Leg 6 - Santiago based

Route summary: Santiago with trips (not on bike) to Buenos Aires and Rapa Nui (aka Isla de Pascua or Easter Island).

Days: 31
Zero mileage days: 26
Distance (point to point): 0km
Distance (driven): 116km
Inefficiency factor (Driven/P2P): Infinite
Avg. speed: 4km/day

Click here for detail.


The maps really only here for consistency and amusement purposes to demonstrate two things. The first is that it took me 75 days to get to Santiago and 4 hours to get back to Buenos Aires (although the journey wasn't as interesting). The second is to demonstrate just how far away Easter Island is from Chile (and pretty much everywhere else). I could barely pick out the green pixel on the screen when I was plotting the map.


The first night in Santiago I headed out with my two Swiss friends to the Bellavista area of town. It was here that 11 years ago I had my only other night out in Santiago, which was a bit of a blur [1]. The area felt familiar but none of the bars did, although if I spent the same period of time away from London I'm sure I'd say the same thing there. A shared mixed asado, a few beers and then to another bar for live music where some friends of the Swiss siblings joined us. Not a very late night, but a fun re-introduction to the city.

I'd planned on doing some bike maintenance while I was in Santiago, but the biggest problem I was finding to start with was just somewhere to park. All the car parks were short term in nature (and therefore extortionate) and although there were supposed to be on-street bike parking areas, none of these seemed particularly secure. I was in the post office queuing up for some Poste Restante [2] mail and got chatting to two people in the queue in front of me. Turned out they were British, travelling through Latin America on a motorbike (such a cliche) and they recommended a couple of places to stay that had parking available. This conversation was to end up with me on Easter Island a fortnight later, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'd originally planned to do the bike maintenance myself (basically an oil change), but having driven further than planned and wanting someone to do it professionally, I found out there was a Yamaha dealership in Santiago. I was also thinking that they would also provide a secure place to leave Lena as at this point I was paying more for her accommodation than I was for my own. I rode out to the garage and they could do the service but wouldn't be able to take her until the end of the week, so although the servicing problem was solved the parking problem wasn't. So, on the way back to my hostel I looked up the address of one of the hostels the post office bikers had told me about to see if they had space. They did for me, but not for the bike. I drove 100m down the road and saw a hostel sign and what looked like an enclosed patio. I rang the bell and a guy who I later found out was called Felipe and from Colombia came to the door. We had a brief conversation but the gist was, he had a bed for me, we could park Lena on the patio (securely off the road), it was cheaper than the place I was staying and about the same distance away from my language school. I moved in the next day. I didn't know it at the time but the Makus Hostel was to be my home on and off for the next month.

The other thing I wanted to do in Santiago was take a language course. When I was originally thinking about my route I had through that Santiago or Valparaiso would be a good place to build on my Spanish because it would be about a month into the trip. It was now closer to two and a half months since arriving in Buenos Aires so it was definitely time. I ended up doing seven days of classes, 4 hours in the mornings for a week and a half which left me the afternoons for admin like taking the bike to be serviced, move hostel, post things and also have a look around town. Instead of focusing on grammar this teacher spent the lessons talking at and with me (a big thing in his approach was you need to listen before you can speak) and telling me jokes (bromas) including Youtube videos, to make me more confident in my ability to fill the gaps when I came across words I didn't know. Then we spent time on drilling responses, we'd watch a short section of a film in Spanish and then he'd ask me questions about it, frequently the same one in a very slightly different form, to get me responding using the lizard part of my brain rather than conscious response.[3]

I really like Santiago as a city, it has everything you'd expect from a capital city, museums and theatres (which unlike London's, I actually visited), some amazing restaurants, great nightlife and a lot of history (although some of it is quite depressing). The thing that still amazes me about Santiago and Chile is the degree of urbanisation. Over a third of Chile's population is in greater Santiago. To put it in another way, to have the same degree of centralisation in the UK, London would have a population of over 20 million people. I know people outside of London complain that a lot of things (media, policy) are excessively London centric. I'm not sure how Chile manages it but I never heard the same complaint where there is more reason for centralisation, but the country is three times the size (surface area) of the UK [4].

The city is surrounded by hills and usually shrouded by a layer of smog that sits on the city but after rain the sky clears and you get some great views. In winter this rain is snow at higher levels and the city is suddenly surrounded by snow-capped mountains. As well as the mountains around the city, there are a few hills close-by, Cerro Santa Lucia is in the centre of town and has the remains of a Spanish fort and some beautiful gardens while Cerro San Cristobal just to the north has a zoo, a large statue of the Virgin Mary and commanding views of the city that can be accessed by a funicular. There are a few small vineyards closer to the town centre but most are out of town. The scale of the viniculture in the area only hit home when I saw the huge area of vineyards from the air on a flight out of Santiago.

Michelle was in

Palacio de la Moneda

Culture
I ended up leaving Santiago exactly a month after I first arrived (although not all that time was spent in Santiago) and I managed to see most of the major sites. There are some fine buildings, including the Palacio de la Moneda which is the presidential building. Apparently you can go in and have a look around but both times I went it was closed (once for the rain). You can't see any evidence of the bomb damage sustained in the 1973 coup (although on of the statues in the square on the north side still has a bullet hole from the fighting). During my time in the city I also learn more about the other 11th September. To my shame this was something I knew very little about, especially as it was coming to an end when I was 12 and starting to take an interest in the broader world. It doesn't seem right to write about it in the midst of scribblings about museums, restaurants and wines so I'll write another post and link to it here.

Underneath the Palace is a cultural centre and there are a load of other museums and galleries (some of which I even went to). In the main hall when I first went there, they had a light installation which I think is a spanish translation of Shackleton's advertisement to join his Endurance expedition. About a week later I went back the installation had gone and they were setting up for Santiago fashion week. A shame in some respects as I think the juxtaposition could have been quite entertaining.

The city also has a beautiful theatre and I decided to go on one of my biannual theatre trips and went to see Los Puritanos [5]. It was an enjoyable afternoon / evening in a beautiful building, stretched my Spanish and for a fraction of the cost of similar seats at the Royal Opera House.

In Santiago at the time were my two Italian friends (one of whom was the very accomplished professional chef). While they were in town they were planning on going to Borago, recognised as being one of the top 10 restaurants in Latin America [6]. I was very keen to go, not just because the food sounded amazing, but I was also really interested to see my friends take on it. My response to every dish was likely to be along the lines of "Oh, my, god, this is amazing!" whereas I thought he might have something slightly more interesting to say. The restaurant itself was quite spare from a decor perspective, with the kitchen behind a glass wall at one end. We all decided to go for the taster menu with paired drinks (I won't say wine as one was beer - something I was very pleased about, especially as it was served in a bull's horn). The food was amazing, the presentation was stunning (one dish included soft poached quails eggs in nests within bonsai trees) and one of the nice things was that the chefs themselves came out and explained each dish. There was real pride in what they were doing, and they got the immediate feedback from us (which was invariable "wow") [7]. I've lost track of the number of dishes we had but it was around midnight when we left after arriving a around 8pm. By rights we should have rolled home to a long sleep on our backs, but Borago's last trick was a farewell mint, except this had been made using liquid nitrogen which had two effects. First it made you breathing smoke like a dragon (although only while you ate it) and secondly, afterwards everyone perked up and was "okay, where next?". Which is how we ended up in a bar 5 hours later drinking Piscola. A very decadent evening (and early morning).


Pablo Neruda's houses [8]
Pablo Neruda [9] has three houses in the Santiago area and I got the treble visiting all of them. The first I went to was Isla Negra, his house on the coast that he is buried at. For once I was able to travel to the house as a passenger, I was kindly invited to join my two Italian friends who were being taken there by some Chilean friends they'd met further south. This was particularly kind of them as we went the day after we had all gone to Borago! We went to the restaurant next door and all had Caldillo de Congrio (Congor Eel soup) and apparently Pablo Neruda's favourite dish [10] before going to the house itself. It's a rambling building with some great views of the pacific coast (enough to make the least emotional articulate person poetic) and a massive and eclectic collection including everything from ships' figureheads to rare sea shells through glass bottles and pretty much anything else you could think of. If clutter is not your thing I would advise giving it a miss. 

The second one I visited was in Santiago itself is called La Chascona it was named for his mistress and third wife[11]. She wasn't called La Chascona but that was his nickname for her (it referred to her curly red hair which he called "dishevelled" [12]). It's a relatively small building and feels more homely with a small bedroom behind a hidden door where he'd sneak off to have his afternoon nap. The whole place felt a little bit like this, hidden away at the base of Cerro San Cristobal, but then I suppose it was where he ensconced his mistress...




The final house was in Valparaiso and stood atop one of the hills with the most spectacular views of the town and the bay. The house was split with some friends and Neruda had the higher floors. Tellingly the public rooms were on his lowest floors, his bedroom above that, and at the top, with the best views, was his study. You could understand how inspiration came more easily in a place like that. That's all I'm going to say about "Valpo" as technically it was part of my next leg, on the way to Mendoza and further north.



Vineyards
I'd driven past some of Santiago's vineyards on the way in but it took a while to get back out to visit them. In the end I went to two, Cousino Macul and Concha y Toro.


Cousino Macul is to this day, family-owned. The place that I visited had a (relatively) small vineyard and some fermentation equipment but much was for display purposes and the only wine that's now fermented there is their top-of-the-range, hand-picked from hundred-year-old vines "Lota" line (they have larger locations further out of Santiago). The other thing that's on the site is the family's mansion, which you can't see (we were told by our guide that "If you're the King of Spain you'll get an invite") but apparently has more land on that plot for the house and gardens than there is for the vines and buildings. A quick tour of some of the buildings, some of which contained some of the earlier machinery, including my favourite, a 6 cylinder engine block that had been adapted to fill bottles of wine. A look at some of the newer fermentation tanks on site (for Lota), and the now unused massive fermentation barrels. Then down to the cellars, again, largely for tour and entertainment purposes (they were having a trade event that evening, much to the chagrin of the guide who wanted to watch the Chile - Ireland football match apparently an important game even though it was a friendly as it was the last pre-World Cup game). I say largely, because there was still a (very) large bottle collection in there behind heavy iron bars. This apparently was the family's collection. Afterwards we tasted three different wines, one of the most interesting being the "Gris" which was a white wine made from Cabernet Sauvignon (i.e. red) grapes, which gave it a very slightly copper colour.

Then on to the daddy of all Chilean wine manufacturers, Concha y Toro. A massive estate, although now a public corporation so the "family mansion" is now company offices. The obligatory walk through some vines where there is an attempt to show how they are distinct from others, although with few grapes left on them and the leaves dead or dying it was tough even for the guides. Out of all of the vineyards I visited I probably learnt the least about the wine production process on this tour, it seemed more about guiding you back to the (huge) gift shop. However, I got to sample some nice wines and the tour included a visit to the Casillero del Diablo where we learnt that the story that a devil haunted the cellars of the winery was essentially a rumour started to prevent people from stealing the wine.

Back to BA
After a week and a half I had to travel to have a meeting with work. This meant two things. The first was a rapid transition from "Traveller Iain" to "Business Iain", requiring the purchase of some smarter clothes (I didn't think the well-worn jeans, T-shirt and trainers would cut it) and the loss of the beard [13].

The evolution of man

Second time in BA this trip
and I still didn't tango

The second thing is that I needed to get back to Buenos Aires. Fortunately the flight back only took 4 hours, rather than the nearly 3 months that it had taken me to get to Santiago. It was strange going back, so much had changed and I arrived in Buenos Aires a lot more refreshed and relaxed than I had done back in February. I was staying in a different part of town (more convenient for the meeting) and so got to see a slightly different view of Buenos Aires so it wasn't as though I was back exactly where I started, but it still felt like a very long time ago that I was last here, right at the start of the trip worried and excited. I was right to be both but in hindsight I think both highs and lows would not come from where I was expecting.

Serendipity
Back to Santiago on the Saturday night and contemplating heading to the bar with the live music to find a party in full swing at the hostel. I'm greeted like an old friend by Arturo (the hostel owner), Felipe and some of the guests I'd already met, and a glass of rum is thrust in my hand. I'd left Buenos Aires having been told I'd get an update from work following the meeting at the end of the week, but in the meantime I was in a state of limbo. I didn't want to leave Santiago and continue my trip if I needed to come back, but didn't just want to hang around Santiago for a week twiddling my thumbs. I had a conversation with one of the new hostel guests and found out that they were going to Easter Island for a week, which reminded me that my two Italian friends were planning on heading to Easter Island around the same time. I went to bed thinking that might be an idea - a great way to get away for week. The following evening I was booking my flights and within 36 hours I was on a flight to the middle of the Pacific Ocean and Rapa Nui. So, given I wouldn't have gone if I'd been staying somewhere else, and I wouldn't have stayed there if it hadn't been for a chance meeting in a post office, Poste Restante was to blame for me going to Easter Island. I think the trip there is going to require another entry (click here) otherwise the web-page may never load because of the photos. In brief, it was amazing and I've discovered a new sport I want to have a go at.

Back to the bike
Meanwhile the Yamaha garage had been busy fixing up Lena. As well as the standard bits covered in the 20,000km service (I'd actually done 17,000km but then again it hadn't been serviced since the 1,000km service after bedding the engine in) I needed the chain and sprockets replaced (blamed on incorrect chain tension and lack of lubrication) and rear brake pad. I also had the left wing mirror replaced, my black-and-nasty repair after the drop on day 5 of the trip was falling apart. I got them to show me the correct chain tension and how to measure it. You would have thought that this would be straightforward but Yamaha themselves have two different ways of measuring it depending on whether you look at the owners manual or the one they give to the garages. In case you're interested, I was told the following:

• Put the bike on the centre stand so that the back wheel is off the ground.
• There should be 2-3 fingers clearance between the lower part of the chain and the swing-arm at the midway point between the front and rear sprockets.
• This should be at the tightest part of the chain.
• With more weight on the bike (panniers or pillion) it should be closer to 3 fingers but no more than that.

This is what I've been using but only time will tell whether it's helped. I've also been lubricating the chain separately, rather than relying on the Scottoiler.

However, after this and a bill which wouldn't be out of place at a Yamaha dealership in the UK, Lena seemed to be happier, and I was more comfortable that a professional had looked her over and hadn't found anything more that needed doing.

Now all there was to do was wait for some mail to arrive from the UK [14], send some things back to the UK and on to Lima and then head off. The only drawback was that I'd been in Santiago for so long winter had overtaken me. There was to be some cold riding ahead.

Notes:
1. I'm sure this is as a result of the intervening decade, and that the following morning I had a crystal clear recollection of exactly where we'd been. I do still seem to have the birthday of the Mexican girl I met briefly in a bar there and spoke to in my (at that stage) very limited Portuguese.
2. Talk to the majority of travellers today and they won't have the foggiest idea what Poste Restante is. I think that's a real shame. Although email, social media, instant messaging are great there's nothing like the suspense of going to a post office to see if there's anything waiting for you, and then when you have it, taking yourself off somewhere quiet and reading through letters from friends and family. Wanting to gorge on it, but not wanting to get through it too quickly, because then it will be gone. And having the letters afterwards to re-read when you're on a bus somewhere. It's an experience I think it's a shame that people don't have as much now and that no doubt soon will be discontinued as it's too expensive to maintain.
3.  I've found the whole experience of learning a new language fascinating, not only from the anticipated side of learning how it changes the way the same underlying thoughts, desires and emotions are articulated but also the learning process itself. I remember in Buenos Aires the hardest parts for me were where I was being asked to construct a sentence in Spanish but also create the answer at the same time, which frequently had to be made up. I'm not sure which neurons that was causing to fire in my head at the time but I left those sessions particularly knackered.
4. And this doesn't allow for the shape - London is closer to Kiev than Santiago is to Punta Arenas in the south (2,200km) and Arica is 1,700km away in the opposite direction.
5. It's an opera by Bellini, originally called I Puritani, in English it would be called The Puritans. The irony wasn't entirely lost on me that I was sat in Chile, watching an opera in Italian, with surtitles in Spanish about events in Plymouth - 45 minutes drive away from where my mum lives. The opera was good, although (almost as with any big city theatre production) the singers were a bit old for the characters. It was difficult to imagine the male leads going off to fight in one of the civil war battles that were meant to be going on at the time. At the end I felt sorry for the Riccardo character. It seems to be a required element in opera and ballet that there's one character, usually male who suffers from unrequited love. Although in this case at least Riccardo lives to find another love, unlike in Giselle where the Wilis get him...
6. I've now been to 2 of the top 10 in Latin America, the other being D.O.M. in Sao Paulo back in 2009. At my current rate (and assuming the list doesn't change), I should have gone to all of the top 10 by 2054!
7. My chef friend did have a lot of insightful things to say on the whole experience. They've apparently a lot in common with a Scandinavian school of cooking which looks to take it's flavour inspiration as well as its ingredients from the local area - all of the dishes here (as well as the food that sat on them) came from and was inspired by Chile. He had a lot more to say but I kept being distracted by the food in my mouth (and in front of me).
8. As a member of the Communist Party, three houses and a penchant for collecting things might seem a little inconsistent but who am I to comment.
9. One of Chile's two Nobel prize winners, both for Literature and both poets. The other was Gabriela Mistral who won it in 1945 and became Latin America's first Nobel laureate . She also encouraged Pablo Neruda while he was at school, which might count as an "assist".
10. He wrote an ode to it - and to be honest if it was anything like the dish I had, I can understand why - although he also wrote odes to Onions, Trucks and . 
11. I'm not quite sure how he managed it as I understand that divorce wasn't legalised in Chile until 2004 and I have a feeling he was survived by all his (ex-)wives.
12. The benefit of being a Nobel prize winning poet is that you can call your girl-friend dishevelled and she'll take it as a compliment, or maybe that's what he actually won the prize for.
13. If I had a beard-trimmer I might have just tidied it up, but I didn't so it went. It didn't go quietly though (click here for more).
14. Note, if you want to get something to Santiago quickly, use Fedex. If you want something to take and inordinately long time, use ParcelForce.