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| La Familia Courbis |
After realizing 1h before departure that the 5t of June will be the longest day of the trip, as after 12h flight we arrived on the 5th of June in Santiago 3h earlier that we were at that time. We managed to contact Juan, our Chilian friend who we met in the south of Thailand to let him know that we will be arriving sooner. And here we were in South America with the best welcoming ever! Juan, who we barely knew was waiting for us at the airport with his sister coming back from the US. First time we did not have to worry about getting some cash, finding out how to get to the city (cheapest way)... We ended up staying a week in Santiago (longer than expected) as it felt so good to be in a home, feeling part of 'La Familia Courbis' - sweet home. Week-end lunches drinking Pisco Sour (the traditional drink) and some good wine too of course, discovering the city in company of Juan & Vane, tasting the local dishes such as 'pastel de choclo' and 'plateada con pure picante' (the list is long!), imitating the locals by drinking a 'cafe con piedras' (meaning 'coffee with legs) in one of the shop where the ladies were accepted (but still no toilets for Damas though), enjoyingthe nightlife drniking Piscola (Pisco Coca)... We even went to see the opening of a play at the GAM (Gabriela Mistral Cultural Centre) even though our Spanish level was more than basic at that time.
Our amazing hosts even drove us to the famous city of Valparaiso, 2h away, city ful of life and well-known for its graffitis all over the colorful houses. We could have spent quite a few days there wandering around, taking hundreds of artistic pictures... The city of Pablo Neruda, who was living on one of the hill where he could get a great view all over the city and the ocean. The house called 'La Sebastiana' can be visited and is intact, interesting... No wonders how he was getting such a good inspiration to write his poems. A night out again in 'La Piedra Feliz' and siscovery of the coast - Vina del Mar and Con Con - where we had wonderful seafood! Locos are a must... We ended our journey in the family by cooking the 2 last evenings, first night for Caro´s birthday where we made homemade pizzas and pancakes, and the second and last night, Thierry cooked what he knows best - Thai food. A big thank you to all... We will come back...
There are various theories about the origin of the word Chile. Chile may derive its name from the native Mapuche word chilli, which may mean "where the land ends,"the deepest point of the Earth," or "sea gulls;"or from the Quechua chiri, "cold", or the Aymara tchili, meaning "snow". That is, in these theories, the name Chile come to mean "Endland", "Coldland" or "Snowland". Another origin attributed to chilli is the onomatopoeic cheele-cheele—the Mapuche imitation of the warble of a bird locally known as trile, before common in the central valleys.
Cafe con piernas (litterally, Spanish for " coffee with legs") is a coffee shop style popular in Chile where normal bartenders or waiters are replaced with females dressed in scanty clothing. Coffee shops with waitresses serving in miniskirts and heels to businessmen had long been popular, but bikinis and similar attire accelerated the trend by the mid-1990s.
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| Santiago from San Cristobal... Lucky that day as it is usually foggy... |
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| Pastel de Choclo - Thierry´s first Chilean dish... Delicious! |
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| La Piojera - next to the Mercado Central... Popular place to drink! Such a thing we have not done, especially in Chile! |
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| Valparaiso... Oh such an amazing vibe in this city! |
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| Graffiti representing the Selknams... |
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| Graffiti among thousands around the city... |
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| Even the bins... |
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| In Con Con |
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La Sebastiana... Pablo Neruda´s house which can now be visited...
Pablo Neruda (July 12, 1904 – September 23, 1973) was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda wrote in a variety of styles such as erotically charged love poems as in his collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair, surrealist poems, historical epics, and overtly political manifestos. In 1971 Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez once called him "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language." Neruda always wrote in green ink as it was his personal color of hope.
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| Humm, Jaibas! But they did not like the 2h in the car so not so good! We had some choritos though instead! |
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| Our dinner in Algarrobo in Juan Pablo´s grand-parents house... drinking some wine of course! |
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| I love cactus! |
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| Thank you to our amigos Juan Pablo (Klotz) and Vane - we have been welcomed like kings for over a week! |
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