Together with a new travel companion, I arrive in Santiago on Halloween night. After exchanging a few messages with a friend from Rio, Linda, I take an Uber to Providencia to stay at the hostel where she works. It’s great to see Linda and Giovanna (another friend from Rio) again, and we get ready to go out together. The pedestrians in the city are all dressed up and ready for Halloween. When we take an Uber to a bar, we see a couple walking by with hollowed-out pumpkins on their heads as costumes (and more conventional costumes, of course). We dance, catch up and make plans for the next few days.
During the first week, I thoroughly enjoy the modern city: taking the metro, eating frozen yoghurt ice cream, going to Western shops and being able to find everything I need in the supermarket. Linda and I spend a lot of time together, chatting, cooking, doing some sightseeing in the city, etc. The museums in Santiago are beautiful, large and free or inexpensive. For someone with a heart for art like me, it’s the perfect place! I had often heard that Santiago was a rough city, but I don’t notice it myself. Only when I walk with Linda to the modern art museum from the main market for the second time do I see that she is a little uncomfortable. Apparently, we were walking in a dangerous neighbourhood, where I had also walked a few days earlier (unaware of any danger). I must have good guardian angels, because nothing strange happened to me during my entire stay in Santiago and I didn’t see anything strange either.
After another Saturday night in the clubs of Bela Vista, I make my first trip to Valparaiso and Viña del Mar in week 2. I initially wanted to spend a few days there, but after seeing the town, I am glad I only stayed for one evening. Valparaiso is a fine example of faded glory. You can see that it used to be a wealthy city with beautiful colonial buildings, but they have been poorly maintained and the streets are dirty. Viña is cleaner, with palm-lined boulevards and a long beach. Still, it’s nothing compared to the beautiful beaches in Central America, the Caribbean and Brazil.
On my way back, I visit the Concha y Toro wine estate. An expensive outing, like most tours in Chile. 35 euros, 4 glasses of wine and 3 hours later, I’m back on the pavement waiting for an Uber. The wine estate is beautiful, the wine is okay. A few days later, I go to Mendoza in Argentina for a week, where the wine is phenomenal! After two weeks in Santiago, I was ready for a new place and to meet some new backpackers, and Mendoza was ideal for this.
The city has a French feel to it, with tall poplar trees casting shadows over the streets. In Mendoza, you can go horse riding and hiking in the mountains, but the most popular thing to do is rent a bike and visit the wine estates. I stay in a nice, sociable hostel where I immediately make good friends and end up going on three bike rides, each time to a different part of the city with its own character and type of estates. Perhaps I will write a post about the estates and what I thought of them in the future. The most popular wine here is Malbec, and they are so good at making Malbecs here! The wines are strong but smooth on the palate, have a fruity undertone and are delicious. I buy a few bottles, even though I’m not sure when I’ll get to drink them, before taking a bus back to Santiago. Here, the girls and I go out one last time together, and I take a tedious night bus to Pucón, in northern Patagonia. That’s where my time at ”the end of the world” begins.
