Chile

Santiago

Once we heard how expensive Chile is, with prices mirroring the US, we decided to spend one week here, in one city, Santiago. The bus ride from Mendoza is stunning, with one of the windiest roads in the world. We found a great price on a centrally located one-bedroom apartment and enjoyed the ease of access to the metro (which is excellent), shopping, grocery stores and must-see sites. The best part of our apartment were the sunsets from the roof top, right next to a beautiful swimming pool.

Santiago is basically split into three distinct areas: the very poor, the middle class and the rich. The rich live in houses, everyone else lives in apartment buildings. The rich neighborhood, at the base of the gondola from San Cristobal Hill, is quiet, laid back, welcoming and is a luxurious escape from the bustling city. The homes are large, but rather simple and inviting. We walked through this neighborhood on our way to the Gran Torre Santiago, the tallest building in Latin America and the second tallest in the southern hemisphere.

Also on our way to the Gran Torre Santiago we stopped at a cool sculpture park which would host a fantastic picnic or a lawn nap. We just walked through, admired the art and kept going to the Gran Torre. It takes no time at all to reach the top, 64 stories up, and from here you have two options to observe the city, a covered option and an open-air option, both have observation points with explanations and free binoculars to understand and grab a better view of what you are looking at. I spent most of my time watching the swim team practice in the olympic sized swimming pool.

The incredibly kind and intelligent couple we met in Mendoza, Ricardo and Ziu, met up with us and we spent the entire day with them and saw more of the city in this one day than we would have seen on our own all week. It was the most incredible way to experience the city. With them as our guides we ate traditional foods, tasted local drinks, hiked to the top of San Cristobal Hill on a path we would have never found on our own, and enjoyed endless, interesting, intelligent conversation. We also ate the most delicious popsicles ever from a little car called Marie Pop. Mine was ginger, mint and lemon, Jason's was lemon, I hope to recreate this when we get home.

This incredible day ended with desserts, tea and hugs.

True to the advice I received in Mendoza about having my phone fixed in Chile, it was a third of the price. To have the entire front, not just the glass, replaced cost me $45. Many Argentinians drive to Chile to buy their electronics, it's that much cheaper here.

We enjoyed having two grocery stores just in front of our apartment and made some home made meals and enjoyed some tasty Chilean wine. Although we thoroughly enjoyed our bottle of Malbec from Mendoza a little more.

We had to adjust to city life after our time in Patagonia and the much smaller Mendoza, but Santiago was absolutely fantastic. The old Spanish architecture to the newer spectacular skyscrapers. The food was also delicious and they definitely specialize in anything seafood being so close to the coast. Our friend Melanie even swears they have some of the best sushi in the world, unfortunately, it wasn't in our budget this time so we'll have to take her word for it. There are two main markets near the city center, one specializing in mostly seafood, while the other has more fruits, vegetables, spices, clothing, traditional food, basically everything else.

Valparaiso

We decided to head out of the city for a day and took a bus, which takes about 1 1/2 hours, to Valparaiso, which passes numerous vineyards on the way. The city rises from the ocean up seriously steep hills. The hills are so steep that the city is dotted with funiculars. It's vaguely reminiscent of San Francisco, California and has a cool vibe, once you get up into the colorful neighborhoods. Valparaiso is the main seaport for most of the South Pacific, shipping all over the world. If you are looking for beaches, head a little further north to Vina del Mar, we didn't have time to visit, but it's on our radar for next time. Valparaiso is known for it's colorful houses and street art. A day here was plenty for us, our favorite part being walking the streets finding art. Although, our traditional lunch and ice cream did not disappoint either.

If you are looking for your next colorful tattoo, you may want to spend some time walking the streets here. You will be inspired and inked up in no time.