So, what did we decide to do?
With all the frustration of trying to visit the Neruda house in Valparaiso, we were torn between returning there, or going to Isla Negra. Isla Negra won. And a good choice I think it was.
The location, right by the ocean, was exquisite. However, the sheer amount of stuff he gathered around him was overwhelming. The ‘design’ was signature Neruda - an original architect designed home that appears to have organically grown over the years with new buildings added and joined together by stairways and paths. The same rambling place we’d seen in Santiago.
We had considered making another attempt at the Valparaiso place today to complete the hattrick, but as it’s our last day in Chile we decided that rushing about was not the thing to do. These are the days of laundry, journal posts and photo processing. An evening meal at Bocanariz, a beautiful ‘vinobar’ we discovered when we first arrived in Santiago.
We have mixed feelings about Santiago. Its location nestled in the Andes is stunning, although the smog makes it almost impossible to fully appreciate. Sometimes, walking down the street it feels like you could be back in India, but then you come across these sophisticated enclaves and you realise that Santiago is never Delhi. We could never walk the streets of India without unwelcome attention as we can here. It’s funny, there’s razor wire everywhere and in the neighbourhood we’re staying in, Carabineros de Chile on every street corner. It all has an air of crime and lawlessness, but we felt perfectly safe walking around and using the metro system and buses. The only effect we ever saw of the Carabineros was the street sellers bundling up their carefully laid out wares and making a run for it, only to come back and lay them all out carefully again once they had passed.
My only regret is that I did not have at least some Spanish. I’ve said it before, Translate on the Phone doesn’t work here like it did in Asia. I think that would be the same with most of the European languages, I think there is a sort of expectation that you should learn the language. That is never the impression you get in Asia. Using Translate there really feels like people appreciate you are trying, more so than some places in Europe where you have a stab at the language.
In the morning we fly to Cusco via Lima. Cusco is high up in the Andes and at 3400 m (11,200 ft) it’s definitely in the possible mild altitude sickness region. Fingers crossed about the ‘mild’, or better still not at all. We chose to stay there three days before travelling on to Machu Picchu. The good news is that Machu Picchu is almost 1000m lower than Cusco, so if we do acclimatise at that altitude everything else should be fine. We should, of course, have done the Inca Trail, but time and feebleness prevented that.
