Chile - A Delight

Had the chance to visit Chile on business trip this week. What a beautiful country. Despite not having any Spanish language skills, I still managed to travel around on foot, by cab, riding the subway, do some crafts shopping, restaurant hopping and taking in the sights.

Chile is a colourful country, thanks to its southern European traditions. The cities I visited were particularly interesting to me, because they triggered many memories.

Low-rise concrete apartments with their large iron frame windows in Vina del mar reminded me of similar buildings in Hong Kong, the Kowloon Tong and Kowloon City area.

The red earth, palm trees and old buildings looked a lot like Ghana, Togo, Abidjan in the 70's, as if time had stopped in that period.

Then there was Santiago. The wide avenues, crazy traffic, subway stations and use of open space for parks and resting areas were especially a lot like Taipei.

People were friendly and helpful, city streets were very clean and tidy, plus all that seafood made me feel safe, comfortable and happy at all times. The cleanliness and orderliness on their subway system puts the TTC in Toronto to shame.

I was also delighted to learn about the connection between Chile and the Easter Island (Rappa Nui). Aboriginal art is all the rave these days - Australia, Mexico, Peru etc. etc. Sadly, I thought, the Easter Island head replicas was overdone everywhere in Chile, just as you would see in those other countries. Still, I was very intrigued by the story of those people and their culture - it's given me ideas about a future trip, perhaps.

Cities visited - Santiago, Vina Del Mar, and Valparaiso

Favourite meals:

1. Delicias Del Mar, Vina Del Mar = the salmon carpaccio and fried albalone
2. La Concepcion, Valparaiso = Pumpkin soup with ginger

3. Cafe Turri, Valparaiso = octopus carpaccio

4. Azul Profundo, Santiago = Cerviche made with salmon, and the calamari cooked in olive oil

Souvenirs:

1. stone carved turtle

2. a woollen throw

3. Chilean red wine

4. Argentinian (Havanna) chocolates

Biggest waste on me throughout the trip: Chilean wine (my damn liver)