A cool place to be

La Serena, Chile

 

Yesterday was a longer than expected travel day.

 

We left right on time from the Tur-Bus terminal in Santiago, at 10:51 AM precisely. We were riding on one of the most luxurious buses we have ever been on, in what are called "Salon Cama" seats. The first few hours passed in the expected manner, watching an onboard movie in Spanish (with Spanish subtitles as well), dining on the provided sandwiches and Canada Dry ginger ale, while watching the scenery go by at 100 kph.

Then suddenly it all came to a halt, in what was to turn out to be the first of two breakdowns along the way. In both cases, the driver and mechanics were able to get us going again, but not before we spent over 1-1/2 hours stranded in the middle of nowhere. During the 2nd breakdown, since we were not too far from one of the more major stops, several of the passengers were able to contact friends who came and got them and took them home. Another bus from the same company did come by and pick up a few people as well, but they were not going as far as La Serena. Regardless, we did get there eventually, pulling into the La Sarena bus terminal around 8 o'clock in the evening. Fortunately our hotel was not far away, and it was still light outside - a short taxi ride got us there. This is all part of the adventure.

 

Our hotel is pretty nice and would probably be even better if the weather was a little warmer. This is supposed to be a beach resort but it is overcast for most of the day and the temperature peaks at around 18 degrees in the late afternoon; not what we would normally think of as beach weather. From what we can determine, this is only a couple of degrees cooler than normal for the summer here - that is the effect of the cold Humbolt current that runs northward along this coast, bringing the Antarctic waters as far north as Ecuador. There are people who look like they are sunbathing, lying on towels on the beach, but they are all wearing many layers of clothing. A few brave souls are doing some surfing, in wetsuits of course.

 

 

Today, since we couldn't really lie around on the beach, or by the pool for that matter, we walked into the old part of town to take in some of the charm of this somewhat older city. Of course, we also paid a visit to a local shopping mall to see how the Christmas season is shaping up - it is a lot more subdued than in Santiago.

 

One interesting find was a very nice Japanese garden, a gift from some Japanese steel companies that must do a lot of business here.

 

 

 

{GMST}29|54.6732|S|071|16.431|W|La Serena, Chile|La Serena, Chile{GEND}

 

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Big city, big time spending

Santiago, Chile

After a total of 9 days here in Santiago, we will finally be on our way tomorrow. We stayed a couple of extra days, partly because we were trying to make up our minds about where we wanted to go and how we were going to get there, and partly because I caught a bit of a cold and did not want to spend a day on a bus when I was not feeling my best. I am better now and we have a plan of sorts.

BTW: Beer does not cure a cold but probably doesn't make it worse either. Why do the bottles seem to get bigger the further south we go?

 

 

The city of Santiago has been great and we have really enjoyed our time here, especially because we lucked out with the location and quality of our hotel. The only downside to the big city is that we find everything to be more expensive than we are used to in Central and South America. Basically, prices here are not a lot different from what they are back in Canada, a far cry from the very inexpensive countries like Ecuador, where we have spent so much time recently. It probably doesn't help that we are here during peak season, with summer just getting under way - so much of the time in the past we have found ourselves in places during their off season and have gotten used to the low prices that that brings. With Christmas and New Years approaching, we wanted to find a way to insure that we had secured some reasonably priced accommodations for the holiday season. I think we have found an interesting and almost original solution - more about that in a future post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile we have pretty well exhausted our welcome in Santiago. The last few days have degenerated into typical big-city shopping trips, fighting the enormous crowds on the downtown streets and in the seemingly endless markets and malls. Once again it has become apparent just how big this city is and how we are not really big-city people any more.

 

 

 

Tomorrow we are taking a bus to the seaside resort city of La Serena, where we hope to be able to lay back and relax a little after the hustle and bustle of Santiago.

 

{GMST}33|26.0892|S|070|37.9752|W|Santiago, Chile|Santiago, Chile{GEND}

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Chile weather report

Santiago, Chile

 

Do you like it hot? Do you like it cold? In Santiago you get a little of both.

 

The first two days we were here, it got quite warm, over 30C in the afternoon. At night the temperatures dropped to about 11 or 12 degrees, making jackets a must. Then we had a couple of days of cooler, overcast days, very cold all morning, then climbing to around 25 in the late afternoon when the sun came out. Now it has returned to warmer days again - around 29 degrees today. Throughout, the nights have remained cool. Regardless, we have seen no rain at all and the sun has been shining most of the time.  Pretty pleasant for the most part.

 

 

Over the last few days we have covered a lot of miles, both on our own, and on a "walking tour". In spite of our best efforts we have only seen a fraction of this huge city of over 7 million people. Suffice it to say it is big and busy and full of history.

 

Palacio La Moneda

Clever draping of the Metropolitan Cathedral during restoration work

 

Not far from our hotel is the base for a funicular railway that climbs to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, the highest point of land around, and the predictable site for the statue of the Virgin Mary, overlooking the city. The view was spectacular, and the seminary grounds were a nice place to sit back and contemplate life.

 

Other highlights so far have included visits to the "Museum of Memory and Human Rights", which deals with the recent, sad history of Chile under military rule, the "Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art", and a trip to the upscale 6-storey Costanera shopping mall.

In the evenings, we have had the opportunity to sample some genuine Chilean food - as yet I am not really a big fan.

 

We will be hanging around here for a few more days, then probably catching a bus to the city of Valparaiso, on the coast.

 

{GMST}33|26.0892|S|070|37.9752|W|Hotel Botique Tremo|Holel Botique Tremo{GEND}

 

 

 

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Way down south

Santiago, Chile

 

We have come to the end of another long journey.

 

Our trip to Santiago started off a little rough but otherwise went according to plan. We had booked a pickup from the boat with the marina for 7:30AM. Otherwise we have no way of getting to shore once our dinghy is stored on deck. Of course, no one showed up and they were not answering hails on the VHF radio. Fortunately, one of the other cruisers moored in the estuary came to our rescue and gave us a ride in in his dinghy (Thanks Kim).

 

A short taxi ride got us to the bus terminal where we caught the 8:30AM bus to the city of Guayaquil. After a 5-1/2 hour ride, we arrived at the main bus terminal and grabbed a taxi to the airport, which is right next door but requires a lengthy drive entirely around it, in order to get to the departure gates, due to all of the one way roads.

 

Ecuadorean countryside

 

Our plane did not leave until 6:15PM and our route required a connection in Bogota, Columbia, which is not exactly in a straight line to Chile. In fact, we chose this routing over a much shorter one connecting in Lima because we did not want to arrive in the middle of the night in Santiago. It worked great and we touched down in Santiago just after 6AM local time (we have lost two hours due to travelling a little further east and getting to a country that uses daylight savings time. The fact that it was already light out when we arrived and the sun is just setting as I am writing this at 9PM, shows just how far south we have now come.

 

The only problem with arriving early in the morning is that we could not check into our hotel until this afternoon, which meant we spent a half day walking around town, trying to stay awake with the help of much consumption of coffee. Our initial impression of Santiago is of a large, bustling city, a little smoggy but otherwise quite pretty and well maintained.

 

 

 

 

Hotel Botique Tremo

 

For breakfast this morning, and again for an early supper this evening, we found our way to an interesting collection of shops and restaurants in an area call the Patio Bellavista, which is just over a block away from our hotel. All in all, we are very impressed with the quality and location of our chosen hotel, the Hotel Botique Tremo. We are walking distance to much of what we would want to see in Santiago.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only real annoying thing on this journey was the "reciprocity" fee charged by the Chilean government for anyone arriving by plane from Australia, Canada or Mexico. This is in retaliation for the fact that Canada has a visa requirement for Chilean citizens for visiting Canada. It cost us $264US to get out of customs and immigration ($132 each).

When we were in the taxi, leaving the airport for our hotel, we spotted a Canadian government plane parked on the runway. Susanne just checked online to discover that our Govenor General is in town and just announced today that Canada is dropping the visa requirements for Chilean citizens, and Chile has agreed to drop the reciprocity fee in return. What horrible timing for us!

 

Tomorrow, once we are rested up, we will do some further exploration of the town.

 

 

{GMST}33|26.0892|S|070|37.9752|W|Santiago, Chile|Santiago, Chile{GEND}

 

 

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