We managed to miss most of the winter back at home. My heart longs for the snowy mornings, but not yet as we are still pressing further southward.
We chose between two evils: high tourist visa cost, or high cost of living. Chile is kind to offer Americans visas free of charge while Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina charge 160-280 bucks to even step through the door. We've avoided all entry tariffs up to this point and don't plan on changing that.
Chile is doing very well for itself and boasts a strong national currency that equals 1.5 dollars per 1000 pesos (ends up basically at one to one). This means that meals are once again American priced, and that we must stay on the cheep to avoid blowing our budget out of the water. Thank goodness that a bottle of wine is only 2.50 for a two liter, it's the only thing here that's cheap.
We left Iquique on the night bus twelve hours to Copiopo but bailed out when it passed through Caldera. A few min south of the sleepy fishing town lays a beach made of broken sea shells. The water is crystal blue and there's hardly a person there. Rock jetties create waveless bathing pools for the swimmers. Bahia Inglesa is one of those places that should stay a secret (so shhhhhhh). We stayed in Caldera because it is much cheaper than staying at the beach, and there's more to do. The "Hostal Chango Backpaker" offered very comfortable accommodations and an excellent breakfast.
Yet another night bus brought us to Santiago where we immediately continued to the city of Valparaiso. Come to find out, there's a direct bus that would've saved us two hours of travel from Caldera.
We stayed at another Air B&B on Cerro Alegre (Alegre hill). This city is absurd; a mixture between the zany hippie culture of Portland and the posh San Francisco crowd. The city's old area is mainly built of corrugated metal salvaged from shipping containers and painted with whatever color they had lying around. Mix in a thriving graffiti scene and the result is a color explosion every corner you turn.
The hills are littered with staircases and daunting house placements on the cliffside. In 1883 they came up with a interesting solution. They put funiculars called asensors that work in much the same fashion as an elevator on train tracks. The ascensors are hidden in between buildings and often are a fun game to locate in order to avoid the winding stairs.
The town died once the Panama Canal opened and only recently has started rebuilding itself as a tourist destination. In response to the building of a ultra modern building in the plaza Sotomayor, the town ran to UNISCO for protection as a world heritage site. A couple months later they gained it, and now it will remain largely the same despite the constantly changing graffiti murals.
