New York?

"New York, New York" - so good they named it after a place in England

Friday 11th January

We left for the airport with a taxi-driver who was determined to talk about just every aspect of the Chilean economy. Not too bad, but he did it in Spanish.

At Santiago, it was slow to board, but we eventually got off just before midnight.

After a night of fitful sleep, we arrived in New York, got through immigration, packed off our luggage, and caught a taxi into town. We bought a trip on a tour bus, thought the weather was cold and there was a mist. The guide, who was obviously an aficionado of New York architecture, had to keep apologising as the key buildings disappeared into the clouds. (His joke was that someone had stolen the Empire State Building the night previous.)

The gorrilla's in the mist!

We saw Times Square, Broadway, Greenwich Village, Madison Square Gardens, Wall Street, the bottom of the Empire State and Woolworth buildings, Soho, Little Italy and Chinatown, as well as “Ground Zero.”

"Ground Zero"

We couldn’t be bothered to get off the bus to see the Statue of Liberty, but luckily there was a miniature version at JFK airport so we don’t feel we missed out.

Joan got off the bus because she wanted to see the Seagram building on Park Avenue, but she could not remember what it looked like. (It is famous for its Philip Johnson designed restaurant, which originally was going to be decorated with Mark Rothko murals which now are in Tate Modern. Hence “Rothko”, the most evil and beloved Dalmatian.)

Both not the Seagram building

We were told off by a security guard who told us off for trying to photograph another building from his plaza. On Park Avenue there are lots of yellow taxis, like in films.

We took lunch in a French bistro, but we couldn’t quite shake off speaking Spanish.

In general, we weren’t that taken with New York. The skyscrapers are oppressive, and the people are a tad too loud!!

We managed a shot of the Empire State from our yellow taxi back to the airport. The taxi driver had to wake us both when we arrived, as we were so riveted by the city.

The plane to Stansted was empty, very empty. We each had a whole row to sleep on. We bought a couple of drinks and then the hostess gave us a freebie (maybe because we had bought some Chanel no 5).

Back at Stansted, Ken picked us up and ran us home.

We slept well, and were awakened by breakfast.

Wine, mainly

Wine barrels

Fermentation vats
Thursday 10th January

Having seen most of Valparaiso and Vina, we decided to take an organised excursion to the Casablanca valley and the vineyards. Our guide was an ex-Naval captain from the Pinochet era. His political views were not perhaps the same as ours and he didn’t seem to think much of “leftistas”, particularly women. He explained that one his classmates was now in gaol for atrocities in the Pinochet era.

We were accompanied by four Canadians from Ottawa, who were over for a wedding.

The first vineyard we visited was Vinamar, which was laid out in pristine rows with roses at the end. There was a grand reception building where we eat lunch overlooking the vines and sampling their delicious wines.

After that we visited a Croatian run vineyard, where they make only organic wines. It was built into the side of the hill, and was a much smaller operation. We only stopped for a degustation.

Then it was back to the Hotel Ultramar to await our taxi.

This is the view from the balcony of the hotel - our last of the Pacific for a while, but hopefully not too long!!

Hanging around

Trolley buses

Wednesday 9th January

Today we walked down Independia to visit Ascensor Polanco. The only vertical lift in Valparaiso. However it was closed for renovation. We went past the National Congress building.


Then wewalked along Avenida Brasil, to the market. They still use horses to deliver the food to the market.

We ate lunch at the Poets Café, before going up the hill to try and sort out tomorrow.

The view of the Valparaiso sprawl was amazing.

Poet's Cafe

Vina del Mar

Our hotel, complete with dog

Tuesday 8th January

A lazy day.

We caught the train to Vina del Mar which is just north of Valparaiso. It is Chile’s main seaside resort. A lagoon, the Marga Marga splits the commercial part of town from the beaches.

Castillo Wolff was another house built for a nitrate baron.

Apart from the beaches, which were busy, there wasn’t much to see.

The pier which is derelict

Kevin, of course

Funiculars, streets and dogs

Kevin

Monday 7th January

It was quite overcast initially, so we decided not to go to Vina, but to have a ride on some of the ascensors.

On the way down to the sea front, we went through some very narrow streets and had to negotiate the famous Chilean sleeping dogs.

The streets were a lot busier than yesterday (Sunday), and many more of the shops were open.

When we arrived in Santiago, we were sorry to see that there was not the mad rush of buses on the street. However here there are still loads of old buses, that whizz down the narrow streets. There are trolley buses as well.

We caught the Ascensor Artilleria up to the naval museum. Here from a café overlooking the sea, we watched lorries and cranes moving about cargo containers. It was a bit like manipulating a Rubik cube. Also in the harbour was a big cruise liner.

Ascensor Artilleria

Another nameless lift

Back down again, we moved on to Ascensor El Paral, which you go through a building to reach. It took us up to Cerro Allegre and Cerro Concepcion, where you can do a walking tours to see the brightly painted houses. The Palacio Baburizza was the most elaborate, built in 1916 by a nitrate baron.

Ascensor El Paral

Palacio Baburizza

We had a drink at Café Turri, and watched the boats out in the bay.

As time was getting on er descended Ascensor La Concecion and headed to Bambu, the vegetarian restaurant. Unfortunately it was open. We should have known better when half the things we wanted were not available. We both received brown, cold, inedible masses, and Joan got warm water in a dirty glass. We didn’t stay!!

Instead we headed back up to Turri Café, where we ate a marvellous dinner on a balcony as the sun went down.

Valparaiso

Sunday 6th January

We rose early and dropped off the car at the airport.

We then had to wait for the check in desk to open. Unlike the UK, the desk only opens one hour before take-off for internal flights.

Once back in Santiago, we decided to blow the budget and catch a cab down to the coast and Valparaiso. We figured it would be easier than having to negotiate buses and collectivos with big cases.

The taxi driver was a bit stressed out about finding our hotel in Valparaiso. He spent most of the journey on his mobile phone (not hands free) asking for directions. (He didn’t seem interested in looking at our map.) He then decided to take a back route into the city, muttering “oh my God” and “crazy” as he drove around. He stopped every 100 metres or so to ask people for directions, but drove off before they had finished. We had to tell him the name of the hotel and the street every time he stopped. He certainly didn’t like the place.

Admittedly it is quite a labyrinth, spread over many steep hills or “cerros”. In the end we did make it, but we decided it would be best not to book this driver to take us back to the airport in four days time/

The hotel is a italianate building built in 1907 ( that is, the year after the great earthquake that flattened Valparais0.) Like lots of buildings in Chile, it has a plaster façade, with a rear constructed out of corrugated iron. Inside, the hotel has a distinctive style of décor, with lots of black and white tiles, and red walls. You have to pay extra for a view in this hotel, and we therefore got a rear room with a view of a corrugated iron shack.

We walked down (with the emphasis on down) to the front. We saw our first ascensor funicular, the Reino Victoria, one of 15 in Valparaiso.

We came across Plaza Sotomayor which is dominated by a monument to Chilean war heroes, and in particular Arturo Prat.. Like Simon Bolivar and Bernardo O’Higgins, every town and village has a street named after him. Prat is famoua as the Captain of the Esmeralda, a old wooden boat, that came under fire from Peruvian artillery and the iron clad Huascar war ship on 21 May 1879. Despite having considerably inferior fire power, (the Esmeralda had a 40lb cannon whilst the Huascar had a 300lb canon) when rammed by the Huascar, Prat leapt aboard the Peruvian vessel and was killed.

Artru Prat’s tomb, with other heroes of the Battle of Iquique are under the monument.

Behind the monument is the ex-Intendencia de Valparaiso, a grand, grey building that now houses the Chilean Navy.

We then headed to Muelle Prat, the only bit of the port that the public can visit. It was full of peddlers, souvenir shops and boats jostling in the harbour to take tourists for rides across the bay. In the distance a big cargo ship was being unloaded, and on the horizon were the grey ships of the rather fine looking Chilean Navy.

On the front were several fine façades, and the Turri Clock Tower.

Virtually all date from after the 1906 earthquake.



On the side of the Fire Station we saw a badge which confirms Chile’s close links with Britain.


We found the only vegetarian restaurant in town, but it shuts at 7pm, just in time for dinner!!

We ate savoury pancakes in a very nice café, which gave you bits of poems to read with the bill. (Very sad poems).

Climbing up Atahualpa Street back to our hotel, we were glad of our altitude training in the altiplano.

Back to Antofagasta

Cafe Suiza

Saturday 5th January

We said goodbye to Pica but then could not find the route out to Ruta 5 southbound. We returned to the hotel and the landlady advised us that the southern route was very bumpy and to go the long way round. However, when we finally found the said road, it wasn’t that bad, plus it was bout 80 kms shorter.

From there on it was one long, mainly straight road to Antofagasta. We passed plenty of former Nitrate Oficinas, dodgy geoglyphs and roadworks. At one set of roadworks, a chap flagged us down and asked us for water (which we gave).

As we passed through Baquedano, we noticed a lot of houses and the school were in a bad shape and there was a lot of frantic work going on. We checked on the internet when we reached Antofagasta and there had been a 5.9 earthquake during the night.

As we reached Antofagasta, a sand storm blew up.


Back at the Holiday Inn, we had another room with a sea view.