Review: Chile

oscarBravo · 02-01-2008 11:14pm #1

Hi all - I'm in Chile for a few weeks, so I figure I may as well report on my experiences. I've been here since the 27th, having flown from Knock to Dublin to Paris CDG to Santiago starting on the morning of the 26th.

This is my second time in Chile. The first time was a few days in Santiago, Vina del Mar and Valparaiso a few years ago. This time we're staying with my girlfriend's brother and his wife and kid in Curicó 200km south of Santiago, so I'm getting a different perspective on the country.

The other day we joined another family for a trip into the Andes, which ultimately involved two 4x4s bumping along a mountain trail to reach a lake 2500m above sea level, overlooked by a 4000m extinct volcano. On the way we saw four condors at the same time, a rare treat. Once we arrived we had a barbecue of chorizo and steaks, as well as cheese, ham and avocado sandwiches. After eating we went for a trek and a short climb to better appreciate the views of the lake and mountains.

I took some pictures on the way back down and stitched them together to make the attached panorama - it goes some way towards capturing the splendour of the mountains.

For our new year dinner we barbecued steaks, then watched the Curicó firework show from the back garden, and sat up drinking a damn fine local Carmenere until 3am.

We've experienced a few minor earth tremors over the last couple of days, and there has been a volcanic eruption to the south. Apparently Chile is overdue a major quake, so it's a teeny bit worrying, especially given that we're driving to Valdivia in the next few days, which I'm told is the site of the biggest earthquake ever recorded.

Today we went wine touring and bought some wine for around 300 pesos a bottle - that's like 50c or so. I'll report later whether it's any good!

I'll update this thread over the coming weeks if people are interested.

BuffyBot · 03-01-2008 1:25am

Please do update it

oscarBravo · 03-01-2008 11:33pm

Okie dokie

The wine was very drinkable, especially well-chilled - certainly I've paid a lot more in the past for a lot worse.

Today we went to the other end of the scale, doing a tour of the Casa Silva winery near San Fernando. The tour ended with a wine tasting, including probably the best white wine I've ever tasted, a Sauvignon Gris, which is a natural mutation of Sauvignon Blanc and much nicer - I'm not a fan of white wine. We also tasted a Gran Reserva Carmenere, which is an absolutely gorgeous red with an incredible finish. Finally, we finished up with a delicious lunch served in the courtyard of the hotel, which used to be the owner's house - see attached photo.

Tomorrow we're off to Temuco and onward to Valdivia. It will probably be a few days before I can update again.

edit: Attaching didn't work; picture is here.

milli · 08-01-2008 6:23pm

Wow that panoramic pic you attached is just amazing, and I can only imagine how much more spectacular it must have been to be there. Where else are you planning to travel to while there?

oscarBravo · 09-01-2008 6:19pm

Right, brief update without pics for the moment. Temuco wasn't a particularly interesting place, quite a scruffy town even by Chilean standards, which are fairly low. It is surrounded by spectacular countryside, and it has a market that sells lots of Mapuche (indigenous Chilean) handcrafts, but really nothing worth staying around for. We spent a night there to break up the journey to Valdivia.

Valdivia was an improvement. Although the town itself wasn't much to look at, it boasts eight rivers which join together just before flowing into the Pacific. It also has a daily fish market that draws a crowd of tourists, seagulls, seals and sea lions. We hired pedalos and spent some time paddling around the river, then went to the Kuntsmann brewery for a nice dinner and some excellent unfiltered Torobayo beer.

The self-catering Carampangue apartment was adequate, although it was a little off-putting to be told definitely not to park on the street, but to use the secure garage. The second day we went for a six-hour river cruise, stopping at some old Spanish fortifications, including one which performed a brief re-enactment of a battle between the liberator of Chile, Bernardo O'Higgins (I kid you not) and the Spanish. That evening we ate at the excellent Agridulce restaurant, where I had a beautiful wild boar, mmm.

Next day we set off for Pucón, via Villarica. Pucón is a wonderful place, the first really pretty town I've seen in Chile. So far we've gone "canopying" (also called zip-lining, lots of fun), dipped in hot springs, and today we went white-water rafting. It was my first time doing it, and we had some grade-4 rapids - I'm completely hooked!

It's raining now, so we're debating whether to spend another night before heading back to Curicó. Word is the weather will clear tomorrow, which would be nice - I haven't seen the 2800m volcano that's just a few km away as it's been covered in clouds!

I'll post pics when we get back to Curicó, including the rafting - awesome!

oscarBravo · 10-01-2008 1:00am

Some links to add to the previous post: information about Pucón, a popular adventure sport destination. Also, the tour company that we used to organise the canopying and rafting was Lafquen. I can't recommend them highly enough - in a country not noted for its safety standards, they slotted us in for the rafting when a pre-booked group of Germans was too hungover to raft safely. Plus, our rafting guide and safety kayak were pleasant, professional and fun.

I can't wait to upload some rafting pictures, they're awesome! But you'll have to wait a couple of days for them, they're on CD-ROM and my ultraportable laptop doesn't have a CD drive.

The current plan is to head to Concepción for some beach time, then back to Curicó.

oscarBravo · 13-01-2008 4:56am

We went to Concepción, but hoping for beach was a bit optimistic. There are beaches further along the coast, but we didn't bother.

We had talked about spending another day in Pucón, but when we woke up to hailstones, we changed our minds! We decided to drive to Concepción using the old road (route 99, I think) instead of taking the highway - a good choice, the scenery was just unbelievable.

We drove through hills and valleys blanketed with forests of pine and eucalyptus. The paper industry is one of Chile's biggest, and eucalyptus trees grow quickly. The fresh smell you get driving through an area where they are felling eucalyptus trees is something you have to experience to believe!

In many respects Chile reminds me of Ireland thirty years ago. We stopped for lunch along the road in a small town - probably a population comparable to (say) Kilbeggan. We asked a local where to eat, and she directed us to a restaurant. When we arrived, we were offered either a meat and potato soup, or a hot dog - that was it. Mind you, the soup was delicious, and cost next to nothing.

We followed the river Bio Bio to Concepción and checked into the hotel for the night. We had some rather good sushi in the Sushihana restaurant on Av. Pedro de Valdivia. Next morning we spent a while checking out the university, which is very impressive - a huge campus right in the centre of the city. We had a look around Concepción and Talcahuano, home to a steamship captured from Peru during a famous naval battle after which many streets in Chile are named (21 de Mayo), then headed back to Curicó.

Today we went to a restaurant in a hotel in Santa Cruz, with an all-you-can-eat buffet including barbecue - I ate half a cow, and I'm still full. On the way back we saw a rodeo about to start, and decided to check it out - it's Chile's national sport.

Chilean rodeo sucks. I'll never go to one again. If you're squeamish, skip the rest of the post.

Basically it involves a lot of guys on horses, working in teams of two. Each team takes it in turn to herd a calf from one side of the arena to the other. At each end of the arena there's a padded area, and you score points by shoving the calf against the padded area with the horse's chest. Sounds reasonable? It's not.

The first step is to run the calf for a while in a separate arena, chasing it from end to end to either tire it out or work it into a frenzy, or both. Then it and the horses are released into the main arena, where one horse runs behind, with the rider prodding the calf along with wooden stirrups. The other horse follows along, keeping the calf close to the wall, and when they reach the padded area, that horse lunges forward and pushes the calf against the padding.

Maximum points - certainly maximum applause - seems to be achieved by knocking the calf completely off its feet. This often leaves the calf dazed and tired, and it simply lies down. This won't do, however, as the idea is to repeat the exercise three times, so there's someone at hand to persuade the calf back onto its feet - none too gently. Eventually, the exhausted calf is herded out of the arena.

It looked rough enough, but then I saw a calf with blood dripping from its nose as it was being herded around. Not good. Finally, one calf broke a foot, and was herded out of the arena - we could clearly see where it was limping, roaring in pain, with its front hoof bent out at an awkward angle. At that point we left - I didn't want to see any more.

There seems to be an urban (rural?) myth among Chileans that rodeo is good for cattle, because they grow bigger after a turn in the arena. It sounds like crap to me.

Anyway, we're getting psyched up for the journey home. I'll post more pictures Tuesday or Wednesday; it's just easier from a full-size computer.

oscarBravo · 14-01-2008 3:57am

Last update before I get home.

Went for lunch today at a famous roadside restaurant called "Juan y Medio", or "John and a half". It started life as a truckstop named after a man with an enormous appetite, and became famous for its huge servings. It burned down in 2006 but was rebuilt into a rather nice (but not flashy) place that can seat 450 diners - and not a truck in sight. I ordered Lomo a lo pobre, a traditional meal of a steak with two fried eggs, fried onions and french fries - I got half a cow and a huge pile of fries, and sadly ate most of it. That was nearly twelve hours ago, and I'm still full.

It's almost midnight, and I'm sitting outside on a balmy evening in shorts and t-shirt getting an occasional splash from the lawn sprinkler. I'm checked in for the Air France flights home - tomorrow morning I'll pack, and see how much room I have for ridiculously cheap and very good Chilean wine. The current plan is to exceed the duty free allowance, declare it through the red channel in Dublin, pay the duty and still get an excellent deal.

One picture before I go. This was taken in the restaurant I mentioned in the previous post:

"Out of order, do not use"

BuffyBot · 14-01-2008 10:39am

LOL I like the picture - and thanks for a great trip report!

oscarBravo · 16-01-2008 5:54pm

Finally home.

The last part of the trip was a bit of a saga. The long-haul flight from SCL to CDG was fine, managed to sleep through much of it, as well as watching about four movies - noise-cancelling headphones are an absolute blessing.

The fun started in Paris. We made it to the gate in good time for our connecting flight to Dublin, and were duly loaded onto a shuttle to go to the plane. 20-odd minutes later, we were loaded back off the shuttle, and told that our flight was delayed due to weather conditions en route.

While we were waiting for updates, the next flight for Dublin was moved from our gate to another, and took off on time. We were eventually loaded onto the plane a few hours late, taxied out to the runway, and held short for another 20 minutes or so while the pilot explained that the cross-wind exceeded the plane's rating (it was an Avro RJ).

We eventually took off for a bumpy flight to Dublin, followed by one of the smoothest landings I've ever experienced. My cabin bag (a trolley case) was placed in the hold for the flight, not unusual for an Avro, so I collected it from the carousel, and waited...

...and waited...

...until eventually there was an announcement that anyone who hadn't received their hold baggage from our flight should contact Sky Handling. It looked like about half the flight hadn't received their bags, so there was a big queue. Having an onward flight (to Knock), I was allowed to skip the queue, and filled in the delayed luggage form - only to be informed that as I had started my journey outside the EU there was a different form to be filled in for Customs.

It turns out that, because of the weather problems, the plane had taken on extra fuel in case it had to divert. To compensate for the extra fuel load, they had to off-load baggage. Super.

Anyway: we made our way out and upstairs to check in for our Aer Arran flight to Knock. The flight was due to leave at 1815 and we checked in around 1730, but when we cleared security we saw on the board that the flight was delayed to 1900. Fine: time to get something to eat. We went upstairs to the brasserie and waited to be seated, as requested by a rather prominent sign. After ten minutes of being ignored by two waitresses, we left and went to the self-service food court for fish & chips. As we were sitting down to eat, Annemette checked the board again - the "delayed" notice was gone! We wolfed down our food, chugged a beer, checked again - "boarding". We ran all the way to Pier A and checked the board again: "delayed", this time until 1830. To add insult to injury, as we arrived at the gate the plane was just being towed in from the ramp!

Thankfully everything went smoothly from there, got home, had a bottle of wine and collapsed into bed.

I'm told the suitcases will arrive today, which is not too bad.

Conclusions about Chile: it's an incredibly beautiful country. It has come on a long way from the Pinochet days to a point where it proudly claims to be the most stable country in South America. The people are warm and friendly, and the wine is among the best in the world. The food isn't inspiring for the most parts, although there are notable exceptions. The only dangerous animals are "corner spiders", and they're not a major threat. The weather is warm, but not overwhelmingly so as humidity is generally low. Pucón is particularly memorable, especially if you're into adventure sports. Speaking of which:

BuffyBot · 16-01-2008 6:42pm

Bit of a nightmare trip home alright :O

oscarBravo · 16-01-2008 8:35pm

Luggage just arrived by taxi. One of the cases (they're both rigid plastic) has been damaged, looks like it was dropped on something hard and sharp. Friggin' baggage handlers. Oh, and the driver drove onto the lawn and braked hard, with predictable results.

At least the wine and cachaça arrived intact, as did all the souvenirs.

Avns1s · 16-01-2008 8:42pm

Welcome home. Go easy on that wine unless you're sharing!!:rolleyes:

BuffyBot · 16-01-2008 9:04pm

oscarBravo wrote: »

Luggage just arrived by taxi. One of the cases (they're both rigid plastic) has been damaged, looks like it was dropped on something hard and sharp. Friggin' baggage handlers. Oh, and the driver drove onto the lawn and braked hard, with predictable results.

At least the wine and cachaça arrived intact, as did all the souvenirs.

:O

Not a good end at all!

oscarBravo · 16-01-2008 9:13pm

Avns1s wrote: »

Welcome home. Go easy on that wine unless you're sharing!!:rolleyes:

Cheers! *clink*

The plan to load up with wine fell through, due to a 20kg-per-person luggage limit. Between three weeks' worth of clothes, souvenirs and Christmas pressies, we ended up with a total of four bottles of excellent wine and two bottles of cachaça - the latter was only about €4 per bottle, and it's near impossible to get here.

BuffyBot wrote:

Not a good end at all!

Meh, it could be worse. If nothing else, it means Annemette can write her annual complaint letter to Air France - if she didn't, they'd be worried about her!

Besides, apparently we can claim for it.

Ideo · 19-01-2008 9:23pm

I enjoyed your posts - sounds like you had a great trip. I done white water rafting in Nepal last summer myself. It's simply the best isn't it! Enjoy the wine

oscarBravo · 19-01-2008 10:02pm

Cheers Ideo - spending a couple of weeks detoxing. I put on so much weight between Christmas and Chile it's unreal...

GrahamThomas · 02-02-2008 2:43pm

Hi Oscar,
Cheers for your informative posts! I'm thinking about traveling to South America in the not too distant future and Chile is definitely a country I'd love to visit while over there.

kenmc · 05-02-2008 6:13pm

GrahamThomas wrote: »

I'm thinking about traveling to South America in the not too distant future and Chile is definitely a country I'd love to visit while over there.

Without trying to dismiss Oscars holiday, posts and girlfriends home country, I've just come back from 8 weeks in South America, - Chile, Peru, Bolivia and Argentina. My personal experience was that Chile is overpriced compared to Argentina, the food is nothing special, the wine is good, but so is the wine in Argentina. Peru and Bolivia are cheaper, incredible in terms of scenery especially the Salar de Uyuni, and the people there don't look so european as they do in Argentina and Chile. But the food is not quite so good up there either.
In my opinion, Chile, (at least the parts that I saw - Santiago north to Peru), doesn't really have anything that is not available either in Argentina or Bolivia, but is more expensive to travel through.

Of course this is based on a statistical survey of 1 trip, so make of it what you will. I didn't have the luxury of local knowledge which Oscar did.

oscarBravo · 05-02-2008 6:44pm

Point of order - my girlfriend's Danish; her brother lives in Chile, is all.

Agreed on the food; it's possibly the least interesting food in South America. Argentinian beef is awesome, and Brazilian food is all round more interesting.

I will argue on the wine. There are some good Argentinian wines, but a good Chilean wine (and there are some simply amazing Chilean wines) is almost worth the flight by itself.

p to the e · 15-02-2008 7:39pm

nice read whilst deciding where to go in S. America. Nice photos aswell!

Review: Chile

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