Apr 13, 2010 - Easter Island - April 10-13

April 10, 2010 As the alarm went off at 5am, our last two nights of drinking started to catch up with us both. Thankfully we were both quick out of bed without hitting the snooze button and our taxi was dot on time to collect us. Once at the airport we were directed to the international check-in desks despite taking a domestic flight. Once we got there we couldn’t drop our bags off yet (I’d already checked in online) because they were dealing with another flight. Most airlines and airports can deal with checking in more than one flight at...

Jan 31, 2010 - Back on the Wagon

The foot was feeling well enough this morning that I decided to get back to the business of serious touristing, within some limits of distance and accessibility. So I took the single-line metro from Valpo to swanky Viña del Mar, a couple cliks to the northeast. My first destination was the wonderfully funky and un-PC Fonck Museum of archaeology and natural history- named after its German founder, a mid-twentieth century archaeologist who greatly increased knowledge of the Central Chilean culture sequence. Or he was a notorious grave robber,...

Jan 30, 2010 - Rapa Nui (Easter Island to you and me)

Hi I´m now at the most remote inhabited location on the planet, It is thousands of mile from anywhere. Spent yesterday touring the island with a local guide. Never knew there was so many statues on the island and it was extremely interesting hearing how they were all quarried from the side of one mountain and then transported all over the island. Some are over 10 metres high and weight many tonnes. Each head and upper body represents a died tribal chief, who were also buried beneath them. Managed to arrive on the island at the start of...

Jan 29, 2010 - Valparaiso, Chile

Today we docked at Valparaiso and visited Santiago. Valparaiso was the largest and busiest port of Chile until the Panama Canal opened. Chile’s national Parliament still meets in the city. We took a tour of Santiago - about a two-hour drive from Valparaiso. About one-third of the people in Chile live in Santiago. The city is inland and surrounded by mountains. On a clear day, you can see the Andes in the distance. The problem is that Santiago holds smog, so it looks much like LA on a bad day. The city is a combination of modern and...

Jan 28, 2010 - Valparaiso

Still at the hostel in Valpo, still hobbling. Got sick of hanging around after 2 days watching mediocre 10+-year-old American TV with my foot propped up, and decided to go out to dinner with some fellow travelers at the hostel: me, a Canadian, an Aussie and a Dutch guy (sounds like the beginning to a bad joke, no?). Took one of the "microbuses" downtown, then followed our noses up the stairs to Cerro Alegre ("Happy Hill"), past some remarkably creative and colorful graffiti/murals. Stopped at one place for drinks (my first Pisco Sour, the...

Jan 26, 2010 - Back to the Pacific

After 3 1/2 days breathing the Santiago smog, I decided to try out my navigational skills to get across the city to the bus station and get a ticket to Valparaiso ("Valpo," in hosteller slang). Which was really quite easy; Santiago is laid out in a fairly orderly and logical pattern, with a color-coded Metro system much like Washington D.C.'s. Unfortunately for my left foot (sprained from overuse during a hike to Cerro San Cristobal- in sandals), I jumped the gun and got off the Metro 5 stops early, at Universidad de Chile instead of...

Dec 7, 2009 - Valparaiso - Cultural capital of Chile

We had set our alarm for seven o’clock in an attempt to make an early bus to Valparaiso. A few people in the dorm had woken up early and gone off, possibly to travel elsewhere, so we woke up before the alarm bell went off. At eight we had our breakfast in the hostel and we headed off as soon as we were done. We managed to catch a bus departing to Valparaiso at 8.50 from the main bus terminal next to the university. We traveled with Tur Bus, one of Chile’s biggest operator. The trip to Valparaiso was fairly quick - nearly two hours - and we...

Sep 19, 2009 - Easter Island, Chile

It was rather interesting to visit one of the most remote islands in the world. I was originally introduced to the island by the 1994 movie 'Rapa Nui', which depicted the story of the Easter island. It costs a fortune to come down here from the UK, but it was a free stop on my round the world ticket, so I could not miss it. I was greeted by a traditional Polynesian welcome with garlands of flowers! I was lucky to have an excellent guide for the three day tour visiting the Moai and the quarries from which they came. I am not going to bother...

Sep 3, 2009 - Falling in love

After visiting three towns in Chile, Isla Negra, Vina de Mar, and Valparaiso, I fell a little more in love. We left Wednesday morning for our first stop, Isla Negra. Once we got there, we headed for the beach. It was a cool, cloudy day, but it was all still beautiful. We climbed all over the big rocks to get the best views of the ocean, then we all played some frisbee...that's the life. After the beach, we all got empanadas for lunch (empanadas may be the sole reason I gain at least 10 pounds while I am here...the fried bread and cheese is...

Apr 30, 2009 - Vina Del Mar- “Chile’s Garden City”

Vina Del Mar (aka The Garden City) Vina del Mar, founded in 1874 as a weekend retreat and garden residence for the wealthy elite from Valparaíso and Santiago, is locally referred to as La Ciudad Jardín (Spanish: "The Garden City"). The Garden City has a population of approximately 286K people, is a part of the fifth region and is Chile’s fourth largest city. It is also a great beach resort that attracts many vacationers. As we enter the Garden City, our eyes gaze in amazement. The splendor of exotic trees, flowers and plants is breath...

Apr 27, 2009 - Valparaíso - “Chile’s Cultural Capital”

We travel by bus to Valparaiso We travel by bus to Valparaiso – the major seaport about an hour from Santiago. The guide tells us along the way that Valparaiso is the former home of Pablo Neruda, Chile’s Nobel Prize winning poet. En Route we pass through an area of conservation land where palm trees native to Chile are being protected. In the distance we can see the multicolored shanties crowded on the hillsides that one envisions in less-developed nations. They are a stark contrast to the affluence of Santiago, and the well landscaped...

Mar 14, 2009 - From Valparaiso to farming in Mendoza.

Tsk Tsk Tuli. A month between blogs ain´t good enough. Well, this blog starts with a series of unfortunate events. In classic Tuli-style, i managed to pull of the most perfect storm of mishaps. With my freshly fixed and spotless camera, I sat in a seedy in a seedy internet cafe in Valparaiso. It was the day after i had arrived there, and I was planning on going a bit later that day with this american google programmer cool nerd sorta guy for a wander around the windy, tospy turvy, cracked, cobbled and colourful streets of Valpo, to finally...