Valdivia: a beautiful bonus

It was early in the morning when we got to Valdivia. So early, in fact, that it was still pitch dark.

Me and Chey got off the bus and instantly felt the bite of the cold. After the mildness of Santiago,it finally felt like winter. A proper Patagonian morning mist was surrounding us, giving the bus platform an eerie look.

Trying to blow mist rings.

We waited inside the (still super cold) bus terminal, where everything was still closed, until a timid light started to show. Once it was light enough, we grabbed our backpacks and got out and into Valdivia.

As I said before, we didn't know what to expect from the town, as there wasn't much information on the internet, and NONE in the guide. What we were certainly not expecting was for it to be gorgeous.

A duck flies over the river.

 With the air of an old port town,Valdivia is full of beautiful old houses covered in scales of wood (I have no idea if there's a proper word for it in English, but you get the idea, I hope) and painted with bright colours (though many are fading).

We walked around, still in the midst of the mist, looking for a "hospedaje" while being amazed by the simple beauty of the silhouettes of boats and houses across the river.

It was COLD.

The strange contrast between the cute blue house and he super creepy
abandoned half-built building. It even says "miedo" (fear) on the side.

 After finding a nice homestay owned by an esoteric nice lady (she had feng shui stuff, tarot cards, lucky bamboo plants with the red knots tied around them, astrology books and other jewels all around the place), we went to get some breakfast.

From the cafe window, while we were eating our pretty meh eggs on toast, we could see a park. And next to the park, a group of fire fighters were allowing people to have a go on the cherry picker (Chey says it's called like that, and google agrees. I just learnt something new).

It looked so high!

We hurriedly finished our already cold eggs, payed,headed to the park, and with very casual expressions stood close to the fire truck.

"Do you guys want a go?" said a nice fireman (in Spanish).

"Uhmm... ok!" we said, knowing that "wanting a go" was the only reason we approached.

Real size fireman, and (beside him) pocket size fireman.

The view as we went up.

We're such dorks.

Close to the park, we saw a condor. Seriously. Standing on top of a building.

"Oh my! quick, grab the camera! this is
amazing, it's a condor!"

...But then...

And then... 

 It seemed like condors were actually a fairly common thing around, but we quickly knew why.

In Valdivia there is a wonderful fresh produce market. They sell fish. The condors were scavenging for the fish in the stalls.

We walked through it, smelling everything and enjoying the pretty colours. Suddenly, Chey made this face :O while staring over my shoulder.

And this was what he was looking at:

A sea lion patiently waiting for fish.
 Damn, that fish must be good!

As it turns out, the river is closely connected to the ocean, so it's full of sea lions, pelicans and other guys that come enjoy the fish leftovers from the market.

Hello, my good sir, I'd like to purchase some fish,

"Beware of the sea lions" (in Spanish they're called "sea wolves").

 We coul've stayed there, taking photos of the sea lions for ages, but instead we took the afternoon to go to a park across the river, that is more like a magical forest.

A strange statue garden in the park.

I made some friends.

On the way back.

More sea lions.

This was right next to the sidewalk. I love Valdivia.

 To finish our very full day, we went searching for decent non-meaty food (a task worthy of a Tolkien book when you're in Chile). After a long stroll and many closed doors, we lost hope and started walking back through the deserted city.

Two blocks away from our hospedaje, we found a Chinese-owned Chinese restaurant.

The last supper of our crazy trip going South. And, surprisingly, the food was amazing.

Santiago again

A note for the reader: This is one of my classic complainy posts. We only intend to share our experiences and entertain, and by no means hate Santiago or Chile. There's no feeling of being above anything in any way; but as we spent quite a long time in Chile (and we actually love it) we feel like we can be critical without being assholes.

If you ask any of us about the least enjoyable part of the trip, we will most likely answer the same thing. 

And it won't be when we were stranded in the middle of the desert with no water or food for over 24 hours, or getting food poisoning on Valentines day. Oh, no. It will be our second encounter with Santiago de Chile.

After the race going South, we found ourselves in Santiago again. We only wanted to rest, take some cash out and get going. It was only one night and one day

... And it ended up being too long.

Still the city has some pretty sights.

We spent a full day looking for some decent food... but it was Saturday. So naturally, as in any capital city, most places were closed (insert sarcasm tone there, in case it wasn't obvious). 

We ended up sitting at one of those random generic tourist restaurants that serve everything from pasta and pizza to seafood and burgers. And where every meal tends to be mediocre to say the least.

The waiters treated us like we were some stray, flea-covered dogs, and completely screwed up our order so by the time Chey finished eating his (dreadful excuse for a) pizza, my meal was nowhere to be seen (I told him not to wait for me because the pizza was horrible as it was, and I didn't want to imagine how it would've been like cold). 

We payed for that awful pizza-ish thing, and went lookig for something for me to eat. Even Starbucks (Starbucks!!) was closing, 25 minutes before the time their actual closing time, and I ended up with a cold muffin as my only lunch *sad, sad violins playing in the background*.

By then I was a bit grumpy and only wanted to get out of there, but we still had to wait until the night when our bus was supposed to leave. We had decided to go to Valdivia before crossing back to Argentina.

There was nothing on Valdivia in the guide, and not much on Tripadvisor. It didn't seem to be a gringo destination and that sounded pretty appealing for us.

But to be honest, anything that wasn't Santiago sounded appealing at that moment.

In fairness: Santiago isn't bad. We had a great time there when we went for the first time, in summer, having a good amount of time to explore. 

...But in winter, and being there for only a day, we felt like it was actually the blandest, most deprived of personality big city we had been to. 

It was a bit more fun around dinner time, when we gave up on trying to find "decent" food (what's that?) and just walked into a super dodgy eatery, the kind of thing you find close to bus terminals, to order fried eggs and chips. 

A healthy meal.

 The place seemed so over the top with movie-canteen details (including the grumpy waitress with Amy Winehouse sort of make up) that it became funny.

Elegant photos of the many light eating options.

More decorative details.

They had a "jukebox" sort of system to play videoclips on the TV set, which made the kitch atmosphere complete with Britney and other 90's classics. It was way more enjoyable than our failed lunch at the touristy area, which proves once more that randomness takes you places.

In the end we were extremely grateful when, after hours of waiting at the bus terminal, our bus finally left for a new place.

Going South

After we left Arequipa, all the path until Santiago felt like a blur.

It was fast. It was a bit stressful. It was filled with bus stations, desert roads, bland food and small bus seats.

On a bus

The road out of Arequipa.

Ridiculous phone company is allowed to advertise on the side of a mountain.

We went through Tacna, then Iquique, then La Serena in three days, spending one night at each place.

Being a bit broke already, it didn't feel right to stay for longer (also, we didn't fall in love with any of the places where we stopped, so it wouldn't have been justified to stay).
.

First we got to Tacna. It seems like a place for business people to go from Perú to Chile and vice-versa. There was an IPerú info point (which we visited in our desperate search for breakfast places), and even they didn't have much information on what to do in Tacna... possibly because there isn't much?

The main square in Tacna.

We love taking photos like tourists in not-touristy places.

Out of Tacna, nice sunset in the desert.

Iquique, on the other hand, was a treat for the senses... in a special way.

We arrived at night and the first thing we saw from he bus window was a man pushing an empty stroller and dressed with beach shorts and a long brown jacket. I jokingly said "Either the weather here is really moody, or that guy is crazy".

As we were getting off the bus an old lady across the road walked around yelling at herself.

While walking around the strangely eerie streets of the city centre, many people around looked and acted definitely crazy (the way they dressed, moved, talked and sang to themselves).

It seems like there's an open-door mental institution close to town; so there.

We found a cheap-ish room in a strange hotel (once again that "Hotel California feeling"), that was huge, noisy and horribly lit. We were on the 5th floor. I felt I was inside a Charles Bukowski story.

It was really late but we needed to get something to eat, so after dropping our bags we enjoyed some more crazy random night walkers around the touristy pedestrian street (sorry, no pictures).

The morning after we repacked and went for breakfast. Gone were the days  of being indignant about the low coffee quality in Chile, but this was a bit too much:

That's right: an empty cup with an INSTANT coffee
sachet, and hot water/milk on the side.

It was mild, it was tasteless, it reminded us of the reasons why we got grumpy in Chile. Do you want the cherry on top? The mugs say ESPRESSO and have a little coffee beans pattern.

Me, obliviously waiting for my café con leche.

We killed some time walking around...

Iquique touristy centre.

Chey looks at some real estate.

"A good coffee... enjoy it here!" wtf Chile.

Pretty tram is now decoration.

Cat chilling under the tram car. Cats make everyhing 200% better.

My vehicle of choice.

Afterwards, we spent a few hours sitting in a nicer café we found close to the bus terminal, ready to leave for La Serena on the first bus available.

That smile says: yay! Wifi and not-instant coffee!

La Serena was probably the nicest bit between Arequipa and Santiago, though faithful to our Chile experience thus far, it was extremely difficult to find good budget accomodation.

Every place we saw seemed to be run by a grumpy old lady smelling of moth balls and stew, and none of them seemed to like us wanting to see the rooms (probably because they were mostly dark, humid caves).

The mandatory touristy photo.

Finally we found a sort-of OK place (of course run by an old lady, but this one was sleepy rather than grumpy) and were able to charge our electronics, wash some clothes, rest and go out to see the sights.

We had a lovely stroll by the beach, where we tried to find beer (which somehow was extremely difficult).

La Serena sea side.

Lighthouse.

Strolling down the beach.

Sunset swings.

Sunset lighthouse,

About La Serena I also have to say: they have a place with great coffee (in Chile!!!!) and we found AMAZING veggie sushi for dinner, right next to our "hospedaje".

We only had Santiago left, or so we thought, before getting back to the Argentinian side and some rest from all the moving around. The adventure felt almost over.