Halloooo,
As of 4am this morning I am back in Brazil, after a whirlwind long weekend in Chile. On Friday morning it was all aboard the Latin American equivalent of Ryanair to fly over hours and hours of empty Argentinian pastures, then the majesty of the Andes for about five minutes, then land in Santiago.
I wasted no time hitching a funicular up the big hill next to my hotel for premium views of the city, a cable car ride down and then back up the mountain, and a belter of a sunset, followed by egg on chips which is apparently the national dish.
Then the next day I wandered round the centre of town, past protests outside Parliament and the Plaza de Armas, through the chaos of the Central Market, eventually finding the cool neighbourhood to check out a few museums and climb up another hill (reminiscent of Parc Buttes-Chaumont in Paris) around sunset, before a quick round trip to Barrio Italiano for, um, a burger.
The next day I switched things up by getting a coach to the coast, taking in the Pacific Ocean from Viña del Mar then being driven at breakneck speed to Valparaiso, which was exhausting to get around but pretty cool, like an inverse Rio - the undesirable part of town is by the sea, and the pretty, touristy part is up in the hills. Had some nice fish and chips, petted lots of stray cats, bought a fridge magnet, toured Pablo Neruda's awesome hillside house and went back for a Pisco Sour and an early night.
On Monday I pushed the metaphorical boat out even further, if you will, with an all-day guided tour into the Andes. Got picked up at 6am, kitted out with boots and a hat and driven into the snowiest depths of the cordillera, to make my way on foot to the James-Bond-villain's-lair surroundings of the Yeso dam, which was pretty spectacular. We made our way slowly back to town via a restaurant in a valley (with a llama that posed for photos!), and that was my cue to head to the airport and fly back at a very odd hour. No complaints though, the airport was totally empty when I arrived!
All told, a very satisfying few days and I think I managed to do basically everything on a very strict timetable. Gaby is back tomorrow and I must resume my translating duties, with a hard deadline of July 1st. But for now, I'm going to put my aching feet up and spend some quality time with the cats.
No compilation this week, although I did an
all-Brazilian one for the 'Gram the other day, so there's that. And my phrase of the day means "do you want to leave a tip", uttered during most transactions in Chile, except in Portuguese, "propina" means "bribe", so I felt like I was in a political drama whenever anyone mentioned it.
That's about it - speak soon!
Fred Velvet Cake
