Reaching Easter Island was supposed to be the final step of our exploration of Latin America. We had booked a one way flight to Easter Island and from there we would continue to Tahiti and somehow to Indonesia.

But things didn’t quite go as planned.

Since the pandemic, there is no more flight or boat from Easter Island to Tahiti. We had no choice but to return to Santiago (for a small fortune!) and find another route to Asia. We spent a whole day in a travel agency in Colombia to find a solution to get out of Easter Island. And then Mary spent many more hours finding an affordable route from Santiago to Asia. In the end we would go all the way back to where we came from! Santiago to Mexico to Los Angeles, and from there to the Philipines via Tapei!

Anyways, first thing first: we now had a few extra days before our flight so we decided to go visit the hometown of my friend Rudyar: the famous and colourful port of Valparaiso.

I didn’t know what to expect from Valparaiso, but in my imagination, it was a cute little port town hanging on a cliff facing the ocean.

My imagination is often quite far from reality! Valparaiso is actually quite a big city, forming a wide agglomeration with its neighbour Viña del Mar. And although quite steep, we can’t describe it as hanging on a cliff! It’s also rather dirty and noisy.

With this I was pretty confused with Valparaiso at first. Still we followed my friend’s advice and went exploring the neighbourhoods of Concepcion and Allegre, and we were charmed by the colourful houses and steep winding streets overlooking the ocean, and the old elevators climbing to various neighbourhoods. Every single wall is covered with street art!

Valparaiso also has lots of musicians and concerts all over the place. In fact, our airbnb was in an apartment full of musicians and the first thing we did was jam together with roommate Mauro on the double bass and his friend on the guitar 🙂

Valparaiso has the strange beauty of an unmaintained past glory. It was once an important stop for ships crossing the Magellan strait, until the Panama canal changed the route for everyone.

Just next to Valparaiso is Viña del Mar, whose sand dunes landscape along the coast has been eaten up by large towers for apartments and hotels, transforming the city into a fancy beach resort. It reminded us of the way the Spanish have completely ruined the beauty of the southern coast.

All in all. Chili felt like the most “Spanish” country of all Latin America. Their indigenous Mapuche origins represent merely 12% of the population and its culture has been completely evicted. Not to mention the Selk’nam of patagonia who have been completely extinct.

We were now more than ready to move on to the second leg of our journey and leave Latin America behind. Although Peruvian cuisine can be very nice and Chile had the best empanadas of the continent, Leo and Mary have grown tired of eating “fried chicken with rice and fries” everywhere and can’t wait for Asian food!