Southern Exposure

Sunday, March 8

Today we were finally leaving our fine quarters at Hotel San Francisco for a two-day car trip. Our plan was to spend the night in Valparaiso and the next day head south for Chile’s Ruta Del Vino to check out the wineries in the Colchagua Valley.

After breakfast, Matt and Judy (his mom) went to rent a car while I was researching our trip itinerary and making hotel reservations. By 12:30 pm we finally packed the car trunk to the maximum with our belongings and were ready to hit the road. Getting out of town and on to Ruta 68 west was super easy. We drove through the Casablanca Valley, what is considered some of the most fertile land in Chile, a narrow plain hammed in by the Andes to the east and the coastal range to the west, covered with immense orchards, vineyards and patchworks of greenery. The ride was uneventful apart from spotting a few horse-drawn carts and huasos (Chilean cowboys) on horses plodding down the side of the highway. In about an hour and a half we descended into Valparaiso’s eastern edge and after the usual muddling around one way streets and steep labyrinthine hills we finally located our hotel in the Concepcion area.

Our hotel Latitud 33 Sur was a good choice and great value, considering its central location and simple, comfortable and modern design. We unloaded the bags and set off for the city tour.

Valparaiso, Chile’s second largest city, used to be South America’s busiest port before Panama Canal. I have been looking forward to visiting Valparaiso, and my first impression was exactly what I imagined it to be, a bustling, disorderly, bohemian, charming town. Its jumbles of colorful houses nestled in the folds of its 45 cerros (hills) overlooking the ocean make it a great city for walking.

We spent a few hours walking around its narrow streets and hills, taking in the magnificent panoramas and enjoying the lovely colors and architecture of historic homes.

The two things that caught our attention right away were a great number of incredible graffiti art all over the city and the fact that locals are not conscientious about curbing their dogs, as stinky poop is everywhere.

No trip to Valparaiso is complete without a ride on one of its fifteen ascensores or funicular lifts. During our town excursion we rode three different ones, and while the rides lasted less than a minute, and the cars had rickety frames and made alarming noises, it was a lot of fun to ride them.

After the city tour we opted for a cheesy tourist activity – a boat ride around the bay. For $3 each we got outfitted with orange vests and sat in the boat for 15 minutes waiting for it to fill up with tourists.

When we finally departed we sailed through huge cargo ships and a number of Chilean navy vessels, heading north around the bay.

One of the main attractions of the ride was huge sea lions lounging around a buoy.

The boat did a circle around the buoy and headed back to the peer. The whole ride took as long as waiting in the boat, but that was probably as much as our attention span could have endured anyways.

After the boat ride we made our way back to Cerro Concepcion hoping to dine at a French bistro we noted on the way down. Unfortunately, as many other places in the neighborhood it was closed on Sunday evening, so we settled for one of the hotel restaurants that had an outside patio with a beautiful view of the surrounding hills and the water.

I finally tried the local sea bass and felt obligated to share it with the cutest, thinnest and the most fearless cat that was begging everyone for food on the patio, and melted our hearts. We all had a good laugh about the cat, making it pose with us for pictures. After dinner we walked back to the hotel and retired to sleep shortly thereafter.