Chile today, hot tamale!

We're back on the road again and are already drawing to the end of our time in Chile - the first of our South American stops. The flight from Auckland to Santiago was the longest we plan to take on this trip and despite the best efforts of LAN Chile (which may well have snuck the bamrtw favourite airline award away from BA), too many movies and glasses of red wine meant we arrived with our first serious case of jet lag. We found our hostel without too much difficulty but resigned ourselves to a very steady first afternoon which was just as well as the rest of the city seemed to have gone home in preparation for the upcoming independence day celebrations. Santiago is reputed to be one of the easiest Latin cities for travellers to get to grips with but when we eventually dragged ourselves up for a walk-around we decided that was travel-book speak for being a bit underwhelming. Our hostel was a beautiful converted villa and there were some other interesting buildings in our neighbourhood but much of the center could easily be any rundown US or UK city with its pedestrianized shopping precinct lined with McDonalds, banks and department stores. This hilly park was one of the most interesting features though the bland concrete tower blocks in the views are much more typical of the city at street level:

We slept in again the next day awaking at almost the exact time the rest of the city officially shut down for the holiday and only a few hours before we were due to attend a barbecue laid on by our hostel. We strolled the empty streets again and this time were rewarded with our first view of the astonishing Andes which surround the city but are generally obscured by the smog. We got a complete view a few days later from a bus but in some ways they seemed even more ethereal this time when completely divorced from the city scape below:

After the Andes and the tens of thousands of stray dogs the most notable thing about Santiago is the private bus system which runs gleaming modern coaches throughout the country incredibly frequently and reliably. The next day we spent $6 and 2 hours traveling to the port town of Valparaiso - Chile's 'cultural capital'. Arriving in the evening to yet more underlit, empty streets our first impressions were not very favourable. Our host assured us that there was a big fiesta at the other end of town but as we trekked in the direction she'd indicated we couldn't help but notice that most of the shops looked more locked-down than closed and that every surface was covered in graffiti. After almost an hour we finally began to hear the distant thump of traditional music and a short while later found ourselves looking down with relief on an enormous fun-fair! The main attractions were enclosed dancehalls where huge suited bands tried to outdo each other for customers keen to show off their merengue and salsa moves. For the uncoordinated westerners there were meat sticks, enormous beers and the usual range of impossible sideshows to lose money on:

Thankfully Valpariso by daylight had a much less sketchy atmosphere than the nightime version and the view from any of the hills that form the natual ampitheater on which the city is built was quite beautiful. One of the highlights of our exploration was the poet Pablo Neruda's house 'Floridita'. The building is filled with artifacts from the nobel prize winner's life and does a great job of conveying what an interesting man he must have been.

The graffiti - by day some of it was astonishing:

We started our final day in Valparaiso riding the famous furnicular 'ascensores' - rickety stairlifts for the town's commuters which had been installed when the town was at its economic peak at the start of the century. After a huge slap of chocolate cake as reward for all the stairs we'd just avoided we found a traditional dance performance in one of the town squares and whiled away a peaceful hour before we had to leave for Santiago.

We have friends who have spent months exploring Chile and knew when planning this trip that a brief visit like ours was unlikely to offer anything more than a gentle introduction to South America. Even with such modest expectations however I have to say that Santiago has been far from our favourite stop to date. The people are extremely friendly and the city is surprisingly modern, clean and prosperous though, if anything, it is a less interesting (and more expensive) destination as a result.