Chile or Chilly?

As much as we hate to admit it, we´ve grown pretty fond of big cities over the years. Living in Manhattan tends to have that effect on some people. So as our flight touched down in Santiago last Tuesday, we felt a strange sense of excitement to be spending some time in a large, somewhat bustling, metropolitan city. We spent a total of seven nights in mainland Chile - three in Santiago, two in the coastal town of Valparaiso, and the final two back in Santiago. 

Our first three days were a bit of a wash. We managed to check out some of the main sites such as the Cerro Santa Lucia, Plaza de Armas, and most of the city center; but the majority of our time was spent running errands and tying up some loose ends.

Warning: This next story is long and pretty boring and is mainly included because our mothers appreciate the most miniscule details of our lives. Feel free to skip the next four paragraphs.

Our primary task upon arrival in Santiago was to ship home a painting we had bought in Peru. The troubles started when the sales person at the gallery informed us that transporting the rather large painting would be no problem as she could neatly wrap the canvas around a plastic tube and all we would have to do is find a cardboard shipping tube and mail it back to the states.  It sounded simple enough, and we really liked the painting, so we went for it. We thought we were getting a pretty good deal on it too, until we discovered the price was quoted in USD rather the Peruvian Soles like everything else in the gallery.  So, our relatively good price was now three times the relatively good price and wasn´t such a good price anymore.  By this time it was too late to back out. The painting was nicely wrapped, packaged and ready to go. We rationalized the purchase as best we could and handed over the credit card. 

The painting traveled with us from Cuzco to Lima, where we had a chance to ship it from within the Lima airport. Unfortunately, that didn´t work out because the postal service didn´t have a shipping tube (we even contemplated eating several tubes of Pringles potato chips in order to construct a make-shift tube). From Lima, after nearly being cut open with an exacto knife and confiscated by airport security, it traveled with us to Easter Island.  Not surprisingly, there was no reasonably priced way to ship from the middle of the Pacific Ocean, so the painting came with us to Santiago.

Theoretically, it should have been pretty easy to ship from Santiago – show up at DHL, put the painting in a tube, slap an address on it, and send it on its way.  But of course we couldn´t get rid of it that easy.  The DHL guy informed us that we needed to obtain a certificate from the Museo de Bellas Artes (“Museum of Beautiful Art” – we beg to differ), allowing us to ship the painting outside of Chile (even though we bought it in Peru). 

Four days and three trips to the museum later, we had our certificate and were finally able to rid ourselves of the cursed painting.  We are happy to report that the painting found its way to the final destination.  Hopefully we don´t think it´s ugly when we see it again in 4 months.

If running errands for days in Santiago weren´t bad enough, the drizzle, cement colored skies, and uncomfortably cool temps made things all the better. There were some bright spots in the first few days though. For one, Jim got a fantastic hair wash, cut and style for a mere ten bucks. We also had some great meals and were introduced to the delicious and ridiculously cheap Chilean wine.  It´s great how tasty, cheap wine makes everything better. 

Day four, we set off (after running a few errands of course) to the beautiful and charming port city of Valparaiso, located 90 minutes west of Santiago. Valpo was a booming port in the late 1800´s and early 1900´s, and was the most prosperous city in Chile until the Panama Canal eliminated the need for ships to make a pit-stop in Valparaiso on their way around South America.  The city is literally built on cliffs and is well known for its “ascensors” that transport people up and down the cliffs.  The ascensors were built way back in Valpo´s hay-days, 100+ years ago, and could be described as little rickety shacks that are pulled up and lowered down near vertical tracks.

We arrived in the early afternoon and set out to find a place to stay. We decided to focus our search on one of the main hilltop neighborhoods, Cerro Concepcion, which is accessed by the oldest ascensor built in 1883. After looking at a few B&Bs and hostels, we decided on Residencia en el Cerro. The guesthouse was a huge old home that seemed to fit the character of the city. It was a bit on the rustic side, but the price was good for a big room with a view of the harbor. The next two days were pretty low-key.  We spent most of our time exploring the different neighborhoods, interesting architecture, cafes, and tasty restaurants.  The pleasant sunny weather was also a nice change from the gloomy days in Santiago.

With all of our errands taken care of, our final two days in Santiago were much more enjoyable.  We visited the Pre-Columbian Museum, explored the Bellavista and Providencia neighborhoods, and capped off our stay with a sunset trip to the top of Cerro San Christobal. From the top, we were finally able to catch a glimpse of the huge, snow-capped Andes surrounding the city that had been eluding us throughout the week due to the clouds and smog.  It was a nice ending to our stay in Chile.

All-in-all, it was a great first trip to Chile.  However, there is so much more to see outside of the cities that hopefully we´ll be able to explore, for more than a short winter week, in the future.   

Easter Island

We want to rave about how great Easter Island was. We really do. But unfortunately, it’s just not going to happen. Our four nights and five days on the the island were… OK.  Here’s the rundown.

Easter Island is located in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, about a six-hour flight west of Santiago, Chile.  The island is best known for the huge stone structures called “Moai” that dot the exterior. Fifteen-hundred or so years ago, the island´s inhabitants began carving the Moai from the mountain-sides and transporting them to various locations around the island where they would stand upright, face inland, and hopefully would provide good luck to the villages. Anyway, the villagers kept doing this for a good thousand years, and although there is much debate about what actually became of the ancient civilizations on Easter Island, there is no doubt that they left behind some pretty impressive structures.

We opted for a full day tour which led us to the majority of the major Moai sites. Our guide was great, and we learned a lot about why, how and where they carved the Moai, and how they transported the massive structures great distances. It was a very impressive feat.  We also had a chance to explore some of the island on bike, when we rode to the top of one of the island´s volcanoes to peek into the crater.

Other than the Moai, Easter Island was pretty disappointing. The town and restaurants were terrible and overpriced, and our accommodations were dirty, cold, and also overpriced.  Easter Island was definitely a once in a lifetime destination, and  we´re glad we made the trek to the middle of the ocean. The Moai were great and the island was beautiful, but it´s too bad that the whole experience couldn´t have been a little better.

Here are the pics: