25 September 2010

Hello yet again,

Today I'm off to see what Valparaiso is about and see why everyone here raves about it. I plan to stay overnight, and head back to Santiago in time to catch the afternoon flight home to Copiapo. It's a bit of a whirlwind trip, however I'm taking the view that it will be just a scouting trip and see whether it is all it is cracked up to be, leaving me free to decide whether a further trip is worthwhile in the future, or just see something else.

For those that don't know (i.e. pretty much any non-Chileno?), Valparaiso is a UNESCO heritage-listed city. Exactly what that is supposed to mean, I have to admit not actually knowing, however for me, the descriptions of things like "photographers dream", "cobbled streets", "15 ascensors that rattle you up the hills", "patchwork of colours" and so on, all mean that surely there is something worth seeing there. As is also typical in many of the interesting parts of Chile, there is mention of the famous Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, who apparently wrote some interesting poetry about the city, and any city that has decent prose written about it must surely be worth a visit.

So, how to get there? From Santiago, my preferred bus company runs buses every half hour, and taking about an hour and a half to get there, all for the princely sum of about A$15 return. Bargain. I therefore front up at Tur Bus HQ at around 10AM, pays me money, boards me bus, and off we go. The route from Santiago runs through the Valle de Casablanca, which as you might realize, is the Casablanca Valley. It's a well known centre of wine production, so I'm looking forward to seeing what the vineyards look like.
The road to Valparaiso is, for much of the distance a toll road, which means it is pretty well made and we zip along, pausing to stop at the toll booths. The scenery here for the first part of the trip is not super-inspiring. Yeah, there's reasonably sized hills around, but I'm reminded again that this area is still reasonably arid, given the large numbers of cacti scatted amongst the other (no doubt) thorny vegetation. There's at least one tunnel of reasonable length through a hill, which breaks the journey up a bit…

When the word "valley" is used anywhere in the world, I immediately get an image in my mind of what the place will look like. I guess it comes from growing up in the "high country" in Victoria. For me, it's interlocking hills, spurs, ridgelines and gullies that have an overall kind of "V" shape, and likely feature a river running along the bottom of the "V". I know that it is completely unrealistic to expect it to be that way, but I can't help it. And every time I visit somewhere for the first time that features the name "Valley", I'm usually a bit disappointed that it doesn't live up to something that approximates my mental picture. Much the same thing happened here in the Casablanca Valley. Sure, it's very basically valley-shaped, in that there are higher hills and a lower bit in between, but for the most part, it is a very broad and open kind of valley. It's also not as green as I'd expected, although obviously enough once you hit grape vines, then it's fairly green! The vines themselves are much more advanced than I thought they'd be, many with trunks/stems of around 10cm or so in thickness, which for me, means that they must have a fair amount of age to them. I have to keep reminding myself that viticulture here is not just a modern phenomenon, that it has been well established here for much more than 100 years.

Closer to the coast, there is a strange mixture of palm and gum trees growing in various places. I still can't help but marvel that if I frame my view of the country in a certain way, then I could be in many parts of Australia. There are many varieties of eucalypts here…

The city of Valparaiso sort of snuck-up on me, so I'm not really sure whether I'd dozed off a little or not. Suddenly we were there, driving through the town and the bus was pulling into the station. There is a Plaza of sorts across the road from the station, and being Saturday, there is the usual market type things going on, with people selling hand-crafted stuff, food and so on. I wander around briefly, but I'm afraid it all starts to look the same after a while (I can buy similar stuff in Copiapo, for example). It's also not what I'm here for.
The city has a relatively flat waterfront area, then it is built up onto the surrounding hills. I guess to describe it, it looks a little like a series of terraces stepping up the hills, but that doesn't really do it justice. Each house / building is sort of stacked up one behind the other, each overlooking the lower one, all the way up the hills. There are many narrow stairways disappearing up between houses and it's all quite beautiful, despite being a bit more run-down than I'd imagined it would be. Perhaps I'm not in the best area?

I catch a collectivo that appears to be heading in the right kind of direction for the port area, and sure enough, when I get out, it is only a short walk to a dock area. There are the usual touts that one might expect, and given that I don't have any fixed plans for the day, I decide to take up the offer of a harbor cruise. I'm guided to a boat, climb in, sit down and wait to go. There's maybe half a dozen people in the boat, and judging by the stream of other boats coming and going, we'll be off shortly.

Hmmm, no such luck. After maybe 15 minutes of watching the action (the touts that sucked me in are rather amusing to watch go about their work), it dawns on me that this boat isn't going anywhere until it is full. I also understand why it is that nobody has taken my money from me for the trip. Some of the other punters are a bit restless with the delay and depart the ship, so suddenly, from being perhaps 2/3 full, we're back to half full again! Doh! Still, it's nice enough to sit in the warm sun and watch the mayhem all around, both on and off the water! We're also a captive audience for a series of hawkers, so before long, the lady with icy poles (I hope everyone can understand what they are, as I can't think of another word for them – flavoured ice blocks on a stick) is doing quite a roaring trade, watched jealously by the man selling peanuts who isn't doing so well…
Eventually the boat is full, or so I think. Five minutes more and we manage to pack another few in, and then FINALLY, after about 35 minutes of waiting, we're ready to go. Life jackets are handed out and we all have to wear them, much to the disappointment of some of the dolled-up ladies. All of the jackets require assistance and a little bit of knowledge to put on properly, so suffice to say, many of them aren't worn properly (including mine).

The little engine is finally coaxed to life and off we go. The reason nobody has taken my money yet, despite now being out in the harbor, becomes clear after another five minutes. We come to a halt maybe 50 metres around the end of the wharf, just out of view of our starting point. A whole bunch of rapid Spanish follows, largely from the "Captain" (who has one of those voices that sounds like he's been gargling razor blades for most of his life). He's a very entertaining chap, and the whole thing is quite comical. It is difficult for me to understand, but I think he is trying to "extort" additional money out of us for the trip. The original deal was something like CH$1,500-2,000 (I can't recall the exact number) for a half hour tour, but I think the offer is now for 1 hour at CH$2,500. There appears to be much mirth from my co-passengers at this, but in the end, when the crew pass through the crowd, everyone seems to be coughing up the extra dough, so without a lot of choice, I hand over the money. It's still a small amount, and the whole thing has been very funny to watch – a textbook kind of scam for tourists. I don't feel so bad about being (literally) taken for a ride, as there are plenty of Chileno's in the same boat (again, literally – joke intended).

Having extorted some extra cash from us, the tour commences with a ride across to some other fishing boats moored along another wharf. On the way, at least the young lad from the crew who is doing the talking for the tour is actually talking. With the breeze whistling through my ears and the noise of the motor, I find it hard to follow him, but no big deal – I look in the direction he's looking in and can see what he's on about well enough. When we arrive at the fishing boats, one of the other crew (I'll refer to him as the Second Mate) jumps off our boat and onto the other one and then disappears inside and the comedy part of the tour begins.
There is a whole bunch of shouting, but given that no-one else appears, it seems likely that Second Mate is just calling for the occupants, rather than fighting or arguing with someone. Eventually, he reappears, but only just in time, as our "Captain" has just commenced the process of motoring away. Another few seconds and Second Mate would be walking home… We cruise a little further and find another target for boarding and yelling by Second Mate. This time, success, as a couple of fat, dirty and half dressed crew appear from the other side of the boat. While I'm sure the Chileno's could understand what was going on, I had no flipping idea, so despite feeling like I was in the middle of a farce, at least it was a funny farce.

Again, our Second Mate jumps back aboard just as the Captain is motoring away. I'm sure this is a family operation… This time, we're off into the harbor and looking further back over town. Despite the comedy, it's still a lovely vantage point for the town. It's also a base for at least a part of the Chilean navy (the Armada), so there's a few warships here, but also a very large and beautiful white sailing ship (four masts), which I think I recollect having seen somewhere before. I think it's a training ship. No matter, it is beautiful.

As we're tootling around, it becomes apparent that the crew are starting to take a little more notice of what is going on with the motor at the back of the boat. Now, it's fair to say that the boat isn't the newest of vessels in the ocean. In fact, it's a crappy old wooden thing, with many "agricultural" type of repairs having been made on it (the Captain has to hold on to the throttle lever mount so that when he uses it, it doesn't fall off the "dashboard"). It gets a little more worrying for everyone when Second Mate asks everyone to move aside from the inspection hatch on the floor at the back of the boat and he lifts it up to reveal about 15cm of water under the floor of the boat (in a 20-25cm high space). Again, for me, it's not so much of a worry. I think it's called the "bilge" and boats have bilge pumps for pumping out this water, right? Well, perhaps most boats do, but the reason for the attention at the back has become clear. The bilge pump/s aren't working. We spend five minutes floating while they try and sort it out, but no luck. Hmmmm.

We set off again, but this time, everyone is asked to move as far forward in the boat as possible (or perhaps "herded" is a better word). There's the odd worried look, but also plenty of smiles as we realize how it is becoming more and more comical. But wait, there's more!

After another five minutes or so (now perhaps 35 minutes into the "cruise"), with plenty of tinkering while we're moving, there's another announcement. I have the same lack of understanding of the words as previously, but it's very clear as to what's going on. We're being told that, surprisingly, there's a problem, and we'll be returning to port a little earlier than planned. We putter into the dock after about 45 minutes of cruise, and again, no big surprise, we're not offered any kind of refund. I make my way up the stairs and away from the area in search of some lunch, as it's now after 2pm and I'm a bit puckish. If I wasn't so hungry, it would've been interesting to see whether they went off to repair the boat, or just lined up for another bunch of suckers… My money would be on lining up again. It looked well rehearsed!

One good thing out of it was that I'd managed to see a funicular (ascensor) running up the hill near the port, and what looked very much like a restaurant perched next to it, so I walked in that direction, hoping to get lucky. The funicular is very old and looks rather rickety, but nonetheless, we make a smooth trip to the top. Again, we don't pay to get on it, we pay when we get off. Seems a bit backwards, but obviously it works well enough!

The view from the top of the hill is excellent, and yes, it is definitely a restaurant next to it. I decide to take a moment to scout around a bit further and am glad that I do, as there is another restaurant maybe 50m down the street that looks a lot nicer, and has beautiful outdoor balcony that looks over the harbor and city. I'm sold. No surprises in that there is truckloads of fish starring on the menu, but their salads looks pretty good, so I'm up for one of them, and indeed, it turns out to be excellent! A really good variety of things.

After lunch, there's a walk down the hill (not quite cobbled streets, but amongst all of the old buildings, it's a beautiful walk). At the bottom, it seems to be a part of the local buses route, which I brave for the first time in Chile. It's a wild and bumpy ride, and yet again, there isn't any great interest in taking my cash by the driver. I sit down, study the signs and eventually conclude how much it is and have to pester him to give him the money. I idly wonder whether I could get away with not paying at all…

Back into the centre of town, I get off at the Plaza and go in search of further information. I'd like to take another bus (now that I feel like I've got the hang of them) and go to Vina del Mar, which is to the north. It turns out the two are basically connected, with no real break in the buildings, although Vina is much newer and there is definitely a stylistic difference.

I get off once the bus turns away from the coast and appears to be heading inland, so it's a bit of a walk back to the coast and the next bus, further north to Renaca, which has a long, gently curving beach and feels very much like a holiday town (lots of ice cream shops and restaurants just back from the beach). Despite it now being a bit cool, it is easy to imagine a beach full of people in summer.

Back to Vina and hooray, they have a Starbucks. It's got quite cold now, about 8 degrees according to a digital sign on the side of a building. There are heaps of nice-looking restaurants scattered around, so it's a difficult choice as to what to go for, but in the end, a fancy looking Italian restaurant wins the day and it's not so expensive after all, and the food is excellent. I'm very happy, and very tired, looking forward to a sleep in…

So, pretty much, that's my impressions of Valparaiso, Vina and Renaca. Only really a tiny little taste of what was on offer, but there was enough for me to want to go back at some point in time, so that's a good sign. I look forward to it, but won't be in any rush to take the cheap harbor cruise…

Chao,

A