Faculty

South American travelogue, winter 2008

Displaying one entry (click here to see all):

  • Week 4 (Feb. 16-22): Santiago, Valparaiso, Mendoza
    February 24, 2008 - Saturday, February 16

    Early (by local standards) lunch at Camino Réal restaurant half way up mountain park with panoramic view over Santiago. Part way through, many American and Canadian cruise-ship passengers came in (with many obese in ways we’re used to seeing at home, but not down here), having finished 20-day cruise from Rio to Antarctica and up to Valparaíso, about to fly home from Santiago. Very good lunch and impressive views of city’s recent modernization with large numbers of modern high-rise buildings, often in imaginative and attractive architectural styles. (Interesting contrast with Buenos Aires’ attractive older buildings and mediocre modern ones may reflect earlier wealth in Argentina with less lately, and recency of Chile’s wealth showing in its many good new moderns.) Not sure how much the obvious development and resulting wealth have helped what had been quite large numbers of poor here, but beggars are many fewer than Susan remembers from 25 years ago. Shopping, including back at huge Jumbo (joom-bo--they borrow the English pronunciation of the “j” here) supermarket in what turns out to be very large, modern mall. Andrés’s mother Margarita came at 7:00 to take us to Concerto de Verano (summer concert) by Santiago Philharmonic in lovely 150-year-old Municipal Theater downtown, meeting her childhood friend Carmen at theater. No air conditioning because of concern for power shortages due to low rainfall, but theater not that hot. Only mid-sized crowd; everyone’s out of town for summer vacation, which has also shown in light traffic in city. Enjoyable concert after we sat through atonal Messaien piece--Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. Rackety orchestra that didn’t control its louder sounds well enough in reverberating space, and mute (maybe he doesn’t speak Spanish) marionette of a guest conductor from England, Jan Latham-Koenig, but a pleasant performance. On drive home found Susan’s former apartment, not yet replaced by something even more upscale although neighborhood has many new buildings; lots of pleasant memories of her nine months here 25 years ago. Wine, cheese, and conversation in Spanish back at house with Margarita and Carmen back at Andrés and Carolina’s house.

    Sunday, February 17

    Made ourselves Sunday bacon-and-egg brunch of sort we have at home, then packed and left for Valparaíso. Quick drive on excellent toll superhighway through cordillera ranges, inter-mountain valleys including Casablanca, major producer of Chile’s white wines in cooler climate near coast. Final steep plunge into Valparaíso, port with little flat land next to water and steep hills close inland with houses perched precariously on hillsides all around. Older city with far fewer new buildings than Santiago; many of the old ones are quite charming, with distinctive styles including some gingerbread and bright, variegated colors. Amusingly difficult and time-consuming to find how to get to our hotel once we arrived in town--complicated to get up hill at right place with no direct route, many one-ways against how we wanted to go. Spectacular views of harbor and coast up to and beyond Viña del Mar as we wandered on sometimes incredibly steep streets. Finally got to hotel, very small and recently modernized one named after 19th-century Argentine artist Thomas Somerscales, with great harbor view from our room. One thing interestingly lacking from, I think, every hotel room we’ve seen so far that’s pretty universal in America is a clock; they also give you bath and hand towels but rarely washcloths. Andrés’s father Manuel, who’s now on chemical-engineering faculty at Universidad Santa Maria in neighboring Viña del Mar, came to hotel to go out for dinner; we walked down steep hill to Concepción restaurant with view over harbor for excellent, not very expensive prix-fixe dinner including good ostrich for Tom.

    Monday, February 18

    Cloudy, foggy, and cool much of morning and early afternoon, like coastal marine layer in southern California. After some morning work, we walked down from our hill (Cerro Alegre--Hill of Happiness) to Cerro Concepción again and explored leading tourist area with wonderfully colorful old houses, many restaurants, small hotels. With no cruise ship in town, Yankee tourists still outnumbered locals on streets in this part of town. Valparaíso has a dozen or more ascensores, cable cars that take you up and down hills for about fifty cents. Down to main part of city, wander through bustling streets to Hamburg restaurant founded about twenty years ago by German nostalgic for home cuisine; walls packed with memorabilia from many eras and places including Nazi Afrika Korps banner with swastika. Smoking allowed throughout restaurant (unlike in Santiago), but fortunately not too many actually smoking. Menu included translation from Spanish of pork knuckles as “pore nuggles.” Good sausage and sauerkraut lunch. On to another ascensor taking us up over loading area of port; fascinating to watch tall boat-facing and shorter land-mobile cranes loading and unloading containers onto and off ships and trucks.

    Down again to starting point of Valparaíso’s newish Metro in harbor--single rail line above ground along coast in Valparaíso and below ground inland once it gets to Viña del Mar, five miles up the bay. Stroll up to areas of old casino and new luxury hotel in modern beach-resort town; horse-drawn carriage ride around central area with many modern apartments, in contrast to Valparaíso’s colorful old houses. Metro back to Valparaíso--even though we’d asked and thought we’d paid for round-trip tickets, machines said we were just short (one and three pesos respectively--under a penny each) so we had to pay 100 pesos (about 21 US cents) each and leave almost 100 pesos on each card. Quite some rip-off, albeit a small one. Colectivo cab ride to hotel with driver who had to ask directions about five times, even though we were showing him location on detailed map. Back down for dinner at local institution Turri near last night’s restaurant; great view, OK food, surprisingly bad wine--serving Pinot Noir (not that good to begin with--we quit drinking it) chilled like a white wine, which server said some of their clients demand. Cool enough for sweater and shawl, one of first times on this trip we’ve felt such a need.

    Tuesday, February 19

    Left Valparaíso about noon to drive north along coast through Viña (past flower clock like the one in Geneva) and on as far as Concon farther north. Much development, including many new luxury buildings in Viña and in some parts to north--here, rather than Valparaíso, is where most of the money for new building in this area has gone. If you get to central Chile, Valparaíso is a unique must-see, only about an hour and a half’s easy drive from Santiago, with classic old buildings, wild colors, bustling port, and some excellent restaurants (best in town was closed the evenings we were there). Viña is an interesting, attractive, very built-up beach resort; it or one of the towns up the coast a bit to the north would be fine for a beach vacation. Interesting mix of beaches and rocky coast with spectacular crashing waves, heavily built-up and less developed areas. Went inland to east through fairly narrow but intensely cultivated Aconcagua valley, turned south to pick up superhighway back to Santiago. Stopped for lunch at Morandé vineyards’ ultramodern restaurant next to superhighway in Casablanca valley; very good quail for Susan, tasty javelí (wild boar) ribs for Tom. Server confirmed that they don’t serve their Pinot Noir (we weren’t having it) chilled. Easy drive on to Santiago and back to Andrés and Carolina’s house--they’re still on vacation--in late afternoon. Dinner at Astrid y Gastón, one of the best restaurants in town; Peruvian inspiration, and they have restaurants in Lima, Quito, Bogotá, Caracas, and Madrid as well. Rich and filling multi-fish soup for Susan; scallops in shells (they include the foot, which we never see in the US, here; it tastes fine) for Tom.

    Wednesday, February 20

    Picked up Brazilian visas downtown; at least after all the hassle and expense, they give you one good for five years (and that can be moved when Susan gets a new passport later this year). Out to Pueblito los Dominicos artisanal village on grounds of Dominican church--extensive, and a good deal of pretty decent stuff. Drive to village took us through more parts of city with many large, new buildings; those areas plus older downtown give much of what we’ve seen of Santiago the feel of a generic wealthy, modern city (with lots of good modern architecture) in contrast to the decidedly older-European feel of Buenos Aires. Both have very pleasant parks. Relaxed lunch in central part of artisanal area after shopping. Back to house for work. Late dinner at Emilio, which we’d both really liked when we were there on Valentine’s Day (Dia de los Amantes--Lovers’ Day). Much more pleasant experience than at Astrid y Gastón--staff lively, friendly, and helpful, as opposed to people who seemed most generous with disapproval of your selections if you weren’t ordering far more than you could want to eat. Interesting that some of most imaginative local cuisine appears to be Peruvian-inspired. Tuna tartare on avocados and guacamole even better than last week, maybe because it was individually prepared rather than part of set menu--fresher, range of delightful exploding flavors. Different and excellent beef main courses, Tom’s a filet over beans with tasty sauce and Susan’s an exquisite pot-roast-like Japanese-quality beef with risotto. No hesitation here about letting us take leftovers home, as opposed to nearby place where we ate exactly a week ago.

    Thursday, February 21

    Mostly work on casebooks at the house. Susan reached Ricardo Badilla, who’d been a colleague of Manuel Young’s on the University of Chile chemical engineering faculty when she was here in 1982-83. He came to the house, and we went out for dinner at the best restaurant we’ve yet been to on this trip--Puerto Fuy. Ricardo still teaches part time but is now CEO of a good-sized company that applies biochemical techniques to leaching copper from low-grade ore. He’s doing very well and travels widely, often to Japan (which takes him a full day to reach from here) because his company is involved in joint ventures with a Japanese mining outfit. Lively conversation; we shared excellent ceviche appetizer and then Susan and Ricardo both had main courses of conger eel (something of a national dish here) prepared three ways while Tom had abalone ravioli.

    Friday, February 22

    Packed and left about 1:00, got out of Santiago after stopping for final visit with Andrés’s mother Margarita at her comfortable, modern office on the north bank of the Mapucho river north of downtown. She runs the library for a large medical clinic; the library has almost no hard-copy materials and is mainly for electronic access. Superhighway part way to Argentine border, then increasingly steep climb to border with over two dozen hairpin turns up to leading Chilean ski resort of Portillo, which isn’t a town but just a good-sized lodge and a few other buildings including train station. Susan had gotten snowed in here in 1983 and had to be helicoptered out because of avalanche danger down switchback road, going back for car some weeks later. Cloudy with some rain and a bit of snow at the top, with temperature in high 30s F. Couldn’t see Christ of the Andes statute because of clouds. Very stark mountains--brown and gray with many rockslides and very little vegetation, especially on Chilean side. Incredibly slow border-crossing process at joint Chilean-Argentinian station on Argentine side of tunnel, with only a few dozen cars but two hours’ wait with most of problem seeming to be Chileans--dumb things like handing you a new form when you get to the head of their line and waiting while you fill it out instead of having you complete it before. On last bit of superhighway coming into Mendoza, lots of old, slow cars with very faint tail lights. Total trip time about 8½ hours despite fairly light traffic and distance under 300 miles. With time change, got to Park Hyatt Mendoza in central square about 11:30 and had fine steaks on hotel front porch in comfortable weather. Classic Federalist-type front facade (http://mendoza.park.hyatt.com/hyatt/hotels/index.jsp), ultramodern hotel on inside with most attractive room. Wandered through large casino in back of hotel after dinner; large crowds in early wee hours with minders watching every set of dealers and croupiers.