Return to Santiago...

Erik: In the end, the bus ride wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared. They showed movie after movie, including such greats as “Big Moma's House”, “Free Willy” and “The Golden Compass”, all dubbed in spanish, of course. Our seats were comfortable enough and we did manage to sleep a bit. Early on the Atacama desert was impressive, but a bit too reminiscent of bolivia and peru. Then after several hours we saw the pacific ocean on the horizon – a very welcome sight! I managed to sleep a good few hours, and the next morning we awoke to see not only the ocean, but green landscapes – a bright, wonderful change from the dust and brown mountain vistas of peru.

In santiago we already knew our way around a bit, and found a nice hotel with an “affordable” apartment-suite complete with kitchenette. After the very simple food of the salar trip, and the incredibly chewy beef of peru and bolivia, I was craving a good steak, so we splurged and went to a very nice grill restaurant nearby and had a huge meal of steak, potatoes and good chilean wine. That combined with a good night's sleep, and the batteries were fully recharged.

The next day we'd arranged to meet our friends Patty and Marco Torres, who we'd met in Mendoza, Argentina. We found them at the Plaza de Armas the next day at noon, and they took us via the very modern and technologically sophisticated metro (subway) and bus lines to their home, where we met up with their kids, Belen and Martin. Patty prepared a delicious lunch of pasta and roast chicken, and Marco opened up a nice bottle of wine. Only a few days in chile, and we were living well!

We spent the entire day with the Torres – visiting a local park, and then to Patty's parents' house for “onces” (afternoon tea.) What a wonderful day. We're very lucky to have such hospitable and generous friends.

Our first visit to santiago had been in august – the heart of winter, and we'd not found it terribly pretty nor pleasant. What a difference a season makes – now santiago was sunny with green trees and blossoming flowers everywhere. We really enjoyed just walking around and visiting the small parks that dot the city. It proves just how wrong first impressions can be.

After a few days, though, we were eager to move on to the south of chile, which according to everyone we spoke to is one of chile's most beautiful areas. Marco Torres is from the southern lake district town of Valdivia, and after talking with him a bit, we decided that it should be our next stop. It was a good 10 hours away, so we bought tickets on yet another night bus...

Talor: After days spent in the desert, Santiago was such a welcome change with everything in bloom. What luxury to be able to go for a run in the morning (on paved asphalt!), pick up provisions for breakfast, and dine on fresh baked bread, rich delicious cheese and luscious fruit in season, including my favorite, the chirimoya! Erik is right, what a difference a season makes! Made the 23-hour bus ride worthwhile.

Chileans are known for their hospitality and rightly so. The day we spent with Patty, Marco and family was just lovely. They welcomed us into their homes and prepared delicious meals for us as we chatted and got to know each other better. It was the best welcome back!

Our photos of Santiago...

Santiago, Chile

San Pedro de Atacama

Erik: The end location on our Salar de Uyuni tour was San Pedro de Atacama, in Chile. San Pedro is a small village oasis in the middle of the Atacama desert, supposedly the driest desert in the world. There really isn't much to the town beyond the pretty main square and old, adobe church. The town seems to live for tourism – people drawn to explore the desert or the bolivian salt flats which we'd just arrived from. Virtually all the restaurants in town catered to tourists, and the prices for everything – from lodging, to food, to services, were greatly inflated. Talk about sticker shock! We went several months in peru and bolivia, two of the most affordable countries in south america, to one of most expensive towns in the most expensive country in south america. A night's stay jumped from $10 for a nice room with private bath, to $40 for a dumpy cubicle with shared bath. Ouch!

There was little to keep us in San Pedro, but that night we did have a festive farewell dinner with the gang from the salar tour, as well as friendly and fun Ilse from belgium who we'd met along the way. The next day we bought tickets to santiago, a frightening 23-hour bus ride away. While waiting for the afternoon bus, we were lucky enough to find one of the only affordable dining spots in town, a little BBQ shack near the football (soccer) field, where we had huge helpings of delicious grilled chicken for about $3 – the perfect send off before our longest bus ride yet.

To see our photos...

San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

Sleepless in Santiago (Chile)

Erik's entry: What I remember most of Santiago is our endless search for a decent, affordable hotel. We spent the first 4 nights in 3 different hotels in 3 different barrios. Everything was either well out of our budget, or barely affordable and barely sleepable. We had dusty bunk beds in a run down hostel ($40/night with communal bath!), a creaky bed so sunken in the center that we awoke with terrible back aches ($40/night though with private bath and a non-functioning fireplace in a funky old colonial house), then finally a decent room with private bath and – luxury of luxuries – heating in the room! (remember that August is the height of winter in Chile). We were quite content in this last hotel. We spent the better part of our first days searching for better lodging, and nearly half the places we found rented out their rooms by the hour as well as by the day. One particularly memorable place had a room done up as a ship captain's quarters with a switch on the wall that lit up a series of small red lights on the ceiling that spelled out “sexy.” I was in favor of that one, but couldn't talk Talor into it. Probably better that way in regards to hygiene...

In retrospect we got a little carried away with finding the perfect place, though we were very happy (and warm) 4 days into our stay when we found that last hotel in barrio brazil. We did find time to do a few fun things, such as the afternoon we spent in the largest park in Santiago. We took a funicular up to a high vista point looking out over the huge city which is hemmed in by the snowy Andes on two sides. Looming over us was a 40 foot statue of Mary Magdalene. From there, we took a gondola ride to the far side of the park, from where we planned to walk back to our hotel. Unfortunately our map wasn't quite to scale, and the walk back took over 3 hours.

During our wanderings, we also stumbled across a funky little hotel piano bar. We were drawn in by the low prices they advertised and the terribly bad yet appealing music of the piano man, playing all the hits from sinatra to billy joel on his electric keyboard. Once inside, though, it turned out to be a very popular place. It was tiny, smoky, with people packed into miniature lounge tables sipping beer and pisco. The walls were done up in velvet wallpaper with tacky framed prints all around. It was exactly what you'd think of as a divey american piano bar from the '50's. We had a great time (partly due to the pisco, of course.)

Talor: For me, as always, it's all about the food... after over 8 eight hours of searching for housing on our first day, we were EXHAUSTED and hating the city and ready to tear into each other. Then we stumbled upon a cute little unpretentious cafe packed with locals on a trendy street in Barrio Brazil. Walked in and saw everyone chowing down on a local specialty, a chorrillana... imagine a huge platter heaped with fries, drowned with gravy with melted cheese and fried eggs on top... o man! We were in heaven! We tore into it like we hadn't eaten in weeks, smiling the whole time, and soon our resentment with the city and each other started melting away, and we decided all was forgiven... that is, until we got back to the hostal and had to put sheets on our bunkbeds before going to bed.

While we were walking around the first day, we found a a local shopping neighborhood with a smattering of Asian eateries and grocery stores. Saw a Korean restaurant and of course we had to check it out. Went there the next night, a sunday, and thought for sure it would be closed because the neighborhood was seriously a ghost town... no sign of life. Breathed a big sigh of relief when I saw a light from half-way down the block and shouted, “Woo hoo it's open!” Ordered a bibimbap (mixed rice with vegetables) and agu tang (fish stew). Though pricey (any foreign food in Chile is expensive, even Chinese!), it was worth every peso! Not only that, it was the first week of the Olympics, and we happened to be in a Korean restaurant in Chile when a Korean took the first ever gold medal in swimming. We yelled and screamed at the TV cheering him on along with all the other Koreans in the restaurant. After that, the atmosphere became very festive.

The third memorable meal... and I promise to stop with the food already... was a salad... yes, a salad! A simple thing, I know, but it's really hard to get a fresh salad. Though we were very excited to eat Chilean food in the beginning, after awhile we got bored with empanadas, completos, and set meals with meat, chicken, and potatoes. All I really wanted was a fresh salad which was sorely lacking in our daily diet. Went to a cafe a couple of blocks away from our hotel, where I had seen nice, interesting sounding salads on the menu. Ordered a basic one thinking, “It had better be good given the New York prices...” and it was! Really fresh with steamed veggies, beans and fresh mozzarella. Never thought I'd be so happy eating a salad, but I was.

But the best part of Santiago was our friend Patty... we met the Torres' in a hostal in Mendoza, Argentina. Patty, Marco and their kids, Martin and Belen, were vacationing there during school break, Had a really nice time chatting with them over bottles of wine at the communal table. They gave us their contact info in Santiago and we promised to let them know when we arrived. Once we got settled into the third and final hotel, Patty drove two hours in rush hour traffic to visit us with Martin and Belen, bearing gifts... a necklace with a lovely blue stone called Lapizazul for me and a keepsake ashtray for Erik... so sweet! Though we weren't enamored of the city, having friends really made a difference, not to mention a few good meals. Hope we get as lucky in Peru...
For our photos, go to... http://picasaweb.google.com/erikandtalor/Santiago#5242011123962140866