Friday Smirk

 The boys pointing out that what's good for the goose isn't necessarily good for the gander..

New Continents - Part 4

 

On our last day in Santiago we explored the city, one stop I particularly enjoyed was the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, housed in an 1805 building it featured exhibits of indigenous art and craft from pre-Columbian times, i.e. before America was "discovered" by Christopher Columbus. I knew very little about the native groups in South America prior to European colonisation, about the only culture I'd ever read about or seen on TV was the Aztecs but they only occupied the North of the continent with just a small foothold in what is now Chile. There were many and varies cultures that evolved on the continent and this museum attempted to cover most of them, in some detail, many stories and artefacts from ancient times were presented and the whole experience left me feeling like I knew practically zero about the history of the place, it was an eye-opener!

Some example pre-Columbian artefacts, they somehow reminded me of Japanese Samurai figures.

Modern Chilean art was mainly on display on the sides of the buildings in the form of street art and much like Valparaiso there were some splendid exampled in Santiago, the picture below shows an example of this from the Bellavista district.

On our last evening in the city we had dinner at a restaurant a friend had recommended to me, called "Bocanariz" it's more or less a wine bar that serves food but more fine dining than steak and chips. The wine list was epic and exclusively Chilean wines (which was fine by me!) and the food was unusual and delicious, I snapped a picture of the starters for our table of four, those little Cornish Pasties in the middle are called Empanadas and you can find them all over South America, these were of particularly good quality.

I had a rather unusual dish, essentially a Conger Eel and Clam stew, the eel tasted much like a firm cod fillet but the overall taste was very much like a more spicy version of fish soup, v. tasty! (see below)

Food gods satisfied we headed back to our hotel for an early start the next day, we were off to wine country and back over the mountains to Argentina!

Stinky

 

I tried a new beer from Elusive at the weekend, called "Shibuya" it was a pale ale saturated in Mosaic and Krush hops. Weighing in at a sensible 4.5% this beer was absolutely stinking (in a good way) Mosaic hops tend to be quite fragrant and this was a perfect example of the craft, dank blueberries and citrus for days, so flavoursome and so easy to drink, another winner for Andy Parker and crew!

New Continents - Part 3

 

Day two in Santiago, I snapped this picture just before we headed out for the day on a tour of Valparaiso, which is a port city of historical note on the Pacific Ocean, around 120km from Santiago. The photo shows the "Gran Torre Santiago", the tallest building in South America (as opposed to Latin America, there's a taller one in Mexico) it's 300m tall and was built in 2014, you can see it from pretty much everywhere in the city. The construction is particularly ambitious since, being on the Pacific "ring of fire", means that  Chile is very prone to earthquakes, the last one in Santiago was a 3.9 magnitude quake in October 2025 and they get around 50+ events every year here! You can also see some of the bigger mountains surrounding the city in this shot.

In the photo above is Valparaiso port and bay, the city was founded in 1536 by Spanish explorers and later in 1578 was attacked by Francis Drake in his ship the Golden Hind, however the city grew to prominence in the 19th century as sailing ships stopped here after rounding South America via the Straights of Magellan and Cape Horn. The golden era of the city came around the 1850's when supplies were needed by ships heading up to the California gold rush, it became a major sea port at this time and many people from all over Europe came to make their fortunes. This can be seen in the architecture of the place, it's a mix of new and old like most cities but some of the old buildings look like they could have been lifted directly from Paris, London, Bavaria or even Florence.

In the photo above is a monument to the Heroes of Iquique, an important naval battle between the forces of Chile and Peru in 1879, below the monument is a crypt that contains the remains of senior figures who died in the battles. Note the very "French" looking Government building behind the monument, this is typical of the city, such a mixture of building styles, so far from their origins. During it's golden era the city was known as "Little San Francisco", I can understand why as it sprawls out over several steep hills that lead down to the coast and the port. Like San Francisco the city suffers from earth quakes, being near the Peru-Chile Trench it is vulnerable, a big quake struck in 1906, estimated at 8.2 it killed over 3000 people and the city had to be substantially re-built. 

The golden era of the city came to a crashing end in 1914 when the Panama canal opened, ships no longer needed to risk the long and dangerous rounding of "the Horn" and trade in the port declined sharply and wealthy trading families left for Santiago and richer pickings. By the early 1990s much of the unique heritage had been lost and many people had given up on the city however, in the mid-90s a grassroots preservation movement blossomed and communities of artists took up residence in the run-down labyrinth of cobbled streets.

The city is well known now as a haven for street artists, musicians and writers the walls of most of the buildings are covered in art, much of it very high quality and political in nature (featuring Elon Musk and Donald Trump). These artists use these walls as advertisements for their work, many have gone on to be commissioned to do larger or more prestigious works in cities around the world. I've stitched together a few examples to illustrate this, see below.

We stopped for lunch in Valparaiso and went to a local restaurant suggested by our guide, it was amazing, a panoramic view of the city and bay with beautifully presented food, excellent wine and so, so cheap! We had three courses and drinks for around £20 a head, I had a really tasty fresh ceviche (we were by the seaside after all!) with avocado (see below)

On the way back from the coast we had to drive through the Casablanca Valley, this is a well known wine growing region and so we couldn't resist stopping off for a little afternoon wine tasting (our guide was driving!) We visited a producer called "Re" who specialised in fermenting  their wines in large concrete foudres rather than stainless steel tanks, there were some interesting blends on offer, both red and white. Having worked our way through a flight of wines and having walked around 10k in Valparaiso everyone was keen for a little knap in the van, it took an hour or so to get back to Santiago, just in time for a shower and change of clothes then out for a few beers at Honest Mike's (renamed by us to "Magic Mike's") then dinner!

Our last day in Santiago loomed, we wanted to explore the city, do a few select museums and then dine at a recommend restaurant that specialised in Chilean wines, it was another jam-packed day, more in the next part.

New Continents - Part 2

 

Our first leg of the tour was to Chile and the capital city of that country, Santiago. The flight across Argentina and the Andes mountains from Buenos Aires took just over two hours and the whole thing was done with the seat belt sign illuminated! Apparently this is in the top handful of most "turbulent" flights in the world, although we were lucky and didn't really experience a single serious bump! Anyway, it was a crystal clear day and the views of the mountains were spectacular, I was fortunate enough to have a window seat, it was slightly disconcerting as some of those peaks seemed to be level to or even above the altitude of the aircraft! (see below)

In this shot you can see the famous "Aconcagua" peak (in the background) it's the highest mountain on the American continent and entire Western and Southern Hemispheres, at 7000 metres it's a beast of a hill! Around three people a year die climbing this mountain and I heard from someone who has climbed it that when she did it there was a dead body visible on the trail up to the summit, serious stuff! 

Luckily our passage of the Andes was uneventful and we landed in Santiago in the early afternoon, greeted by blue skies and bright sunshine. After picking up our luggage we made our way to our hotel in the Lastarria district, not the posh part of town, but one with a good reputation for bars and restaurants being close to the main University. Check in done we unpacked our bags and headed straight out to explore our new neighbourhood!

Santiago is in a bowl, surrounded by mountains, on the edge of our district is a park with an old Spanish fort on a hill. We climbed the hill and this is the view from the top (above), the taller of the peaks were behind me but even in Summer there's still plenty of snow on top of them.

Of course I couldn't come this far across the world without seeking out some local brews and we lucked out finding a rather unlikely named bar called "El Honesto Mike" just around the corner from our accommodation. We were slightly skeptical at first but this little bar turned out to be a diamond in the rough, the beers were varied and spectacularly good, as tasty as you could find in any European city! I opted for a pint of "Micro Dosis" a session pale made by the "Hasta Pronto Brewing Co" in Santiago with American hops, all the tropical fruits and depth of flavour you could want and delightfully chilled in the searing Southern Hemisphere heat. 

Our first day in the city had been a success, flights on time, no lost bags a clean and tidy hotel and great local craft beer! After a tasty (and incredibly cheap) meal in a local restaurant and a couple of beers we turned in for an early night, we had a busy schedule the next day and an early start!