https://picasaweb.google.com/Bob.Roesch/Chile?authuser=0&feat=directlink
8/29/10
I am in Valparaiso. Dinner last night was very good. Tapas and a salad. Food and wine is cheap. Dinner with three glasses of wine and tip was $25. Most food is just OK. Bread, coffee and beer is soft, instant and yellow fizzy. Wine is very good. After dinner I found a bar/restaraunt with Chilean music. Did not understand a word if it, but clapped along with everyone else.
Valpo is interesting. Very steep narrow streets in the old section. I counted 120 steps down one block. I would use low low gear in the jeep to get up the street.
Yesterday I saw a small riot...well, large fight near the docks. Eight police cars responded. I went the other direction. This morning they were filming a police chase scene in the same area...squeeling tires and all.
Valpo has hundreds of dogs. They are very well behaved and just wander around. One walked into a bar and another into church after Mass last night. I assume they were both Catholic.
Very few tourists. Most people speak no english. I am using my very bad spanish and people are patient. Weather is perfect so far.
I have taken a couple of accensors...like elevators to go up the hill to the next street. Quaint...and about 60¢.
More later.
9/2
The rest of my stay in Valpo was pleasant...good weather on Sunday and Monday. I walked a several miles to Toperderas beach at the south end of town. Had a couple of beers watching kids, dogs and attempts at flying kites. Sat with a few Chilean men, we just sipped beers and nodded...great conversation! The beer was yellow and fizzy, but tasted right for the location. I took a wild ride on a bus back to town...it never quite stops as people get on or off. Races off before door closes....Monday I walked and walked around town following an out of date walking tour. Some passages were closed, but I found a lot of nice overlooks above town...found a few places for espresso...so the coffee got better, too. Monday afternoon clouded up...I ate at the tappas place by the hotel...seafood was good.
Tuesday was cloudy, but I was traveling to Santiago to meet the panel. ..I took an antique (or maybe just old) trolley bus to the main bus station in Valpo...had good connections on buses in Santiago and to the airport. The trip to San Pedro was OK...flew to Calama...all desert for miles and miles. Calama is a mining town, huge copper mine. It is on a rift between two set of mountains...one inland from the coast and the Andes. Andes are TALL. Took a bus in the dark to San Pedro...dinner at a very nice hotel. My room had a indoor/outdoor huge walk in shower. We left for the ALMA site early Wednesday....busy busy day. Went up the high site at 16,400 feet. Air is thin. The building at the top is oxygenated...and the toilet was cool...electric and incinerates poo....no sewers. Worked late. Got back to San Pedro late and dark...fortunately they eat late in Chile...we were just in time for dinner. I had steak, salad and quinoa for the second time. On of the others had steak a la pobra. Pile of fries, steak fries peppers, onions, sauce and two fried eggs...it was bigger than my head. We saw just a bit of San Pedro in the dark...quaint village, would like to have seen more...but we left crack of dark to catch the bus to Calama to fly back to Santiago. Saw more desert and mountains....the Andes are TALL....more on Santiago later.
Bob
9/4
I head home tomorrow. We worked most all of friday...we arrived in Santiago on Thursday afternoon...it rained hard that night..fortunately there was an Irish bar across the street. No Guinness, but a decent stout on tap. We sat by the fire and ate mediocre appetizers. Friday was all work and I checked into my new hotel, but returned to the irish bar again, we left an American sized tip the night before so got the good table by the fireplace. More stout and better appetizers.
Today I met a journalist from Canada who was heading home, he was covering the trapped miners and had some interesting comments. One has a wife and a mistress who has three kids by him, waiting for him at the top, they just met and things are tense, he may want to stay underground.
I went to a local crafts area this morning, very nice local artisans and products.I found some nice small gifts. This afternoon I did the bike tour 1,100 feet up San Cristobol hill. Way cool. Two other on the tour in their twenties, I smoked both of them up the hill...we saw a lot of Santiago and had great views. Diner at the top was great. Primo wines,cheese, olives, salami, bread, fruit, dessert...and a weird drink with preaches and hominy type of wheat. Strange. We were gone six hours, long trip.
I finished tonight with a drink called a terremoto, or earthquake in a bar called "head lice". Really. A large plastic beer glass with pineapple ice cream, cheap bad white wine, and cheap rum. I figured they don't want to over power the pineapple ice cream. If you don't feel the earthquake and order a second one it is called an after shock, third is a tsunami...there is no fourth one. Tomorrow I will tour the center of Santiago, Plaza del Armes, cathedral and Mercado. Seafood for lunch before heading to airport.
Looking forward to getting home.
Bob
9/5
Final meal in Chile. El Germano. Pork, avocado, tomato, sweet pickles, and mayo. Almost as big as my head. Put hot sauce on it...pretty good. With a short beer, it was nine dollars.
Bread was soft, beer was yellow and fizzy...but just fine for Chile!
Bob
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