Amy

I´m in lovely lively Santiago de Chile right now, so I'm just going to post my emails here for the moment; my apologies already for any lack of clarity!

Airport, Lima, Peru, 11:35PM. I have a secret meeting: counter 53 at midnight. Will I make it to Chile, or am I doomed to spend my life in Lima airport´s food court? Hmmmmmm....They´ve offered me vouchers and such for switching my plane, so what´s really supposed to happen is that I get to Santiago a little later (a good thing; originally it was 5:35AM) and get maybe a free hot chocolate. (Yes, it is hot choc weather here!)

I´m just in from a wonderful three days in the Amazon (Iquitos, Peru, part.) Just standing on the top step of the Explorama dock and breathing in felt like a homecoming. I´m not sure why I´m so in love with mosquitoes, humidity, and such, but there´s nothing like the rainforest. Walking through the huge trees, vines, and plants that we´re only used to seeing indoors, seeing the tiny colorful poison dart frogs and the cool hairy tarantula and the ¨"hey, guys, I´m a pacifist, let me alone" army ants is an incredible experience, but there´s more: blue morpho butterflies, huge lizards, and...(drumroll please)

I caught my first piranha! My first fish ever, in fact, but then, I only fish for piranha. I mean, really, fish without teeth? What´s up with that? Actually, I caught two, the second one even bigger. (Okay, it was nine inches.) We had gotten stalled in the boat, but after the piranha fishing a nice man in a small motorboat towed us; he wasn´t going that way, but there are some lovely friendly people in la selva.

And...the pink dolphins were showing off! It was a gorgeously blue sky day, and the dolphins were showing the kind of pink that makes you think of carousels and cotton candy. Just beautiful, and of course they were having fun showing off just when the camera wasn´t ready. But I think there are a few glimpses.

SANTIAGO

This could be a long historical and political polemic, or it could be about Bip!ing one´s way around a city in the sunshine with one´s very little Spanish, or even a recounting of the superb weather: sunny and 50´s, thankewverramuch.

But I have to start with an ode, or a declaration, or something, on:

THE EMPANADA

I don´t even have the words to tell how good this was; it was like a poem for your mouth. Flakiest pastry crimped turnover of incredibly fresh huge shrimp, cheese, and a bit of herbs. It was just insane. And the conger eel that followed was delicious, too.

This was all at the Central Market, Mercado Centrale, a mostly fish and some veg market that also, sublimely, has restaurants all over. (Similar to Reading Terminal, but, well, as much as I love the Reading Terminal, I want to bring Mercado Centrale home with me.) Every restaurant has someone outside to call people in; the Tio Willy´s guy (the place recommended by my guide of this morning) has a huge mustache and looks like he should be singing opera.

I got here yesterday, on, guess what, my original flight! A LAN airlines dude had to whisk me through the airport in order to make it, so that was fun. (And much quicker than usual.) I got to my hotel at 7:30AM and pretty much collapsed, but then bounced up in the afternoon and found my way to the Metro (subway) with its five different lines and its Bip! (yes, it has an exclamation point) card system. Without getting too lost, I made it to Plaza de Armas, the main square, and the pedestrian walkways around. As the day was beautiful (I am so blessed with good weather: Santiago in winter is supposed to be gray, cold, and rainy) I decided next to go up to the highest point (statue of Mary) on the funicular. Thanks to an Edgar Allan Poe (happy version) dude saying the three loveliest words in the English language (which are, ¨"May I help?", of course; what were you thinking?) I got to the funicular and up the steep hill in time for the sunset, and watching the Andes snow turn a soft glowing pink in the reflected light.

This morning I got back on the Metro (it´s very, um, social during rush hour) and went to meet my tour guide for the Human Rights Tour (i.e. Pinochet history). Just as a recap for the young´uns among you, General Augusto Pinochet took over Chile in a military coup against its president, Salvador Allende, September 11, 1973 and then proceeded to have a lot of people disappeared, tortured and killed. (A favorite was dumping in the Andes lakes from planes, but sometimes they just added extra bodies to the cemetery plots.) Nixon and Kissinger were backing him up, and there are those who might say that the crime Nixon should be most remembered for isn´t Watergate.

Francesca, my guide, was a font of information. Usually I go alone with a guidebook, but I´m really glad that I took this tour. I know it probably doesn´t sound like a vacation to most people, but it´s fascinating stuff.

avrooster

Wonderful and fun report, Amy!

When should we expect you in Argentina?

Next winter? Next summer?

Birdie

Great report, Amy! Keep them coming.

Hey, we've got Jersey bluefish which have teeth and are fun to fish. The tarantulas I could do without.

We've got a thread going over on USA about old Philly restaurants if you're bored. Yeah right.

crellston

What and excellent report! Keep it coming

seetheworld

Just reading the word EMPANADA makes my mouth water!!

You fish big, lol!

Looking forward to reading more!

screen_name_taken

You're making me homesick! MOre, please!

I took DH to Mercado Central last year, he's still talking about it - ok, he's talking about the pisco sour(s) he had there ...

So glad you are seeing sunshine now, it usually IS gray and rainy and bone-chilling-cold.

Enjoy the rest of your stay (FYI, cute little "town" - Los Dominicos village).

screen_name_taken

Oh, forgot ... Bellavista at night. great atmosphere, plenty of good restaurants too

Amy

Easter Island...Isla de Pascua...Rapa Nui...or, my favorite, a polysyllabic vowel intensive Polynesian phrase that means "Navel of the World"; one way or another, this is one magical island.

I arrived on Wednesday (a five hour flight out from Chile) and I leave today, but in between there´s been moai, calderas, petroglyphs, nasturtiums...and wild horses. Easter Island is pretty remote--one of the most remote inhabited places on the planet--but there are about 5,000 residents and 6,000 horses. (the horses aren´t indigenous, of course.) The island itself is beautiful, with undulating hills and a sub-tropical climate, which means it could be cold and rainy here right now in winter but instead has been a time of crystal clear air (coming in off of 2,000+ miles of Pacific Ocean from all around, it´s wonderfully breathable) and bright sunshine. This morning there was some rain as I was taking my last walk up the coast road to one of the moai complexes, but that brought in its turn a huge double rainbow.

Thursday was my tour of the island, with a very good guide (from Virginia!) who took me to various moai (the statues with the big noses and ears) and other archaeological sites, most particularly the quarry where the moai were made. It´s a bit eerie to see the ones that are half-finished in the quarry walls, and the ones there in burial holes for later use with only the hads showing. The moai which got put up, around the coastline facing into the villages that they were to protect, were all pushed down during inter-tribal fighting, but some have now been restored. You still see ones that haven´t been, though, as well as ones that didn´t quite make the trip from the quarry. (No one is sure how they transported them, but are pretty sure that large trees were involved: "My moai is bigger than your moai" competition undoubtedly led to the deforestation of the island; the trees here now--not huge numbers--are almost all imported.)

The next day was my climb up to the volcanic lake (caldera) that is a key feature of the cliffside old village of Orongo, where a competition involving diving into the Pacific from the caldera rim used to be held. There were incredible views (and incredible winds) but I do have to say that on the hike up I almost had a quasi existential crisis: not Who Am I, but most definitely What Am I Doing Here? But it was worth it, and I walked from Teóra (where I am staying) and back in just about 5 and 1/2 hours.

There´s so much more I could write, but I´ve got a plane to catch, so I´ll have mercy. But really, this is the ultimate way to learn...just wish I could be here longer!

But it´s off to San Pedro de Atacama desert tomorrow, so ciao for now.

santamonica

Muy Bien! Great trip report. Our son will be in Buenos Aires this coming spring semester. We look forward to visiting him.

Birdie

"with a very good guide (from Virginia!)" I know him! Just kidding.

I am completely fascinated by your descriptions. In my life here in Virginia I cleaned out a refrigerator. Please keep checking in with more reports.

Amy

Birdie! Do you do take on jobs? My frig is just about empty, so it would be really easy to clean...

Anyways, on to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile:

As it turns out, my plane out of Easter Island was quite late, so I had time to do some more walking there and enjoying the beautiful sunshine before "trial by airport": As the plane was so late getting in, I had to cancel my hotel for the night, and just stayed in the (very cold) Santiago airport for my 7AM flight out the next morning. I came in to Calama, about an hour of desert driving out from the oasis town of San Pedro. The town is between two rivers formed from snow in the Andes, but just to get an idea of the rivers...well, we forded one in an SUV yesterday and just about got the tires wet. But in comparison to the vast landscape of the Atacama Desert, that's wet indeed!

I'm staying at Atacamadventure Wellness and Ecolodge, which is a great name and, in fact, a great place. For instance, the meals are cooked individually, beautifully served, and reasonably healthy--well, except maybe for the mousse au chocolat that I just had for dessert at lunch today. It was served in a martini glass, bringing it right to mouth level; I had a hard time not diving in face first, but I resisted. And this morning I was out doing major hiking/parallel rock climbing/river fording by foot in the Punta del Inca, a glorious gorge where cacti and reeds grow alongside a river that actually manages to have waterfalls every once in a while. There was absolutely no one there except for me, Marketa the lodge owner/guide, and her golden Labrador. It was incredible.

El Valle de la Luna is incredible, as well: that's where I was hiking yesterday afternoon. Along with landscapes of salt flats that look remarkably like the remote planet of Tatooine, (as well as looking like the moon, of course) there are these huge sand hills that you can sorta slide down; the color and depth to which your shoes sink is pretty close to being a sand dune of chocolate pudding, in fact, which would be a bajillion times messier and probably only equally as fun.

There is, of course, 0% humidity and daytime temps are about 65F. At night, of course, this being the desert and all that stuff about the specific heat of water etc. going on...well, at night, it's freezing. (Literally; we saw some ice on the river this morning.)

This afternoon I'm off to go see the flamingoes in their natural habitat, an elevated salt lake. Hurrah! I love pink animals.

Birdie

Amy, I will go and clean your refrig but only if there is Naked Chocolate in your kitchen. Of course, any one who had to mention chocolate TWICE in a desert hiking report must have chocolate hidden somewhere at home.

Amy

Alas, Birdie, I am out o' chocolate. But I know where to get some!

All this, and vicunas, too! (Where's that tilde when I need it...)‏

Flamingos fly quite gracefully; one wouldn't expect that of such huge gangly birds, really, but watching them fly into the lagoon at sunset was beautiful. Really, it's almost flying onto the lagoon--it's not very deep--and they are mirrored there as they stalk about picking up the brine shrimp which give them their distinctive color. (But no, you won't turn green from eating too much spinach.) The lagoon in in the salt flats, a huge expanse of curdled flatland surrounded by the mountains. Those mountains take on marvelous color at sunset, from the coral and pink and orange of the Andes to the deeper lavender, violet, and heliotrope of the salt range. I was trying to keep my neck from doing 360's in trying to take in the whole panorama; I was photographing, too, of course, but it just doesn't translate.

Next morning was a very early wake up for a ride up the mountains to the world's highest geothermal field (unfortunately not usable for energy; they've tried, but it's too uneven.) Why would one ride up to a 13,000 ft. altitude to -10C temperatures? Why, El Geysers del Tatio, of course! The huge steam geysers show their grandest in the first light of day, due to the extreme cold; later, the sun's heat makes them disappear. The desert sky, an amazing display of stars and space, was quite dark when we left for a trip that included hairpin turns on mountain roads, but is thankfully now "paved" (they use clay; asphalt doesn't work) for most of the way. Still some fairly tuchas-rattling road to go, though! On the way back, after breakfast at the geysers, the sun was out fully and we could see the herds of llama, which are, of course, domesticated...but we also saw three adorable vicuna, the shy camelid cousin of the llama and alpaca, which are wild. There were also ducks in the semi-frozen river, and people: a tiny village in the mountains where we stopped for a bit for a look at the church, houses, and llama wool goods, some of them knit on cactus spine needles.

The afternoon was spent in the town of San Pedro de Atacama: there's a church there, too, of course, which was made of cactus and built without any nails in the construction. There's an anthropological museum of the Atacamenos, as well, with some fascinating displays and what seemed to be quite an emphasis on the tools used for taking hallucinogenic substances; evidently life in early Atacama could get a bit boring. The exhibit went up to and included the Spanish conquistadores, the main cultural influence and mixture of life in Atacama today.
There are still traditional practices, though, and the families of the area have their land designated by green and white signs, just like those that announce towns on a highway.

This morning we took our final hike, first getting a panoramic view of the mountains and salt flats and canyons from up on a cliff (which we then had to descend, of course) and then going through the Kari Gorge: a little more rock-climbing and scrambling, but mostly a great walk through the canyon with massive rocks glinting with salt towering overhead.

Tonight, I start the loooooonnnnngggg trip back to the US: Calama to Santiago, Santiago to Lima, Lima to Miami, Miami to Orlando...with a whole lot o' airport in-between. Ah, well, it's been worth it, and now I get a few days in Orlando with the family!

Birdie

Amy, what a fantastic trip you've had! Orlando is going to seem to be the opposite on the natural spectrum. Have a safe trip and enjoy the time with the family. I will miss your reports.

yestravel

Great report -- thanks for writing it!

screen_name_taken

OMG!

THANK YOU!!!!!!

what a fantastic report. I know I'm extremely biased when it comes to my home country, but I do believe I've never read such a glowing endorsement for what I know to be a really well kept secret - Chile is an amazing country.

So glad to read you had an experience you will not soon forget.

Safe flight home. Thanks again.

Amy

Screen-name-taken, I have to say that I agree; Chile is indeed amazing. This was a trip I've wanted to take for a long time (and somehow I'm going to figure out how to take time off during the Chilean summer so that I can visit the South, as well) and it exceeded my expectations.

Of course, it helped that I was absolutely blessed with great weather: even San Pedro was un-winterlike, being calm and cloudless instead of windy.

I'm in the Admiral's Club in Santiago airport right now or whatever the heck AA calls their lounge-y thing, so it's a bit more comfy waiting. (Although really, AA, the snacks? Puh-leez. This is a country of great food: reflect that.)

Once I get my pictures in, I'll link them here; I'll probably be adding some logistics and hotel info as well. I'm guessing I could just do that at the end of this report? This is my first time writing an on-the-road report--y'all got my first impressions, for sure!

Birdie

LOL, Amy, you've been talking to me and the other Southerners too much. Y'all??? Not youse?

screen_name_taken

Amy, if you can swing it, February seems to be the best time to go South in Chile.

Hope your flight home was uneventful and that you are now recovering from what must have been a fantastic, but exhausting, trip. Thanks for your report, I thoroughly enjoyed it.