We are now on our way back home, as it is a 14 hour flight I have plenty of time to compose a last blog entry before uploading it whist awaiting our last flight in Rome. At the bottom are our thoughts on Chile but before that there are a few curiosities about our stay I would like to mention:
Entry / Exit Tax: There isn't any unless you are an Australian! Apparently Australia charge Chileans a special fee to visit their country so the Chileans decided to reciprocate. They have set up desks which are manned 24 hours a day just to catch Australians even if they are sneaking into the country via Peru!
Avocados: I mentioned food yesterday but what I forgot to say is that somewhere in every dish there is an avocado, perhaps it is a government regulation to help the Chilean growers. Chile is one of the few countries Britain has signed a post Brexit trade deal so expect more avocados in our supermarkets together with kiwi fruit, grapes and wine.
Police: There are hundreds of them everywhere, they go round in twos and don't seem to do anything. We were stopped at a routine checkpoint once, no problems just making sure we were legal.
Time: We never really got used to the time being “wrong” I mentioned before that Chile is in the same time zone as the rest of South America but being so far west it does not get light till 7.30. We always asked for breakfast at 9am and were almost always the first in the restaurant. On Monday we decided on a lie in, wandered into breakfast at 9.45 and were still first, then we discovered the clocks went back on Sunday so it was really 8.45! In the evening the restaurants don't open until 8pm and we were pleased to be able to eat out at 11.30pm after our star gazing.
Seaweed: Collecting seaweed is a significant business, we assume it is collected as an ingredient of cosmetics and toothpaste
Beds: The beds were enormous, most were over 7ft wide.
Music: Whenever there is “canned” music playing it is always awful cover versions. Even protest songs are sung in a “sexy” voice with a light backing, Bob Marley, Dylan and the Stones are not spared this awful treatment. Whilst we were staying at the Bouchon Vineyard and were the only guests we complained. Our host found an alternative music source which was great, Clapton, Dire Straits and even a Ronnie Lane track, all originals. I have no idea why the imitation versions other than Chileans have no taste in music.
Weather Forecasts: They always seem to be spot on, not just in the areas where it doesn't rain, as I presume most of the weather comes from the pacific they must be relying on satellite images. When they say it won't rain it doesn't, in one town a team of technicians were setting up some lights and sound systems for a concert that night, the weather looked a bit doubtful with quite a lot of clouds but the forecast said no rain and there was no evidence of any rain protection for what must have been many thousands of pounds worth of kit. The picture is take 8,000ft up a volcano.
Traffic Congestion: I have already praised Chile's road system but that does not include Santiago, twice we have been stuck for an hour in a jam getting round the ring road, last night's trip to the airport was a nightmare, it was a good job we were staying in a hotel overnight, we would have been panicking had we been catching a flight directly.
Petrol is cheap (less than £1 a litre) but road tolls soon add up at roughly 4p a mile.
The past year has been a bit fraught so we were in need of a long holiday without any hassle. Chile is a very easy county to visit, everything works, the roads are good and although not many people speak English we had few problems (the exception was the hire car, we will never use Alamo again).
We used Booking.com for all the accommodation making the arrangements one or two days in advance and generally speaking we got what we paid for. The cabins by the lake were £40 a night and were a bit run down (but clean and in a nice location), the vineyard stay was £250 a night but it was lovely, included food and some very posh wines.
Most of the places we visited were enjoyable but we did feel the articles we have read and descriptions in the guide books over-sold the attractions. There were very few “Wow” moments, everything was fine but not particularly memorable. This sounds a bit negative and it shouldn't, we did have a great holiday but probably would not rush to go back, there are many more bits of the world to explore.