The R&R Big Adventure

Farewell to South America

I’ve been a bit tardy keeping up with the blog, as we have had a busy few days in Santiago, so be prepared for a bumper edition.

Arriving in a proper, albeit new, city again on Friday evening felt strangely familiar, after spending so much time in desert, lakes and mountains. We knew the area our hotel was in – Lastarria – was convenient for nightlife, but we didn’t realise it was slap bang in the middle of Santiago’s ‘Shoreditch’, with a great selection of trendy cafes, bars and restaurants right on our doorstep.

We also didn’t realise it was Santiago Pride the following day, until we accidentally stumbled upon it on Google. The next afternoon we made our way to the square where the march was gathering, but they had already set off down one of Santiago’s main avenues, Alameda. Full marks for effort, but the parade was reminiscent of a provincial Pride in the UK, rather than one befitting a capital city. It could also have done with more marshalls to keep the parade on track, as just when we thought it had finished, another crowd of marchers appeared round the corner. Keep up, dears. Once the parade had passed, we continued with our sightseeing, but as we continued further down Alameda avenue later in the afternoon, we could hear a thumping bass line coming from a square nearby – the advertising forgot to mention there would be a stage with DJs. We couldn’t not check it out. It was touch and go though as to whether this was Gay Pride, or a goth gathering, judging by the number of men and women at the event wearing head-to-toe black, with stacked boots and heavy eyeliner. About a third of the crowd was probably made up of street vendors who had capitalized on the event, and who had set up makeshift stalls, trestle tables, or even just thrown a table cloth on the ground, selling everything from home-made cocktails, cold beers out of their cool box, Pride merchandise, and even, in one instance it seemed, the contents of their knicker drawer. Unlike a London Pride, you didn’t have to queue for half an hour in a pub to get a round of drinks, or try and find an elusive chilled six pack in a Soho convenience store: Dolly brought her trolley to you: the beers were cold, and less than £2 each. As I don’t drink beer, I had to seek out the entrepreneuers who were selling cocktails from their cool boxes or shopping trolleys. Some enterprising third year university students (as I got to find out) were selling Mopicos (Mojito/Pisco blends), and another guy, Piscolas, out of his makeshift cool box. I did think at the time these drinks might haunt me again in the early hours, but thankfully the spirits they were selling must have been genuine(ish).

As the evening wore on, we got chatting to some locals. Up until the curfew at 9pm, the police presence had been discreet. Once the music stopped though, everyone dispersed from the square, and no-one seemed in any mood to continue the party. Clearly people didn’t mess with the police here. A kind couple insisted they dropped us off at our hotel in their Uber, as they didn’t want tourists getting the Metro at that time (9.30pm on a Saturday?). We expected the gay bars to be heaving that night, but were surprised they were fairly quiet. The area of Bellavista, whilst having several gay bars and clubs, was quite low key, and no people were filling the streets, as you would expect during a UK Pride event.

The relatively early finish on Saturday night suited us, as we had a bus to catch the next morning to Valparaiso, a major port city 90 minutes’ drive from Santiago. Whilst the guidebooks recommend seeing Valparaiso, at least three Chileans had warned us it was quite dangerous (and also smelly). Whether it was because we went on a Sunday morning, it was perfectly safe; the multi-coloured houses perched on the steep hills of the town, reached by funiculars, were very pretty, made even more picturesque by the bright sunshine. Viña del Mar, fifteen minutes down the coast in an  Uber, was heaving with families escaping from the city on its long stretch of sandy beach.

Monday was a full day of wine tasting: the tour we had booked included visits to four vineyards in the Isla de Maipo region, just outside Santiago. The first we visited was novel for the fact it was an eco-farm / vineyard, which meant we got up-close to some chickens and turkeys (the chickens ate any bugs feeding on the vines, negating the need for pesticides; whilst the turkeys warn the chickens of any predatory eagles, looking for a tasty chicken dinner), and we also fed some lambs and horses. Its organic wine, however, definitely had aromas of farmyard manure. The final vineyard we visited was especially nice – a large, well-established estate, Undurraga, with beautiful vineyards and large flower beds full of roses in bloom. We got chatting to some interesting people on the tour, including a retired Sunday Times business journalist, and a retired Australian diplomat. You can imagine the conversation on the minibus flowed better as the afternoon wore on.

Tuesday was our final day of this trip in Santiago, Chile, and South America, so we wanted to make the most of it. We started the day with a ride on the funicular that went up the San Cristόbal Hill. Unfortunately Tuesday seemed to be school trip day, with dozens of school parties up there the same time as us. Given there is a large statue of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception at the summit looking down on Santiago, no doubt every good Catholic school in the city has to include a visit here as part of the curriculum. We took the cable car back down (for variety) and ended up in a smart part of town, Providencia, with lots of large houses, manicured lawns, and expensive boutiques for the local ladies who lunch. Quite a difference from the rest of Santiago. Stopping for a drink in a shopping centre (weird seeing a huge Dior-sponsored Christmas tree lit up when it was sunny and 28deg), we moved on to the Torre Gran Costanera (the tallest building in South America) and an amazing view having lunch from the 61^st floor. The day finished with more sightseeing downtown (we were getting the steps in, and becoming experts on the Santiago Metro system) before we finished the day with haircuts in a trendy barbers in Lastarria, and a couple of cocktails in a neighbourhood bar.

One of the few criticisms of South America (aside from having to put toilet paper in a bin, which frequently didn’t have a lid) is the bureaucracy, especially at airports. Leaving Santiago Tuesday evening,  we arrived in plenty of time for our 00.40 flight to Auckland, but then spent an hour queuing to be processed by emigration. We were anticipating the worst arriving in Auckland this morning, but despite the onerous declarations we have to fill in (including declaring we had been on a farm in recent days), we thankfully weren’t hauled aside to have our bags picked through. We got to our Airbnb in the dockside / CBD area in no time – enough time for me to update the blog before we go exploring (and no doubt collapse with jet lag tiredness this afternoon).

We have had a superb time in South America- we have seen and done so many different things. Whilst walking the Inca Trail and seeing Machu Pichu is Robert’s favourite experience, for me it is hard to choose between desert or lakes, mountains or beach, cosmopolitan Santiago, or foodie heaven Bogotá. The friendliness of the people, which I have mentioned several times in this blog, the variety of countries, geography and food, and what I have learnt about their different (and shared) cultures and history, will remain with me for a very long time.