Tag: Chile

Chile: Getting to Know Santiago

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A LITTLE SANTIAGO

We arrived here on a Sunday after a very long day of travel. Four hours in a van to the Punta Arenas airport (leaving before dawn at 4:30 am), the usual long line for LATAM check-in, followed by a somewhat shorter security line, and then the 3 hours plus flight to Santiago.  The Santiago airport is always jammed and baggage delivery is slow, but eventually we made our way to the hotel. It’s an oasis of American comfort. Not distinctly Chilean, just very comfortable. Everything works and everyone is efficient, aspects we appreciate more and more as we begin to wind up or wind down our travels.

The first order of business was our usual walk around the neighborhood. Compared to the 40 degrees we left in Patagonia, it was very bright and hot and 90 degrees!  We are in a business district full of banks, tall buildings, apartments and condos.  

There is a very nice park nearby, a street with several blocks of small restaurants, plus some of the not so unusual American chains—Brooks Brothers, Le Pain Quotidienne, and Total Wine.

We noted that many of the park benches were cleverly and creatively painted with different patterns and images. Fun! And there were families with young children romping on the play equipment.

Yesterday we engaged with the subway system. The day before the CP purchased a BIP card. You select an amount and pay for it and then two people can use it for rides. One person touches the card and goes through the turnstile and then hands the card back to the second person to touch in. And it’s legal!  

The subway station was just across the street from our hotel and we rode Line 1 about six stops to the transfer station and then successfully navigated our way to the Combinacion or transfer to Line 5 which we took two more stops to Plaza de Armas.

Plaza de Armas is the main square downtown and ringed by impressive and important institutions.  

The Catholic cathedral is here, the Chilean history museum, city hall and more. We admired the thickly trucked palm trees and the beautiful purple jacaranda trees and observed all the people coming and going on this bright sunny morning. We spent some time wandering around this area just looking at city life and then returned to our hotel for lunch and some downtime out of the heat.

Later we took another walk in our area, noting a street lined with different contemporary sculptures, and then had dinner at a trendy contemporary wine bar and restaurant called KM 0, short for Kilometer Zero.

KM 0

We were among the very few diners at 7:00 pm, being Americans and hungry. My salmon was covered with a mustard yellow sauce of puréed yellow sweet peppers and some shrimp and served with roast potatoes.

The Chief Penguin went for the daily special, shrimp fricassee, and was surprised to see a poached egg oozing on top of the shrimp, peas, spinach, and French fries.  He ate quickly to avoid the egg! We had ordered side dishes of green beans (served cold which we didn’t expect) and French fries, not knowing what the fricasee entailed. It was good food, but not exceptional.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Salmon with yellow chili sauce and shrimp
Shrimp fricassee

 

Chile: Patagonia Adventure

JWF 2 Comments

TORRES DEL PAINE
When we last left off, we were waiting for our van at our hotel in Punta Arenas to take us to the Tierra property on the edge of the national park, Torres del Paine. Torres means “towers” and there are three granite peaks that give the park its name of “Towers of Blue.” We were the fourth and fifth passengers in the van which had already picked up a Japanese couple at the airport and a man who appeared to be Chilean or Spanish.
We were told the trip would be four and a half hours and a woman, not riding with us and presumably from Tierra, handed us each a small canvas sack with snacks.  We were headed north toward Puerto Natales where we would then take a critical right turn eastward toward the park and the hotel. The road was paved, but the ride jouncy (we were in the third seats back from the front), and we listened to or were subjected to, depending on your perspective, recordings of Frank Sinatra tunes, everything from “My Way,” to “Strangers in the Night.”  Strange in some way to be hearing this music in Chile. After two hours, we made a short stop at a roadside restaurant for restrooms and stretching our legs.

As we traveled north, the landscape changed from tundra looking sand and tufty plants to short trees with half bare branches, half leafed out in green (narre, we were told later) and a bit more green the farther we went.   

Just before Puerto Natales, we began to see lots of sheep and several ranches, and then had to wait twice while Chilean gauchos (they call them something else here) on horseback and a dog moved cattle across the road.  

Green hills now and then lots of sheep and the first lambs of the spring.

After a critical turn about half an hour from the hotel, we entered a gravel road under construction being paved. This was a really bumpy, unpleasant stretch of road.

Then the turnoff into Tierra Patagonia and another gravel road to get to the entrance. It’s a very low building, built partially underground and almost not evident as you come up to it. The architecture, by a Chilean architect (woman) is gorgeous. The inside hallways feel like being in a tunnel, but then you have big wide windows facing Lago Sarmiento on the back, picture windows in each guest room, and almost all glass in the open restaurant and lounges.  Lots of light-colored wood throughout.

I was vibrating from the ride by the time we arrived so we enjoyed lunch and vegged the rest of the afternoon until a lovely dinner in the dining room.

Today we signed up for the morning excursion to the Laguna Azul. This was a about a 3-hour outing in a van with three main stops ending up at the beautiful turquoise lagoon. In addition to our guide and driver, we were joined by the Japanese couple from the day before.

Apparently, it’s windy all the time here and with a temperature in the low 40’s, we needed to bundle up. And by windy, I mean really windy, so windy that it practically blows you over or takes off your hat or glasses. The Chief Penguin and I both wore two pairs of pants, one designed to help against the wind, and then several other layers. I put on a long sleeved shirt, my new warm fleece, and then my down jacket on top. In addition, I had gloves and a knit hat.  I needed every item!  

Javier, a native of this region, from a very small town in Tierra del Fuego, was our guide, and he was excellent! He studied ecotourism in college in Punta Arenas and worked in the park for some time before being hired by Tierra.  His speciality is the animals in the park, and we saw a number of families of guanaco along the road.

They are in the camel family and closely related to llamas. The large families usually consist of one male and the rest females.  You often see a lone male guanaco apart from the family, either an elderly one or a young one who might aspire to join the females.  And high up on the hills, there is occasionally a single guanaco acting as sentinel to warn the group of an encroaching puma.  

We spent the morning in the eastern sector of this very large park, stopping at one small lagoon, then going on to some significant falls, and then lastly to the Lagoon Azul, every time looking to see if the three pillars of granite were visible between the snow-capped mountains. Sometimes they were and sometimes not as the clouds scudded in.  

The weather here is very changeable and clouds and rain and sun come and go quickly. The excursion ended at the lagoon with a table of snacks in a secluded spot (read that, as less windy!). This hotel does things up properly—tablecloth, choice of beer, soda, tea, coffee, hot chocolate with or without Bailey’s Irish Cream, and an assortment of little cookies and fresh fruit plus candy bars. What more could anyone possible ask for at 11:30 in the morning?

We then returned to the hotel for a lovely lunch where we tried the local favorite cocktail. Not a pisco sour (that comes from up north), but a calafate sour, made with the calafate berry. The actual berries look like blueberries, but the drink is deep ruby and seemed to pack much more punch than a pisco sour!

Tomorrow we have full day excursion beginning at 7:30 am which includes a boat trip on a lake to see the Grey Glacier.  More to look forward to!

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Chile: On to Patagonia

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PUNTA ARENAS

This morning we flew south from Puerto Varas to Punta Arenas.  This city is located on a peninsula just north of the Straits of Magellan and is part of Chilean Patagonia. This puts us at one of the southern most points in Chile as the Straits separate Chile from Tierra del Fuego.  Going south here is like going north in the U.S.; it gets colder, but the sun sets much later and rises earlier too!

Early in its history, Punta Arenas was a significant port, important for defense, and also the site of one of the largest sheep farms in the region.

When we exited the airport, it was very windy, a gloomy gray, and colder than we’ve experienced thus far. I immediately added my down jacket on top of my fleece. The drive to our hotel in town was about 25 minutes, and took us past lots of industry and warehouses and then finally along a stretch with a grassy median. It might be spring, but the only flowers blooming were a spread of dandelions. With the overcast sky and the slightly scruffy appearance of the real estate, it all felt a bit bleak. But then, it was getting past 1:00 pm and we hadn’t had any lunch yet.

Our hotel is an old building up the hill from the main downtown area with lots of steps to get into it and then stairs only (no elevator) to the rooms. Fortunately, we’re only one floor up from reception. They use an ingenious wire basket that looks to be on a pulley to hoist luggage up to the upstairs rooms.

The owners are the offspring of ranchers and each room is named for a trade. We are in the wagon wheel room and there is a big wooden wheel on the wall above the bed and the ceiling light fixture consists of bulbs hanging from another wheel. Bathrooms were added as they did not exist with each room previously.

We were lucky that our room was ready, but the hotel dining room was totally full so we began to walk down the hill to find some place to eat. We had gone about five blocks past lots of banks and other commercial buildings and with our hunger pangs becoming more insistent and me getting cranky, we stopped in Livorno, which looked okay from the outside and had diners inside. We should have ordered pizza and we really should have consulted the short list of restaurant recommendations from our travel agent, but we did neither of these things!

Instead we ordered the meat and fries platter which came with an overflowing mound of French fries and a piece of the toughest beef steak I’ve had in many years! We ate enough to get through the afternoon, the fries being quite good, and then continued to walk around the town.

Believe it or not, we’ve been on a mission to find a night light. We always travel with one and somehow ours got left behind on Easter Island or elsewhere. It’s a small item, but drugstores here don’t carry them, and we’ve yet to find a hardware store. In desperation, in Puerto Varas we purchased a small LED disc that took batteries, but when we got it back to our room, discovered you pushed a button to turn it on, but it didn’t stay on! For those nighttime trips in the dark, I’ve been reduced to using my Kindle.

I think that if you’d been down in Antarctica for some months and returned first to Punta Arenas, you would think it was nirvana! Clothing stores, cafes, restaurants, and at least five pharmacies (I went in all of them!)  

The Sacred Heart Cathedral is another beautiful building with a white exterior trimmed with yellow and inside a sanctuary that has a deep rose ceiling and a warmer feeling sanctuary than many churches.

NEXT DAY
This morning dawned bright and sunny and Punta Arenas was more appealing. We took a short turn around outside and snapped a few photos including one of a lovely flower garden. I think if we were going to be here longer, we’d definitely explore the museum and the cemetery, both noted sites.

 

 

 

 

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

CHILE: LAKE DISTRICT

JWF 2 Comments

ARRIVING IN PUERTO VARAS
Yesterday we left Santiago, endured the agony of lines in that airport, and flew to Puerto Montt.  Puerto Montt is south of Santiago and is the capital of this state in the Lake District. We were met and driven a short distance to the neighboring town of Puerto Varas (population 44,000) on the shores of Lake LLanquihue. This is the second largest lake in Chile, formed by glaciers, and its name is pronounced, “yunkeyway,” which you’d never guess from the spelling!

Lutheran Church in Frutillar similar to others

The architecture is squarish low wood buildings with the German founders’ influence evident in several Lutheran churches with simple steeples topped by a cross. With its temperate climate (the opposite of tropical Easter Island) and the lush green vegetation, it reminded us of Upstate New York with a bit of Switzerland tossed in.

Our hotel, Cumbres, is on the summit above the lake and just a short way down a pedestrian path to the business district.  After we settled in, we took a late afternoon walk into town, noting the variety of restaurants and the number of stores selling outdoor clothing and gear. It’s a hub for hikers and climbers. It began to pour so we and others took cover under an outdoor market next to the town square until the rain let up.  Overall, the town is attractive, but a bit tired looking, and would benefit from some fresh coats of paint.

Tasty grilled Chilean salmon on quinoa

We enjoyed dinner at our hotel and were the first, and for awhile, the only diners. Lunch had been sketchy, burgers from the airport McDonald’s around 11:30, so we were ready to eat at 7:00. Like other Spanish speaking countries, Chileans operate on a later schedule than we Americans. Hotel breakfasts often don’t begin until 7:30 or  8:00, lunch is from 1:00 to 3:00, and dinner usually begins at 8:00 with the locals not arriving until 8:30 or 9:00.

FALLS AND FRUTILLAR
This morning we met our guide Jaime and our driver Fernando at 9:00 am and soon were in the countryside, noting the many summer cottages (cabanas).  We were on our way to Chile’s first national park, Vincente Perez Rosales, which was founded in 1926 inspired by Teddy Roosevelt’s interest in the outdoors and in preserving nature.

The park encompasses Petrohue Falls, a magnificent topography of stone outcroppings, deep channels, turquoise pools, and many examples of falling water. The various paths take you up and down stone steps to a number of lookouts above the water and then down along water’s edge to see falls from another angle.

We were there before the onslaught of tour buses and had the place mostly to ourselves. It was quiet except for the roar of all that water.

We then drove farther east to the shore of Lake Todos Los Santos (All Saints Lake) which is still within the confines of the park. Along the roadway and here at lakeside was gray ashy sand, evidence of the 2015 eruption of one of the nearby volcanos. The lake area was calm and peaceful.  

Our next stop was the village of Lago LLanquihue where we ate box lunches (actually from a paper sack) sitting on a bench facing the lake. We couldn’t help but know where we were with the prominent waterborne letters!  

Lastly we continued farther on to the charming village of Frutillar, a music and cultural center for the region. Their large performing arts center, opened in 2010, features bands of wood of different colors and overlooks the lake.

Performing arts center in Frutillar

 

 

 

 

 

 

Small houses and a blazing red firehouse cum café line the opposite side of the street. At one end of the promenade a decorated pier which re-opened in 2008 (header photo) graces the landscape. In all of the towns in the region, you see the German influence in the architecture and in the food, lots of good strudels and cakes. In our hotel, the sumptuous breakfast buffet includes doughnuts and breads, but also several kinds of cake!

The morning weather was sunny and very pleasant (temperatures in the 60’s) while the afternoon clouded over until a thunderstorm around 5:00 pm cleared the air. Sunlight then glinted through the clouds.

Note:  All photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved)