Friday--February 18--Val to Santiago

Friday--February 18--Valparasio--Santiago

In the main plaza Valparasio

I forgot to mention that on Tuesday Jenny had told me about the place they’d stayed in Santiago.  She said it was an apartment in a great location and very cheap.  I immediately went to Booking.com (which by the way is a great website to get hotels for a great price.) to see if I could get a reservation.  Instant success.  Two nights for $110.00.  The other thing I might mention to you potential travelers is that on Booking.com you can cancel within an appropriate period of time but it works and I highly recommend using them.

I went to breakfast and today for some reason Andre was making eggs.  This was the first time in the week I’d been here that we had this for breakfast.  They were really good and I appreciated having something more than bread and yogurt.  With the amount of walking I do every day I’m not gaining weight.  I’m not loosing weight but that’s probably because I’m eating anything I want.

Main Plaza In Valparaiso

After breakfast I finish my packing so I can visit the Museo Cielo Abierto (the outdoor museum or museum in the sky).  This is an area in Valparaiso where more established Chilean artists have painted murals on the street walls.  The artists are given recognition next to their mural.  As opposed to the other murals (seen on my previous days blogs) that have no recognition.

Actually I was a bit disappointed with this area.  I thought the other parts of town I had been had better and more interesting paintings.

When I approached the area I wasn’t sure what I was looking for.  I didn’t realize that it was the murals that “created” the area.  There are several artist studio’s on the street, they are called workshops or galleries of the local artists.  I was taking a photo of these very interesting stairs when a man approached and told me to walk up the stairs and go around the corner because he was the artist and he wanted me to see the rest of his work further up the stairs. 

This was all around the Bella Vista Hotel and his name is Mario Murua.  

I climbed the stairs, stopped to take a photo of the cute dog and saw more of Mario’s work.  When I came down the stairs there was a couple talking with Mario.  

They told me they had already bought a painting from Mario and had commissioned him to add a dog into another one of his paintings. However, they were upset because he had painted the dog too close to the edge.  Somehow I got into the conversation between this couple and Mario because they were from Denmark and didn’t speak Spanish (I had already had a conversation with Mario in Spanish).  These people wanted Mario to not only move the dog but add people into the painting as well.  He explained to me in Spanish that he would move the dog for no charge but he wanted more money to add the people.  I couldn’t believe I understood all this and was the negotiator.   I explained this to the couple and they agreed.  So everyone got what they wanted.  The photo is of Mario working on this couples painting.

I walked, rather hiked around the hills and didn’t really see too much more.  I wasn’t really on a time table to get to Santiago since I knew there were buses leaving every 15 minutes so I decided I would have lunch in Valparaiso before going to Santiago.

I wanted to take a ride on another “elevator” and the only one working in the area was the same one I’d taken before, “Concepcion”.  Oh well, I took it anyway it was only 300 pesos about 50 cents.  There are many “elevators” working in Valparaiso I just wasn’t in those parts of town.

I had a nice Mediterranean salad for lunch at Cafe Arts & Letters, which is a book store and a restaurant not far from the hotel.

I returned to the hotel to pay my bill.  The only shocker was the $40.00 charge for my laundry.  O.k. so maybe I should have taken it myself.  I got my things and asked them to call for a taxi to the bus station.  I was a little sad to be leaving because I had a great time here.  The hotel was very comfortable, the people who work at the hotel very kind and the travelers I met also great.

Well, I got to the bus station, bought my ticket (where you have the choices of several bus companies all about the same) and got right on a bus to Santiago.  I knew that if I went to the main bus terminal and not the one I’d left from I would be closer to downtown.  The apartment where I was going was close to downtown.  

It was easy to get a taxi when I got off the bus and it only cost 3,000 pesos to get to the apartment building.  Jenny had told me that the building did not have a name on it and that I needed to look for the address.  That was a good heads up.

Wow, I was very impressed with this suggestion.  

Bernadetta came to meet me and took me to the apartment.  She told me it was her apartment and that she had 20 apartments.  I’m thinking maybe she manages 20 apartments.  In any case, we went to the 19th floor of building B in the complex of three buildings to a small one bedroom apartment with a kitchen, big flat screen tv (with cable) in the bedroom, a small living room and a nice view of the city.  Bernadetta told me there was a swimming pool in the next building that I could use if I wanted to.  Wow.  Great deal and the location was fantastic.  The only downside was it was hot and there wasn’t any air conditioning (that I could find) or even a fan.  

I was in the Bellas Artes district and within walking distance to the Plaza del Armas, which was one of the areas I’d wanted to visit.

I settled in and it was almost 5:00 p.m. I decided I would walk around the neighborhood to see what was around.  Bernadetta told me there was a market close by but when I went downstairs I discovered it was right next door.  OMG it was huge.  I walked the aisles and bought a few yogurts, a few bananas and some cheese for the apartment.  

One of the big differences I discovered between an American market and here is that in several sections like produce or even in the bakery you need to get the item weighed and priced before going to the check out counter.  I watched someone do this in the produce so I did this when I got the bananas but when I got bread from the bakery section I didn’t realize I needed to do this as well.  When I got to the check out counter the girl told me I needed to have the bread priced but I left  it because I didn’t want to go back and go through all that process.  But I did learn.  So many cultural differences.  On the surface things may look the same but they aren’t necessarily so.

I took my groceries back to the apartment and then went for a walk in the neighborhood.  

It was hot and I found an ice cream store next to a lovely park.  Again another cultural difference.  You need to pay for what you want first and then wait for your turn to order.  I had a double scoop of “dulce de leche” and “cookies and cream”.  It was fantastic.  The area was quite nice filled with hip shops and restaurants.  There was also a cinema but they were showing “The Kids Are Alright” and of course I’d seen it and it wasn’t something I wanted to see again.

I was tired so I went back to the apartment and wrote for a while and watched t.v.   Time goes by quickly when I write because it takes several hours for each day which is why I’m always so many days behind.  Oh well.