Actually, you could look up what I wrote about Valparaiso last year. It didn’t change much, you know. It is still the same dirty, stinking, run-down city full of wonderful street-art, crafts and vibrant life.
After having been in so many cities, it really struck me how dirty this place was. There’s dog shit everywhere. The narrow paths smell of urine and from seeing people pissing just anywhere, I doubt most of it origins from the dogs. Still, many people consider this city to be the pearl of Chile. And somehow I can relate. Especially in the wonderful sunny weather that we had during the first three days.
We arrived in the Case Aventura Hostel after a short two hours bus ride from Santiago. I’ve been in the same hostel before and I had the same bed, too. It’s nice to have a good bed, big rooms with just a few people than some of overcrowded places we had been before. The breakfast was delicious with fresh fruit and home-made jams. People were nice, too.
I think in Puerto Varas we heard about this downhill mountain bike race that would take place in Valparaiso each year. The guy who told us about it and showed us the YouTube video said it usually was in mid March. Damn!, we thought back then. Fantastic!, we said now as we saw a poster of it taking place the very next day! More about that later.
Axel and I took place on the “free” Tour for Tips, Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good or exciting as last year. Still it is interesting to see what had changed after nine months, like new street art or other things gone.
“This is madness!” — “No! This is CERRO ABAJO!” Oh, maybe it is still madness. Otherwise I can’t really imagine why people would race down the hills of Valpo jump across large gaps, defy gravity by driving along walls and other crazy stuff. We only watched part of the qualifying and track examination but that was amazing enough. I couldn’t do that.
Speaking of difficult things: We tried to make our way up along the track and it was so crammed that it took about an hour to reach our hostel. Sometimes the only way to move on was to cross the barriers and run on the track, hoping that no downhill biker would come at the same time. The thrill!
The next day we had booked a tour with “The German Pirate”, Michael, who drove us to places that normal tourists won’t see. For example to a house that’s been pretty much run down and is now being restored. The owner collects a lot of strange stuff, including Playmobile figures. Then we continued to the Casa Blanca valley to a vineyard for wine tasting. I’m pretty hard to please regarding white wines and Pinor Noir is not my favorite grape but the Carmenere was good enough for us to buy a bottle. We could have visited more vineyards but that was enough alcohol already and instead we had some home-made empanadas somewhere along the road.
Next stop was a beach near Quintay. I was a bit concerned about Axel getting a trauma as he was sleepy and banging his head a couple of times on the way. I really had no idea that the Pacific was that cold. Cold enough to only try the breaking waves a couple of minutes before heading out with frozen legs.
Michael has a 86-years old friend who is a self-taught universal genius. He had built his own house and created all sorts of weird fantastic things, like sculptures, model ships etc. There’s even an observatory in his house! He is collecting lots of stuff and some of it is displayed in a sort of private museum. Absolutely amazing. The view he gets each morning from the hill at the ocean is quite priceless, too. Still, it really makes me wonder what will happen to this place and all the stuff he created with such passion once he has passed into the next world. Then we headed home and drank our wine in the evening with the Kiwi guests in the hostel.
I really wanted to meet Emilia again who I met in Buenos Aires last year. She lives in Vina del Mar which is just a few kilometres away but lag and confusion caused by electronic communication prohibited an encounter. Sometimes it’s just not meant to be.
Instead we celebrated our last day in Valpo with a Chilean Cooking Class. Boris was a lovely chef and host for that afternoon. First, Axel and I selected the menu consisting of Pisco Sour (special variation with basil and chili), Ceviche, Chilean Pebre (Salsa), Empanadas, Chilean Corn Pie (Pastel de Choclo) as main and Drunken Pears as desert. Then we went down to the market, bought all our ingredients and started cooking.
Man, we really enjoyed it both the preparation (you should watch the movie about how Axel swang his hips while dancing with the cocktail shaker for the Pisco Sour) and the feasting. D-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s. Maybe some of the photos can give an impression about the fun we had but that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We became friends.
My hat is a cat. Your argument is invalid. (Don’t ask how this happened.)
Boris, Axel and I then went to a club to have a couple of beers and around midnight we returned to our hostel, waking up at the next morning with a slight hangover but feeling good.
That was it. The final destination before returning home. I don’t count in the night in Santiago, although we met again with Alexis from Puerto Varas.
Reflecting on the last four weeks, we would do most of it the same again. Maybe shorten Punta Arenas. Do the W-trek or the full circuit in Torres del Paine. Extend El Chalten a bit. Use the time in Bariloche better. These are just minor things. All in all, it was such a great stay in Patagonia and around. Amazing experience. You should try it!
All good things come to an end they say. It’s time to fly home now. People are waiting for us to end the dark winter by taking the sun with us. That’s just fair.
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