Horseback Riding in Con Con

Most of the gang

 For our last full day in Con Con, we went horseback riding.  It was a ton of fun!  There were eight of us in all...our guide, his son, my mom, Max, me, two dogs, and a month old foal (baby horse) that wouldn't leave her mom's side.  It was a three hour long adventure where we galloped along the beach, saw some Chilean wetlands, crossed the Motagua River, headed into the forest, and explored the sand dunes.  When we stopped to let the horses rest about halfway through the trip, our guide pulled out a fresh pineapple and sliced it up for us. 
    

The wetlands

The forest

Motagua River

Sand dunes

The galloping part was a little difficult for Max and me because we had absolutely no idea what we were doing, but I think we got the hang of it near the end.  Nonetheless, it was a lot of fun and a great way to spend our last day together in Chile. 






































The next day, we packed up our things and headed to the airport.  We had one last ave con palta sandwich with a side of fries together in the airport cafe and then said our goodbyes.  I miss them tremendously and cannot wait until I get to see them again in December, but can't tell you how excited I am for these next few months!  Headed to Argentina in a week, then San Pedro de Atacama in northern Chile, then down south to Pucon, and finally to Peru.  Stay tuned, because there are many more posts to come! 

Con Con

This was the view from our apartment in Con Con.  It was gorgeous!  The apartment was pretty cute too.  As for Con Con though, there's not much to do.  It's known for the surfing and there were a ton of people out trying to catch waves everyday, but the water was FREEZING, so we decided not to try it.  There were a few good restaurants around too, but for the first night we grilled out.  

 There was a charcoal grill on the patio, so we figured we would swing by the grocery store, get some meat and veggies, and a little charcoal and we'd have dinner ready in no time.  Turns out we were wrong.  We bought charcoal originally thinking it had lighter fluid on it, but when we tried to light the coals, nothing happened.  So we ventured out again looking for lighter fluid.  We went to about six different stores and no one understood what we were asking for...people just kept trying to sell us more charcoal!  Finally, we were explaining our dilemma to the owner of a little fruit mercado.  He told us he didn't have any lighter fluid, but took out a stack of newspaper from behind the counter and a wooden crate.  He signaled to us to take it, and explained that if we roll up the newspaper, then place the charcoal on top, and finally the crate on top of that, we could get the coals to light.  We said thank you and asked how much he wanted for it.  He shook his head, waved us off and said "nada" and while doing that I'm sure he was thinking to himself: "stupid gringos."  

So we headed back to the apartment, where Max used the newspaper and pieces of wood from the crate to build a fire.  After awhile, the coals were hot and we were ready to grill! 

   

This was the finished product...chorizo, steak, guac, grilled asparagus and mushrooms, and of course some beer.  It was delicious!

The second night, we took a walk along the beach in search for shells, and then had dinner and drinks at a local restaurant.  

2 pisco sours and a caipirinha...yum!

Chao poh!

 Our last day in Valparaiso, we visited La Sebastiana (Pablo Neruda's house).  It was fun to go back through a second time, because I saw a lot that I didn't notice the first time around.  Max and mom enjoyed it too!


These two pictures are 
of the view from his house.
 

And here we are in front of the house.  Aren't we just adorable?

After we toured his house, we walked down the hill and I showed them the stairs I painted.  Then we headed to the apartment, packed up our things, said "chao po" to Valparaiso and made our way to Con Con!

Cafes and Restaurants in Cerro Alegre

 "El Desayunador" was probably our favorite breakfast place in the area.  They had good eggs, and awesome juices!  Max always got the Mapuche which came with a large piece of bread, avocado, tomatoes, hashbrowns, and lots of merken (a local spice). 

 This was taken at Color Cafe.  It was the first time I had been there, but all of my friends told me it has the best hot chocolate in all of Valpo, and they weren't lying!  The hot chocolate with manjar was amazing!  Max had an espresso, which wasn't the greatest considering coffee in Chile kind of sucks...oh well.  


 
  I don't know about my mom and Max, but the restaurant to the left was definitely my favorite of the whole trip.  It was called "Fauna" and had an incredible view of the city and the ocean.  The food was great too!  I had the best salad, with whole lettuce leaves!  (Something else that I've never experienced  in Chile, because everyone shreds the lettuce) 

I don't remember the name of this cafe, but it has an incredible view of the ocean as well!  It was really cold after a few minutes of sitting outside though, so we moved inside before we ordered.  We had a sandwich with ave con palta (chicken and avocado) and some fries...something we ate almost everyday :)

Familia!

On Saturday (9/15/2012), I went to Santiago to meet Max and my mom at the airport.  Their flight was a little delayed so I waited for an extra hour to see their wonderful faces, but it finally happened!  After a little crying and a lot of hugging, we were off to Valparaiso!  We spent about two hours on a bus, and then took a taxi to the apartment...

This was our apartment for the 5 nights we spent in Cerro Alegre.  It was really spacious, comfortable, and even had central heating (very rare for houses in Chile)!  It was also close to some good restaurants and cafes.  It was situated on the top of the hill so it had a great view, but also meant a lot of walking uphill...something I think we're all still a little sore from.  Got some great calf muscles out of it, though!  

On Monday, we explored the Casablanca wine valley.  We first went to a little winery, Quintay where we tried all of their wines and even got a free tour of the warehouse!  The woman explaining the wines to us was so nice and absolutely adorable!  She even gave us three wine openers as a parting gift.   

We then went to Casas del Bosque, where we tried three different wines.  The tasting room was gorgeous!  They had wine glasses in the middle of the table each filled with a different substance (strawberries, chocolate, vanilla, etc.) so that we could pick out different smells in the wine.  The wine was great, but the guide was a little less enjoyable.  He was not the most informative person when it came to the wine and I think he was in a rush to get out of there.  We still managed to have a great time though!  

On Tuesday we ventured into Viña del Mar where we saw the Reloj de Flores (flower clock).  

 Then we went to the famous Sibariticos for lunch!  Anthony Bourdain visited this place when he was traveling through Chile, so you know it's good!  

I meant to order two completos (because that's what Anthony Bourdain ordered), but ended up ordering two of these gigantic sandwiches by mistake, and by the time I realized I had ordered the wrong things it was too late.  We were stuck with them.  They were pretty delicious, but way too much food for two people!  They had beef, avocado, and tomato. 

We did eventually get Max his completo though!  It's basically a massive hot dog with sauerkraut, tomatoes, cheese, and avocado.  I think he liked it! 

After lunch, we headed further into Viña for the fonda (a carnival they had set up for fiestas patrias).  We enjoyed a few terremotos and then headed back to the apartment for some downtime. 

Leaving My Mark

Before

After

                                                             

Today, Mari Clare's host mom, Myriam, took us to paint some steps in Cerro Bellavista.  She's an artist and loves to brighten up the city with her artwork, and always brings study abroad students along.  When we first met up this morning, she wasn't sure where she wanted to paint, so we just started walking. In Valparaiso, painting steps is legal and very common.  You also don't need a permit to do it, so everything is fair game.  

There were 7 of us gringas and 4 chilenos, all wandering around Bellavista with 5 cans of paint searching for a place to leave our mark.    Finally, near the open sky museum we found some and got right to work.  We painted for about three hours, and by the time we were done, the cerro looked completely different.  It was so much fun, and the people living in the neighborhood were very happy we chose their steps.