3 Santiago, Chile

Santiago is best known as a capital city and a gateway for visitors to Chile and the South American west coast. At first glance, or more correctly at our first glance on an overcast day with no Andes in the distance, the city appeared as an urban jungle of tall, ugly skyscrapers. Luckily during our short stay we were able to find a few oases both high and low.Immediately upon arrival we lusted after Cerro Santa Lucia, a city park highlighted by lush landscaping and crowned by a soaring system of staircases, fountains and towers providing great views of the city from all angles. Even better panoramas can be seen from Cerro San Cristobal--we even got a glimpse of the Andes in the distance when the clouds parted. Like Christ the Redeemer in Rio, a statue of Mary looks over the city from atop this hill which can be reached by funicular, cable car, taxi, or foot. Always up for a nice stroll through the woods we opted to walk; the way up was a bit muddy but unfortunately the way down was a lot muddy. It basically was mud-slaloming with our new balance sneakers as our skis.

In the center of Santiago's downtown is the beautiful, open square of Plaza de Armas. On one edge is the National Cathedral, on another the National History Museum. We lucked out that our visit to the museum was on a Sunday, when entrance is free, and we were more than happy to pay the 50 cents to buy the English language visitors' guide rather than rely on Patrick's spanish to decipher the contents of the Museum. Though small, the exhibits were very helpful in orienting us to Chilean history. Like Argentina, the country's bicentennial celebration is coming up, and they seem a little more excited than their neighbor to the east. Chilean flags seem to be the most popular item sold on the street just ahead of TV remote controls and shoelaces.

As we make our way west to the eastern hemisphere we are sad to say goodbye to South America. There are things we certainly will miss--pastry dough filled with meat and football on the television at all times--and things that we will be able to live without, like showerheads in the middle of the bathroom and an inch of fat on every cut of meat. We will certainly have to adjust to a new form of intercity transport. In our three weeks in South America we took eight extended busrides, including three overnight buses, and found them a convenient and inexpensive way to traverse the continent. Katrina had images of sitting on old school buses for hours on end, but we were pleasantly surprised at how nice the buses were. Brazil's were particularly of very good quality. For the overnights, we had the choice of comfort and price level between semicama at the low end, cama, and supercama. The biggest difference is the size of the seats (think coach v. first class on a plane) and how far back the seats recline. We were lured into splurging for supercama on our 18-hour drive from Iguazu Falls to Buenos Aires with the promise of wifi and personal TVs in addition to the seat factor, but were very disappointed when the wifi didn't work and the personal TVs all showed the same movie with no sound--the apparent benefit being a closer view than the shared TVs of the semicama buses. After that, we kept with the cheapest option and slept a little less, but more soundly knowing we weren't being ripped off.

View more pictures of Santiago here.

1 Valparaiso, Chile

When we bought our bus ticket from Mendoza to Valparaiso, Chile, we weren't just buying transit from one place to another, but also a spectacular bus tour through one of the great mountain ranges of the world. You know something is legitimately cool when even the locals are snapping photos of it. We started out with a mild spring day in Argentina and as we climbed up into the snowcapped Andes the temperature plummeted and the wind started to howl. We could now see how a storm forced us to turn back the day before: the narrow, spiraling mountain roads would be impossible with any inclement weather. The Argentinian/Chilean border crossing is perched between peaks and we all loaded off the bus to go through customs. The other passengers thought it was pretty funny as Katrina hopped through the snow in her flip flops. Once in Chile we descended back down the Andes, through some beautiful valleys, and eventually arrived at our seaside destination.

Valparaiso is a city built into the hills along the Pacific coast. The colorful houses dotting the landscape reminded us of Cinque Terre, but a much more urban, grimier version. We loved walking the cobblestone streets that twist along the hillside, but even more, riding the ascensores! Valparaiso has used these funiculurs to transport people up and down since the late 1800s and the same cars are still in use today. Call it historical, thrilling, or nerve-racking to ride this rickety public transportation, they certainly make for great views and a whole lot of fun!

Rather than neighborhoods the city is made up of a downtown area surrounded by cerros (or hills). Our favorite was Cerro Bellavista with its "open air museum" of brightly painted homes and one of poet Pablo Neruda's three houses. It costs $6 entry to go inside, but the fantastic views from the patio are free. Another popular cerro can be reached by the Artilleria ascensor, one of the tallest and oldest in the city. The Paseo de Mayo at the top is lovely but it turned a little seedy when we continued west. A nasty-looking barking dog finally convinced us to head back to the beaten path and work our way down the hill just along the ascensor track.

Most accommodations in Valparaiso are smallish bed and breakfasts and hostels instead of big hotels. We found Casa Liesel on Cerro Concepcion surrounded by more expensive B&Bs, but just right for our budget at about $30 per night. We enjoyed a huge room, super comfy bed, and the best shower of our trip. The fact that all rooms share bathroom facilities was of very minimal bother since the most crowded it got during our stay was one other guest.

In Argentina the standard dish offered everywhere was parillada: the mixed grill of various meats and sausages we scarfed down our first night there. In Chile, it's chorrillana. We went to the very hip and chill Mi Casa restaurant for dinner shortly after our arrival in Valparaiso where the waiter clued us in. What we got was something a 7-year-old kid might dream of putting together: chopped up hot dogs, steak, and cheese atop a huge pile of french fries. We washed this down with some beer the South American way-- a liter or two shared amongst friends. The brands changed from Skol in Brazil to Quilmes in Buenos Aires to Andes in Mendoza and to Escudo and Cristal in Chile, but the preferred liter serving size always stayed the same.

We enjoyed a few liters of Escudo in good company the night of the Chile-Venezuela World Cup qualifying soccer match. In a dark, smoke room filled with plastic patio tables and chairs, we joined the reved-up fans in cheering on the national team. There was yelling, there was singing, and there was anger and disappointment when the game ended in a 2-2 tie.

View more pictures from Valparaiso here.