Emma in Chile!
May. 26th, 2003 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emmagrant01I absolutely adore this country! I love Latin America in general, but there is something really magical about Chile. We came here on our honeymoon eight years ago, and this is our fourth trip here. The people are wonderful, the culture is relaxed, the food is diverse, and the scenery is incredible! I'm practicing my Chilean accent again:
Seh, doh mil pehos. (Si, dos mil pesos.)
Buenoh Diah; muchah grahia. (Buenos dias; muchas gracias.)
Donde ehta la bodega loh Bahco? (Donde esta la bodega Los Vascos?)
A little description of our trip so far follows:
Saturday:
We arrived in Santiago on Saturday morning, after circling for two hours -- the airport was closed because of very low dense fog. But we were in our hotel by 10:00, and spent the morning resting and cleaning up after the night flight. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant that happened to be serving a seafood buffet. Being Americans, we eat lunch around 1:00, while everyone else here takes lunch at 3:00, so we had the restaurant to ourselves. The servers kept bringing us plates of food, even before we had a chance to go to the buffet! We went down to Las Condes to a huge wine shop called El Mundo de Vino and bought six bottles of wine. That shop has the best selection of Chilean wine on the planet. We hung around the hotel's (free) happy hour that evening, biding our time until it was acceptable to go to dinner. Chileans eat dinner around 10:00 pm, when we're usually in bed... We went out for sushi around 8:30, and ended up chatting with the serving staff. Again, we were the only ones there so early!
Sunday:
We slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast in the hotel. Then I twisted MDH's arm enough to convince him to take the subway downtown. (I love taking public transport when we travel - for me it's a huge part of the experience to try to figure out how to get places and to mingle with the locals. He would rather just take a taxi.) We walked about a kilometer down to the end of the metro line and had to figure out how to work the ticket machine - always exciting! The subway in Santiago is very clean and efficient. I recommend it highly. It's cleaner than NYC, for example. Even MDH grudgingly admitted it was a good way to get around. We took the metro down to Providencia and walked along Avenida Suecia. We hadn't been there in eight years and there's quite a bit of nightlife now -- bars, restaurants, discos, etc. It looked like a fun place to hang out. There were lots of theme bars, some a little bizarre. For example, there was one called Entre Negros, and the outside of the building was painted with really racist caricatures of black people -- the kind that make you cringe on sight. We weren't sure what to make of that. We found a pub (called The Old Boston Pub) and were ushered in promptly by the English speaking manager. He promptly brought us large mugs of the local beer (Cristal). The only other person in the pub was a Brit, and he was drinking as well. ;^)
We came back to the hotel and took a nap, then hit happy hour again. The hotel was pretty quiet on a Sunday night, so we headed out again, this time to an Irish pub that we've hung out in the last few times we've been here. They were no longer carrying Guiness (!!!) but had a locally brewed stout that wasn't bad. After hanging out there for a while, we went looking for a brewpub we'd found here two years ago. It, unfortunately, seemed to have gone out of business. In general, Chile's economy seems to have improved markedly during the last eight years. The first time we came, it seemed to be a very poor country, but no longer. They're certainly much better off than Argentina these days.
Monday:
Great day so far! We had made appointments in advance to visit two wineries in the area: Almaviva and Haras de Pirque. We had been to both two years ago, but thought it would be fun to go again. The best part of our day, though, was riding around with our driver and impromptu guide, Guillermo. He was great! He showed us the beautiful Maipo canyon, drove us around his neighborhood, took us to an amazing restaurant (where we sat outside under a clear blue sky and listened to a strolling guitarist sing love songs - I'm impressed MDH by translating the lyrics). Guillermo patiently answered all of my questions about the Chilean educational system. I'm fascinated by the differences in the ways people around the world educate their children.
Tonight we're going to go look for a wine bar we've heard about, and maybe go bar hopping in Providencia. Another update to come!
Seh, doh mil pehos. (Si, dos mil pesos.)
Buenoh Diah; muchah grahia. (Buenos dias; muchas gracias.)
Donde ehta la bodega loh Bahco? (Donde esta la bodega Los Vascos?)
A little description of our trip so far follows:
Saturday:
We arrived in Santiago on Saturday morning, after circling for two hours -- the airport was closed because of very low dense fog. But we were in our hotel by 10:00, and spent the morning resting and cleaning up after the night flight. We had lunch at a Thai restaurant that happened to be serving a seafood buffet. Being Americans, we eat lunch around 1:00, while everyone else here takes lunch at 3:00, so we had the restaurant to ourselves. The servers kept bringing us plates of food, even before we had a chance to go to the buffet! We went down to Las Condes to a huge wine shop called El Mundo de Vino and bought six bottles of wine. That shop has the best selection of Chilean wine on the planet. We hung around the hotel's (free) happy hour that evening, biding our time until it was acceptable to go to dinner. Chileans eat dinner around 10:00 pm, when we're usually in bed... We went out for sushi around 8:30, and ended up chatting with the serving staff. Again, we were the only ones there so early!
Sunday:
We slept in and enjoyed a late breakfast in the hotel. Then I twisted MDH's arm enough to convince him to take the subway downtown. (I love taking public transport when we travel - for me it's a huge part of the experience to try to figure out how to get places and to mingle with the locals. He would rather just take a taxi.) We walked about a kilometer down to the end of the metro line and had to figure out how to work the ticket machine - always exciting! The subway in Santiago is very clean and efficient. I recommend it highly. It's cleaner than NYC, for example. Even MDH grudgingly admitted it was a good way to get around. We took the metro down to Providencia and walked along Avenida Suecia. We hadn't been there in eight years and there's quite a bit of nightlife now -- bars, restaurants, discos, etc. It looked like a fun place to hang out. There were lots of theme bars, some a little bizarre. For example, there was one called Entre Negros, and the outside of the building was painted with really racist caricatures of black people -- the kind that make you cringe on sight. We weren't sure what to make of that. We found a pub (called The Old Boston Pub) and were ushered in promptly by the English speaking manager. He promptly brought us large mugs of the local beer (Cristal). The only other person in the pub was a Brit, and he was drinking as well. ;^)
We came back to the hotel and took a nap, then hit happy hour again. The hotel was pretty quiet on a Sunday night, so we headed out again, this time to an Irish pub that we've hung out in the last few times we've been here. They were no longer carrying Guiness (!!!) but had a locally brewed stout that wasn't bad. After hanging out there for a while, we went looking for a brewpub we'd found here two years ago. It, unfortunately, seemed to have gone out of business. In general, Chile's economy seems to have improved markedly during the last eight years. The first time we came, it seemed to be a very poor country, but no longer. They're certainly much better off than Argentina these days.
Monday:
Great day so far! We had made appointments in advance to visit two wineries in the area: Almaviva and Haras de Pirque. We had been to both two years ago, but thought it would be fun to go again. The best part of our day, though, was riding around with our driver and impromptu guide, Guillermo. He was great! He showed us the beautiful Maipo canyon, drove us around his neighborhood, took us to an amazing restaurant (where we sat outside under a clear blue sky and listened to a strolling guitarist sing love songs - I'm impressed MDH by translating the lyrics). Guillermo patiently answered all of my questions about the Chilean educational system. I'm fascinated by the differences in the ways people around the world educate their children.
Tonight we're going to go look for a wine bar we've heard about, and maybe go bar hopping in Providencia. Another update to come!
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Re:
Date: 2003-05-28 08:26 pm (UTC)I visited South America for the first time last summer when I spent a month in Peru. It was also the first time I ever saw the Pacific Ocean. Five continents down, two to go: Australia and Antarctica!