Chile

So we're off to Chile for the start of our Antarctic adventure.

That means an early morning flight to a connecting airport...that's one of the things about living in Palm Springs...you can hardly fly direct to anywhere. They call it an Palm Springs International Airport but the only international destinations you can fly to are a few places in Western Canada...and who the f&*ck wants to fly there in the middle of winter?

This is what take off out of Palm Springs looks like.

So this trip is doubly ugly because to get to Chile we first have to fly to Los Angeles (LAX) and then to Atlanta, Georgia. It's gonna be a long day.

We have a few hours to kill in LAX so what does that mean...

A few cocktails. And the early morning cocktail of choice is always... A Bloody Mary. Waayyy better than bacon 'n' eggs for breakfast. And due to the fact that Terri has purchased super comfortable first class tickets for us (thanks Tony, thanks Keeto, thanks Ryan) we get to drink for free (ha!) in Delta's Sky Club. Not the best lounge ever but not so bad either.

I always love takeoffs...they're so scary..

In the video, at about 50 seconds in, you can see smoke coming up north of LA...there's a huge fire burning there due to the dry weather and the winds.

The plane has turned around now and is flying east towards Atlanta..it would have been so much easier just to fly east from Pam Springs to Atlanta and not waste all the time in LAX...but nooooo

This is a shot of the coastline south of Los Angeles...miles and miles of beaches. All the way to the San Diego and the Mexican border.

And we actually fly over where we live in the winter...La Quinta. I put a red arrow showing roughly where our house is. The lake to the right is Lake Cahuilla. It's not much of a lake. Some RV parking and camping. A link to Google maps.

So here's a shot of the Sky Club lounge in Atlanta...pretty decent. I think the best lounges we've seen so far are KLM lounges. Much better food, accommodations, etc. but we're not going to bitch about the "free" HA! booze in this one.

Here's a shot of Atlanta as we leave. It's dark now - what a wasted day! It's a big city with lots of lights. Apparently the Atlanta airport is the busiest airport in he whole freakin' world...Yikes! See here.

And here we are ..still boozing...Christ it's gonna be a rough morning in Santiago.

We get to the hotel mid day and luckily they have a room for us...not a bad room either.

Not much a view though.

To the left...

To the right...

Not much activity today. We climb up a hill where there's an ancient fort and get a few shots of the city from high up. It looks like a proper, real city from up here...who'da thunk it"

After we go for a walk downtown to a pedestrian area - no cars allowed - and the people here are just like us! They like to shop and go to restaurants and have a stroll - incredible.

It's a few days before Christmas and there's hundreds of vendors trying to sell their cheap crap on the street. Apparently it's illegal but there was no one trying to stop them.

That evening we have a meal close to the hotel.. I can't remember what the abortion below was but it tasted better than it looked. I always like to try local food, beer & wine when we travel and most of the time it works out okay.

The local wine was exceptional.

Second day in Santiago we have a guide for about five hours.

We've had these kind of guides before in other cities..they like taking you to the same old places..the local market, the local cathedral, the local park, etc., etc....it's okay though because you have someone telling you about what you're seeing.

Some shots of the local market.

They have a lot of good looking stuff here. I think the people of Santiago are eating well these days.

Some of them anyway..the building below is where the poor people live. It's much crappier than it looks in the picture. At last they have a warm, safe place to go to the toilet.

The pope is coming to visit soon and there are many people here who don't want him to come. The general opinion is that this is a huge waste of money..the security and all the nonsense that goes along with a visit like this. The money could be better spent elsewhere.

Anyway, he ended up coming and there were protests and marches lots of money wasted and no souls were saved!

The funny thing is is that this pope used to be an Arch Bishop in Buenos Aires, Argentina and he didn't visit there...what's up with that? Been there - done that I guess.

A protest in front of some government building. I don't recall what they were protesting but the interesting thing is all the protesters (in green shirts and hats) are black. The organizers (non-green shirts) are non-black. Our guide explained that the black folks are paid to do all the yelling and hollering and whistling. They really don't give a shit about the protest - they just want to make some money. Pretty good system I think. "Protesters Incorporated".

Our guide took us to visit the museum and it was pretty interesting. People have been living here in Chile for thousands of years before the Spanish came.

Strange looking fu^&ers they were too!

And the obligatory visit to the park.

We went up a tramway and we could really see how big the city is. 7 million people I think.

It's a proper city...with high rises an smog too!

The Andes mountains in the distance.

Supper tonight was wonderful...

A fantastic fried cheese for an appetizer

And Merluza Austral for the main course...fantastico! Merluza is essentially a Hake which is a fish very similar to Cod or Haddock. I think it was the preparation that made it so special; so tender and tasty.

That's it for Santiago.

Days three and four we spent at a place called Casa Real which is located at the Santa Rita Winery. We chose to stay there as Santa Rita wine has always been one of our favourite Chilean wines. It used to be very inexpensive in Calgary...$6 - $7 per bottle but as it became more popular the price began to rise. Even now it is still quite inexpensive compared to many other wines that we like.

Here's a shot from www.winedeals.com The $14.99 is quite a bit more than we've paid for it in the past. The last time we bought it in California we paid $10 a bottle...but we had to buy 24 bottles (2 cases) to get it at that price. We have only one bottle left as of this date.

The first night we were at the Casa Real Hotel we were the only guests so it was kind of weird. Everything was available though - the wine tasting before supper, a fantastic included supper which was included n the price along with all the wine we could drink.

Apparently the hotel used to be the private residence of the owner of the winery. It's quite large for one family but I guess that's how they did it back then.

Our room was massive....

The courtyard just outside our room.

And the private family chapel...still in use. The second day we were here they held a huge wedding in this chapel.

And some black headed swans in the pond.

What follows are just some shots of the grounds.

The second day at Casa Real we take our rental out for a drive in the Maipo Valley (at lest I think it was the Maipo Valley - I really got to start paying better attention).

A very scenic part of Chile.

Our shit can car. A Toyota Crapmobile.

After Casa Real we spent a couple days at a beach town called Zapallar.

This is a shot of the beach that I stole from the internet.

And here's another one I stole - the hotel we stayed at. It's a nice shot taken at dusk.

On the way from Casa Real to Zapallar we stopped at a beach for a beach walk. Somewhere around here was supposed to be one of the best beaches in Chile. There was a great paved walkway that went forever down the beach.

Some random shots.

I think this was the great beach. Only a couple sandy areas but certainly a very nice secluded spot. No topless though. Bummer!

We finally make it to our hotel and here's my shots of it.

Not a bad room with a deck - great view of the ocean.

And cold Chilean beer with lunch.

After lunch we hiked down to the beach and then into town.

It's a great looking beach and the parking lot was full but not too many in the water.

A view of the bay from a hill opposite from where we are staying.

Our hotel is over there somewhere on the side of that hill.

We came across these cool plants that look like they're made of sugar - kind of like those gummy candies with sugar coating.

Second day in Zapallar we just drive around in our Toyota Crapmobile. Nearby our hotel we found a park that had a hike..so guess what?

A view of the town from up the hill. This is the same beach we were at yesterday - the weather has changed as you can see.

And we meet blue Jesus. No idea why he's blue.

This is some town I can't remember the name of..Christ..I really gotta start paying attention.

And a bit further up the way we stop at another town (again..no name) that that has a nice ocean access.

We stop for lunch at the only place open in town..Santa Margarita and I have the Conger Eel Chowder aka Caldillo de Congrio. Now I don't usually eat stuff like this but in Chile they have this famous poet - Pablo Neruda - who wrote a very famous poem about Conger Eel Chowder so I just had to try it.

Here's the chowder...

And here's a link to the poem...and here's a link to the recipe..

It comes from the kitchen hot as hell.

Anyway, the conger chowder was very good. I was totally surprised by the white meat of the eel, it was very tasty and the texture (which is always a problem for me when it comes to fish) was wonderful. TRY IT if you get a chance!

A wee video of the seaside at this village.

A couple shots of the countryside on the way back to Zapallar after our lunch.

And one of the weirdest things we've seen yet - a one way tunnel. Actually three one way tunnels in a row. This is a shot of our exit at the end of the first tunnel. When we entered we could see the light at the other end but it was the size of an ant's ass - the tunnel had to be a couple miles - so as we're progressing through the tunnel we could see another vehicle had entered at the far end and was coming toward us - trust me - there was no way two vehicles could pass each other. So I just kept on going. We finally met face to face with the other vehicle and as we were about 80 - 90% of the way though and he was only 10 - 20% he agreed to back out. There were two more tunnels after this one..the second was actually curved so you couldn't even see the end..luckily we met no one nor did we met anyone in the third which was much shorter than the first two.

That's pretty much it for Zapallar.

Our last day in Chile we spent in Val Paraiso. Our cruise was supposed to leave from here and that's why we chose to stay here the last day but a few months before we we flew to Chile we were advised the cruise would leave from San Antonio. It made sense to just keep our reservation in Val Paraiso and take a car to the ship in San Antonio.

Val Paraiso is kind of a shit hole...I'm sure there are nice areas but we sure didn't find them. Buses fly up and down the speed at breakneck speeds, vendors do business right on the sidewalk, people everywhere. I wouldn't go back.

Our hotel was nice though. Casa Higueras.

Our view of the port from our little patio.

A decent enough room. Nothing special.

The patio. There's an ash tray on the table. I guess we have a smoking room. Or a smoking patio maybe. The room wasn't smelly so it was okay.

Some of the buildings from down town.

If you look close you will see this is a Scotia Bank building. Christ - everywhere we go we see Scotia Bank!

Down by the waterfront what do we see...these guys are a long way from home. No idea why they're here.

A closer view of the port and a huge ship getting loaded.

A couple more shots from down town.

This looks like a high-rise behind an older building but what they did was build the newer section right on the top of the old building.

A funky building that seems a bit out of place here.

And a sleepy dog. They just seem to crash anywhere and no one bothers them. I have a theory about this...but later...

Back at the hotel we have a bit of time to relax.

A decent pool, not heated though and a bit murky. We never went in.

Some of Chile's navy. Why are navy ships always painted gray? There are many other colours they could use.

So that's it for Val Paraiso and Chile. Tomorrow we will start our Antarctic voyage.