Chile | Days 8 & 9

We spent our last two days of the trip wandering Santiago - a huge city of 5.5 million people. We spent most of our time on the hop-on hop-off tour bus since it had a great outline of sights to see, provided transportation, and an education. 

Some of my favorite stops were...

Sky Costanera - the tallest structure in Latin America (300 meters, 62 floors) by Ceasar Pelli. Took about 7 seconds to get to the top with 360 degree views of the city. We could even see El Colorado ski resort.

This area is known as ‘Sanhattan’ for its similarities to Manhattan, NY.

Patio Bellevista. Even though the neighborhood looked a little sketchy on the outside, once you entered this gastronomic center plaza, it was very picturesque. All patio seating - my favorite :) That and we finally found some Mexican cuisine! 

Inside Patio Bellevista was beautiful. Outside (and throughout most of the city), the streets looked more like this:

Lots of bars with pointed tips covering every piece of glass, and razor wire, and graffiti. But even though they looked scary, the city is generally said to be safe (so long as you hide your valuables) and felt fairly safe as well. Sometimes I did hesitate when it came time to get off the bus tho! Thankfully there were always lots of people around where we walked.

San Cristóbal Hill - a green oasis in the middle of the city. It was also the highest point in Santiago, providing great views of the city. We rode a gondola to the top of the hill, walked around, and took a funicular car down.

You can see the Sky Costanera building rising above the city!

At the top of San Cristóbal Hill.

Funicular ride down.

Another favorite was Santa Lucía Hill. Both of these green areas on the middle of the city remind me of New York’s Central Park. 

Plaza at the base of the hill. Top of the hill in the background.

Mix of old and new...

Shawn - always curious about what’s around the next dark corner. Me - always a few steps behind...

At the top.

Beautiful gardens throughout the hill.

A few other stops / Santiago adventures:

Plaza de Armas and some civic architecture. Not my favorite area because it was so crowded.

Chillaxin at our hotel watching another beautiful sunset.




Lots of people! But we noticed no one seemed to be moving very fast and people looked to be a lot less plugged into their technology than back home. They say people operate a little like they’re on island time out here. And so much more seems to be done manually than with technology (watering the grass and plants with a hose by hand instead of irrigation, metal bars on windows and security officers instead of electronic security systems, painting markings on the road by hand). Also notice all the dark clothing in the photo. Even though I don’t think we had a chance of blending in (fair skin, blonde hair), I kept my neon in the hotel room.

In a few places, we saw people creating art:

There are a ton of Starbucks in Santiago. Unfortunately their English isn’t great and neither is my Spanish. In general, we have not found many people that speak English in our travels here. We have tried our best to use what we do know and leverage simple words, motions, and Google Translate ;)

I just like this combo of steel, glass, greenery, and a pop of color. Plus it’s a coffee shop :)

Dinner at the fancy mall next to our hotel. Felt like one of Orange County’s outdoor malls.

Lunch at Le Decilcios...

One last amazing sunset...

Overall, this has been an incredible trip that has for sure put me out of my comfort zone many times. But it has given me a great perspective on a totally different part of the world, and has given Shawn and I the chance to connect, explore, and enjoy the mountains together. And even improved my Spanish a bit :) 

Chile | Day 7

After a fairly slow drive up the mountain this morning, we arrived at Portillo. Shawn did great with the mountain terrain, around all the semi trucks, and making the decision to override the GPS even when it and the jersey barriers in the road were both telling him to turn. 

Clouds caught on the mountain ridge. So pretty.

The conditions at Portillo were not great. They need snow and what they do have was pretty icy. But the setting was amazing. We took a few runs for about an hour, then stopped for coffee with a view over the hot tubs and lake. (I was so confused when they gave me hot water as coffee with a bowl full of instant grounds.)

So many poma / disc lifts in Chile.

We rode some more, then stopped at Tio Bob’s for lunch - again with an amazing view.

Shawn’s last run was Lake Run. An iconic run that he had been looking forward to. I held my breath the whole time he was gone because no one else was taking it, it was super steep, he was on his board not his skis, and there were a ton of exposed rocks due to the low coverage. But of course, all that probably made it more exciting for him, so he did it anyway. He said it was super sketchy but super beautiful. 

Yikes! Steep!

View from the bottom.

Hike back from the run.

He also rode Portillo’s surface lift. Look up ‘roca jack lift’ on YouTube. The run and lift were too sketchy for me but he wanted the experience. And didn’t recommend it afterwards ;)

The roca jack is like holding onto a waterski rope with other people, riding up the mountain with both feet strapped into your bindings. He’s in the middle of the little group of three going up in the photo above.

After a solid day of riding, we spent a little time in the picture-perfect, uncrowded hot tub.

Since we felt we covered all of the terrain today and the conditions were not the best, we decided to ride here one day instead of two. Tomorrow we will head to Santiago for the last two days of our trip!

Chile | Day 6

We had a nice slow morning at our hotel in Valparaíso, starting with a breakfast from our hosts (with awesome coffee).

On our way back to our room, we spotted a bulletin board with things to see in the area. One area jumped out at me - sand dunes. I have always wanted to try sandboarding so was excited that this place was known to rent boards - for less than $2 / hour. We were also able to park our car right at the base of the dunes to keep an eye on our ski gear. (And there was an officer patrolling the lot).

It was a little trickier than I expected (at least when trying to set an edge) but we were both able to get some good rides in. And enjoy the incredible view. And get fine sand dust into every pocket, shoe crevice, ears, etc! Ha. 

Waxing the board...

After we had our fill of sand, we continued on to Los Andes. We had done a lot of city driving in the morning so I appreciated the much more chill toll highway the rest of the way. The city driving was intense (Valparaíso, Viña Del Mar, Concón) and I was just a passenger. Crazy intersections, street entertainers in the middle of the road (juggling, waking in stilts, selling goods), signs we can’t read. But it was great to see the beautiful coast, including a surf town near Concón. Felt a lot like Malibu / SoCal. Neat to know this is a place you could surf and ski in the same day.

We also passed through agricultural valleys.

We checked into the Inca in Los Andes, played some more cards, and had some welcome drinks and dinner :)

Looking forward to Portillo tomorrow!