Happy Holidays to all who celebrate.....i am currently wrapping up a trip to the states to hang with my family and friends to celebrate christmas and new year....it has been relaxing and rejuvenating and it has been great to connect with family and friends.....but alas....it is almost time to head back to panama and school.....so i figured i would get out one more update before i get on the plane back down south, where my year so far has been fast & furious......and remember...i have signed on for another year....so you have until june 2020 to get to panama and have a free place to sleep :) come on down!!!!
this update will focus on my november break trip to chile - i went with my friend emma and was surprised along the way by my friend carla and stopped in for a quick visit and stay over at my friend bonnie's place, who lives and works there.....overall, i loved this country....the people were friendly, the wine was plentiful & tasty and the landscape was lovely....maybe someday i will return.....all-in-all it was a wonderful trip and i highly recommend you head south to this country if you can....if i do make it back, i would love to see the patagonia area and make it out to easter island...but on this trip, it was just not doable......on with the pictures......
as you probably know, the capital of chile is santiago and it has the andes mountains to the east of the capital....splitting argentina from chile.....as you can see in the shot above, the mountains are very visible...with snow...at the start of the summer season....it was cool to see them.....also, chile, even the part not in the andes, is very hilly....as you will see in some of the pictures below......hills in chile are called cerros....
this is the cerro of santa lucia....this is where the city was officially founded in 1541, by the spaniard pedro de valdivia....this hill is 629 m (2060 ft) tall...and when you get to the top there is a castle turret to look out over the whole city.....there was also a man and his dog and his guitar, just to add to the ambiance.....we did this hill, but not the bigger one of san cristobal....we just did not have time....
while in santiago we also went to the main cemetery...called the cemeterio general de santiago....we were there just a few days after all souls day, so there were many candles and flowers at the main corners.....there are an estimated 2 million burials in this cemetery, and they still have space for folks to buy a plot or two....and the mausoleums are amazing and very ornate....and just like in argentina, many of the family names are italian....
this was one of my favorite monuments.....this is a memorial to gladys del carmen marin millie....she was a political activist, who campaigned against pinochet's (chile's past US-supported dictator) human rights abuses.... many people "disappeared" or were put in interment camps during his rule....plus, as we learned later in the trip, he affected the progress of chile, in comparison to argentina.....many folks we met, did not speak english, as all english learning in schools was banned during his rule....this definitely makes chile a bit more difficult to travel in if you do not speak spanish....but it is definitely worth the work....
another one of my favorite pieces of graffiti we saw in chile is in santiago....you can see it above....i love that the little girl is painting the sunflowers with colors....this is located in the barrio known as bellavista....a fun, hip part of town, with some excellent restaurants, bars and graffiti....
from santiago we headed out to the coast.....this is the view from our balcony.....it looks sunny and warm, but the water, both in the pool and in the ocean, was freezing!!!! as you can see, we are pretty high up on the hills....we were at renaca beach....which was mostly deserted....still was a lovely view and a wonderful place to relax.....
when we arrived at our airbnb, we were told we needed to take the funicular up to where we were staying.....this is a view from the bottom and the other car of the funicular is up on the top right of the picture....the white looking box thing...this whole thing surprised both emma and i, we had no idea chile was so hilly, or that we were staying at the top of one of those hills.....we felt like celebrities and you could not beat the view!!!
the evening we arrived here, we grabbed some dinner and watched the sunset from the ocean's edge....the lovely shot from our table is above....
during one of our days on the coast we took the metro into valparaiso....a seaside port known for its 47 hills, funiculars to get up and down them and the graffiti throughout....this shot is of one of the funiculars we rode in the town....this one is the reina victoria funicular....it climbs concepcion hill, approximately 225 feet at a 57 degree incline....one of the steepest that was built....but they have been operating successfully for over 130 years....so no need to worry....
up on cerro concepcion you will find colorful houses, amazing artisans, tasty places to eat and of course, incredible graffiti....i loved the 3-D aspect of the piece above, because it was done on the corner of a building....
i also loved the saying on the stairs we found in this area...."we are not hippies...we are happies"...this was done as a tribute to all who survived the rule of pinochet and some say it is the mantra of valparaiso.....i loved it....
and i was soooooo excited when i found this piece on the wall next to a cafe of the little prince....no idea why the artist chose to paint this, but i wonder if the artist is the little boy reading the book in the upper left of the piece....maybe he loves that story as much as i do....
the shot above is of the famous beethoven piano stairs, located on beethoven street in valparaiso....i am not sure why they were created, but they are a stop everyone makes while walking around this area of valparaiso....
the area we stayed in, renaca beach, was a bit deserted, but you always had an amazing view of the water, both while walking down along it and from high above it....i went on a long walk one day....just to see what i could see.....
one of the weirdest things i saw was this combination of rock types.....the black rock, i assume, is volcanic from some time ago...i guess chile has many earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.....who knew??? we did not experience any while there....although i have been been in some earthquakes while i have been in panama...there were 47 in the last year in panama...but nothing too serious or large in the city...
from valparaiso, we headed to one of the chilean wine valley regions - the colchagua province....it is known for a grape i had not heard of before....the carmenere....a red wine grape....it also is one of the only places in chile you can find malbec....we did a great wine tour of four different vineyards....the first we visited was montes vineyard (vina montes).....their logo is of an angel, plus, the vineyard was designed keeping feng shui in mind....this was the room where their most famous and expensive wines rested...while gregorian chants were played to them.....it was an incredible room....the big cask on the left in the back is their secret wine....no one but mr. montes actually knows what is in that cask....it is called the taita, but no one is really sure if it will be made or not.....the last taita that was created by this winery was in 2012....but our guide said 2018 was an extremely good harvest year, so the winery is hoping for this cask to hold the very special taita.....it was interesting that the guide did not have any idea what was in the cask.....we'll just have to check back again to see if there is a 2018 taita from montes.....
this was the view from the montes winery as you walked out the front door.....as you can see, it was a beautiful day for a wine tour....
the second winery we visited was clos apalta....and this place was awesome....the science used in making their wine made me smile....from the lab, that we could observe from the lobby.....to the use of gravity to move the wine, so it did not get jostled in the fermentation process more than needed....
this was the roof of the winery...where our tour started....they were growing endemic plants on the roof and had a large sundial up there too....i am not really sure what all of the bars were, but i know overlook of the valley, was stunning....
the building itself was six stories....three above ground and three below ground....they used gravity to move the wine between floors through the aging process....this is a look down through the building...if you click on the picture and look all the way to the bottom, you will see they have a foucault's pendulum in the center of this stairway.....these pendulums are used to demonstrate the rotation of the earth....i loved all of the science ties in this winery....just made me smile.....they also let us taste a $300 bottle of wine.....nice folks :)
and then we headed back to santiago for a last night....but we stayed in a different place...my friend bonnie's place....this was our walk along the river to get dinner....again more super cool graffiti along the way...loved the eyes.....
and then...on this, last night of our trip...our friend carla surprised me.....she just "stopped by" in santiago, on her way to buenos aires....her and emma had kept this a secret and boy was it a surprise....here are the three of us at a tasty pizza place....we literally hung out for 6 hours....that was it....and then we headed back to panama and carla continued onto argentina.....crazy woman, which is why we are friends!!!!
chile was a lovely country....and i highly recommend a visit to anyone that can get there....we only saw a very small part, of a very long country....i am hoping that some day i head back to the far south to see the gateway to antarctica.....we'll see if that happens....of course this is my last shot...me saying cheers ("salud" in spanish) to you from the coast of chile - renaca beach....
hope every one had a great holiday season and a wonderful start to 2019....if you have any questions, send them my way and remember, you have until june 2020 to come on by panama...until the next update.....peace out.....
dani
