‘¡Viva Chile!’

February 12, 2019, Valparaíso, Chile — Happy Birthday, Charles Darwin, born February 12, 1809. He classified Valparaíso’s palm trees when he was here 1844-46.

First off: It’s pronounced ‘vahl-pah-ray-zo.’ And, while we’re at it, ‘sahn-tee-ah-go.’

‘¡Viva Chile!’ sang our ‘destination’ performers last night, before we set sail west into the Pacific, en route to Robinson Crusoe Island, which is part of Chile, but 400 miles from the mainland.

For me, Day 2 of Valparaíso involved getting out of port to visit Chile’s capital, in Santiago. We rode through valley after valley of grape vines and wineries. The Chilean wine market is huge. Friends did a winery tour and especially loved one of the shiraz. The Spanish brought vines in the 1500’s. We’d better drink up while we’re still (sort of) in Chile... Tahitian wines don’t get high numbers from Wine Spectator.

At New Years’s, Chileans drink ‘cazuela de champagne’: sparkling wine with a scoop of pineapple ice cream.

As I said before: precarious housing in precarious terrain.

On the long ride out to Santiago, here’s a highway irrigation system...

Santiago (population 7 million) lies 2 hours inland, between the Chilean Coastal Range and the (not-at-the-moment) snowcapped Andes. It’s a big, sprawling city with a 19th-century neoclassical core with art deco and neo-Gothic accents. Find the cathedral in this photo... it’s not the building on the right.

Ecco!

Inside...

This was the beautiful home of the Chilean Congress... until Pinochet moved the body out of the capital to Valparaíso, where it’s now housed in a new building our guide called ‘ugly.’ He’s right. I’ll spare you a shot of it.

On walking tours I can’t take my usual barrel of notes. Judging by the flags, this is probably a government building.

Guess who?

Isabel Allende’s father’s cousin, Salvador, who was president 1970-73, until Pinochet convinced him to leave office – with a bullet. Still unclear if he committed suicide or was helped. The statue reads: ‘I have faith in Chile and her destiny.’ Note the date: September 11. When I get home, I will re-read Isabel, especially ‘My Invented Country,’ her memoir-ish remembrance of life in Chile before she moved to the U.S.

By the way, when you are asked where you are from, do not say, ‘America.’ You are in America — South America. Say, ‘I’m from the United States.’

Lots of fanciful paint jobs and street art...

From atop San Cristobal Hill in the Metropolitan Park... note there is no snow on the snow-capped Andes. But there is residual smoke from last week’s large ‘fire forest,’ as our guide put it. I fixed that and also taught him the word for ‘a factory where they make the money’ — a mint.

A few more tidbits:

A student who studies to become a teacher or a doctor can get a free ride through university in exchange for working in the field for 3 years after school.

There are bilingual high schools in German/Spanish, French/Spanish and Italian/Spanish. Plus all students study English from the start.

Unlike so many other countries south of the border, Chile did not have slaves, so there is little African blood.

Men retire at 65, women at 60. 7% of one’s salary goes into health care, and 12% into a mandatory pension fund. What your pension is worth is dependent on the current value of copper — that’s how important it is to the Chilean economy.

Don’t ever try to bribe a Chilean policeman or woman.