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We had more ups and downs in Chile
than you can imagine. We visited quite a few parts of the
country and found some to be very nice and others not so nice.
The one problem with our timing was that due to the favourable
exchange rates in Argentina, Chile was very expensive in
comparison. Our experience there was definitely soured when we
had our laptop computer stolen from an overnight bus and were
met with absolute indifference from the bus company and police.
Experiences like that obviously do affect your opinion of a
country and its citizens. And unfortunately most of our photos
from Chile were on the computer so we don't have many to put up
here!
The
People
Our first contact
with Chileans was meeting up with our old friend Alvaro and his
wife when we arrived in Santiago.
They live in Santiago
and took us out for a wonderful meal, gave us lots of good advice
and history on the country and showed us a very nice time. The
one thing we noticed right away was the very difficult Spanish
that is spoken by Chileans. The tend to drop most of the 's'
sounds from their words which makes it tough to understand,
especially when spoken quickly. Another thing we noticed was the
similar physical appearance most Chileans have, no matter which
part of the country you go to, which was quite interesting.
Things to Know
Chile
is a very, very long country. I think it is as long north to
south as Canada is east to west, but very skinny. And the
landscapes range from a huge hot dry arid desert in the north to a
beautiful lake district in the central area to glaciers and
penguins in the south. Unless you have a lot of time you will
likely not be able to cover the entire country and will have to
either choose to go north or south. We decided to skip the south
part since it is much more touristy and expensive than the rest of
the country, not to mention we have seen similar types of
landscapes in other places. We flew from Santiago to Arica, which
is near the border with Peru in the far north of the country. We
did a little exploring around Arica then traveled overland through Peru and Boliva
and re-entered Chile in San Pedro de Atacama, which is about a
thousand kilometers south of Arica. We spent a few days there
then took a bus up to Arica then flew back to Santiago. We spent
a few days in the nearby coastal city Vina del Mar then worked our
way south by bus to Pucon, a lovely town in the lake district and
spent some time there before crossing the border into Argentina.
One thing to keep
in mind is that no matter how safe a situation appears there are
always thieves watching you just waiting for an opportunity to
relieve you of your possessions. For the second time in our
lives, we lost a laptop computer because we felt we were in a safe
situation and let our guard down. These things will almost never
happen in the places you expect them to - it will always be when
you are sure you are safe. We learned that tourists are really
targeted, especially on overnight busses so make sure that you
either lock your things up or keep them right at your feet or you
can be sure you will wake up and find your stuff gone.
Where
to Stay
Like the other
South American countries we have visited, we found small hotels to
be much better value and safer than hostels. In Santiago we rented a room in a private residence which was quite
good, especially since the owner spent some time giving us lots of
information about Chile
such as places to go, places to avoid, etc. If you are traveling
on your own you will likely want to find hotels which have good
common areas where you can meet other travelers. We used the
Lonely Planet guidebook on occasion but, for the most part, found
it to be terrible in its accommodation recommendations.
Where
to Eat
Now what can we
recommend for Chile? We didn't find any restaurants which served
chile nor did we find many foods which contained much chile
flavour. Most of the meals we had were the basic thin slab of
fried beef with rice or potatoes and overcooked vegetables. We
had some nice seafood in Vina del Mar as well as some pretty good
rainbow trout in the lake district. We didn't really have the
budget to visit any fancy restaurants but there are meant to be
lots of good ones in Santiago.
Our friend Alvaro took us out to a nice restaurant there but I
can't remember the name of it. I do remember that it was quite
expensive so if you are a budget traveler all the nice places will
likely be out of budgetary reach.
Things to See and Do
If you have
enough time and money to cover the large distances in Chile there
are hundreds of interesting places to visit. We traveled by bus
and plane but it would have been nice to have a car so that we
could get to some more remote areas not covered easily by the
public transport. The problem was that rental cars were quite
expensive so we did not get one. Despite that we did visit some
interesting places:
Santiago
The first words
which come to mind when I remember Santiago are 'concrete', 'bus
exhaust', and 'sweat'. It is a very big city and the air is
horrible. As tourists we found it difficult to know where to go
as the whole place seemed so closed in and populated with very few
open spaces. The people we know who have lived there quite liked
it so I think it is the kind of city you need time to get to know
and appreciate. The most amazing thing about Santiago was the
sheer number of busses driving around, we've never seen anything
like it!
Vina del Mar
and Valparaiso
We are very glad
we visited this area instead of spending more time in Santiago.
It is less than two hours by bus from Santiago and located on the
coast. The two cities are connected but much different. We
stayed in Valparaiso but in retrospect should have stayed in Vina del Mar as it is much nicer, cleaner, and has great beaches and
shopping. We spent one afternoon walking around Valparaiso which was not too pleasant due to the traffic, pollution,
and dodgy looking characters hanging around. By contrast we spent
two lovely days on the beach and in the giant air conditioned
shopping mall in Vina del Mar.
Arica and the Atacama Desert
Arica is the northernmost city in Chile and just at
the top of the Atacama desert which is one of the driest in the
world. Arica is quite a busy, dirty city but for some reason has
an attractive charm to it. The people seemed quite friendly and
happy and the prices were a bit cheaper than what we found
elsewhere in Chile. We visited a museum just outside of Arica
which had some well preserved, ancient mummies that were quite
interesting to see.
San Pedro de
Atacama
What a strange
place. We arrived in San Pedro after traveling through Bolivia
and several people we met along the way told us how great San
Pedro was and that we should plan to spend quite a bit of time
there. What we were expecting and what we found were markedly
different. It's true that there were quite a few groovy
restaurants, cafes and bars but what really put us off were the
extremely high prices and the filthiness of the town. None of the
streets are paved and the town is located in the middle of a
desert so you can imagine how dirty and dusty everything is. It
is the sort of place where you have a shower in the morning, go
out for a walk, and return in half an hour desperate for another
shower. We did not have a place booked to stay so we spent the
first couple hours walking around from place to place checking
rooms and prices. To our utter disbelief, many of the places
wanted over US$100 per night! We found a few that had rooms for
ten dollars per night, but they had dirty walls and even
dirty-looking proprietors. We finally found a place for about
forty-five dollars per night that was all right if you didn't mind
the intermittent water availability. But please, don't take my
word for it. As I said, lots of people we met liked the place so
it's always best to go and see for yourself!
Pucon
This was the town
we were traveling to when our computer was stolen from a bus so we
were obviously in a rotten mood when we arrived. We found a very
nice hostel to stay called 'German's' and settled in for a few
days relaxation. It is a tourist town but still very charming as
the surroundings include a large volcano and a freshwater lake
with a busy beach area full of the young, rich Chileans. We met
some really good people there and had some fun nights out
especially with this group of three Australian guys we met. It
was the first trip abroad for one of the guys and up until a week
before they were leaving Australia for Chile he had thought they
were flying to 'San Diego' in the States instead of 'Santiago' in
Chile!! So he got a little more than he was bargaining for.
There are an abundance of things to do in and around the town of
Pucon including climbing the volcano, horseback riding, fishing, hot springs
trips, etc. |
