Whatever I like in this space, it's my profile.
Some other miscellaneous pictures from Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. In Picture no 2, you can see one of the numerous elevators the city of Valparaiso has. Valparaiso is built on hills and the city offers paid elevators to climb up on some hills rather than doing the stairs. Depending on the slope, location, the elevator prices vary. In Picture No 3, is the famous Reloj del Flores, the flower clock of Vina Del Mar.
Santiago is the capital of Chile and it's the most modern city that I have been during my entire trip. Many other countries in South America are definitely categorized as 3rd world, but in Chile, you definitely feel it's different - very modern metro fleet, clean city, great architecture (earthquake proof) and metro in general.
All this come at a cost - Chile has been the most expensive country out of my trip. Chile is not cheap. A lot of prices are similar to prices in the US and money goes by very fast.
I was there in the middle of the winter and it was extremely cold !! At nights it got down to 2 or 3 degrees celcius on some nights.
Whilst all its modernity and all 1st world facilities, I just felt that I was in any other big city. I did not feel a different identity for the city as such which distinguished it from others as such, but it's a nice city in general with all the big city amenities and stuff to do.
As I had left San Francisco in the middle of the ski season and did not get my whole fill of winter season, while in Santiago, seeing that it was peak skiing season, I decide to go skiing in the Andes. Pretty different experience from the Lake Tahoe Slopes, but great in overall !
Continued from this blog post - http://blog.dosooye.com/valparaiso-chile , I am adding some more artwork from the city of Valparaiso, Chile. I loved how they decorated their doors and entrance ways with some great art !
Valparaiso is a coastside city about 1 hour from Santiago, Chile. It's known for it's bohemian culture, great art and one of the hilliest cities in Chile. The city is build on hills and there's not much flat land. Hence, the city has ascencors all over the place to actually climb up the hills. You pay a little fee to get in the ascensor to bring you up, but there are always the stairs if you prefer to climb it up.
But what I liked best about the city were the numerous art work all over the city. Anywhere you go in Valparaiso, there's art and that too, great art. The city commissioned artists I think to paint up all the alleys, houses and every ugly piece of blank wall into the city into great pieces of art.
It was fun walking around exploring the so many different art in the city. The artists in this city are very talented ! Really enjoyed visiting the city which is an art museum in itself !
While walking around in Buenos Aires, I encountered many tango street performances. It's always great to watch such great shows for a few pesos donation. I did not have too much time while there to take extensive tango lessons, but I did try it a couple of times in my hostels.. the basic steps and beat isn't too bad.. but I am sure combining them together to look gracious is a whole another story :)
Buenos Aires which means "Good Winds" in Spanish is the capital federal of Argentina. As with all other South American Capital City, Buenos Aires is a big metro with a few million inhabitants and several neighborhoods each with it's own flavor and style. While in Buenos Aires, I stayed in the Palermo neighborhood, which is more of an upscale neighborhood with lots of nice restaurants, bars and clubs and I also stayed in the San Telmo neighborhood which I loved much better. San Telmo is more of an older neighborhood which thrives on it's excellent Tango - many milongas (Tango schools) and tango clubs all around.
Many people told me that Buenos Aires is much like Europe and that Buenos Aires is the Paris of South America. I have never been to Europe. So can't know as such. but I definitely imagine that's what some parts of urban Europe might look like - with all the great architecture, the numerous chic restaurants and great public transportation.
While Buenos Aires thrives in culture and architecture, I think it lacks seriously in gastronomy. Food choices are pretty limited. Argentineans eat mostly Beef, Beef and Beef... They are very proud of their beef and eat it every day. Other than beef, the other options are Pasta, Pizza and Hot Dog.. these are the main food you can find in Buenos Aires in most places..but if you look hard, there is of course a few places you can get other style of food, but not too easy to find.
La Boca neighborhood in Buenos Aires is one of the most colorful areas of Buenos Aires and also the one with the most gypsy and European feel to it, with all it's outdoors coffee shops and restaurants set out on the street, and all the street performers. Most of my pictures are from the Caminito street, which is a pedestrian only street with all the colorful buildings, outdoor restaurants and tango street performers.
La Boca is also home to the Boca Junior team of Argentina which is one of the most famous teams in Argentinas. At the time, I visited though, it was not football season and hence could not watch a game, but it's one of the great football experiences that one should experience to know how passionate Argentineans are about their football.
I looked up Glacier in Wikipedia and it says "A glacier is a perennial mass of ice which moves over land. A glacier forms in locations where the mass accumulation of snow and ice exceeds ablation over many years... Glacier ice is the largest reservoir of fresh water on Earth, and is second only to oceans as the largest reservoir of total water"
Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia,Argentina is one of the few Patagonian glaciers that is not retreating. It's a couple of hours from El Calafate, Patagonia and I took a tour to go and visit it. The day I chose the visit it, we had pretty bad weather condition - it snowed very hard the entire way there and while I was there trekking around the park to see the Glacier from different views, we had a mini snow storm. I was not geared properly and i froze myself up. Was among the coldest I ever felt while there.
The glacier is a spectacular sight and it was amazing to see it up close and to gear the thundering noise of the ruptures of ice from the glaciers. It happens al day long when huge pieces of ice from the glacier break off and fall in the adjoining Lake.
There are tours to actually go and trek over the glaciers, but in the time I went, the weather did not permit such trekking.
|
I chanched a look at myself in an elevator mirror this past week and this is how I have been travelling for these past few months.. one big 75L backpack on my back and another smaller backpack with my documents and laptop etc.. in front (I guess that's not a "back"pack anymore.. more of a belly pack :)
I remember having bought that 75L "North Face" brand backpack in Saigon Vietnam for about $22... Even though it's not the real thing, the bag has beared lots of wear and tear, but still holding very strong and travelling the world with me.. The front bag is my one souvenir from Yahoo. it's the Yahoo backpack, every one gets when they first join Yahoo!...
