Corrugated City

Valparaiso New Year 2011-2012

2012-01-01T15:29:00.002-03:00

Quick post with a video of the last minute or so of the fireworks last night. They get shorter every year- under 20 minutes this time, which is a shame- but they're still awesome. This year I was at a friend's house on Cerro Mariposa. I much prefer to be closer to the action, but as I don't own my house on Cerro Concepcion anymore, I can't complain too much!

Happy New Year to all.

Friends In The News- Good & Bad

2011-11-30T17:42:00.001-03:00

(posted first over on Colchaguino)

Some friends from Colchagua recently appeared in different news articles here in Chile...

First, the positive article about some great friends from Malaysia getting our little charity Campo Antiguo into the papers. If you donated money after the earthquake last year and were wondering what has happened since, we're slowly getting things organised. There's been a bit of jockeying for position amongst some of the members, so I've taken a step back until it all gets sorted out, but the intention to set up a cultural centre and help the local community is absolutely still there...we just need to get the politics out of the way.

La Princesa y La Reconstruccion

Here's a google translated version in English. Not the best, but you get the gist.

And the negative article concerns another great friend from here in Colchagua, Mario Lobo, who suffered a terrible car accident back in February and is now close to financial ruin after his insurance company pulled the plug. It's shocking that it's got to the point that the news has had to become public...and it was shocking for me to find this out a few months ago before the article came out. Mario was probably the most generous person I've met (financially and in spirit) and everyone assumed he was very wealthy.

If you want to buy the triplex mentioned in the article then click here. It's an incredible property.

Here's the article that appeared in El Mostrador: Mario Lobo

And here's a translated version of that article.

Old House

2011-11-23T12:09:00.004-03:00

On Saturday I had to go to Valparaiso for the day (or rather, for about 3 hours), to show this property for sale. It's a bit of a hike from Colchagua but as I was invited to the Los Vascos Jazz Festival I had to get back by 6pm.

I had about 15 minutes in between meetings so went to take a look at my old house. The new owner completely re-renovated the house (you can see my own total rebuild process here and by clicking back through 'older posts') and has just had it freshly painted. The renovations he did weren't really necessary, but the changes he made inside look great anyway. Here are a few exterior shots. I really, really miss this house and wish I hadn't had to sell it...but without the money from the sale, I wouldn't be able to own the properties I have in Santiago and Colchagua. Trade-offs and all that.

La Bolsa de Comercio

2011-10-19T21:14:00.002-03:00

Valparaiso was home to South America's very first stock exchange. I blogged about it a while ago here.

From that first building, knocked down to reclaim more land for Plaza Sotomayor, it moved onto this one:

And then when this was knocked down to reclaim even more land, it moved to its current location on Calle Prat.

Real Estate in Valparaiso, Chile

2011-09-30T11:51:00.003-03:00

I've been working a little bit more in Valparaiso over the last couple of months and there are some great properties for sale- commercial and residential- if you're interested in investing in Valpo.

Have a look at Real Estate Valparaiso, Chile for a few of the options. There are a lot more out there, so please feel free to get in touch and let me know what you're looking for.

What Avenida Errazuriz Used To Look Like

2011-09-14T19:16:00.003-03:00

Photos Of Valparaiso From Cerro Alegre

2011-07-10T20:52:00.004-04:00

I really have been neglecting this blog of late. I've been meaning to update for a while now, but just never got around to it. Anyway, this is just a very quick post with a couple of photos of Valparaiso taken from the top floor of a house on Cerro Alegre, last week. I've been back 3 times to Valpo in the last month, looking at a project there with various investors and architects. I won't say any more right now, but if it comes off, I'll be spending a fair bit of time back in my old home city over the next 18 months.

I've certainly missed the views...

That's my old red house in the middle of the photo. I love the way the colour makes it stand out so much. The new owner, an architect I bumped into in the Peruvian restaurant in Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley, is currently undoing all of the interior renovations I did to put his own stamp on it...you'd think I'd be annoyed, but I don't get emotionally attached to the properties I own. Plus, he loves the house and is doing a really interesting job with it. I'm looking forward to the house-warming party.

Interested in real estate in Valparaiso? Chile Investments can help you find exactly what you're looking for. Feel free to get in touch.

Real Estate in Chile

2011-06-18T09:51:00.002-04:00

If you are interested in investing in real estate in Chile then please visit Chile Investments.

You can also follow Chile Investments on Twitter.

Vineyards for sale, Chile. Real estate Chile. Farms for sale Chile Недвижимость в Чили

Viñedos en venta Chile. Campos en venta Chile. Viñas en venta Chile. Bienes raices Chile. Inversiones Chile.

Another Old Photo

2011-04-10T21:16:00.005-03:00

Just to keep you interested in this exceptionally slow moving blog...

Looking up towards Cerros Alegre and Concepcion to the left and Cordillera to the right. The photo is from around 1875, I reckon.

Valpo For A Day

2011-03-01T15:59:00.006-03:00

On Saturday, I went for a very quick trip to Valpo for a friend's housewarming party. He bought a place on Cerro Mariposa, not an area I'd recommend for buying property in Valparaiso, to be honest. But his renovation job was awesome and the views of the port and the Pacific from the house are amazing.

Things seem to be changing in Valpo, but at the customary snail's pace...and it's almost all private investment that's happening. It's clear the Municipalidad isn't really doing anything at all to improve the city. I hope that'll change some day, but I really doubt it.

It was great to catch up with friends still in Valpo. Hopefully, I'll be there longer next time so I can see the friends I missed. Here are a few photos from the trip. Enjoy.

View from the top of Valparaiso after taking Camino La Polvora:

Views from a friend's house on Cerro Alegre:

That's my old house. The person who bought it decided to completely renovate the freshly renovated house, at great expense. He's currently completely ripping it apart...It's going to be lovely, I'm sure, but he's clearly crazy...

Looking up towards Lautaro Rosas:

View from Cerro Mariposa:

That's a giant fish...

Views from the deck, at night:

If You Like Football...

2011-02-24T22:20:00.003-03:00

...then you should watch this one minute video on You Tube. And even if you don't, you should still watch it. It's hilarious. And it's embarrassing.

It's Chilean DIY.

Ecuador

2011-02-03T16:19:00.018-03:00

Isn't Summer lovely? I just got back from Quito, in Ecuador, where the temperature rarely gets above 20C due to the altitude. Quito is the world’s second highest capital city at more than 2800m above sea level. Actually, it’s officially the highest; its contender for the title is La Paz, in Bolivia, at more than 3600m but La Paz is only the de-facto capital of Bolivia. The official capital is Sucre.

Anyway, I had a really fantastic little break with the lovely Carolina. I hadn’t been to Ecuador in 7 years (almost to the day) and it was interesting to see how much things have changed there. Or, rather, how much some things have changed.

La Mariscal, or Gringolandia (as it’s where all the backpackers congregate), has completely changed. I lived in the barrio for more than 3 months and, although I had a great time, there weren’t very many bars or restaurants of any decent standard. Now, it’s been completely redeveloped and has loads of cool bars, restaurants and boutique hotels. It all looked really nice. If if weren't for the fact you constantly feel that someone is going to rob you with some kind of loud or pointy weapon, it'd be a really nice part of town.

And Quito’s UNESCO World Heritage Centro Historico is even more magnificent than before. It is truly an amazing place, renovated, cleaned-up and stunningly beautiful. Ecuador, compared to Chile, is under-developed, poor and horribly corrupt. But it has Chile completely beaten when it comes to historical preservation. Chile, and particularly Valparaiso, should be ashamed and embarrassed by its absolutely pathetic mismanagement of its architectural heritage. This country is painfully lacking a cultural conscience. It’s changing, but far too slowly and it’s going to be too late for much of Chile’s most beautiful architecture. It’s time the government stopped passing the buck to private investors (where no profit means no project) and got involved in safeguarding Chile’s heritage for future generations. If less well-off countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia can do it, Chile should be able to. I doubt it’ll happen though- most people here just don’t care.

One of my favourite things in Quito when I lived there was climbing one of the Basilicas. In most other countries, you wouldn’t be allowed to get anywhere near where you can in this one…namely, to the very, very top of one of the bell towers. You start off at ground level and take a normal staircase for three levels. At each level there are panoramic views of the Centro Historico. At the third level, you then take a small spiral staircase to the clock tower. From the clock tower, you take a homemade metal ladder to the next level, another ladder to the next level and finally, another ladder up to the very highest point in the tower. The views are spectacular, obvio.

And then you go back down to the third level, cross a narrow and fairly unstable wooden bridge across the roof of the nave to the Basilica’s spire, where you take a couple of steep ladders/staircases to the viewing point. Awesome.

Basilica exterior:

Basilica Interior- nice fan vaulting:

The basilica is still unfinished...

Inside the clock tower:

Views of El Panecillo and the rooftops of the Centro Historico from the clock tower:

View of the spire from the high point of the clock tower- you can get up to just below the top of it...

Crossing to the spire- that's the fan vaulted roof of the nave you can see:

View of the clock towers from the spire- we climbed to pretty much the very top of the tower on the left, about where the photo gets cut off:

We were followed everywhere by a large group of Mormans, none of whom tried to convert us. Which was nice.

After this excitement, we headed down to the Plaza Independencia and Plaza San Francisco, went into a couple more churches (the Centro is full of them as it used to be pretty much one giant convent) and just wandered around, taking in the sights.

Plaza Independencia- if you click on the link further up the page, you'll see the same photo taken from a film-based camera more than 7 years ago:

The Centro Historico is gorgeous:

View from the hotel in Guapulo, Quito:

We went for dinner at Zazu, a fancy-pants Peruvian restaurant. It was very good, but over-priced at US$50 per person, without wine...They had the biggest roses I've ever seen in the entrance, 6 feet tall:

We also headed off to Banos for the weekend, a 3 hour drive from Quito. Banos itself is a pretty crappy little town, but it’s the countryside around that is the attraction. It’s kind of like the Elqui Valley, in that it feels as if the mountains are right on top of you, but, unlike Elqui, it’s pure green scenery with lots of small waterfalls. If you’re into adventure sports, it’s a great place to go to. I like that kind of thing, but we didn’t have all that much time, so we just ate and drank a lot and drove along the road out of town, taking in the views and hiking the short distance to El Pailon del Diablo, the largest falls in the area. It’s a beautiful part of the country.

I can't remember the name of this fruit, but it looks like a giant pea-pod. The fruit inside is like eating a slightly sweetened cotton swab. As nice as it sounds.

Hotel in Banos- the house was beautiful, the hotel part of it, not so much:

Around Banos:
Me, spoiling the view:
El Pailon del Diablo- it was tricky getting a decent photo of it, so here's one of me:

Other things I like about Ecuador would be the food and the people. Ecuadorian food is fantastic, a mix of tropical and Andean and so much of it is fried, which makes almost everything taste better. The beef is pretty awful, but the chicken and pork (and goat) are amazing. I ate too much. And I drank a lot of tomate de arbol juice, which was always my favourite flavour. I smuggled back some tomate de arbol seeds as well, so hopefully I’ll be producing my own in a couple of years.

Mmmm, seco de chivo (that's goat):

Also, Ecuadorian people are really friendly- everyone smiles when you walk into a shop and they’re almost always helpful and courteous in any situation. This is another thing Chile could learn from Ecuador.

On the flip side, Chile has Ecuador beaten in quite a few other, important ways. Ecuador has a serious crime problem with lots of gun and knife crime. La Mariscal is a den of thieves and the Centro Historico is really bad after nightfall. You do have to be careful as a tourist and, to live in Quito, you have to make some major changes to the way you live your life. The roads are a mess with pot holes everywhere, dangerous sign-posting and some of the world’s worst drivers. Corruption at every level is rife. It’s for these reasons why I think Chile is such a great place to live. You don’t have to change your way of life in Chile. A few small adjustments here and there, maybe, but not major concessions and compromises. Chile is a really livable country and Ecuador, for me, just isn’t. It can sometimes be easy to forget the advantages Chile has. A few days in one of the other South American countries tends to remind you.

So, I’m now back in Colchagua and enjoying the Summer again. It seems to have cooled off a little after 3 weeks of serious heat. I’ve got a busy couple of weeks coming up with clients and other projects so it’d be nice to have some cooler (but still sunny) weather for a while. Tomorrow, I’m hiking up what would be considered a mountain in England with clients to visit this amazing property in Colchagua Valley. The clients will be on horses, but my back problems mean I can’t ride. I prefer the exercise anyway and after a week at altitude, it should be an easy stroll. Maybe.

What Vinamarinos and Portenos Think Of Each Other

2011-01-21T20:10:00.002-03:00

Here's a link to an interesting article in the Santiago Times, that cites a study into what people from Vina think of people from Valpo, and vice-versa. There are no real surprises- Portenos are uneducated malcontents, Vinamarinos are cuico snobs, Valpo smells bad and Vina has too many traffic jams. Although they do say some positive things about each other as well...

Valparaiso Earthquake 1906: Some More Images

2011-01-20T22:35:00.004-03:00

Calle Maipu down on the Plan:

And a panoramic view of the devastation taken from probably around Cerro Bellavista, judging by the curvature of the bay.

Click here to see more posts (below this one).

Christmas, New Year and Summer

2011-01-14T11:38:00.001-03:00

It's been a while (again) since I last posted. So here's another quick summary of what I've been up to for the last few weeks.

Well, I swapped Summer for Winter in mid-December, when I headed home to England (I also call Chile 'home'). And what a Winter it was...one of the coldest on record, a whole heap of snow and the country shutting down due to the total lack of preparation from the utterly, utterly useless government.

But anyway, I started off in London, staying with my brother and family. My other, Paris-based, brother was there as well. Plus, a plague hit my family in early 2010...a plague of babies. Both my brothers and two cousins had little'uns between January and March (and also one of my best friends a couple of months ago). Not being a huge baby fan, I was expecting the worst, but they were all surprisingly well-behaved. Not that you could get a word of sense out of the parents between 6am and 9pm, when all conversation revolved around babies, vomit and poonamis but everyone seemed very content (and tired) and that's the most important thing. I'm happy my family is happy. And I'm looking forward to them all getting older and being able to interact a bit more (the babies as well, ha).

So London was nice. And cold. I met up with some great friends, had a curry down on Brick Lane and large amounts of lovely London Pride.

London snow...

And then after two days, it was time to head up to Knowle, near Birmingham for Christmas number 1, with my Dad and his wife, Pat. We headed out on Saturday morning with severe weather warnings ringing in our ears. I had slept less than 3 hours, due to sleeping on the sofa and had woken up with a pinched nerve in my shoulder, leading to rather savage pain all down my right side. And a hangover. So when we got stuck in traffic caused by the freezing conditions and snow about 10 miles outside of London, I knew we were in for a long day...

We made it a total of 30 miles...in 6 hours before deciding to postpone the trip and pull into a hotel in a little village off the M40. Many people got stuck in their cars overnight, so we were lucky.

English travel chaos...

Anyway, we made it up the next day and had a nice time, despite it being cut short by a day.

A huge Chilean Araucaria in Knowle...

The bros. And a huge barbequed turkey (barbequed in minus 10C...)

Christmas number 2 (the real one) was spent down in with my cousins in the New Forest and was as fun as ever, watching the cricket (that was a hell of a beating you took there, Australia), drinking nice wine and eating so much food. The traditional Boxing Day walk was definitely needed.

The cold weather didn't really bother me all that much. It was a lot nicer than the usual mild, damp, drizzly weather I usually experience when I go back to England. Freezing cold, snow and blue skies are so pretty. It warmed up after Christmas and it wasn't as much fun. Christmas should be cold, anyway. But a Summer new year is a lot more fun that a Winter one. But I still had a good time, hanging out with friends and playing with indoor fireworks (which I hadn't seen since I was about 6 years old).

There was even the one that looks like something a baby produces several times a day...

After new year, there was time for some fairly serious sales shopping in London and also for a trip to Fulham's Craven Cottage to watch my beloved West Brom get beaten 3 nil. And, as I was sitting with the Fulham fans, I had to 'celebrate' all of their goals. Oh well.

And now I'm back in Chile, walking the dogs and enjoying the Summer.

The flight was ok, despite the lack of legroom...

And look who were waiting for me at home, in Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley...

Summer dog walking. Nice.

I'm also really busy. Work has picked up massively already this year (lots more people interested in real estate in Chile) and I have two, possibly three projects of my own to do. I'm feeling very optimistic about 2011. Here's hoping for a good year for everyone.

And I'll leave you with my favourite book section in WHSmith's ever:

Plaza Sotomayor

2010-11-26T13:51:00.002-03:00

Here's a photo of Plaza Sotomayor from the 1880s, looking towards where the big blue Naval building now is and also up to Lord Cochrane's house.

Elqui Valley: Awesome

2010-11-22T12:46:00.007-03:00

I haven't blogged much recently. I just can't really be bothered- I love my life here but it's not all that exciting. It's usually just a mix of walking the dogs, hanging out with friends and going to Santiago every now and again. I would be blogging about the flat renovations in Santiago but they're on hold for about a month, so we'll probably restart when I get back from England after Christmas.

But I went last week to Elqui with a lady friend and it's such an awesome place that I really thought I should share.

It's a bit of a drive to get there from Santiago, which is where we started out from on Tuesday morning. It's even more of a drive when you decide to take the scenic route through Ovalle and over the mountains direct to Vicuna, instead of the 5 Norte via La Serena. Still, it was worth the extra time and the 140km of single track dirt road with sheer drops to one side and goats running around trying to force you off the edge every now and again. The views were amazing the constant changes in the colour of the ground was interesting.

See- pretty.

We arrived late afternoon in Pisco Elqui, the last village in the valley with paved roads and a really gorgeous little place full of well-maintained adobe houses.

There's lots of accommodation around as well and we got lucky with the first place we tried. Los Datiles has pretty decent cabanas but the grounds and the garden are incredible, a real oasis of loveliness.

We didn't really do all that much apart hang out, relax and admire the stunning scenery. The green vines against the backdrop of the dry mountains, which look like cardboard cut-outs is just amazing.

But we did make it the 5 km down the road to Montegrande, birthplace of one of Chile's two Nobel Prize winners, Gabriela Mistral (the other being Pablo Neruda, obvio). The museum/house devoted to her is pretty poor but the Plaza and church are nice for a few minutes.

And a few more minutes down the road is the valley's only winery, Cavas del Valle (well, Falernia's also in Elqui but much closer to La Serena. The rest of the vines are all to make Pisco, for which the valley is famous). They make an interesting Syrah which I enjoyed enough to buy a bottle of and a couple of less than interesting whites, both of which I found to be almost undrinkable (although some people really like them). It's well worth a drop in as there are very few truly boutique wineries in Chile and they need to be supported.

We also spent a few hours in La Serena- a very pretty historic centre and a windy as hell beach.

That's Coquimbo giving La Serena the finger.

And that's about all for now.

Chile Investments on Twitter

2010-10-28T09:09:00.003-03:00

If you're interested in getting news and views about Chile and finding out about real estate for sale in Chile, then you can follow Chile Investments' Twitter feed by searching for @chileinvest or simply clicking here.

At some point, I hope to have time to actually blog about something. Until then, look me up on Twitter.

Changing Santiago

2010-08-27T12:51:00.001-04:00

December 2003, Cerro San Cristobal.

Anyone who knew me or met me more than about 18 months ago might be a little surprised by the fact that, not only do I rent a flat, but I have also bought one to renovate in Santiago. For years, I loathed Santiago with a maniacal passion and made this clear to anyone who would listen (people learned to back away slowly when my rants were just getting started).

Why did I hate it so much? Let me take you back to December 2003. I'd just spent 3 of the most fun weeks of my life in Argentina, my first stop after Ecuador. Argentina in December is probably the most fun you can have anywhere in the world. Seriously. Schools and universities break up for Summer at the end of the first week, the weather's fantastic, Christmas is around the corner and January and February holidays are coming up. The atmosphere and energy are almost tangible. It's an energy I've never experienced anywhere else. If you don't believe me, go out on Aristides Villanueva in Mendoza for the first or second weekend in December and you'll see what I mean.

So after partying and generally having a great time every single day of the week in BsAs and Mendoza, I rocked up in Chile on a Monday afternoon. And I hated it after my first 13 seconds. In Argentina, everyone queues up in an orderly fashion to put bags on and off the bus. There's no pushing, no shoving. Getting off the bus in Santiago, I was elbowed in the face by an 85 year woman and pushed over twice whilst trying to pick up my rucksack by other Chileans who had clearly been trained in the art of social niceties by a pack of rabid chimpanzees (this was, and sometimes still is, my view of how Chileans act in public).

And it didn't really get much better, to be honest. Santiago was, in 2003, possibly the world's most tedious city. There was nothing to do. Bars and restaurants were either not open on week nights or they were completely empty (in Argentina, they were full every single night until early morning). Everything was grey. There was no atmosphere. I was unsurprised to learn that Santiaguinos have one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

And Santiago Centro was sketchy as hell. In the Plaza de Armas, you could literally see the thieves eyeing up their next victims. A friend had his camera stolen from a pew in the cathedral when he looked away for 2 seconds. Cerro Santa Lucia was also really dodgy at that time and I was warned away from it by everyone I met (a German guy in my hostel got mugged and pretty badly beaten up there, which rather reinforced the warnings).

And it wasn't like I was there on my own and didn't know what to do- I had two Chilean friends who were showing me around (and who became increasingly desperate to show me something fun and interesting to do- they failed, quite miserably, until we went to Renaca after Christmas).

I also spent Winter 2004 living in Santiago, in a freezing house on Salvador con Bilbao. That was a truly miserable experience and I spent the entire time desperate to get back to my home in Buenos Aires, a city I adored with as much passion as I detested Santiago (I had come to Chile to see whether a relationship would work- it did for 4 years).

After moving to Valparaiso in January 2007, my hatred of Santiago continued. But it started to change towards the end of the year when my mum came to visit and we spent a couple of days there. We made the obligatory trip up Cerro San Cristobal via bubble lift and came down the other side in the funicular. That was my first time in Bellavista since 2004 and the neighbourhood had really changed. Patio Bellavista had just opened and that development made me realise that there was hope for the city.

Not only that, but the Costanera Norte, which opened in mid-2006 (I think) had a huge effect on the livability of the city. Anyone who arrived after it opened will have no idea of the traffic misery that people used to have to deal with. To get to and from Vina del Mar, for example, pretty much everyone had to go down Alameda. Alameda! I remember getting stuck in 2 hour + traffic jams on Sunday evenings upon arrival on the outskirts of Santiago on a regular basis. Airport trips, which now take 35 minutes in rush hour and 15 minutes at other times could easily take up to 90 minutes. It was hell. The CN took thousands and thousands of cars away from the city centre and improved the lives of millions of people- not just car owners, but pedestrians, cyclists and public transport commuters as well.

And in the past couple of years, Santiago has improved so, so much in terms of decent restaurants, bars and cultural life. The cultural centre under La Moneda is an incredibly beautiful space and Barrio Lastarria and Bellas Artes have exploded in recent times. There are foreign owned businesses catering to expats and the general security in tourist areas is way better than it used to be. Cerro Santa Lucia is now completely safe to walk around and the Plaza de Armas has constant police patrols. And the fact that a lot of banks and offices have moved up to Las Condes and El Golf has reduced the amount of people in Santiago Centro dramatically, making it a much more pleasant area to wander around.

Although I know I could never live permanently in Santiago (the smog is as bad as ever and I prefer living in the country), I do really enjoy the time I spend there now. It's fun to do all the tourist stuff I never did before. That is something I can honestly say I thought would never be true.

View Of The Port, From Cerro De La Concepcion

2010-08-23T21:54:00.004-04:00

Photo from the around the late 1880s, when 'de la' still appeared in Cerro Concepcion's name. Click to enlarge.

The 7 Year Itch

2010-08-20T18:35:00.003-04:00

It rather shocks me to say this...but September 1st will be my 7 year anniversary since I left England (not for the first time but this is the longest I've been away) and moved to South America. It was never supposed to be this long. The original plan was to spend 6 months out here, learn Spanish and then move to Spain. Barcelona was high on my list of places I wanted to live.

But things never work out as you expect...and here I am, 7 years later, living in Santa Cruz with a house, a business, 2 cats and 2 dogs and a whole life in Chile. Incredible. But really nice. I really like my life here.

So to celebrate this milestone, I'm going to bore you with a photo tour and commentary about what I've been up to all this time. It's going to take a few posts, so feel free to have a nap.

I started out in Ecuador. Why Ecuador? Well, I wanted to learn Spanish and someone had mentioned that Ecuadorian Spanish is really clear and pure (it is- definitely the 'best' Spanish I've heard down this way). And Ecuador is a small country with a mix of everything South American- tropical beaches, Andean culture, jungle, temperate rain forest, mountains...the lot. The perfect place to start out. Added to that was the fact that when I took the decision to come to South America, I was working in Bournemouth, England as an English teacher to foreign students. Once I decided on Ecuador, I successfully set about making Ecuadorian friends and had a couple of locals to look up when I arrived.

And here's a weird coincidence...I fell out of touch with the friend who was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and show me around Quito on September 1st, 2003. We're friends on Facebook but hadn't actually spoken or emailed or anything for almost 6 years. That was until last week when she borked her Facebook profile and had to create a new one, re-friending me (uh, that's such a horrible phrase and I feel dirty writing it) in the process.

Anyhow, I asked how she was and we got chatting. It turns out she almost died a couple of months ago from a serious case of pneumonia and is taking some time off to recuperate and travel. She said she wanted to visit Chile at some point, I offered to show her around and she's now arriving on guess which date...Yep, on September 1st, I'll be picking Caro up from the airport in Santiago, 7 years to the day she did the same for me in Quito.

So I spent 3 months in Quito. I left sooner than I expected as I got itchy feet and then robbed at gun-point (well, I'm pretty sure it was the guy's finger but I was tipsy, it was 4am and he had 6 friends with him so, despite pointing that out to him, I still handed over the $20 I had on me). But at least 5 other friends were mugged at gunpoint and I got tired of living in fear. Having to sprint the 4 blocks home from a bar or club to avoid getting robbed after dark got old pretty quickly.

Despite the danger aspect, I enjoyed my time in Quito and made some really good friends, some of whom I'm still in fairly regular contact with.

So I bought the cheapest ticket to another country that I could find...and that happened to be Argentina. Which I'll tell you about in another post.

Here are some photos from my time in Ecuador, back in the day when I was 25 years old and had pretty much no responsibilities. How times change. Apologies for the random picture sizes. Long story, too dull to tell.

Caro, the aforementioned old friend who's coming to visit in a couple of weeks, up at some Volcano near the equator. It was cold, windy and foggy and we saw nothing. I ate a guinea pig. A fun day out.

Me up El Panecillo, overlooking Quito's beautiful UNESCO rated old town.

I can't remember the name but this church had been under construction for something like 100 years...you could climb to the very, very top of one of the steeples and the views were incredible.

Quito's main Plaza in the old town.

I lived with some great people and made some good friends in the house known to everyone as La Casa de la Felicidad, on account of the massive, impromptu parties that were always thrown. It wasn't conducive to the 7am starts I sometimes had for work but, hey, I was 25 and could handle it. My leaving party lasted about 3 days. Good times.

That's Arne, Sophie, Gary, me, Frank and Sissy. The hand thing was in honour of that whenever the phone or doorbell sounded, whoever was last to put their thumb to their forehead had to answer. I was incredibly quick on the draw and only answered them about 5 times in 2 and a half months.

Sophie, Zia & Sissy

Lily acted as my guide on a trip Cuenca (she was a friend of a friend). Despite me not speaking much Spanish and her not speaking any English, we muddled through and got on quite well. Sometimes it's better not to be understood.

She took me with her family up to a tiny, dusty little village high in the hills where they were having some kind of festival (I never understood what it was about). It was weird and interesting. I ate guinea pig again. It's actually rather nice, a little like rabbit. And I really liked Cuenca- such a beautiful town. Apparently, the Cuenca accent sounds like bird-song, but my Spanish was so low-level at the time that I didn't notice. I'd love to go back and see if it's true.

I also went to Mindo, a gorgeous little town in the cloud forest. I took a lot of photos that weekend. Then I asked a friend to take one of me up in a place where you jump off a mini-cliff into a freezing pool of water. It's next to a waterfall. She walked backwards off the waterfall. And broke my camera. And she miraculously came out completely unscathed. Which kind of annoyed me a little- for a broken camera, I wanted at least a concussion.

And I went to the hot springs resort of Papallacta a few times- it's only a couple of hours from Quito in bus and a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday. No photos- my camera was wet, remember?

I also spent a weekend in Montanita, Ecuador's top surf town. I took no photos with my new camera on that trip because it rained solidly for 3 days and the town was, literally, knee deep in mud. It's apparently a fun place when the sun comes out.

Next stop was Buenos Aires, where I ended up living for 3 years...

Good Moods, TV & New Project

2010-08-17T17:47:00.003-04:00

*I posted this over on Colchaguino first but realise I've neglected this blog even more so I'm re-posting here as well. But to make it more relevant to Valpo, I've added an old photo. :) *

See- old photo. Don't you wish Valpo still looked like this?

As anyone who has been following this blog for a while can tell, I haven't really been in the mood to post much over the last year or so. I just really haven't had the desire or energy. I think I'd been in a low-level bad mood for so long, it became my reality and I didn't realise why I felt so low on energy and general bounciness. Not that I've ever been particularly demonstrative...I did go to boarding school in England, after all. Trying to get me to show any emotion at all is something that has driven some past girlfriends to the edge of insanity. :)

After my short trip to Colombia, I feel completely different. My good mood is almost tangible. It's really strange...it's like a physical change. I'm feeling positive about work for the first time since the earthquake hit my business really quite hard (that's www.chileinvestments.com in case you haven't worked it out), I'm feeling positive about living in Chile and I'm loving calling Colchagua 'home'. There's a really great little community here and I'm starting to feel like a real part of it now. That's a nice feeling. And I've rented a small flat in Parque Forestal, Santiago to spend time there when I need a change of scenery (get in touch if you want to meet up for a drink or something- I've never lived in Santiago so don't actually know many people there!).

Something I thought might throw me out of my good mood was what I was doing all weekend. I filmed an episode of a wildly popular real estate show in the US and around the world that I'm contractually obliged to be positive about... :) I thought that a weekend of filming would drive me insane, but it was actually a lot of fun.

The crew were a real laugh and my clients were great as well (I won't mention who right now as she doesn't seem to have mentioned it on her blog so perhaps doesn't want anyone to know...). Anyway, both her and her husband are really fun and I had a fun time with them (despite helping her buy her place a while ago, I did so remotely and we only met for the first time very recently.)

So the show will air in January in the US, most likely, and then in Chile later in the year I guess. I'll let you know.

And finally, I haven't knocked any walls down recently (maybe that's why I haven't been particularly happy?)...but my drought is soon to come to an end. I've just bought a flat overlooking Parque Forestal (around the corner from the place I'm renting). It's a big renovation job and there are two walls that just have to go. I can't wait to get started...hopefully within 2-3 weeks. The plan for this property is to renovate to a really high standard, furnish it luxuriously and then rent it out to tourists, aiming for the high-end hotel market but providing a far better product at a much lower price. Mid-November we should be good to go. Here are some photos...

The 1960s building.

The view of the park is fantastic.

The little, unusable balcony will be incorporated into the living room by getting rid of the first set of sliding doors (see later photos) and replacing the nasty aluminium outer doors with fancy double glazed ones.

And I also like the street view going the other way.

Master bedroom (looks smaller in the photos than it actually is, although it's still not huge- the 2 bedroom apartment is 85m2 total).

Second bedroom.

The wall on the right will go, which will open up the maid's room (next photos), creating a 30m2 open kitchen, dining and living room.

And this wall in the middle...it'll move to the right in line with the door frame, linking up next to that window you see. That'll open up the toilet, which will be converted into the kitchen (also all along the wall on the left). The kitchen will then become a large bathroom.

Lovely carpets, eh? Happily, underneath is the original parquet floor.

Yey, renovations! I've really missed you.

For photos about my previous renovations, take a look at my old Valparaiso house and my house here in Santa Cruz...

Colombia II: Bogota

2010-08-05T00:14:00.003-04:00

As I mentioned before, I had originally planned to spend my entire time in Colombia lounging on a beach doing nothing. I used to love lounging on a beach doing nothing. Turns out, I've kind of grown out of that habit.

After my first 24 hours in Taganga, I knew I wouldn't last more than a few days without going insane. Perhaps if I lived in a city, like I used to, I would have enjoyed the peace and quiet a little more. But I think that the rather tranquil Colchagua Valley has made me see a relaxing holiday as one which involves noise, people and stress.

Now that's not to say I didn't enjoy my beach time. I really, really did. But I just get bored quicker than I used to when doing nothing.

So after chatting to a few people, I decided to change my ticket and head to Bogota for a few days. Well, I didn't change my ticket. I bought a new one with a different airline. Lan's absurd exchange policy meant that this was about us$200 cheaper (the flight cost about us$90).

I arrived in Bogota knowing almost nothing whatsoever about the city. I hadn't planned on going, I had no guide book and I had very little clothing suitable for the permanent Spring weather (due to Bogota being about 2600m above sea-level). I'd booked a cheap room in a cheap hotel and arrived around lunchtime. I didn't really know what to do with myself so I grabbed a taxi, asked to be taken to the Centro Historico and asked what there was to do in Bogota. The driver's enthusiastic response to his hometown made me happy I'd come.

After a short wander, I decided to phone a friendly Colombian girl I'd met in Taganga. She'd given me her number and offered to show me around Bogota if I ever went after we'd got chatting in a restaurant on my first day . I'm pretty sure she did so safe in the knowledge I had no plans at all to go to Bogota at the time. Ha. Little did she know that this is a common tactic of mine- meet a local, wheedle their number out of them and then turn up unannounced asking to be shown around town. "Surprise! It's the annoying Englishman from the beach/plane/bar/supermarket/restaurant/hike/medical convention (don't ask). Drop whatever you're doing and come be my tourist guide." I've made long-term friends in some odd places over the years.

As chance would have it, Daniela was less than 5 minutes walk away at the time and even remembered who I was so we met up in front of the cathedral on Plaza Bolivar, the city's main square in the heart of the Centro Historico. It looks like this:

This second photo was taken in a moment of rare sunshine.

Even luckier was that she was currently on holidays from her studies and had loads of free time to be my personal tour guide. Lucky for me, that is. Not so much for her- she was stuck with this ingles mañoso for the entire weekend (my back was playing up and I was whingeing a lot).

However, despite having lived in Bogota for over two years, Daniela's knowledge of the city was, well, really quite poor. She'd never done anything touristy. Which meant neither of us really knew what to do, apart from wander around looking at the pretty stuff.

And the Centro Historico is bursting with pretty stuff. Most of the Colonial buildings have been renovated, there are bars, restaurants and cafes all over the place and there are some brilliant museums. This is what Valpo would look like if it didn't have a thieving, corrupt Municipalidad running the show.

Look:

And look at this gorgeous Church- so cool:

And the museums...there are 3 all together within the same complex just up from the Plaza. La Moneda with its history of Colombian money (more interesting than it sounds), a really good art gallery and, finally, the best of the lot- the Botero collection. I love Botero. To me, art should provoke a reaction. So much of what is considered 'fine art' leaves me cold. I look at it, scrunch my eyes up, put on a serious face, put my jaw in my hand and feel absolutely nothing.

Botero has always made me laugh and smile. His art is fun. Here are a few examples:

(this is the Mona Lisa, in case you hadn't noticed)

The Botero museum houses the artist's private collection that he donated to the nation. Not just his own paintings, but some fantastic pieces by other artists, including Picasso, Henry Moore, Joan Miro and others. I can recommend a visit to Bogota just to see this, and the other two museums, alone.

Oh, and it's all FREE. How cool is that? The museums are run and maintained by the Banco de la Nacion. More info here.

On one of the days I was in town, the Plaza Bolivar was taken over by a gigantic farmers' market to promote local and indigenous agriculture- most of which seemed to revolve around plantains, tangerines and unripe strawberries, although there was other stuff as well. Actually, there's a supermarket chain that sells predominately fruit. I wish I'd had my camera when I went in as there was so much variety of tropical fruit, much of which I'd never seen or heard of before. Some of it was so big I was able to imagine an end to famine in overpopulated Asian nations.

In the end, I only stayed in the cheap hotel for one night. It wasn't well located and the mattress was actually harder than the floor. Believe me, I tested.

I decided that I should splurge and get somewhere decent in the area in which I'd be going out at night, so I moved to the Hotel Virrey Park (horrible website music alert) a little to the north, just around the corner from the Zona T, Zona Rosa and Parque de la 93, the main nightlife areas. It wasn't too expensive, around us$100 a night. For the location and quality, I actually think that it was a bit of a steal. It's more than I'd usually spend on a hotel, but it was a short time and I wanted to enjoy myself. And I'm old enough to justify not being a scuzzy backpacker anymore.

Nightlife in Bogota is really fun. This part of town is kind of like a mix of Vitacura in Santiago and Palermo Viejo in Buenos Aires. The former because it's all new, shiny, safe and packed with good-looking people of both sexes and the latter due to the style and design of the bars and restaurants. This is a really good mix. Even better is that every place I went to beat both cities for service and style.

The food was also good, better than most of what's on offer in BsAs (apart from the steak, obvio po). And it's about 10-25% cheaper than going out in the equivalent neighbourhoods in both Santiago and BsAs. I was a particular fan of the Bogota Beer Company, a micro-brewery gone large, with pubs all over the city. They have real beer in real pint glasses and the decor is a half-decent approximation of an English pub. I mean, you're not going to think you're down the White Hart, but for someone like me who really misses the whole concept of 'The Pub', it worked well enough.

Apart from the museums, wandering around and going out, I managed to drag Daniela out for another day of turisteando and we headed up The Big Hill, just outside of the Centro Historico. (I'm pretty sure it's not called 'The Big Hill' but I never found out its name and for some reason would rather maintain the mystery). The Big Hill is really similar to Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago- there's a cable car or funicular to take you up and down and a load of religious stuff at the top. The views on a clear day (ha, good luck) would be great. On a cloudy day, they were still pretty cool. You can see about half the city of 7 million inhabitants from up there.

If you go, don't get up too early. They only run the cable car after 2pm so we had to take the boring funicular up and down instead. Silly me for wanting to get out and do something with my Saturday.

That's about all. You can probably tell I rather enjoyed my time in Bogota. I think much of that had to do with hanging out with someone who lived there and being able to talk about the city, ask questions about the country and generally get a little more insight into things than if I'd just hung out and got drunk with a bunch of foreigners I'd met 10 minutes beforehand in a hostel. That second option can be fun, but it can also get old pretty quickly.

So, I've been wondering if I'd go back to Bogota. There aren't all that many cities that I've enjoyed enough to want to go back and repeat. Buenos Aires, Paris, NYC and San Francisco are the only ones out of the many I've visited that have really got under my skin. I think Bogota is pretty close to that but not quite there. I think I'd go back if I got the chance, but perhaps wouldn't make a special plan to do so. I don't know...I'm kind of on the fence with Bogota. Maybe I should give it another go and see which side I end up on. It would definitely be a fun experiment.

If you're planning a trip, though, I would absolutely suggest Bogota and Colombia in general as a fantastic holiday destination. Don't believe the hype about the dangers. Colombia is, generally, a safe place to visit and I certainly didn't feel any less secure than in, for example, Argentina, where I lived for 3 years without a single problem (I think Chile is safer than both, mainly due to the fact there are very few guns here). It is way, way safer than Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. I'm sure there are areas of the country that are sketchy but in the places I went, I felt absolutely safe at all times.

That's it. Back to reality, normality and Winter. I arrived back in Chile more tired physically than when I left. The weekend in Bogota really took it out of me. But I am definitely less tired mentally and emotionally. I really needed a break from my life in Chile to help me put some things into perspective, forget about work and make a fresh start with some stuff that's been bugging me. The trip did its job and I've returned refreshed and relaxed.

That really doesn't often happen with me. I can't usually switch off. So, thanks, Colombia. It was fun.

Caribbean Coast, Colombia: A La Orden

2010-08-03T16:35:00.000-04:00

I’m posting this on Corrugated City and Colchaguino as I haven’t updated either for a long while, just to prove that I am still alive.

I’ve just got back from Colombia.

Over the past few years, I’ve travelled quite a lot- England, France, the US, Argentina several times…but I haven’t had what I call a real holiday- relaxing, doing nothing or doing something or doing both at the same time- since going to Brazil 5 years ago. After the stress of the earthquake in February, seeing all the destruction and nightmare living situations for a lot of people (and setting up a charity to help the worst affected in Colchagua has been even more stressful than the actual event itself), finding myself living on my own with 4 animals and trying to get through this colder than normal Winter, I really, really, really needed a break.

So 3 weeks ago, I just Googled ‘beaches, Colombia’ and ended up buying a ticket to Santa Marta, without really knowing what I was letting myself in for.

To get the negative part out of the way first, Santa Marta is only ok. It’s nothing really special. The beach is pretty crappy. There’s not much to the town apart from a small (but pretty and well-preserved) Centro Historico.

And that’s the negative done.

On the positive side, Colombia is absolutely awesome. I think speaking Spanish completely changed my experience. Last time I travelled around, almost 7 years ago, my Spanish was basic and everything was a bit of a struggle. I’d walk past a couple of girls in the street and hear this…

“Gjhmsou gringo blahrio smurpado gringo mupppsharekhou skewehah hahahahahahaha”

…and my brain would translate it all to:

“Oooh, look, a gringo, I’m going to call my brother around the corner and get him to mug the stupid gringo, beat him half to death and steal his kidneys hahahahahaha.”

This would make me feel uncomfortable.

But this time, I was able to understand what people were saying. And it turns out that what almost everyone was really saying was:

“Oooh, look at the gringo. He’s gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finer looking human being. That’s one hell of a good-looking gringo. I want to take him home and make him tomate de arbol juice until he just explodes with happiness. Hahahahahahaha”

This made me a little uncomfortable too- I’m quite humble - but uncomfortable in a happy way. And I do love tomate de arbol juice.

Also, speaking Spanish enabled me to pick out words and phrases particular to Colombia. That was impossible a few years ago- it was all just new vocab to me, I couldn’t tell the difference between accents or local dialects. Having lived in Argentina, Ecuador and Chile, I now can.

Colombian Spanish is lovely, particularly in the north, along the coast where the accent is kind of laid back. Vowel sounds are elongated and 'Js' are semi-optional. Trabaaa'o, vieeee'o. Watch a Colombian or Venezuelan telenovela and you'll notice.

I also really enjoyed hearing ‘A la orden’ all the time, meaning “What would you like?”, “How can I help?” or “You’re welcome”, depending on context. It seemed formal, but friendly at the same time.

Other little words that spring to mind…the weather in Santa Marta was ‘sabroso” (tasty) and everything else in the world is either ‘chevere’ (cool) or ‘tenaz’ (bad, but also good depending on context. Kind of like saying ‘fierce’, if anyone uses that word anymore. Do they? I don’t really know, I've lived too long away from the English speaking world.)

And finally, contrary to what I’d been told repeatedly- that this word is only used in Spain- Colombians love to ‘coger’ public transport and various other things. Childish fun. Yey!

Anyway, after just a night in Santa Marta, I moved 15 minutes away to Taganga, a backpackers haven in a tiny fishing village. Again, the beach there isn’t really all that great but I enjoyed my stay in Taganga. I found a private room for about us$10, met some nice foreigners, drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of fried fish, drank a lot of mango and tomate de arbol juice and had fun chatting to the natives too.

Set lunch for about us$6:

Ahhh, the natives. Really friendly, really gorgeous and really approachable. If you’re single, I would suggest that Colombia is the place to be, for both boys and girls. Of course, I was only interested in talking- pure political insight is what I was after.

I also spent a day and a night in Parque Tayrona, a national park with pristine beaches about a 60 minute boat ride away. The trip was a bit rough and, as I woke up late and got on last, I had to sit right at the front of the boat. When we started hitting waves, I got slung about a fair bit and ended up with a monster bruise on my thigh (look away now if you don’t want to see my bruised thigh).

And the boat ride that caused it:

But it was worth it. I only went to the main beach as I was feeling lazy, but that was gorgeous. You can sleep in hammocks there or hire a tent (I did the tent). It was a fun day or so.

Hammock tower:

Beaches:

Cost-wise, for tourism, Colombia is probably about 10-20% cheaper than Chile. Both food and accommodation are this much less. But, as with anywhere, you can spend as much or as little as you like. Having had my trip back to England in March cancelled last minute because of the earthquake, I had some cash to spare and didn't really skimp on anything. I only had 10 days or so, so spending a bit more here and there wasn't going to make much difference.

And safety and security- both Santa Marta and Taganga are really safe. Police everywhere, friendly locals who never gave me the impression I was getting ripped off for anything. It was really nice to be able to relax.

The funny thing was, before I booked the trip, I was convinced that all I wanted to do was lie on a beach on my own, doing absolutely nothing. I spent several weeks doing just that in South-East Asia about 10 years ago and loved it. That was my plan for the whole 11 day trip. But it turns out that I get all the alone time I need in Colchagua, and after a couple of days, I was a-hankering for some stuff. Like people, noise, museums and bars. Particularly bars. So I changed my ticket and headed to Bogota for 4 days. A good decision as it turned out…

Renaca Beach: Tsunami Debris

2010-03-29T22:21:00.003-03:00

A couple of weekends ago I took the dogs for a walk along the beach in Renaca. The beach there is usually pretty clean with little drift wood or rubbish- it must be something to do with the geography of the bay...

This time, however, the beach was covered in debris...and it was sadly clear why. The tsunami that destroyed towns and villages along the coast in the 6th and 7th Regions was depositing what it had taken from them on beaches up and down the length of the country- pieces of people's homes, children's toys and whatever else floats...

Obtaining Residency in Chile: The Intelligent Way

2010-03-19T13:16:00.006-03:00

1. Talk to Francisco Agurto so he can tell you exactly what paperwork you need for your type of visa.

2. Get all the paperwork together and meet with Francisco somewhere nice, like Starbucks.

3. Hand the paperwork to Francisco.

4. Forget about things for 3 weeks and then...

5. ...your 'Visa en Tramite' will arrive in the post.

6. Depending on your visa type, wait 6-8 weeks and then start checking Extranjeria once a week to see whether your visa has been processed.

7. When the visa is ready, phone Francisco and arrange to meet him at 8.50am on any work day in Extranjeria. He'll be waiting with a number which he picked up at 8am.

8. 9am, have your visa stamped in your passport.

9. 9.05am, register your visa with Policia International (in the same building).

10. 9.10am, go to Registro Civil to order your Cedula de Identidad.

11. Pay Francisco 60-80,000 Pesos, depending on your visa type.

12. Laugh at everyone else who could afford to pay 80,000 Pesos but thought it'd be more fun to sit in Extranjeria for hours upon end, have their applications rejected due to missing (or not) paperwork forcing them to return to wait even more time.

Get in touch if you want Francisco's number (email address here). He'll save you hours, if not days, of your time, you won't make any mistakes and you'll get your visa quicker as well.

I now have my Residencia Definitiva. Time taken? 4 months and only 15 minutes total in Extranjeria. Actually, the visa was ready in less than 3 months- I just didn't check because Residencia Definitiva usually takes 9...

Yesterday was quite a good Chile day. By 9.45 am I had my permanent residency and a real bank account, complete with cheque book, credit card, debit card and possibility of getting a mortgage. To anyone outside of Chile, this may not seem like much but, trust me, it's a pretty big deal!

Why Being An Ethical Consumer Is Bad...

2010-03-16T21:22:00.002-03:00

Nothing to do with Valparaiso, Chile or the earthquake...but this is really quite funny:

Being ethical will turn you into a lying, cheating thief.

Who knew?

Further Earthquake News...

2010-03-07T19:26:00.001-03:00

...can be found over on Colchaguino.

Earthquake in Santa Cruz, Chile

2010-03-04T10:29:00.006-03:00

Well, Valparaiso wasn't too badly affected, certainly not compared to other parts of the country. That's not to say it didn't suffer, because it did. Just that the quake wasn't as strong and the city got back to normal with water and electricity a lot quicker than further south.

Here's my account and some photos of what happened during and after the earthquake in Santa Cruz, Chile. For more information and photos of what is happening in Santa Cruz, please visit www.colchaguino.com

I'm sure that everyone knows what happened by now so I won't go into a huge amount of minute detail. The earthquake has hit Santa Cruz really very hard. My guesstimate is that 80-90% of the adobe structures- houses, churches, government buildings, shops- in the area have either collapsed or will need to be condemned. So much of what makes the Colchagua Valley beautiful has been lost, along with so much history. It's so sad to see.

Not only have many people lost their lives but the earthquake will have a huge impact on everyone who has survived. The worst hit are the poor, as usual. Many now have no home and no prospect of work this year: the vineyards and fruit orchards have lost stock and much of the coming fruit harvest is now lying on the ground, rotting (the grapes survived pretty much unscathed, though).

But through all of this, the people of Santa Cruz have shown the most extraordinary attitude. We've seen none of the looting or trouble that has scarred other affected areas. Things have been orderly and calm. The clean up started immediately and by Sunday morning the streets were clean and passable and the petrol stations were rotating a generator between them, ensuring that fuel supplies remained in place. It has been fantastic to see this town and the community pull together.

When the quake hit at 3.34, I didn't quite know what to do. I tried to stand up but was thrown back into bed. So I just sat there, assuming it would end soon and assuming it couldn't get any stronger. But it didn't and it did. By the half way point, I was wondering how my house was still standing. And it still kept on coming. The only way I can describe it is that it was like being in a small boat in a big storm. It's quite unnerving when something as constant as solid ground becomes liquid.

To be quite honest, I really didn't feel scared. This is not me trying to be cool; it's just that I've never experienced a big earthquake before, just some strong-ish tremors, so I had nothing to reference it against. Afterwards, I knew it had been really powerful but it wasn't until the morning when I went out and spoke to my neighbours and saw the devastation wreaked that I started to comprehend what had happened. I asked one neighbour if it was worse than '85. He called out to his friend across the street and about 12 people shouted in unison, 'Si, po!'.

I cannot believe how lucky I have been. My house suffered barely a scratch. I didn't even lose a glass. The worst that happened was a shelf of tools fell on my car and left a dent in the wheel arch. So unimportant.

On Tuesday I went to Valpo to visit my house- all fine as well. The road there was a mess but was passable in most places, apart from a detour through Melipilla. Lago Rapel was badly hit, the road torn apart but by the time we came back on Wednesday afternoon, it was already well on its way to being fixed.

The response to the damage caused has been incredible in this part of the country. Things are getting back to as normal as they can be. It's really very impressive to see and it makes me proud to live here.

What the region- and the country- needs is for people to keep coming here as tourists or as investors. It's really important that people aren't put off visiting the country. Don't feel shy to come and tour the Colchagua Valley. You may think that it's not the right time, you may feel guilty but this is when we most need you to come.

Please come and stay in the hotels here, spend money and buy wine. Come and buy property- this is still a fantastic place in which to invest. This is not a marketing plan of mine, I'm not trying to take advantage of a terrible situation. I love the Colchagua Valley and I'm desperate to help the area rebuild itself. This is my home now and we need your help. Trade and investment will be the key to regenerating the region. If you are looking for a vineyard, fruit orchard or land for sale in Chile, please contact me via the link in the top right hand corner of this page.

Photos below:

In my house, all the wardrobes fell over. Sasha, my puppy, was trapped underneath. Thankfully, he's being crate trained and his cage, made by a guy here in Santa Cruz, survived the weight and the puppy got out ok.

The church on the Plaza de Armas was badly damaged and will need to be pulled down, I think.

The road leading onto the Plaza de Armas was seriously damaged. I imagine that the entire street will be demolished. A friend lived in one of these houses but thankfully came out alive. Her car- not so much.

This was the scene at 8.30, 5 hours after the earthquake struck.

By late afternoon on Saturday, the road had been pretty well cleared and by Sunday it was open to traffic. Very impressive.

The town centre was also badly hit.

Multihogar looked like it'd been ransacked.

The Imprenta Koqui didn't make it.

This house actually looked almost identical before the earthquake.

Bomberos- the aid distribution and registration centre. They've been doing a great job.

The Apalta Valley was badly affected as well...

...and wineries lost millions of litres of wine, causing the irrigation ditches to look this colour.

The road through Lago Rapel on Tuesday. By Wednesday afternoon, work crews had filled in most of the cracks and were busy preparing the tarmac.

I'll post more photos over the next day or two.

Earthquake in Chile

2010-03-02T18:52:00.002-03:00

Just a quick post to say I'm ok after the earthquake. Currently in Valpo checking on things, all ok thankfully. Tomorrow I'm going back to Santa Cruz with a car full of supplies for those most affected- the city has been really badly hit and is still without electricity. We only got water back this morning, just before heading to Valpo. So far, Santa Cruz's residents have shown the most amazing attitude to what has happened and we haven't seen any disturbances or looting, just a collective will to make things better. It's why I love Santa Cruz.

Once we get electricity back in Santa Cruz, I'll post again with photos- we might not have power until the weekend though.

To anyone in Chile, please donate food and milk- the worst affected desperately need it in Santa Cruz, even more so further south.

And to anyone watching the news overseas, not all of the affected area is being looted by brain dead morons- the vast majority of the people here are doing their best to help everyone else. Please don't think that what you're seeing is representative of what's happening everywhere.

Chile, The Land Of Charm

2010-02-15T14:32:00.004-03:00

This great video was sent to me by a friend. It's a 1937 Travel Talks programme all about 'Chile, the land of charm'. It's fascinating to see Vina, Valpo and Santiago in film from so long ago.

Expats in Chile

2010-02-14T12:38:00.002-03:00

If you're looking for information about moving to Chile and interested in meeting fellow expats then you should take a look at the Expats in Chile networking group.

Ariell and Viviana run a great website that is full of information about living in Chile. They organise expat meet-ups and other events and connect foreigners living in towns and cities all over the country. The group already has over 800 members.

Theirs is a friendly and inclusive group- unlike a certain other chile forum, whose owner believes that slandering potential competition (and also potential business partners) and spreading absurd and baseless lies is an ethical and appropriate way to do business. I continue to shake my head in disbelief at his practices.

Anyway, enough of that: Go make some friends!

More renovations...but not in Valpo this time...

2010-02-07T17:42:00.005-03:00

If you liked my posts about renovating my house in Valparaiso, you might be interested in seeing the job I did on my new house down in Santa Cruz in the beautiful Colchagua Valley. You might notice quite a few similarities in decor!

And if you're interested in buying a vineyard or fruit orchard in Chile or any kind of real estate in Chile, then you can see some fantastic properties over at www.chileinvestments.net Feel free to get in touch via the contact details on the right hand side.

New Year Valparaiso 2010

2010-01-18T15:17:00.006-03:00

First post in ages, I know but I've been busy recently having been to France and England for Christmas, back to Santa Cruz for a day then back up to Valparaiso for new year. And then I spent 2 weeks solid finishing off all the little details in my new house in Santa Cruz (updated photos on Colchaguino are coming soon if anyone out there is remotely interested).

Anyway, I spent my third new year in Valpo with this one being the Bicentennial celebrations. I was expecting more this year than before but the display was 3 minutes shorter than in previous years and the finale wasn't as long or loud. On the plus side, there were far more fireworks around the bay up to Con Con than before and it was all syncronised. Very impressive. And we got the second full moon of the month- a blue one no less- to make things even prettier...

Not so impressive were the Amazon sized rivers of urine running down the streets, the thousands of broken bottles and piles of vomit everywhere. Perhaps the council should think about spending some of the fireworks budget on portaloos and high-pressure water hoses to clean the streets the next day. The aftermath really is disgusting and doesn't give a particularly great impression to tourists...Just a thought...

Valparaiso, In The Top 10.

2009-12-03T19:57:00.000-03:00

The Times just has a little article about the top ten cities to visit in 2010 and Valpo made the list.

On the other hand, Nottingham (yes, Nottingham) is on the list so I'm not sure how much to trust the journalist. Nottingham is not a very nice city. It's the gun crime and murder capital of England. Also (surely not coincidentally) the city in which the most amount of gold chains are sold in England.

Still, it's all good publicity for Valpo.

Caleta Quintay: Update

2009-11-29T20:28:00.003-03:00

Fantastic news..!

The deadline for the project approval has been extended until mid-January
Without going into details that I've been asked not to mention, it would seem there's a genuine will on the side of MOP to reassess the project. Let's hope that they take into consideration everyone's points of view.
A well-known architect from Tunquen, Pedro Salas, has become involved in the little tussle- I hope that any project he is involved in is as considerate to the environment as some of his houses are (I've seen a couple in Tunquen- he's a really good architect).

My, personal, opinion of what should happen to Caleta Quintay is:

Ban public parking from the start of the single track road leading down to the caleta and have a single bus that goes up and down at 5 to 10 minute intervals at certain busy times. People can either take the bus or walk down.
Extend the pathway that leads to the ex-whaling station by a couple of metres out into the sea and make it nice. The coastal path that leads from the beach in Zapallar would be a good model.
Convert the ex-whaling station into a proper museum, based on the numerous examples from around the world (I drove 6 hours to go to the one in Albany in Australia).
Also use the ex-whaling station as the dock for the fishermen.
Whales will continue to return to Quintay over the coming years. In 10-15 years, they will be a regular sight. Educate the local fishermen about whale-watching tourism and make them understand that they'll be able to make far more money doing that than fishing in the medium term. Seriously- whales will be under two hours from Santiago and the airport. 30 minutes from Vina and Valpo. You usually have to travel hours and hours from major cities to see whales in South America. This could be huge business.

Anyway, that's my take on what should be done. I'm sure that not everyone agrees but I hope that the opinions of people who, like me, are not directly affected will be taken on board. A place like Caleta Quintay should be there for the enjoyment of everyone who lives in or visits this country.

How To Destroy Something Beautiful, Chilean Style: Caleta Quintay

2009-11-25T13:52:00.007-03:00

A few weeks ago, I went with a friend to Quintay as he was interested in purchasing one of the restaurants down by the caleta (fishermans' wharf/dock).

Caleta Quintay is beautiful. The drive from the Ruta 68 is beautiful, winding through forests before a series of sharp curves take you down into the town of Quintay. A single lane track leads down to a little cove with a beach and several decent seafood restaurants. On the walk down the lane, it's like a small little fishing village in Cornwall, only with better weather. It's really very pretty.

A couple of hundred metres along from the Caleta is the ex-whaling station. Whaling stopped in the 1960s and last year a mother and her calf were spotted for the first time since then. Whales are returning to Quintay after almost 50 years.

The whaling station is now open to the public as a museum. Granted, it's a pretty poor museum; the exhibits look like a 12 year old's school project but the potential to do something great is clearly there.

Unfortunately, the Ministerio de Obras Publicas and the local fisherman have other ideas. They plan to cement 30 metres out into the Ocean, covering the rocks, destroying the local eco-system, disrupting the nesting habits of Quintay's pelican population and completely destroying everything that is lovely about Caleta Quintay.

The supposed plan is for a new dock for the fisherman. It's pretty obvious to everyone that the dock will simply be used for parking. There is no need whatsoever for a new dock. The ex-whaling station that is already there would be ideal for the fishermen.

The budget for the project is about us$36 million. Seriously. Can you imagine what they could do with the Caleta and the whaling station with us$36 million if they wanted to design something good, something devoted to tourism, to whale-watching. The fishermen are clearly crazy- more tourists mean more restaurants which would mean more business for them.

This project will do nothing but drive tourists away from the Caleta. A huge opportunity to undertake a truly worthwhile project is about to missed.

Why not use the money to convert the whaling station into a wharf and a proper museum (as has happened very successfully in countless former whaling towns worldwide)? The beach area and coastal path could be renovated and cleaned up. Instead of allowing people to park at the beach (which creates serious traffic issues along the single track road leading down), why not have a bus system that runs from the top to the bottom (with parking only allowed from where the bus leaves)?

It is so frustrating to see Chile make the same stupid mistakes we made in Europe in the 60s and 70s that lead to so much destruction . Why can't this country learn from those mistakes?

I simply cannot understand how anyone could think this project is a good idea.

So you can see the scale of the destruction about to be wreaked on Caleta Quintay, the plans are below. If you are interested in knowing more, contact Mario F. Illanes, head of Comité, Salvemos la Caleta de Quintay via email: rightdir(at)vtr.net

The group needs urgent legal assistance, time is running out to either stop of modify the project. If you can help, please do.

Zapallar in 1992

2009-11-17T19:58:00.006-03:00

I seem to be posting more on this blog since I left Valpo than before...and I'm neglecting Colchaguino.

Anyway, I came across this article about Zapallar in the New York Times from all the way back in 1992. With the exception of the prices, it's still extremely accurate and interesting to read that almost 20 years ago Vina del Mar, Concon and Renaca had "become so overbuilt, with so many high-rise condominimums, that they resemble Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale in atmosphere. Simply driving up the coast in summer in those areas involves traffic jams and delays. Moreover, officials are worried about water pollution and inadequate sewage facilities for the large number of people."

The article also talks about a 'Presidential aspirant' Sebastian Pineras (sic)...

If you're looking for real estate in Zapallar, please feel free to contact me via: Chile Investments

Calle Condell Before and After The 1906 Earthquake

2009-11-16T11:52:00.002-03:00

These pictures give a pretty good idea as to the level of destruction wrought by the 1906 earthquake in Valparaiso.

Before- around 1870-1880. Look how pretty and peaceful it looks; no micros.

After- 1906

The church tower you can see belonged to the Iglesia Espiritu Santo in Plaza Victoria. It survived the 1906 earthquake but not the mentally deficient town planners who decided to knock it down in the 1970s in order to build an apartment block so monumentally foul, one might conclude that the architect was a blind toddler who drew up the plans with a pencil between his toes.

The First Expats

2009-11-08T14:23:00.002-03:00

Valparaiso is a city built by immigrants from all over the world, the original expats in Chile. The fire departments are testament to this, as are the cemeteries and also these adverts in a magazine from the 1920s.

The Bar Ingles is still around in the same place. It's a beautiful little traditional wood bar, shame its lunches are so unbelievably expensive and bad.

Baburizza- the man who built the palace of the same name on Cerro Alegre which the council has still not got around to reopening as the Museo de Bellas Artes 10 years after they closed it for renovations. Shameful.

Casa Francesa- locales in Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Buenos Aires, Santiago and Valpo...

Fruit

2009-11-07T19:36:00.002-03:00

Fellow ex-Buenos Aires resident Dan has just wrapped up another season of fruit farm and farmers' market blogging from Chicago. If you love fruit, fruit based recipes and laughing at the stupidity of people who shop at farmers' markets then I'd highly recommend heading over to Fruit Slinger.

And I will hopefully get around to posting something worthwhile and relevant to Valparaiso on this blog soon but, please, don't hold your breath.

You may have noticed I posted the same thing over on Colchaguino. Please feel free to read it again on a different blog.

Updated Bloggers In Chile List

2009-11-04T19:52:00.003-03:00

I've updated and rearranged the Chile blog list over on Bloggers In Chile. It's a great resource for anyone looking for information about living and working in Chile. If you're on the list, please can you link back to it on your blog. Thanks!

Top 5 Wanders In Valparaiso

2009-10-11T12:56:00.004-03:00

Around Cerro Concepcion and Cerro Alegre.

-Start at the bottom of Ascensor Concepcion on calle Prat and take a ride on the oldest funicular in Valparaiso. Wander along Paseo Gervasoni, past the hotel and then double back on calle Papudo and then take a left towards Paseo Atkinson. Walk along Paseo Atkinson, avoid going into the horribly over-rated and terribly run Brighton and then go right on Beethoven. You'll see the Iglesia Luterana on your right; if it's open go in and have a look, it's worth a few minutes. Walk right out of the church until calle Templeman and take a left past the Iglesia Anglicana (only open on Sundays). Take a right down Pasaje Templeman (there's a silver workshop on the corner) and walk down the steps. Stop at the bottom and look up at the awesome red casa crucero, a house completely renovated by yours truly.

Go left down Pasaje Galvez, down the steps and across Urriola. Walk up through Pasaje Bavestrello and at the top you'll find the other casa crucero in the neighbourhood. Continue down towards the sea to Paseo Yugoslavia and admire the embarrassingly crumbly Palacios Astoreca and Barburizza.

Walk back around and up calle Miramar, taking a left on calle Lautaro Rosas, Valpo's fanciest street. At the end, turn left down Alte Montt and head back down to Cerro Concepcion.

Along Avenida Alemania to Cerro Bellavista.

Start at the top of Cerro Alegre in Plazuela San Luis and walk left along Avenida Alemania. There's not much to see along this route apart from the incredible views of the port, Andes and Pacific. Do take a look at the clown museum on Plaza Bismark, though. Keep going until you reach Neruda's house, La Sebastiana, on Cerro Bellavista.

The cemeteries and ex-prison.

An essential walk to get a feeling for Valpo's history. Start in Plaza Anibal Pinto and walk up calle Cumming. After a few minutes walk, you'll find three cemeteries on your left, Numero 1, Numero 2 and Disidentes. Take an hour or more to wander through the graves of Valparaiso's oldest and most illustrious families and look at all the different nationalities who came to make Valpo one of the richest and more cosmopolitan cities in South America.

After the cemeteries, head across the street to the ex-carcel to see some fantastic graffiti and the cultural centre.

Plaza Sotomayor to Cerro Artilleria

Start off in Plaza Sotomayor and walk along calle Serrano. Poke your head into the awesome Bar La Playa for a quick beer. Just past the bar on the same side of the street there's a huge wooden door- if it's open, walk up the marble steps to see what was once one of the grandest offices in Valpo...

Continue to Plaza Echaurren and take a vistazo in Iglesia La Matriz, Valpo's oldest church. Afterwards, keep walking along Serrano until you hit ascensor Artilleria. Take the funicular up to Paseo 21 de Mayo and pay 500 pesos to go into the surprisingly good Naval Museum.

Plaza Anibal Pinto to Plaza O'Higgins.

This is a Sunday walk. Wander across Plaza de la Intendencia towards Plaza Victoria. Spend a few minutes in Plaza Victoria admiring the trees and fountain. Walk all the way along Avenida Pedro Montt until you reach Plaza O'Higgins, taking in the Teatro Victoria on the way. Upon reaching your destination, you'll find the stunningly ugly Congress building and a small antiques market.

Terrible Travel Stories

2009-09-25T14:09:00.001-04:00

This is part of a group blogging thingy and nothing to do with Valpo at all (it's also a repeat of the post I wrote over on my Santa Cruz, Chile blog Colchaguino.

I've experienced quite a few awful journeys back in the day when lugging a 25 kilo rucksack around in 90 degree heat seemed appealing. But I'll just stick to just the one.

The last really bad trip was in Bolivia. The journey was La Paz to Uyuni, where I would be doing the Salar de Uyuni tour (and as an aside, the Salar and the Altiplano lakes are the most spectacular natural wonders I have ever seen in my life and stomp all over anything Chile has in the north).

The trip started with a taxi driver who, despite my insistence I was late for the bus (I wasn't), insisted on taking me on an unwanted and undiscussed tour of most of La Paz. With the meter running, of course. This, despite the fact that the bus station was 8 blocks from where I hailed the taxi and I knew where we were supposed to be going. All my bags were in the boot of the car so I didn't have much choice in the matter, unfortunately.

Upon arriving at the bus station, I found out that the bus was delayed. By 7 hours. And no, there weren't any other buses leaving in that time. After wasting time by buying an 11 year out of date magazine and eating typical Bolivian gruel, the bus finally arrived. I got on the bus, expecting to be sitting near the front with all the other foreigners (they usually put travellers at the front). Instead, I was one row from the back, directly over the wheel arch, with about 3 inches of leg space and surrounded by friendly but extremely smelly locals who believed that chewing coca leaving and spitting on the floor was the height of sophistication.

The first 2 hours of the trip were then fairly uneventful. I got used to the constant staring from everyone around me. Perhaps the 20mg of Valium I'd bought over the counter at a local pharmacy helped. After 2 hours, the paved road gave way to one of the worst and bumpiest dirt tracks I've ever experienced. This on a 40 seater bus (it had at least 60 people on) with dodgy brakes and completely shot suspension. And remember, I was sitting over the wheel arch.

By this time, the aforementioned Valium had really kicked in. Even with the Valium I failed to sleep. I sat there for the next 12 hours unable to move, my muscles and brain feeling like they were melting. It was like being in a rather unpleasant dream. I don't actually remember all that many details, but one that sticks in my mind, despite the the Valium brain fog, was driving over one particularly deep ditch which resulted in the 5 foot tall Bolivian man sitting next to me being catapulted upwards and smashing his head against the overhead luggage compartment.

Upon finally arriving in Uyuni after 14 hours, my back was killing me, I'd had no sleep and my brain was still foggy from the Valium. It was about 2 degrees centigrade. Not only that, but I happened to arrive on a day when the town celebrates some saint by having a water fight. We were met off the bus by a bunch of children who proceeded to shower everyone with ice-cold water balloons. I found one of the kids later and threw him in a water-filled ditch, much to the amusement of all his friends. It wasn't meant to be funny.

An honourable mention goes to the 15 hour, overnight bus ride from Bangkok to Chiang Mai in Thailand which involved the most obnoxious group of Israeli travellers I've ever had the misfortune to come across (and if you've ever travelled in South East Asia you'll sympathise and understand what that really means), bongo drums, faulty air-conditioning, crazy overtaking manoeuvres and a change of drivers at 80mph (the new driver had clearly never driven a bus in his life before).

I'll just link to Bear Shaped Sphere for a list of the other participants as I don't have time to find everyone else.

Plaza Victoria

2009-09-22T12:57:00.003-04:00

Valparaiso was so grand and pretty back in the day. It's still incredibly pretty, but in a run-down, nostalgic kind of way. A lot of people think that the city shouldn't be allowed to change, that it should be kept grotty, poor and downtrodden as that's where the city's 'soul' comes from. I disagree. Valparaiso was a clean, well-maintained, wealthy and culturally vibrant city in the past and aspiring to return to that is something that should be encouraged.

Don't listen to the hippies :)

Valparaiso: Sunrise From Cerro Concepcion

2009-09-14T16:13:00.002-04:00

The Best Places To Eat In Valparaiso

2009-08-29T17:06:00.003-04:00

So as I no longer live in Valpo, I was thinking about the places I'll miss when I'm hungry.

Allegretto: Pilcomayo, just behind the Anglican Church, Cerro Concepcion. The best pizzas in town, friendly and welcoming staff and decor and open all the time. If you're ever hungry on a Sunday night, Allegretto is pretty much the only place open. It was always my go-to place whenever I was hungry and there was no food in the house.
Pastis: On the corner of Subida Concepcion and Pilcomayo, Cerro Concepcion. Duck to die for, amazing quiches, cute decor. Probably one of the best restaurants in Chile.
Mastodonte: Esmeralda, just down from Plaza Anibal Pinto. Best and cheapest lunches in town (2000 pesos for a well-presented and really good carne al jugo con arroz y ensalada chilena and a soft drink). Plus the decor is so unbelievably kitsch that you have to go check it out.
Le Filou de Montpellier: Great value French food, entertaining owner. Corner of Almte Montt and Urriola. It's never let me down.
Cafe Turri: Next to Ascensor Concepcion. Surprisingly good value and really pretty good food plus fantastic views.

I'll be back with more of my Valpo faves over the next few weeks. If you didn't know, I'm now living in Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley, Chile, where I'm about to go to a two year old's birthday party after taking the dog for a long walk. Isn't life exciting?

How To Get From Valparaiso To Santa Cruz...

2009-08-27T21:52:00.003-04:00

...because that's where you want to visit after spending a few days exploring Valpo...

The fastest way would be to simply click on Colchaguino for a virtual trip. The other ways would be:

By car: The long, more expensive (petrol and tolls) but infinitely easier way is to take Ruta 68 all the way to Santiago, connect onto the Costanera Norte and then take the exit to Ruta 5 Sur until you hit San Fernando. Exit in San Fernando following the signs to Santa Cruz Casino. From Valpo it'll take around 4 hours including a short pit-stop.
By car: The quicker, more complicated way- Exit Ruta 68 at Casablanca and follow signs to San Antonio. Follow the signs to Santo Domingo and Llolleo and you'll avoid having to drive through one of Chile's most revolting cities. Stay on that road for an hour or so, drive past Lago Rapel and then take a right at Cruce Las Aranas where the sign says 'Santa Cruz Casino'. Keep following those signs until you reach Santa Cruz. This way will take a around 3 hours if you don't get lost and it's a really pretty drive so worth the risk.
By bus: Take a bus to San Fernando, change to a local bus to Santa Cruz. This way will take you over 5 hours.
By bus and train: Bus to Santiago Estacion Central, train to San Fernando and then bus to Santa Cruz. A more pleasant way to travel.

Colchaguino

2009-08-14T16:34:00.003-04:00

On Tuesday we're moving down to Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley, Chile. The move is making me slightly crazed...I'm trying to fit a 200m2 house into a 100m2 house. I don't think it's going to work, to be quite honest.

Anyway, blogging has commenced over at Colchaguino, so please head on over and visit. And if anyone is ever down Santa Cruz way, please feel free to get in touch. I'm always happy to meet up with visitors.

I'm Sure This Should Be Considered Offensive...

2009-08-07T15:29:00.004-04:00

...a clothes shop for larger than average people called "Little Fatties".

I'm really not sure why, in the Spanish language, it's considered appropriate to be so rude about people's appearance...but it is...and it's the same in every Spanish speaking country I've been to.

Valpo: Home

2009-08-05T16:04:00.007-04:00

Wow, it's been a while since I blogged. I've become a little lazy over the past few months as my time has been more limited due to work and other commitments. I just got back from an entire month in the US on holiday which was pretty great but it's nice to be home again...even if it's just for a very short while before moving down to Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley (where I can assist you in buying a vineyard in Chile if you wish).

So you already know I was in New York. We spent two weeks in total in the city, upstate and out in the Hamptons and had a fantastic time seeing family and friends. The only downer was getting bitten by a tick in the Hamptons, contracting Lyme Disease and then having my last two weeks of fun in Seattle and San Francisco a tiny bit ruined by the ensuing symptoms of crushing depression, extreme fatigue, headaches, body aches, memory loss, brain fog, confusion, panic, heart palpitations, mood swings and generally feeling all-round rubbish. These were all constants throughout the week in Seattle but were intermittent by the time we got to San Francisco which allowed me to enjoy at least some of my time there.

Actually, I really liked Seattle. The setting is beautiful and there's quite a lot to do. I'm looking forward to going back when I'm not wanting to crawl into a dark corner and cry.

And San Francisco is now one of my favourite cities in the world. So much fun, so much diversity, such a tiny, beautiful city. The food is amazing, the architecture fantastic, the natural setting awesome...I didn't want to leave.

We also spent two days in Sonoma, Napa Valley and stayed with a friend who is a vineyard appraiser. He gave us the scoop on values, who's bankrupt, who's fighting with whom and a fantastic tour of the best restaurants. We had such a good time. It was fascinating to see the Valley- it looks identical to the land around Santa Cruz and also Casablanca. The only difference is that it costs us$650,000 a hectare in Napa and an absolute maximum of us$100,000 a hectare for the best vineyard land in Santa Cruz (the Apalta Valley to be exact). Santa Cruz has a way to go yet...

So here are a lot of photos from the trip.

Cocktails on Sunset Beach, pre-tick bite, now I can't really drink as I'm on antibiotics for 3 months :(

Sunset on Vashon Island, Seattle

Mount Rainier in the background

More Seattle

Napa Valley...

Fancy Yountville dog treats

At the doctor's office proudly holding my (still alive and engorged) tick before it was sent off for analysis. I won't mention where I found it on my body...

One of the prettiest and best maintained vineyards I've ever seen, managed by a US friend from Valpo...

More Napa

But this is Chile...

San Francisco...Alcatraz first

Bay Area

Cool architecture

Chinatown

I'm really not sure I'll have any time in the next 2-3 weeks to blog...I've got so much on at the moment. Probably by the time I have a spare minute to write anything, I'll already be in Santa Cruz, Chile and writing on my new blog, Colchaguino. Corrugated City will be updated on occasion as well- I've got a whole load of old photos to post...

Anonymity

2009-07-13T13:56:00.002-04:00

I stand out quite a lot in Chile- over 6 feet tall, white skin, blue eyes, 'blond' is not your average Chilean. And Chileans do love to stare, a trait they share with all their South American cousins. After close to six years, it really doesn't bother me at all. I normally use my foreign-ness to make my life easier in Chile and have become quite used to being stared at.

One thing I love about New York is that no matter what you look like and no matter what you're wearing, nobody else is even slightly interested in you. It's really liberating to start with...

But I don't think I could live my life being anonymous. I've actually grown to enjoy being a curiosity in South America. I'm happy in my own skin and don't feel self-conscious when people stare. It's nice that people recognise me and that I'm remembered when I go into shops and restaurants. I think it makes me feel a little special. And that makes me happy.

New York

2009-07-08T13:58:00.004-04:00

So I have a few minutes free to post some photos from my first few days here in the US.

We arrived on Saturday, 4th July. Incredibly, we got through customs and immigration in about 25 minutes. At JFK this is unheard of. The immigration officer even smiled. Wow.

Saturday was spent brunching, watching a free Conor Oberst concert in Battery Park and then watching the 4th July fireworks from the rooftop of a friend's apartment building. Having seen two new years in Valparaiso, the fireworks were a bit of a disappointment. As someone said after last new year, "Valpo has ruined fireworks everywhere else for me forever".

Now in upstate New York, back to the city for the weekend, up to East Hampton for a couple of days to visit a friend, back to the city again for a wedding and then off to Seattle. Busy...but fun.

Now for the photos. Sorry about the quality but I forgot my camera so these are from my phone.

Looking east from around W 43rd St next to the Hudson just before nightfall.

Fireworks- in the distance you can see that Jersey got a head start on Manhattan.

And finally...I seemed to be the only person enjoying the irony of 100 people arriving at 'land of the free' in the US anthem with a giant CCTV camera directly in front :)

Away

2009-07-03T09:43:00.003-04:00

I've had precisely no time at all the past week to blog...and later this afternoon I'm heading off on a one month trip to the US....New York, Seattle and San Francisco. I really can't wait to be on that plane, the last few weeks have been really crazy with work and other things. I've finally got everything organised, including a house and cat sitter who is recovering from swine flu...I hope it doesn't mutate into feline flu :)

Anyway, chances are I won't be doing much blogging on my trip although I'll try to post a few photos of various places. And when I get back, I'll have just a couple of weeks more in Valpo before moving to Santa Cruz where I'm really looking forward to starting a new chapter in my life (although I'll be doing the same work- that's real estate in Chile in case you didn't already know...).

So I'll leave you for now with a photo of where I'm leaving, a photo of where I'm heading to in August and proof that my cat deserves his name 'Tonto'.

Ascensor Polanco

2009-06-25T22:24:00.004-04:00

I wrote about Cerro Polanco a little while ago. As I have no time at the moment to blog properly, here's a photo of how it used to look sometime in the early 1900s.

HMS Manchester in Valparaiso

2009-06-19T10:49:00.007-04:00

On Monday the Royal Navy's HMS Manchester docked in Valparaiso. A few weeks ago, one of the crew had contacted me after finding this blog and asked about organising a wine tour for some of the guys (and girls) on the ship. As this was a large group, I sent them over to Michael at Wine Tours Valparaiso who organised tours over two days for junior and senior officers. By all accounts, they had a pretty fantastic time. After being stuck on board eating, quiet frankly, awful food, a gourmet lunch and wine tasting tour was apparently the highlight of their journey so far.

After going out for drinks with some of the crew on Tuesday, we were invited aboard the ship on Thursday morning. I actually thought it would just be a quick half hour walk around the boat but the guys gave us a complete tour of pretty much every part of the ship. We even had lunch in the mess hall (which is how I know the food is rubbish...). And on top of this, they gave us a huge bag of tea, bacon and sausages. I love the Royal Navy :)

What I found interesting is that on board life reminded me so much of going to boarding school. The banter between the people, the smell of the living quarters, the food, the atmosphere, the drills, the punishments for stepping out of line, the respect shown to superiors and also to each other...It was all so similar. The difference is, obviously, that these people are adults. I loved boarding school as a kid. But going to boarding as an adult would be a nightmare...

When US Navy ships have come to Valpo in the past, I've always noticed a rather large increase in referring traffic to this blog for Google searches for ladies of the night. This time, not a single search of that nature. I found that interesting.

In fact, the British sailors were all remarkably well behaved...with one exception. Two crew members made national and international news after stealing a Ronald Mcdonald statue, throwing it in the harbour and getting fined about 300,000 Pesos for their troubles. Whoops.

Our fantastic guide and his living quarters (along with another 30 guys).

The RN still press-gangs children into active service.

But I'm not sure this should be encouraged. Children and machine guns are not usually the best combination.

Then again, the same could be said about adults with GPMGs and SA80s. I should probably add that I'm really not a fan of guns and if this thing had been loaded I'd have almost certainly run away terrified.

This Lynx helicpoter comes from Westlands factory in Yeovil. Yeovil is one of the most unpleasant towns in England. The service crew who live on base at Yeovilton when in England all agreed with me. When back home, I live in lovely Sherborne, just 5 miles from Yeovil but a world away in terms of quality of life.

School dinners!

These three boats are all old Royal Navy vessels sold to the Chilean Navy. Britain and Chile maintain strong naval ties and many Chilean officers are sent over to Portsmouth for training. The Manchester would have been a candidate for sale a few years ago but is now so old and in such poor condition overall, the crew all seem to think it'll just be scrapped. It was built in 1978 and is showing its age.

The RN is a very welcoming bunch.

The boat to the right is from the Brazilian Navy, also in Valpo for a few days.

Plaza Sotomayor

2009-06-17T14:31:00.003-04:00

You might want to have a look at this post I wrote a few months ago about Plaza Sotomayor. The building you see with the tower was originally built in 1833 and used as Customs' House. In 1856 it was taken over and used as the Intendencia before being knocked down and replaced, in 1910, by the French style palace that still stands today (which was also the Intendencia before the Navy kicked out the council in the 1970s).

As I've mentioned before, the new Plaza Sotomayor project was recently cancelled, indefinitely it would seem. The remodelled Plaza should have been finished a couple of months ago. Yes, really. Instead, the council decided it would be better to cancel the approved plans and undertake another study as to the feasibility of renovating Valpo's main square. Then, once the study is finished, they'll set up another competition to design the Plaza. My guess is that the work will start around 3050.

Chile's Number One!

2009-06-10T12:47:00.004-04:00

I just read this report in El Mercurio that cites a study showing that, per capita, Chile has the highest number of flu cases in the world. Also, Chile is 4th on the list of swine flu cases. Not bad going for a country of 16-odd million people.

Now, given that around 35% of the population live in a a city with unbreathable air and thousands of respiratory illness cases every winter, these stats don't really surprise me. They do make me appreciate the fact that I don't live in Santiago, though.

The Global Post published an article about Santiago's air pollution a few days ago as well.

Valparaiso Antigua

2009-06-10T12:13:00.002-04:00

I'm afraid I haven't had much to say recently so I'm just going to post another foto antigua de Valparaiso. This was taken sometime during the 1920s (1927 is handwritten on the front of the photo album).

Anyone fancy a guess at the location?

Fruit and Veg: The Best Thing About Chile. Also Good In The US, Apparently.

2009-06-03T16:17:00.002-04:00

A little while ago, I wrote about how my favourite thing in Chile is the abundance of extremely cheap and really good quality fruit and veg.

Now if you're interested in investing in a fruit farm in Chile, you might want to take a look at Chile Investments.

But if you've ever wondered what it might be like to lose your job as a print journalist and end up working 18 hour days on a fruit orchard and farmers' market in the Chicago area, you might be interested to learn that infrequent commenter and all-round fruit lover Dan is about to start his third season in just such employ. This year he's even looking to be sponsored. Good luck with that.

If a fruit based snark-fest is something that tickles your fancy, you could do worse than go and read the archives over at Fruit Slinger and hope that this year's customers are as idiotic as last year's.

Valparaiso From The Water

2009-06-02T19:23:00.004-04:00

This photo, from around the 1880s (just after Plaza Sotomayor was totalled to make room for the monument for the heroes of the War of the Pacific) shows how Valparaiso looked from the water way back when. If you look very closely, there's a white coloured house almost to the far left of the photo. That's my house. And this is the oldest image I've ever found of it.

Chile Investments

2009-05-29T14:53:00.002-04:00

So the big news I mentioned a short while ago.

Over the past few weeks I've been putting together a new website for my business. I am basically continuing along the same lines as before but I will be focusing a little more on agricultural investments in Chile- vineyards, fruit farms, olive groves etc. I will continue to offer real estate consulting for individuals who have found a property and require assistance with the technicalities of purchasing property in Chile, such as legal entry of funds into the country and introductions to my lawyers for the title search and drafting of the purchase contract.

My new website can be found here: Chile Investments

As part of my new focus on vineyards, fruit farms and agricultural real estate in Chile, I will be moving down to Santa Cruz. If you've been reading this blog for more than a few weeks, you'll know that I've been down to visit several times. I really love the small town atmosphere and I miss the countryside living here in Valparaiso. I will definitely miss living full time in Valpo but I'm also looking forward to a change of scenery. I intend to rent a studio in Valpo once I'm settled in Santa Cruz so I can come back for weekends and visits. I certainly don't want to completely cut all ties with this city, it's been good to me!

So if you're an investor and looking for a vineyard in Chile, a fruit farm in Chile, real estate in Chile, real estate in Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley or any kind of investment in Chile, please feel free to get in touch and I'll help out in any way that I can.

Global Post, Chile

2009-05-27T19:42:00.002-04:00

Down towards the bottom right of this page, there's been a Global Post button for a while now. I don't know if any of you have ever clicked on it, but you really should do. To save you the time consuming task of scrolling down the page, here's a link to the site.

The Global Post is a project that started just a few months ago and aims to bring news and views from every country around the world via blogs and news articles. It's really a very impressive site and I recommend a read. The Chile page has some excellent political, social and economic articles and videos.

To act as a counter-weight to the quality content, this blog is featured.

A Short History Of Argentina's Economy

2009-05-25T15:28:00.003-04:00

This excellent article appeared in the FT over the weekend. As I lived in Argentina for three years, I'm still interested in how disastrously managed the country is.

Bucalemu...

2009-05-25T14:38:00.001-04:00

...pretty.

Sunset...

2009-05-16T19:09:00.003-04:00

...was pretty spectacular tonight.

Old Photo Friday

2009-05-15T13:02:00.003-04:00

Looking down towards Plaza Sotomayor and Barrio Puerto, sometime during the mid-late 1800s.

The Two Best Restaurants In Chile...

2009-05-12T15:07:00.005-04:00

...are not, in my opinion, in Santiago; they are in Valparaiso and Santa Cruz.

Here in Valparaiso, Pastis (corner of Subida Concepcion and Abtao) is, quite simply, fabulous. It has, without doubt, the finest duck breast (with duck-fat fried potatoes) I've had anywhere. The quiche starters are fantastic and the gazpacho is also really very fine (or so I've been told, as I don't like gazpacho myself). The desserts are pretty decent but not as good as the savoury food.

Pastis is expensive by Chilean standards (including a cocktail, 3 courses and a bottle a wine to share, it comes to around 20-25,000 pesos per person) but for the quality of the food and the restaurant aesthetics, it's at least two or three times less than something similar in New York, Paris, London or any western city would set you back. The wine list is decent and well-priced.

Seema (an old friend from home on a recent visit) modelling duck breast, duck fat fried potatoes and salad)

Down in Santa Cruz, you'll find the best Peruvian restaurant in Chile (and I really don't say that lightly), La Casita de Barreales. Absolutely everything on the menu is fantastic, in particular the ceviche (of which I'm not usually a huge fan). The pisco sours are brain-murderingly good. And the other great thing about dining there is that you're just a short trip away from all the vineyards in the Colchagua Valley.

Both restaurants are better than any I ate at over three years in Buenos Aires by quite some distance.

Cerro La Campana VI

2009-05-11T15:27:00.003-04:00

I hiked up Cerro La Campana again yesterday. I hurt today.

Click here for my other Cerro La Campana posts (scroll down the page).

Something Entertaining

2009-05-07T13:38:00.001-04:00

Two posts in a day after such a long gap...

Somebody sends this to me every year. It's pretty funny.

Once again, The Washington Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternative meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3 . Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Willy-nilly (adj.), impotent.

6. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

7. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

8. Gargoyle (n), olive-flavored mouthwash.

9. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

10. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

11. Testicle (n.), a humorous question on an exam.

12. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

13. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

14. Oyster (n.), a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.

15. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there..

16. Circumvent (n.), an opening in the front of boxer shorts worn by Jewish men

The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Foreploy (v): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of getting laid.

3. Cashtration (n.): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period.

4. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

5. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

6. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

7. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

8. Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease. (This one got extra credit.)

9. Karmageddon (n): its like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

10. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

11. Glibido (v): All talk and no action.

12. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

13. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web

14. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into you bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

15. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in thefruit you're eating.

And the pick of the literature:

16. Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an asshole.

Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales and Torres del Paine.

2009-05-07T11:19:00.014-04:00

Well, I have been a really bad blogger of late. A mix of work and feeling like I just couldn't be bothered have meant I haven't posted for a long time. The latter feeling hasn't really gone away, to be honest, but as I've got nothing else to do at the present moment...

A couple of weeks ago I went down to Punta Arenas with a friend so we could go visit Torres del Paine National Park. This was my first trip down to Patagonia, having been no further than Chiloe before, and it was very last minute.

We arrived on a Tuesday afternoon in pouring rain. It was cold. I remarked, quite cheerfully, that 'it's just like England'. When it got dark, soon after, the remark changed to, 'My god, it's just like England. Gah!' My first impressions were not great.

Next day, however, there was a bit of sunshine and we went for a walk around town and to the awesome cemetery. Punta Arenas was settled by British, French, German and Italians. But it was the Croatians who really left their mark. Croatian business names abound and the cemetery is full of Croatian tombs.

From the cemetery there are fantastic views out across the Magellan Straights over to Tierra del Fuego.

Santo Popular, Indiecito

After the cemetery, we wandered to the town centre with the inevitable Plaza de Armas. This was when I realised that Punta Arenas is actually a pretty beautiful town. The architecture all around the plaza is gorgeous, all reflecting the European influence in the town's history. Some of the wrought iron work reminded me of Buenos Aires and the complete lack of graffiti made a refreshing change from the rest of Chile. Punta Arenas is also a very safe place to wander around at pretty much anytime of the day or night. If it weren't for the driving rain, wind and snow, it might be a pretty cool place to live...

I thought this place had been shut down by the US government.

On the Plaza

One of the architects who designed the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires also designed the theatre in Punta Arenas. Not quite so special, really.

If you touch the indio's foot, you'll be returning to Punta Arenas. Dan was very excited.

Punta Arena's most spectacular attraction: A pole.

Our lovely host, Crissa.

Rainbow Part I

Rainbow Part II

That afternoon we set off for Puerto Natales, the gateway town to Torres del Paine. The yellow pampas for the entire 3 hour bus ride get old quite quickly but the sky, which you feel as though you can actually touch it's so close, is a constant wonder. Also, back in 1978, Chile and Argentina came this close to war. The Chilean military laid mine fields and massed most of its forces, waiting for an Argentine attack that was only averted by the Pope getting involved. Argentina decided to attack the Falklands instead in 1982 to drum up nationalistic pride, but that didn't end very well for them.

Anyway, Argentina didn't invade Patagonia by force. It found a more insidious way of conquering Chile: through technology. I received the following text message whilst still deep inside Chilean territory.

Puerto Natales has a reputation of being nothing more than a jumping-off point to Torres del Paine but I quite liked the place. The views across the water are spectacular, there are some decent restaurants (in particular the incredibly good pizza place on the corner of the Plaza) and there's a very laid back feel to everything. Still, we left early the next morning.

On the way to the park, the yellow pampas slowly gave way to greenery and towering mountains. Guanacos and sheep intermingled and we passed a lake full of flamingoes. Out of nowhere, the Torres del Paine revealed themselves. The bus driver slammed his brakes on and suggested everyone get out and take a photo as we probably wouldn't see them again; bad weather was on its way. Oh.

The hostel workers said the same thing. So we set off immediately on the trek up to the viewing point. It's about a 4 hour hike up and 2 or so back down. We started off in sunshine. It didn't last. The wind picked up, it started to rain and I was forced to put my 400 peso hi-vis plastic mac on. It turned out to be the best 400 I ever spent as it kept me dry-ish until we hit the...snow on the last 45 minutes. That soaked through all my clothes and left me shivering until we arrived back at the hostel in the dark.

Lovely sunshine:

But, at the top, the view that greeted us was this:

Apparently, on a nice day it looks like this (from www.visitchile.com):

The painfully inevitable graffiti (that's all there is but still...)

Still, it was worth the hike. The views when the sun was out at the start were pretty cool and I needed the exercise. I'd fueled up by eating several lambs (best in South America but still not as good as NZ or Welsh lamb), pizza, crisps, chocolate milk and biscuits. I'd assumed we'd be doing at least 3 days hiking. We did just the one.

Next day, we decided to head back to Puerto Natales as the weather forecast was poor for the next few days. The early morning views of two of the three Torres was spectacular from the hostel, but it soon disappeared.

The following day, we set off on a boat tour to see a couple of glaciers. Dan was obsessed with the things for some reason and was very excited. Personally, I just see them as extremely slow moving rivers. However, the boat trip was very cool, the scenery was amazing and at the end of the day, I got to eat another couple of lambs.

Serrano Glacier

Balmaceda Glacier (just 20 years ago it reached all the way to the water)

Back in Punta Arenas later that night we headed out for Australs with Crissa. And then the next day we wandered around town a bit more, saw the sights and did what any self-respecting person does on a cold, wintry Sunday; cake and coffee.

And then we flew home. Patagonia, when the sun comes out, is stunningly beautiful. When it's cold, wet and windy it's like England on a December afternoon. Not so great. But not so bad when you're drinking in a warm pub.

Next stop: La Carretera Austral.

Life in General

2009-04-16T14:20:00.007-04:00

So as I mentioned before, I've been really busy with work and play over the past few weeks. I still am pretty busy so this might be my last post for another short while.

First off, a couple of weeks ago I went with some friends to see Radiohead. I love Radiohead and will happily name them as my favourite band of all time. Completely awesome. I'd last seen them live in 1995, at the quite fantastic Glastonbury festival (before they erected the giant concentration camp fence to stop people like me sneaking in for free). It was just a month or so after they'd released OK, Computer and they put on a pretty amazing show.

The Santiago show was better. In Rainbows, their last album is probably their best. I can't believe that after almost 20 years they're still getting better. They played for almost two hours and thankfully avoided playing Creep, my least liked Radiohead song. They did play Just, though, one of my favourites and the song that spawned my favourite music video. Watch and make sure you read the text along the bottom.

After Radiohead, we went down to Santa Cruz for the weekend and once again stayed in the quite lovely Hotel Casa de Campo. I finally got to eat in one of the best Peruvian restaurants in Chile, La Casita de Barreales. So good...We also met up with some friends in Curico, which was nice.

Curico, on top of the hill:

And then I got an email from an old friend from university saying that she needed a holiday and could she come and visit for Easter. I asked whether she realised Easter was 10 days away, she said 'yes' and then bought a ticket. Her short trip actually made me realise that you can do a lot in a very short time here in Chile. Anne arrived on Thursday morning and left on Tuesday evening. In that time, we toured Valparaiso, had lunch at El Chiringuito in Zapallar, met up with friends, went for dinner at Pastis (a new French restaurant on Cerro Concepcion- pricey but highly recommended), spent an afternoon lazing around on a friend's terrace drinking wine, headed back down to Santa Cruz for two days and then did lunch in Puerto Peru in Santiago followed by an afternoon of Santiago touring. That's actually quite a lot of stuff. And quite a lot of eating and drinking as well. It's taken me two days to be able to eat anything heavy.

Zapallar

One of the things we did in Valparaiso was go to the Museo Lukas, the former home of Renzo Pecchenino, cartoonist for several newspapers in Chile and in Latin America. The house is on Paseo Gervasoni, on Cerro Concepcion and has been beautifully restored to house a museum of Lukas' drawings, a cafe and an art-house cinema. I highly recommend a visit. Some of his cartoons are hilarious and really accurately satirise Chilean society. Here are a few I enjoyed (click to enlarge and read the text on them) :

Down in Santa Cruz this time, we went on a tour of Viña las Niñas, a French, all female owned vineyard in the Apalta Valley. There you can do a tour of the vineyard on bikes, run by the friendly and knowledgeable Claudia. As it's out of season, there were no other tourists so we spent two hours lying around and then tasting wine in the sun by a duck-filled lagoon. I really recommend the tours there and Claudia is also trying to get a rent-a-bike and wine tour business off the ground, something I think should be supported. They also produce the only Chardonnay I have ever liked. I even came home with a bottle.

It was really nice having Anne to visit. Not only did we have a fantastic time, but it's also good to be with people who have known me for a long time. Everyone I know in South America I've known for a maximum of 5 and a half years. Old friends are easier to be with sometimes.

I've also made quite a monumental decision over the past few weeks. You'll have to wait to hear that news though.

Old Valparaiso (Again)

2009-04-06T15:30:00.003-04:00

I'm really busy at the moment, which would explain my lack of blogging over the last month or so. Bear with me. In the meantime, here's another old photo of Valparaiso. It's actually quite hard to work out, but I'm pretty certain that the hill to the left of the photo is Cerro Alegre/Concepcion and the bluff in the middle of the photo is Lord Cochrane's house.

The photo is from the 1860s, before Plaza Sotomayor was created and more land from reclaimed from the sea.

Pichilemu Puts Valparaiso To Shame

2009-04-01T08:55:00.008-04:00

A couple of years ago I went to Pichilemu and was struck by the beautiful Casino Ross. Sadly, it was in a state of complete abandonment and it seemed destined to gently decay and eventually collapse in on itself.

The building was the first casino in Chile. Started in 1906, it was finished in 1909 and the casino functioned until 1932 when it lost its licences. It continued to function as a luxury hotel for some years and then slowly fell into abandon. It was later acquired by the council and left to rot. In 1988 the building was declared a Monumento Nacional, which is what the Chilean government does when it can't think of anything else to do with a beautiful old building.

Pichilemu was Agustin Ross' domain. Part of the powerful Valparaiso based Ross-Edwards family (they founded El Mercurio and are still prominent members of Chilean society), Don Agustin was a philanthropist at heart and donated the stunning park that adjoins the Casino to the town. The park contains over 100 now giant palm trees and is impeccably maintained.

18 months ago, funds were obtained from the regional government to restore the Casino. Around us$1 million was set aside for the complete renovation and reconstruction of the building. For the amount of work that was done, this was (as our enthusiastic guide who worked on the project said) a miseria. A pittance. And it's true- they managed an incredible job. The inside of the Casino was almost completely reconstructed. The roof tiles were cleaned by hand. And the facade was completely renovated. The result is amazing. And it took just 15 months.

The Casino now contains a library, conference centre, art gallery and community centre. Cheap cultural projects and classes are available to residents and the idea is to give the youth of the city something to do and something of which to be proud. It's a fantastic example of what can be done in Chile with just a little ganas.

Compare this with Valparaiso's shameful handling of the us$80 million BID funds; with the council's inability to get any major renovation project off the ground; with the continued closure of the Museo de Bellas Artes in the Palacio Barburizza; with the postponed for god knows how long Plaza Sotomayor project. Pichilemu has shown that Valparaiso is being managed by incompetent at best and corrupted officials at worst. I want Valpo to improve as much as anyone. I love this city. It's painful to see nothing happening and nothing changing.

Click here and here for photos and videos of the work in Casino Ross, Pichilemu.

Punta de Lobos

Main beach

Sarah Palin dropped into town once and misspelled 'Maverick'.

Where To Stay In Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley

2009-03-31T12:50:00.008-04:00

I've just returned from another trip to Santa Cruz in the Colchagua Valley. I love this part of Chile. I love the countryside. I could quite happily live on a mini-farm in the middle of nowhere in the Chilean countryside. I spent most of my childhood running around in the country and the older I get, the more I miss the greenery and the less the city appeals to me.

I was down on business and pleasure on this trip, catching up with some friends who will be involved in my re-vamped consulting agency. If you are interested in investing in a vineyard in Chile, please visit Chile Investments. In the meantime, here's a run down of places to stay in Santa Cruz.

Mid-Range

I'd suggest one of two options here. The first would be Hotel Entre Viñas (the website isn't really finished yet) in Nancagua-about a 10 minute drive from Santa Cruz. Although I haven't actually stayed in the hotel, I went to visit on my last trip to Santa Cruz as the place is owned and run by a friend's father. There are photos below. For the price, this is a really fantastic option. Rooms go for around 50,000-70,000 Pesos for a double. The house itself is really nice with lots of old family heirlooms dotted around the place (the family has lived in the area for a couple of hundred years so they've collected quite a lot over the years). The rooms are spacious and well-designed and there's a garden with a pool for the summer. Very good value.

The second option would be where I just stayed (I chose this place as it's just a couple of minutes drive from my friends). Hotel Casa de Campo is a little more expensive, ranging from 70,000-85,000 but it's definitely worth it. The rooms are beautifully designed in a new two storey construction that looks like it was built 100 years ago. The rooms are gorgeous and look out over fields towards the mountains. Hot water is provided by solar panels and the central heating system (for winter) is run from a huge wood burner (definitely more efficient and less polluting than gas of which Chile has none). The owners are also incredibly friendly and ensured we had everything we needed at all times. (Not very good) photos below.

Highly recommended.

High-End

I guess the first place that should be looked at would be the Hotel Santa Cruz. Personally I wouldn't want to stay there as it's a little too large and impersonal but it's definitely a good option. Rooms start at around 140,000 Pesos. There are a couple of good restaurants in the hotel and you can arrange all your wine tours from the reception desk. It's convenient and the hotel is really well designed.

Viña La Playa is about a 25 minute drive outside of Santa Cruz and set in the middle of the vineyard's land, surrounded by vines. A client stayed there last year and it's definitely a good place to stay. The grounds are beautiful and there's a pretty decent restaurant there as well. It's a little far away from everything for my tastes but if you want total peace and quiet then it's a good option.

Old Photo Friday

2009-03-20T10:52:00.002-04:00

Avenida Brasil looking down towards Plaza Bellavista/Civica/Intendencia. The thin building in the middle of the photo is now where the Intendencia is situated in a truly hideous architectural kick in the knackers. Have a look here.

The Esmeralda-Comings and Goings

2009-03-19T11:43:00.003-04:00

The other day, the Esmeralda left Valpo with a cargo full of lucky new Chilean Naval Officers on a round the world jolly. They get to sail a tall ship to far-flung destinations for 9 months or so. Not a bad life...

So here is the Esmeralda arriving in Valparaiso last December (in time for New Year when it is beautifully illuminated).

And leaving again.

View from Cerro Artilleria, Old and New

2009-03-13T11:49:00.006-03:00

It's now impossible to get this view from Cerro Artilleria- there's been quite a lot of construction since this photo was taken sometime, I'm guessing, in the 1860s or so.

If you look very closely (click on the image to enlarge), exactly half way up the very far edge of the right hand side, you can just about make out Lord Thomas Cochrane's house. A little bit in and you can see an unbuilt upon bluff (it's got a white line running down the middle of it). This is where the Palacio Barburriza was built and the hill which Ascensor Peral services...the only really flat part of Cerro Alegre-Paseo Yugoslavo. And just to the left of that is Cerro Concepcion. Or 'home' as I prefer to call it.

The best views I could find...mix the first two together to get the actual equivalent of the old photo.

The Palacio Baburriza

The Floridafication of Chile

2009-03-12T13:10:00.003-03:00

Sometimes it seems that all Chile wants to do is convert itself into Florida...shiny new, crappy quality tower blocks and malls. Vina del Mar is an obvious example but the desire to show Chile as a new, dynamic and economically successful country often makes the average Chilean forget that old doesn't necessarily mean bad. This is part of the problem of Valparaiso. Instead of being proud of having such a stunningly beautiful and eclectic city in their country, many Chileans see Valparaiso as an embarrassment because it's dilapidated and crumbly. It's backward and doesn't show obvious wealth. They urge foreign visitors to go to 'beautiful' Vina instead. For many Chileans, visitors who come to Valparaiso and leave without having been robbed, raped or murdered are the lucky ones. They forget that wealth is not just monetary.

A friend recently took a taxi from the airport into Santiago. The driver asked where she lived and expressed shock when she said Valpo. Apparently, Valpo is full of thieves and pickpockets and petty criminals. 'Sounds just like Santiago', my friend said. The driver looked puzzled for a minute before replying, 'I guess you're right.'

According to today's El Mercurio, malls cover the size of 400 football pitches in all of Chile.

I have one word for that news.

Yak.

Late Edit: And talking about mallification, go read this entertaining piece about the disastrous opening of the hideous Westfield Centre in West London.

Wine! Grapes! Vineyards! Colchagua!

2009-03-11T19:01:00.007-03:00

On Monday and Tuesday I went down to Santa Cruz, in the heart of the Colchagua Valley, famous for being the centre of production for some of Chile's finest red wines. It's a beautiful area of the country and I love getting away from the city from time to time.

This time, I wasn't there for wine tours but for my own work. I'm re-starting my agricultural property consulting after a sabbatical year and went down to talk to real estate agents, oenologists and other people I'll be working with. If you're interested in investing in Chile in a vineyard, fruit farm or any kind of real estate in Chile then please visit Chile Investments.

I had a great time catching up with some friends I haven't seen for over a year and the trip was pretty successful. Apart from quite literally being run off the road at 80mph by a brain dead muppet, missing a road sign by a couple of inches and being within a split second of becoming a statistic.

Having been forced to study them for my business degree, I can truthfully say that I hate statistics.

Street Art, English Style

2009-03-06T13:29:00.005-03:00

This guy's been getting quite a lot of press recently...so much so that it was my mum who emailed me these pictures. The artist is Julian Beevor, an Englishman who uses chalk to create some pretty incredible 3D images. In all of these photos, the only real things are the people, everything else is drawn. When it rains, it all washes away.

360 View From The Roof Of A House On Abtao, Cerro Concepcion

2009-03-05T10:07:00.007-03:00

As you might have guessed from the title of the post, here's a series of photos forming a 360 degree view from the roof of a house on Cerro Concepcion. That's real estate in Valparaiso Chile or perhaps a house in Valparaiso Chile or perhaps a property in Valparaiso Chile or maybe just real estate in Chile and property in Chile. I'll let you decide which description you prefer. Personally, I prefer real estate in Valparaiso Chile but, hey, that's just me.

If you want to buy the house with these rather lovely views then click along to real estate in Valparaiso.

The quality of the photos isn't all that great as I only had my iphone with me but they're not too bad...you can click on them to make them bigger.

Looking out towards Viña. On completely clear days, usually only in winter, you can see all the way to the snow-capped peaks of Aconcagua and the surrounding mountains.

Looking towards the port and the naval ships...

Looking down Calle Abtao with Cerro Artilleria and Playa Ancha far off in the background

That's St Paul's Anglican church in the foreground on Calle Pilcomayo. In the background is the hideous tower block that ruins the views for many people living behind it. It does actually serve one quite useful purpose, however...as there are no other tall buildings in the area, it's a great landmark for picking out Cerros Alegre y Concepcion from afar. You can see it in this photo from the top of Cerro La Campana. Through binoculars from there, I was able to find my house.

Just behind the house on Abtao is the Ex-Colegio Aleman, now Colegio del Mar or something like that.

Behind the school, you can see Cementerio Numero II

And here you can see Cementerio Numero I

And to finish the 360 tour, two photos of the Iglesia Luterana on Abtao.

Recently I Have Been Enjoying...

2009-02-26T08:51:00.002-03:00

...a sometimes entertaining blog about not very much, written by a reclusive, anonymous American who, apparently, likes fruit, ice-cream, dulce de leche, Josh Ritter and prostituting his body for medical research.