Chile Part I – The Unplanned Destination

I never thought I’d be visiting Chile this year. The country was somewhere on my list of desired travel destinations, but nowhere near its top. Yes, Jim and I had talked about Patagonia in the past and I knew that geographically speaking, this was one of the most beautiful places in South America to visit. But I didn’t prioritize it that much.

Therefore, I ended up surprising myself when I said yes to Monia’s exclamation of “Let’s go to Chile!” when we were planning our trips for 2018. The destination might not have been on top of my list, but there was one place in the country that I longed to visit for a while. That place was Atacama.

Not too many people have heard of Desierto de Atacama despite its magnificent beauty. I am not really sure why that is, but I’m not complaining since thanks to its lesser popularity, it remains a relatively un-touristy destination. We ended up being able to explore many of its corners without any person in sight. But I’m getting slightly ahead of myself here…

Monia and I settled on March travel, although we didn’t research the weather prior to booking our tickets. Beginning of March in Chile is almost the end of summer – still plenty of hot sun during the day, but much cooler mornings and evenings. I didn’t read up much on Santiago prior to our departure date. I have this weird problem with doing travel research before I go anywhere – I hate to know too much! Instead, I focus on photographs from that place and research plenty of google images before I go. It’s a sickness of mine and I can’t help it! But internet photos is how I came to find out that Santiago has a beautiful city skyline backdropped against the Andes mountains. Which in turned helped us pick the right Airbnb, with an access to a rooftop from which spectacular views of the city lay before us.

(One of the reasons I do this is that good photography doesn’t just randomly happen. You cannot expect to show up somewhere at random, at a random time, put the camera to your eye, press the shutter and expect to create mind blowing work. Maybe you’ll get lucky once or twice this way. Maybe things happen to align perfectly for you at that one time. But believe me when I say this, things always work out better when you pre-plan a little more. When you get brave enough to scout locations, online or in person and observe how the light falls there at different times of the day and maybe just sit quietly there for a moment to really feel the atmosphere before using your camera, that’s when your work will improve tremendously. I am speaking from experience on that).

Santiago is a huge city and I would have to spend at least a month there to really get to know it. Or is a month really enough time to get to know any city? Most likely not. That being said though, the things that stay with me the most after any travel experience are not so much the physical things of the place, but how the place made me feel. Santiago made me feel safe, welcomed and meditative. Some of my favorite memories were these:

• How the Andes mountains came alive at every sunset, lighting up with color when the last rays of sun brushed against their distant peaks
• The kindness of the people towards us, the visitors. Everywhere we went the Chileans were eager to engage in conversation and to help us with anything we might have needed at that time
• The slightly sweet taste of the national wine, the Carmenere, sipped on a warm late summer afternoon on the patio of one of Bellavista’s hip restaurants
• The crunchiness of empanadas de queso y champinones enjoyed as a quick and inexpensive yet delicious lunch
• The well cared for perros we encountered on the streets. This one is always super important to me. I’ve stopped enjoying places and cities where the animals are mistreated on every corner in plain sight. This may seem silly to many of you, but it’s something I cannot detach myself from anymore, nor do I choose to do so. I much more appreciate places where animals are treated with kindness and respect, despite the economic difficulties the country may be facing.

And so there it was, the few days we spent in the city of Santiago, strolling the streets at random, enjoying its weather, its restaurants and its people. For the most part Monia and I did things on our own, just the way we always do, however, for the two out of five days we spent in the city, we hired a private guide to take us to places we would not be able to get to by public transportation. In the next post I’ll share my personal favorite experiences of the five days in Santiago de Chile and beyond. Hope to see you back for more.