Training Log Archive: AliCIn the 1 days ending Sep 28, 2011:
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Wednesday Sep 28, 2011 #
2 PM
Hiking 1 [0] 4.67 mi ( / mi)
Bus in to Santiago, then right back out to Valparaiso. Very cool city! It's a port town, with a little flat bit right at the bottom, then sprawls up steep hills on all sides. Lots of little stairways and super-steep roads and many ascensores (=funiculars) to take folks up, although seems like some of those are closing now. As I understand, they are all run privately, so I guess when one stops making money, it just stops operating.
Spent lots of the day walking, sometimes I turned GPS on, but no track seems to exist... First stop was to head up up up to the house, or one of the houses, of Chile's most famous and much beloved poet, Pablo Neruda. He had a good mentality of keeping the fun and play in life, even when an important grown-up (he was also an ambassador, regional representative). That spirit is very evident in his house, both in structure and decoration. He had these portraits of a queen and king arranged so that they were looking at each other from across the room and maybe my favorite was a stuffed-as-in-flight bright pink bird from Venezuela hanging in the dining room.
Other than that, wandered! Up and down and all around. Saw the big fancy city buildings, the hill-perched houses, the port, a few ascensores. Stopped when I was hungry for lunch, which turned out was the super-awkward time of 3.30 (no one else eating...). Restaurant was truly amazing, advertised being a 'cocina de mercado', which sounded good to me. Fancier than I was expecting, but the food was so utterly scrumptious (Rockfish with garbanzo bean puree and kiwi-physallis sauce) that I totally don't mind it wasn't somehow traditionally Porteño. Chatted with the waiter, who just lived in Oslo for past 7 years, but nope, wasn't into orienteering or skiing.
When I got bored/tired of wandering, was about 7 and unfortunately all museums/other things were closing. Oops! Went back towards the bus station and watched the sun set from the only pier that people are allowed on (all others are a working port still). Then supermarket to buy some snacks and a short excursion up a nearby hill to get a view of the city at night, then just hung out in the bus station, was less keen on exploring the city alone at night and pretty darn exhausted! (Finished the da Vinci Code, had started on the train to JFK, talk about an addicting read...)
Photos
Spent lots of the day walking, sometimes I turned GPS on, but no track seems to exist... First stop was to head up up up to the house, or one of the houses, of Chile's most famous and much beloved poet, Pablo Neruda. He had a good mentality of keeping the fun and play in life, even when an important grown-up (he was also an ambassador, regional representative). That spirit is very evident in his house, both in structure and decoration. He had these portraits of a queen and king arranged so that they were looking at each other from across the room and maybe my favorite was a stuffed-as-in-flight bright pink bird from Venezuela hanging in the dining room.
Other than that, wandered! Up and down and all around. Saw the big fancy city buildings, the hill-perched houses, the port, a few ascensores. Stopped when I was hungry for lunch, which turned out was the super-awkward time of 3.30 (no one else eating...). Restaurant was truly amazing, advertised being a 'cocina de mercado', which sounded good to me. Fancier than I was expecting, but the food was so utterly scrumptious (Rockfish with garbanzo bean puree and kiwi-physallis sauce) that I totally don't mind it wasn't somehow traditionally Porteño. Chatted with the waiter, who just lived in Oslo for past 7 years, but nope, wasn't into orienteering or skiing.
When I got bored/tired of wandering, was about 7 and unfortunately all museums/other things were closing. Oops! Went back towards the bus station and watched the sun set from the only pier that people are allowed on (all others are a working port still). Then supermarket to buy some snacks and a short excursion up a nearby hill to get a view of the city at night, then just hung out in the bus station, was less keen on exploring the city alone at night and pretty darn exhausted! (Finished the da Vinci Code, had started on the train to JFK, talk about an addicting read...)
Photos