Santiago de Chile — KK's Gap Year

Typing a few words at the border crossing from Santiago to Mendoza.  The sky is always this blue. — Typing a few words at the border crossing from Santiago to Mendoza. The sky is always this blue.

Of all the places I’ve been lucky enough to write a blog post, hauling my Samsung Galaxy tablet to the peak of a atop the snow-capped Andes is certainly a first. I had an hour to kill while waiting at passport control between Chile and Argentina after saying, “Adios!” to Santiago and heading toward Mendoza, Argentina, so I decided to hop off the bus and type a few words in the sun from one of the highest peaks I've ever been to. I chose to take the 8-hour bus ride over the Andes rather than fly at the urging of several friends who have done the ride before. I am so happy to have gotten this advice! There aren’t really foothills in this part of the Andes, at least not the part I crossed. It’s just flat flat flat and then you start climbing the mountain, winding your way up switchback after switchback, each hairpin turn revealing a new snowy peak set against a bluebird sky. Crossing the Andes while sitting on the top deck of a double decker bus with panoramic mountain vistas in front of me is one of the coolest experiences I've had in all my travels. Do this if you get a chance.

I’ve spent time in many mountain ranges across the globe, but I don’t think I’ve seen any quite as dramatic as these. It’s hard to describe the Andes as vast, though they are, because you can’t really see much of the range at one time because the pitch of the peaks is so severe that you can only see the few nearest you at any given time.

It’s with a bit of nostalgia that I leave Santiago, primarily because of the great friendships I made and the hospitality of the people there. This trip is made different than any past travels because instead of sleeping in a hotel or an AirBnB, I earned a backpacker’s rite of passage and slept in a hostel. I was able to avoid hostels in Asia because hotels were so cheap and I also avoided them in America and Canada because – wait, are there even hostels in America? My opinion on hostels had previously been – based on nothing but maybe some movies – that they’re for college kids on a gap year and noisy, dirty, and potentially ripe for getting your things stolen. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

So what is a hostel REALLY like? There are sometimes a variety of beds from a single room with ensuite bathroom, but the typical hostel room is a 4- or 6-man dorm with bunk beds, one bathroom to share, and large lockers to secure your things. It’s kind of like being back in college! Some hostels offer female-only dorms, but I chose a mixed-sex dorm (sorry mom!) because I couldn’t stomach the thought of competing with 5 other women for the bathroom in the morning. The hostel I stayed in had an amazing outdoor roofdeck with views of the Andes. It was a brilliant place to have a cup of coffee and make friends. From the very first hour of my arrival, several Brazilians introduced themselves and invited me to join them for meals and activities. Despite our difficulties navigating the melange of languages (English, Spanish, and Portugese) we somehow were able to communicate. Hand signals go a long way! So does Google Translate!

By far the best thing about staying in a hostel is ready access to other people who are traveling just like you and are interested in seeing a lot of the same types of things as you are. As a woman, you get the added security of not having to walk around alone, and as a solo traveler, it's a great way to get feedback on your ideas for where to travel next (and maybe even someone to go with you!)

These Brazilians accompanied me on a day trip to Valparaiso (and were my excellent Spanish translators!)

Santiago is a decent-sized South American city, but what makes it really special is some of the funky artsy neighborhoods where you can make an entire day out of just looking at the graffiti. I stayed in the Bellavista neighborhood and this is just some of the really cool graffiti artwork adorning the walls of the local buildings.

Random street graffiti in the Bellavista neighborhood

The Chileans are a very artsy bunch as I learned on a day-trip excursion to the seaside towns of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar, just about two hours away from Santiago. Valparaiso is the governmental capital of Chile, and it was historically a very important strategic port city between traders from Europe and the East coming around the Cape of Good Hope en route to California. The port is pretty disgusting, just like you'd expect any port to be, but the real reason to come to Valparaiso is to see the views from the top of the steep cliffs and the brightly painted houses. You get up these hills by taking a funicular, and there are dozens of them around the city, only costing a few cents for a one-way passage.

There is an entire section in my guide book dedicated to the "Top 10 Views in Valparaiso" so it's no secret that the best way to see the city is to take one of the many dozens of funiculars to the top of a hill to catch the amazing vistas. Some views allow you to see the ocean below, some provide the most mesmerizing scenes of colorful artwork and brightly painted houses that are revealed while navigating the tightly-wound hillsides. But it begs the question - what if a whole block of families decided to conform and all paint their houses the same color? Is that legal? Do you have to get some sort of city approval before painting your house? And what about the amazing street graffiti art we see all over the country? Are these works commissioned or do storefronts just wake up to some clandestine Banksy-style miracles ardorning their front stoops? So many questions about the funky, vibrant street art scene that seems to pop up all over Chile.

The best way to ascend the steep cliffs in Valparaiso is by taking a funicular. To the uninitiated, this is a small little cable car that takes you anywhere from a few stories to several hundred feet up the face of a hill. I almost always prefer to get some exercise and take the stairs, but these little cars are just part of the culture here, and they only cost about $.25 USD so it was fun to experiment and go up and down a few of them. I have no idea how often these things are serviced or how exacting the maintenence standards are in Chile, but based on the creaks and jolting stops and starts, it does add an extra dimension of risk and thrill with every bump and screech as you ascend!

Going up one of the many faniculars (aka "fun trams") in Valparaiso

If Valparaiso is the cool, tormented, artsy hipster, then Vina del Mar is its buttoned-up square older brother. Just 10 minutes up the coast north of Valparaiso, the wide, tree-lined boulevards of Vina del Mar provide a quiet respite for well-heeled Chileans looking for a bit of seaside luxury. The hustle of Valpariso melts away into a quiet beach town with ample international cuisine and one of the best empanadas I've had in recent memory (chicken with coriander and cilantro.)

I am very sad to put Santiago and Central Chile in the rearview mirror, but when you've got views of the Andes like this, it makes looking forward all the more easy. :)

The Andes, between Santiago, Chile and Mendoza, Argentina