Valparaiso and Santiago

Our flight landed in Santiago at 5pm, which gave us enough time to take a bus straight to Valparaiso- an hour and a half away. After checking in to our Airbnb, we found a local bar with good food and Jonno tried the local drink- a combination of beer and Fanta. Not the worst drink ever, but it did taste like a child's experiment.
We decided to begin our exploration of the city with a good old walking tour. Most of the city is on hills, and the flat parts by the coastline are mainly man made. After checking out a few of the important plazas, we took a bus up one of the hills for some good views of the city and coast.

Loves his scratches

Valparaiso is well known for its laid back, bohemian vibe and also its street art. There are some streets filled with colourful pictures, some stranger than others. We spent a whole afternoon finding the weird and wonderful images and patterns on shops, houses and alleyways. 

Some of the great street art

Piano stairs

Another attraction in Valparaiso is to visit one of the homes of Pablo Neruda, a famous Chilean poet, who wrote one of my favourite poems which was read at our wedding (sonnet XVII). As most of the reviews said the best thing about this place was the views of the city and coast, we decided to admire those from the outside rather than enter the house (we ended up going inside one of his other houses in Santiago though).

The house of Pablo Neruda in Valpariaso

Making climbing stairs more interesting

So many possessed dolls to choose from

Valparaiso is also in an area with lots of vineyards, some of which offer wine tasting. We decided that instead of going for the £75 per head organised trip, we would try and do it ourselves- we would get a bus to the area of Casablanca an hour away, and then walk along one road which had numerous vineyards and see how many we could visit. This was a great idea, but firstly the bus terminated in the town which was 10kms away from the vineyards, and the vineyards themselves were 2-3kms apart from each other, and set along a highway where buses and taxis would not stop. Nevertheless, we were determined to sample the wonderful grapey delights from the Chilean soil, so we would find a way. We managed to get a taxi to the first vineyard, and seeing as we were the only people there, had an intense experience of being sat at a long table and a very detailed description of each wine. It felt more like a lesson than a laid back experience, and after the end of the lesson we were keen to move on to the next place. The second vineyard did not have wine tasting, and it took us about 45 minutes to walk to the third one, which was well guarded by the resident llamas. We were able to sit in the pretty garden area, and deduced that actually we are rubbish at appreciating expensive wine, but at least Jonno could have a play with his camera and the wine glasses.

And of course after all that fancy wine tasting we went back into town to drink some £1.50 wine, still tasted just as good!

That's a great snaggle tooth

Finished with the good wines, now off to find the cheap stuff

Even though we could have spent more time in Valparaiso, we had already booked our accommodation for Santiago. After a couple of hours, we arrived at the studio apartment we had booked, in a modern building with a rooftop pool and a gym across the road.

Another walking tour- this one with a guide that was also an actor, who ended every part with 'lets head....in THATA direction!' and who took us around the important places in the city, the main squares and parks, the government building where he explained about the dictatorship which happened between 1973 and 1990 and past the 'cafe con piernas' (coffee with legs) area. Apparently it was where businessmen went to have coffee, served by women with very little on. These come in varying levels, from women in very short miniskirts to places which are more explicit. These places started in the 1970's, in a country where homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1999 and divorce was illegal until 2004.
We ended the tour near a street full of bars, and it seemed rude not to try the local beverage, called Terremoto- 'the earthquake'. This is a pint of strong, cheap wine, topped with pineapple ice cream. The first few sips were not so pleasant, but became more bearable afterwards. It was definitely strong though, and I didn't stay for the chaser drink, 'the aftershock'. Jonno ordered a beer, keeping it simple, but the only serving they offered was a litre. Clearly there are no half measures in Santiago.

The business district

Bring on the earthquake

The smallest serving of beer available

We wanted to find out some more about the dictatorship in Chile, so paid a visit to the Museum of Memory and Human Rights. It started on 11th September 1973, when the democratically elected Salvador Allende, was overthrown by a coup backed by the CIA, and the country was taken over by the military and lead by General Augusto Pinochet. The regime left 3,000 dead or missing, and many more were sent to interrogation camps and tortured for information. It left us with a new appreciation for the country and the strength of its people.

Seeing as we hadn't been inside the house of Pablo Neruda in Valparaiso, we decided to pay a visit to his house in Santiago. This house was dedicated to his lover, Matilde, and it was called 'la chascona'- tangled haired woman. Neruda was an eccentric man who loved to travel and filled his houses with things he had collected from his travels. He also loved the sea and boats, and made some of the rooms feel similar to being on a boat. After Neruda died, the house was vandalised, but later Matilde returned to live there and restore it.

Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago

Santiago street art

We really enjoyed our time in Valparaiso and Santiago- both places with good weather and nice areas to explore. But we were on a schedule, and had a flight to catch to take us to the south of Chile and the start of our Patagonian adventure.