads of films and TV shows which kept us entertained
for the twelve hours. We left Australia at 11.30 on Friday morning and
arrived in Santiago at about 11.00 on Friday morning. But time travel
has side effects. We were really jetlagged the first couple of days and
got into the habit of falling asleep at six in the evening, getting up
really early in the morning and then taking naps in the middle of the
day - siesta!
We were staying in the very trendy Bellavista famed for its nice cafes and restaurants. We stayed in La Chimba hostel which overall was grand. The first couple of days we thought it was a fairly small hostel, until we took a wander and found a mass of other buildings, little courtyards and chill out areas. The hostel had loads of great art work and some parts were new and modern, however, some of it was in serious need of paint and a scrub, like the room we stayed in the first couple of nights. The staff insisted on playing their music really loudly from eight in the morning till late at night and drowning out the noise of the only TV, which ruined the plan of flaking out in front of a film.
We did manage to make ourselves do stuff too despite the exhaustion though. We visited Pablo Neruda's gaff. Pable Nureda was a Chilean poet. He had three houses in Chile, La-Di-Da. The houses are beautifully designed both inside and out and full of great curios, including loads of crockery. We couldn't take photographs but Niamh wrote a post here with photos nicked from the internet (they are credited; I didn't do seven years of research and referencing for nothing).
Another day we went to the modern art museum, which Niamh, in the main liked, except for the video installations, please refer to note on previous post and Emmet was not so fond of.
Then, hurrah, Jerry and Aisling arrived. Those who have been following our blog for a while would have introduced to Jerry and Aisling in Asia, they are two school friends of Emmet’s from Skerries. They were time warped for the first day also. So once they had some rest we went on a really crap walking tour of the city and saw some pretty average buildings. At the very end of the tour we got to one of the main squares, Bella des Armes, which is actually very nice, but there is a more direct route.
On the way home we stopped off at the market to get dinner, which was great. The food in Chile is very meat and starch based and in order to avoid scurvy we decided to buy some vegetables and of course, some chilies.
Later, we got a taxi up a massive hill, some would call it a mountain, called San Cristóbal. The views from there were spectacular and we saw many of the crap buildings we had walked past earlier, although they were more impressive from far away. The city is huge and you got a great sense of the scale of the place from the viewpoint. You used to be able to get a train up to the top, but it was closed for maintenance, which was to become a theme for us in Chile. We were fecked if we were walking the six kilometres in the heat and got a taxi up to the top. And back down again, lazy sods I know, but it was very very very hot.
Our next stop was Valparaíso, which I mistakenly thought to be a quaint town. It turned out to be a lot bigger and dirtier than I imagined, with power lines running everywhere, which of course people were running their own lines off. However, we really liked it, while it was not quaint, it made up for it in quirkiness. It is based on a number of hills and all of the houses are brightly coloured which gives beautiful views. There is loads of great street art too. It is also full of lovely cafes, the best being Cafe des Jardin, I found my cafe muse. I have and will be posting up photos on Tales of a Teapot!
We arrived in Valparaíso and hopped on a trolley bus to get to our hostel. Unfortunately, it broke down half way through the journey. The hostel is located in an area called Concepción, which is up a massive hill. Because so much of the city is in the hills, loads of outdoor lifts were built, although only a few are still in operation, but there was one on the way to our hostel. We were delighted not to have to tackle a big hill on top of an unexpected walk.
We stayed in Casa Volante, which is a new hostel. The staff were so nice and it is in a great location, although the rooms smelled of urine, especially the one Jerry and Aisling were staying in. For some reason we have all had blocked noses on South America. A defining moment was waking up with the smell trapped in my nose.
The main thing we wanted to see was one of Pablo Nureda’s other houses. We were very impressed with the one we saw in Santiago. We planned to get a bus out to it and walked down to the square where the buses leave from. A little old lady decided to play the good Samaritan and helped us get on the bus. How nice. Except for the fact that she is an idiot and put us on the wrong bus. We figured it out pretty quickly but still managed to end up further from the house then when we started out. We thought it was best to forget public transport and just walk and get a lift. Unfortunately, this was a phantom lift, so we puffed and panted our way up statistically the steepest hill in the world, no exaggeration. I can think of few situations when I have sweated more, even after 9 months of travelling in hot countries. So, I am sure you are wondering whether then famed house was worth the effort? The fecking thing was shut, possibly due to a strike. The gates were lovely though. In order to make something of the day we took the scenic road back and got some great shots over the city and of the naval ships (we far enough away as not to be shot). We fully deserved a drink in the evening and had our first taste of Chilean wine in Chile.
The next morning, when we should have being doing nothing but nursing tired heads, we tried to book our onward bus to Mendoza, to find it didn’t run during the day as we hoped and we would have to get a dreaded night bus. This was really irritating for a many reasons which I have listed in numerical order. Number one, we had already booked accommodation for the next few nights and would miss out on staying with a puppeteer. We had already paid the deposit and Niamh was looking forward to photographing all the nice little trinkets in the house. Number two, the views are meant to be spectacular. Number three, night buses are rubbish. Apparently they are doing maintenance on the road and have closed it off during the day.
The night bus was as bad as we expected and wasn’t helped by the mad yoke who paced up and down the aisle for the entire bus journey. He got off the bus at the border crossing and refused to get back on. The bus driver went mental at him and drove off without him. Then his friends started balling crying. The driver was just bluffing, but it worked, they managed to get him back on where he continued to pace and pull at his hair for the rest of the trip. Needless to say, the next day was a relaxy day. It was on this fateful day that Jerry and Aisling introduced us to the phenomenon that is German Sparkle Party. We like German Sparkle Party, we like to dancy dance and we have our party pants.
The main thing we wanted to do in Mendoza was a wine tour. We had heard about bike tours and despite the obvious stupidity of the idea were keen to try it. We booked our trip through our hostel, Lagares (pretty nice, we got a four bed dorm for the lot of us). Besides the four of us, we were joined by an Australian called Mitch, who was sound. We met our guides at a winery called Antigua Bogeda Giol and picked up our bikes. We were to cycle 18 kilometres so we expected mountain bikes. Instead we got bikes with no gears, brakes or suspension. They looked quite nice, I would have preferred brakes. So off we set to our first tasting at Bodegas Vinetos Lopez, one of the largest wineries in Argentina. We watched a really boring video and then were brought around the winery, which was great. We saw where the wine is fermented and stored and learned about the process of making wine. Then came the tasting, two scabby little glasses, maybe health and safety was a concern!
We went back to Antigua Bogeda Giol for lunch of empanadas (meat in pastry), which were delicious and also received more generous portions of wine. We also done a tour here and learned a lot of the same information. Revision. We got to climb into one of the empty Vats which was pretty cool. It was huge and produced a very impressive echo.
The third stop of the day was an organic winery called Bodega Cecchin, which had the longest cycle of the day in very hot weather. We needed a while to sit down, drink water and not faint when we arrived. I’m sure our red faces looked delightful. We were shown around by Carla. She had a bad experience with an Irish person before. He bought her a drink and then took it off her again, she was not impressed. We tried to change her opinion, but Australia wanted to get in on the action and turned up the charm. Its okay, we won out in the end with an impressive 3-1, through a combination of Jerry climbing into a very small hole with contortionist like abilities, Emmet’s ability to roll an r like a Spanish person and something else which none of the four of us can remember. Mitch from Australia told a great joke and scored a point (Why did the Mexican throw his wife down a hill? Te –Qui – La). Niamh nearly lost us points by trying to tell the mushroom joke again, which got lost in translation. She told us that we were her best group so far, which was slightly tainted when she straight away pointed out the fact that she had only being working there for four days. We ended up buying a bottle of wine and drinking a glass each there on top of our tasters. We also got a couple of bottles to take away, as well as some delicious tapenade.
Our final stop of the day was an Olive Oil factory called Pasrai. The tour itself was slightly dry after lots of wine and probably would have been better earlier in the day, but the tasters were delicious and we ended up buying a jar of sun dried tomatoes. Then we had our final cycle back to Antigua Bogeda Giol for some homemade wine and back to the hostel.
We decided to keep the party going and drank the bottles of wine we bought before hitting the town. Carla had told us about a party in a hostel so it was the first stop on our list. We arrived just as the doors we closing on a very quiet hostel, I’m not sure where the party was. Luckily, the taxi was still in the vicinity and we hopped back in and went to the main street for bars. We spotted an Irish bar Carla had told us about and went in for a drink. One drink ended up being several, including shots of tequila, which signalled the end of the night. German sparkle party was sung on many occasions throughout the night.
We were all pretty wrecked the following morning and only left the hostel once for lunch (as it was a Sunday and siesta time, the only place we could find for food was Mac Donalds) before getting our 19 hour bus to Bariloche.
We were staying in the very trendy Bellavista famed for its nice cafes and restaurants. We stayed in La Chimba hostel which overall was grand. The first couple of days we thought it was a fairly small hostel, until we took a wander and found a mass of other buildings, little courtyards and chill out areas. The hostel had loads of great art work and some parts were new and modern, however, some of it was in serious need of paint and a scrub, like the room we stayed in the first couple of nights. The staff insisted on playing their music really loudly from eight in the morning till late at night and drowning out the noise of the only TV, which ruined the plan of flaking out in front of a film.
 |
| A cool painting in our hostel |
We did manage to make ourselves do stuff too despite the exhaustion though. We visited Pablo Neruda's gaff. Pable Nureda was a Chilean poet. He had three houses in Chile, La-Di-Da. The houses are beautifully designed both inside and out and full of great curios, including loads of crockery. We couldn't take photographs but Niamh wrote a post here with photos nicked from the internet (they are credited; I didn't do seven years of research and referencing for nothing).
Another day we went to the modern art museum, which Niamh, in the main liked, except for the video installations, please refer to note on previous post and Emmet was not so fond of.
Then, hurrah, Jerry and Aisling arrived. Those who have been following our blog for a while would have introduced to Jerry and Aisling in Asia, they are two school friends of Emmet’s from Skerries. They were time warped for the first day also. So once they had some rest we went on a really crap walking tour of the city and saw some pretty average buildings. At the very end of the tour we got to one of the main squares, Bella des Armes, which is actually very nice, but there is a more direct route.
On the way home we stopped off at the market to get dinner, which was great. The food in Chile is very meat and starch based and in order to avoid scurvy we decided to buy some vegetables and of course, some chilies.
Later, we got a taxi up a massive hill, some would call it a mountain, called San Cristóbal. The views from there were spectacular and we saw many of the crap buildings we had walked past earlier, although they were more impressive from far away. The city is huge and you got a great sense of the scale of the place from the viewpoint. You used to be able to get a train up to the top, but it was closed for maintenance, which was to become a theme for us in Chile. We were fecked if we were walking the six kilometres in the heat and got a taxi up to the top. And back down again, lazy sods I know, but it was very very very hot.
Our next stop was Valparaíso, which I mistakenly thought to be a quaint town. It turned out to be a lot bigger and dirtier than I imagined, with power lines running everywhere, which of course people were running their own lines off. However, we really liked it, while it was not quaint, it made up for it in quirkiness. It is based on a number of hills and all of the houses are brightly coloured which gives beautiful views. There is loads of great street art too. It is also full of lovely cafes, the best being Cafe des Jardin, I found my cafe muse. I have and will be posting up photos on Tales of a Teapot!
We arrived in Valparaíso and hopped on a trolley bus to get to our hostel. Unfortunately, it broke down half way through the journey. The hostel is located in an area called Concepción, which is up a massive hill. Because so much of the city is in the hills, loads of outdoor lifts were built, although only a few are still in operation, but there was one on the way to our hostel. We were delighted not to have to tackle a big hill on top of an unexpected walk.
We stayed in Casa Volante, which is a new hostel. The staff were so nice and it is in a great location, although the rooms smelled of urine, especially the one Jerry and Aisling were staying in. For some reason we have all had blocked noses on South America. A defining moment was waking up with the smell trapped in my nose.
The main thing we wanted to see was one of Pablo Nureda’s other houses. We were very impressed with the one we saw in Santiago. We planned to get a bus out to it and walked down to the square where the buses leave from. A little old lady decided to play the good Samaritan and helped us get on the bus. How nice. Except for the fact that she is an idiot and put us on the wrong bus. We figured it out pretty quickly but still managed to end up further from the house then when we started out. We thought it was best to forget public transport and just walk and get a lift. Unfortunately, this was a phantom lift, so we puffed and panted our way up statistically the steepest hill in the world, no exaggeration. I can think of few situations when I have sweated more, even after 9 months of travelling in hot countries. So, I am sure you are wondering whether then famed house was worth the effort? The fecking thing was shut, possibly due to a strike. The gates were lovely though. In order to make something of the day we took the scenic road back and got some great shots over the city and of the naval ships (we far enough away as not to be shot). We fully deserved a drink in the evening and had our first taste of Chilean wine in Chile.
The next morning, when we should have being doing nothing but nursing tired heads, we tried to book our onward bus to Mendoza, to find it didn’t run during the day as we hoped and we would have to get a dreaded night bus. This was really irritating for a many reasons which I have listed in numerical order. Number one, we had already booked accommodation for the next few nights and would miss out on staying with a puppeteer. We had already paid the deposit and Niamh was looking forward to photographing all the nice little trinkets in the house. Number two, the views are meant to be spectacular. Number three, night buses are rubbish. Apparently they are doing maintenance on the road and have closed it off during the day.
The night bus was as bad as we expected and wasn’t helped by the mad yoke who paced up and down the aisle for the entire bus journey. He got off the bus at the border crossing and refused to get back on. The bus driver went mental at him and drove off without him. Then his friends started balling crying. The driver was just bluffing, but it worked, they managed to get him back on where he continued to pace and pull at his hair for the rest of the trip. Needless to say, the next day was a relaxy day. It was on this fateful day that Jerry and Aisling introduced us to the phenomenon that is German Sparkle Party. We like German Sparkle Party, we like to dancy dance and we have our party pants.
 |
| Us at a fountain in Mendoza |
The main thing we wanted to do in Mendoza was a wine tour. We had heard about bike tours and despite the obvious stupidity of the idea were keen to try it. We booked our trip through our hostel, Lagares (pretty nice, we got a four bed dorm for the lot of us). Besides the four of us, we were joined by an Australian called Mitch, who was sound. We met our guides at a winery called Antigua Bogeda Giol and picked up our bikes. We were to cycle 18 kilometres so we expected mountain bikes. Instead we got bikes with no gears, brakes or suspension. They looked quite nice, I would have preferred brakes. So off we set to our first tasting at Bodegas Vinetos Lopez, one of the largest wineries in Argentina. We watched a really boring video and then were brought around the winery, which was great. We saw where the wine is fermented and stored and learned about the process of making wine. Then came the tasting, two scabby little glasses, maybe health and safety was a concern!
We went back to Antigua Bogeda Giol for lunch of empanadas (meat in pastry), which were delicious and also received more generous portions of wine. We also done a tour here and learned a lot of the same information. Revision. We got to climb into one of the empty Vats which was pretty cool. It was huge and produced a very impressive echo.
The third stop of the day was an organic winery called Bodega Cecchin, which had the longest cycle of the day in very hot weather. We needed a while to sit down, drink water and not faint when we arrived. I’m sure our red faces looked delightful. We were shown around by Carla. She had a bad experience with an Irish person before. He bought her a drink and then took it off her again, she was not impressed. We tried to change her opinion, but Australia wanted to get in on the action and turned up the charm. Its okay, we won out in the end with an impressive 3-1, through a combination of Jerry climbing into a very small hole with contortionist like abilities, Emmet’s ability to roll an r like a Spanish person and something else which none of the four of us can remember. Mitch from Australia told a great joke and scored a point (Why did the Mexican throw his wife down a hill? Te –Qui – La). Niamh nearly lost us points by trying to tell the mushroom joke again, which got lost in translation. She told us that we were her best group so far, which was slightly tainted when she straight away pointed out the fact that she had only being working there for four days. We ended up buying a bottle of wine and drinking a glass each there on top of our tasters. We also got a couple of bottles to take away, as well as some delicious tapenade.
Our final stop of the day was an Olive Oil factory called Pasrai. The tour itself was slightly dry after lots of wine and probably would have been better earlier in the day, but the tasters were delicious and we ended up buying a jar of sun dried tomatoes. Then we had our final cycle back to Antigua Bogeda Giol for some homemade wine and back to the hostel.
We decided to keep the party going and drank the bottles of wine we bought before hitting the town. Carla had told us about a party in a hostel so it was the first stop on our list. We arrived just as the doors we closing on a very quiet hostel, I’m not sure where the party was. Luckily, the taxi was still in the vicinity and we hopped back in and went to the main street for bars. We spotted an Irish bar Carla had told us about and went in for a drink. One drink ended up being several, including shots of tequila, which signalled the end of the night. German sparkle party was sung on many occasions throughout the night.
We were all pretty wrecked the following morning and only left the hostel once for lunch (as it was a Sunday and siesta time, the only place we could find for food was Mac Donalds) before getting our 19 hour bus to Bariloche.
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