From Vina del Mar, it was time to make our way further north on our journey through Chile. We were up early on Tuesday morning for the 15-minute walk to the bus station and our bus pulled in and then left with us on it right on time at 7:35am. The ride to Santiago was about 90 minutes and then we made a seamless transfer at the station to another bus that took us to the airport, only ten minutes away. At the airport, we made our way to Europcar to pick up our rental car for the coming week – this time a Toyota Raize.
We headed north toward a new home for the week, which is a town called Vicuna in the Elqui Valley. The city has a population of around 17,000. The drive was a little over six hours and we stopped a little outside of Santiago for lunch at a highway restaurant. It was quite entertaining. We were the only ones there and the host/server/chef was probably in her early 20s and loved the music she was playing – you could see her dancing around the kitchen and listen to her singing like nobody was listening – as it should be. The drive was through rolling hills and even some smaller mountains and then eventually right along the Pacific coast up through Coquimbo and La Serena and then inland to Vicuna. Lots of sea fog and huge waves along the coast and then a clear change to more desert terrain as we moved inland. To save about three hours of driving, we used the toll roads – total tolls of around $18, which was worth it for that time savings.
Home this week is at Hostal Casa 95. The idea was to get a chance to interact more with other travelers, which we have missed as of late. The downside is that we’re out of season and so we were the only travelers staying at the hostel. Although we didn’t get that extra interaction, we enjoyed the stay – really nice host (Juan), we had everything we needed, and the location was nice for being able to get where we wanted to go. After settling in, we went to Copao restaurant on Juan’s recommendation. We both enjoyed tacos (Sandy had chicken and I had beef). Sandy had mango juice and I had copao juice. Copao is a fruit that comes from the cactus plant – the juice tasted good – kind of like lemonade. We stopped by the grocery store (Unimarc) on the way home to get bananas and cereal for breakfasts this week and then it was home to watch game one of the Lightning/Panthers series – a loss for the Lightning and this year’s series has started just like last year’s.
Wednesday was our wedding anniversary, and we started with breakfast at the hostel and then we went out for a four-mile walk that included interval running. The route we took was out of town over the bridge and then up and around the southern part of town and back into a stadium of sorts that had a dirt soccer field where we did our intervals.
Afterward, we put our plan together for the week in Vicuna and then went for lunch at Isidora, a café that we enjoyed a few times while in Vicuna. Sandy had fish, rice, and Chilean salad with matcha tea. I finally tried an a lo pobre dish – a preparation that can be found on almost every menu in Chile. I did it with pork and the a lo pobre refers to the addition of fries, caramelized onions, and fried eggs. I’m not sure why I waited so long to try it because it was quite good.
We walked the town a bit – this is probably my favorite central plaza we’ve seen in Chile. It always seems to have locals enjoying it – all generations – and it always has music playing. There are several tree trunks with interesting carvings. Just a nice town square kind of feel. Later, we made our way to the Museo Grabriela Mistral. I had not heard of Gabriela Mistral prior to reading about Chile as we prepared to visit the country.
She was a poet who was born here in Vicuna and grew up a short distance away in Montegrande. She was the first Latin American to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, which she achieved in 1945. She was also a diplomat for several years. She lived a hard life with her fiancé and her nephew committing suicide. The museum has an excellent collection of her writings and personal affects from throughout her life. There was a lot of extra security during our visit and we learned it was because the equivalent of our Vice President for Chile (the interior minister) was visiting the museum. That was fun to see.
Our anniversary dinner was at a restaurant not far from the museum called Aloe Restoran. That was a good pick. Great menu and great ambiance. Again, we’ll end up here more than once this week. Sandy enjoyed sweet potato soup and shrimp & chicken fettucine, while I enjoyed a salad and seared tuna. We had local wine and a dark chocolate brownie for dessert. Wonderful anniversary meal.
Thursday saw us head out of Vicuna about an hour to the village of Montegrande. This is where Gabriela Mistral grew up and where she is buried. The museum here is inside the schoolhouse where she attended and where she lived – her sister was the teacher and they lived in a room at the schoolhouse with their mother. The drive through the Eqlui Valley was beautiful and we very much enjoyed exploring the tiny village.
For lunch, we had read about Bosque Restaurant in Lonely Planet and it was another 25 minutes south from Montegrande. Well worth it. Outstanding food and a setting that is so cool – it’s in a forest along a stream. Sandy had raspberry juice and salmon while I had copao juice and ceviche. There was an ad on the table for massage services, so Sandy WhatsApp’d the number and she was able to schedule an hour massage after we finished lunch. Pilar came to get her at 3 and I stayed at the restaurant and read while having a café con leche. The massage helped the headaches she has been having due to tight muscles in her neck and shoulders.
We then headed back to Vicuna in time to watch game two of the Lightning/Panthers series and another Lightning loss. Down 2-0 now and both of those losses have come at home. Sandy walked to get us a pizza for dinner while I watched the game.
Friday started with a workout at the gym by the Unimarc. The equipment here was well-worn but functional. For me, the music was way too loud and the space was fairly small. I couldn’t really even hear my own music, so after I did the weights and 20 minutes of cardio, I went for a mile run outside just to get away from the noise. This wasn’t our favorite gym, but it served its purpose. Afterward, we stopped at Isidora for eggs, bread, salads, and juices. By the way, it’s a good time to mention if we haven’t before, the bread that is served with meals here in Chile is almost always a highlight. They really know how to bake bread here! And typically serve it with a delicious salsa or sauce. We did some work at home during the afternoon and then we headed to the next town east for dinner – Diaguitas. There is a brewery there called Guayacan. We shared a flight of their beers and then Sandy had a pint of the golden ale and I had a pint of the pale ale. Their hamburgers (smashburgers) were really good. We were killing time to let the sky get darker thinking they didn’t close until 9. Finally, around 8, it was clear that they were ready to go home and so we left. The restaurant is great, and it was unfortunate that we were the only customers there on a Friday night. Before heading back to Vicuna, we drove away from the lights to see the night sky. It was beautiful but there was still a little too much traffic to really be able to enjoy it.
Saturday started with “Starbucks” time. Back to Isidora for chai tea latte and hot chocolate. Then we enjoyed breakfast – we had waffles with Nutella, bananas, and strawberries and also scrambled eggs with bacon and cheese. The Lightning had an afternoon game today and we watched it back at the hostel. They finally got a win, so now down 2-1 in the series. Maybe there is a chance. These two teams do not like each other, that is quite evident. After the game, we hung out in the square and watched life go by and then we went to Burger Jungle for dinner. Sandy had a burger with fries and onion rings and I had buffalo wings. They were pretty good – not as wet as I’d prefer, but good enough. After dinner, we walked around the square. We found a cueca dancing show taking place in the town’s theater so we stepped in to watch several dances before heading home.
Sunday, we decided to do a workout because we have a travel day coming up this wek where we won’t have a chance to workout when we usually do. Vicuna (like many of the cities in Chile) has a nice central walkway down the middle of the main street and it has several sets of exercise equipment to use. We made use of the equipment and combined that for some strength and cardio work.
We did some office work after our workout and then headed for a late lunch at Aloe Restoran. Sandy had blueberry juice and her shrimp & chicken fettucine dish while I had mint ginger lemonade and a chicken Caesar salad. We enjoyed ice cream cones in the town square afterward. Tonight’s activity was a drive to the Mamalluca Observatory. We met at the office by the town square to pay for our tickets and then drove up to the observatory, arriving there at 7pm. This area is known as one of the best places in the world to view the night sky. It borders the Atacama Desert, which is the driest desert in the world. The dry air, the lack of light pollution, and more than 300 clear nights per year contribute to its fantastic viewing potential. We learned that 70% of the most powerful telescopes are in Chile.
The experience started with a show inside the planetarium. The commentary was in Spanish, so it was hard to pick up on everything but it was obviously a description of the night sky, what we would be seeing, and information about the phenomena across the universe. I could tell the show was informative and it makes me want to get to a planetarium that can offer the same information in English. After the presentation, we were put in three groups – two larger groups of Spanish speakers and then we were paired up with a couple from the Philippines as a group of four English speakers. Our guide was Emilio. We liked Emilio a lot. He showed us a lot of different objects in the Southern Hemisphere’s night sky. Highlights included: Jupiter and Mars, the Southern Cross, Jewel Box Cluster of stars, Alpha Centauri, the Carina Nebula, the Large and Small Magellenic Clouds, and the Sombrero Galaxy. The Sombrero Galaxy sticks with me the most, I think. To look through this exceptionally strong telescope that can automatically find and track objects and see an entire galaxy that is similar to ours was rather incredible. I had the thought of alien beings being there and looking back at the Milky Way seeing something very similar to what we were seeing. That would be something. It is crazy to think we looked at stars that are 30 million light years away and seeing the stars light from so long ago. What an amazing night of touring the night sky we had!
Our last full day in Vicuna had us start with four mile runs around town. We had a late lunch, early dinner back at Aloe Restoran. Sandy went back to her favorite – the fettucine with shrimp and chicken, sweet potato soup, and blueberry juice. I had a delicious steak a lo pobre. We got ourselves packed for tomorrow’s moving day and then it was time for game four of the Lightning/Panthers series. This was another Lightning loss and it was painful. We were up 2-1 with less than four minutes to go and then Florida scored twice in 11 seconds and won the game. Terrible.
On Tuesday, we were up at 7, had our breakfast, and we got ourselves on the road a little before 9. We ate some walnuts and crackers on the drive. We had planned to stop for lunch, but the driving was pretty easy and we ended up stopping only when we got back to Santiago to fill up the gas tank. We arrived at our hotel, the Holiday Inn right at the Santiago airport at 3pm. We checked in, dropped our stuff off, and had lunch in the hotel’s restaurant. Sandy had chicken salad and I had ceviche. We returned the rental car and then walked the domestic terminal and the international terminal to see what each offered for food. The truth is that the hotel’s restaurant is excellent and we can just eat our meals here. We did in fact, eat dinner at the hotel – we both had tuna steaks and vegetables.
Today we worked out at the hotel gym and ate our meals at the hotel restaurant. Since we are traveling tomorrow, we did all of our first of the month tasks today. We packed before watching the Lightning lose game 5 of the series to end the season.
We asked ourselves today if we could have stayed another week in Vina del Mar or taken this week to go up to Vicuna, what would we have preferred now that we have been there. Our answers were the same – we are both happy to have traveled up to the north and experienced that part of Chile. And our time at the observatory on Sunday night was a highlight of our whole time in Chile.
Next up – we head west.
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