Chile

After I just finished paying the $130 ‘reciprocal’ entry visa to Chile, I went outside to be jostled by a million cab drivers. The going rate into town was $30 but one driver shouted $20. Guess what, I took him. He then asked me whether I had any pesos, or whatever the currency is here, and I said no. He said he wanted pesos and directed me over the atm. The machine said 200,000 and I asked him how much money that was in American currency. He told me 100 dollars. How brilliant of him. It turns out that it was 400 dollars but of course with this incorrect information my calculations were dead wrong. When we got to the hotel he asked for 40,000 which I assumed was 20 dollars but turns out was 80. The guy should be working on Wall Street! Thinking the guy was doing me a favour, I asked him to pick Sylvia up the next morning and stand there with a sign and so on. Guess what, Sylvia went straight for the bus and he had to drive out to the airport to wait for a fare that never happened.

I was quite impressed with Santiago as I was driving in. You can actually see the mountains surrounding the city. Lima was also in a valley but it was so smoggy you would never know there were mountains surrounding the city and could seldom see them. Here they are crystal clear. Last night I went to a street as wide as University avenue with dozens of restaurants that were actually quite nice. I really like the feel of Santiago.

We then rented a car and drove to Valparaiso, about two hours from the capital and the centre of tourism for the natives of Santiago as well as the world because this is where all of the cruise ships dock. Before the Panama Canal, Valapairso was the key route from Europe to the Pacific and it is still a working port. As we took a little boat around the port today, I saw a huge ocean liner from the Holland American Line, about four war ships, container vessels and oil ships. It was really great.

We also went for a little ride to Vina del Mar, an upper class resort area with a huge casino, a wide expanse of Pacific Ocean and loads of hotels and parks. In fact, we drove through and headed north for about an hour and saw sea lions, pelicans, all kinds of birds and great rock formations. The seafood restaurant we stopped at was great and Sylvia loved the cool ocean breeze, even though I was a little on the cool side. Apparently, it is quite cool on the coast but gets warmer as you head inland into the Andes mountains and Argentina.

We are now staying in a great hotel in one of the labyrinth of streets winding its way through one of the forty hills Valparaiso is founded on. We can never find the hotel, but when we do it is worth the drive to Acton. It has a great balcony overlooking the city, it is right in the tourist area and there is no air conditioning, a wonderful bonus for me! Driving a gear shift though, is not a bonus, that is for sure, as the hills are as steep as I remember the Greek islands to be.

Tomorrow, we stay in town and check out all of the museums that were closed today ( Monday) but I think we will walk. It is simply too hard to find the hotel and hopefully a taxi will have better luck.