Part 7: Unmoved in Chile

I'm going to be honest about Chile, though it pains me to do so. On the other hand, before I do put forth my opinion, I would like to also state that I do not make it my business to generalize about a country, it's people or cultures. That said, Chile did not awe me. Sure, the country did impress me with it's very modern infrastructure, apparent cleanliness (apart from Santiago's smog problem), and fairly well organized transit, but I was left wanting more. There must be, somewhere, a Chile that inspires, with culture that shocks and surprises and out of the ordinary happenings that pleasantly interrupt the norm, but I can't say that I found it. Daniela was, at least, much more satisfied with the apparent ease of life and the vast improvements in comparison to the standards of living of most of Chile's Latino brothers, but I wanted more!

For that reason, I will not be dedicating much space of this final entry to Chile. Let me just say this, and I repeat that I am merely stating my very modifiable opinion, much of what we observed culturally in Chile was merely a form or modification of an original culturally element from another country. I hope someone will correct me if I'm wrong, but, in the gourmet alone, I felt that many things were simply "chileanized": Chilean variety of Pisco, a Chilean Malbec, a Chilean Alfajor (big, dulce de leche filled, cookies) and Chilean maté. In terms of sites, I was none the more amazed there either. Given, we did skip Torres del Paine, which I'm told is simply amazing, but. from Ancúd, Chiloé (though we did find a gem of a Hostel in Ancúd, the best we've stayed at), to Santiago, we didn't seem to see one thing that impressed us the way the Argentine Patagonia did. Puerto Montt and Chiloé appeared to be simple fishing ports, Valdivia is a nice little university city and it was fun to watch the sea lions up close, Viña del Mar gave me a very Miami-like impression and Santiago is a big, modern and well-organized city, but I couldn't find much character there. All I can say is, "Gracias Débora and Fran!", a wonderful Spanish couple, now friends, that we met and traveled with briefly in Argentina. It was thanks to them that we stayed at "13 Lunas Hostel" in Chiloé.

Best Hostel Award!

"Dalka," the best hostel's doggy. 

Hanging out in Valdivia

Beach Side, Viña

Modern Santiago

If two things did impress, they would have to be Valparaíso and "Café con Piernas"! First, Valparaíso. Who wouldn't be impressed by a city crammed into a port, with quaint colonial style constructions, built one on top of the other, countless hidden passages, steps and halls and an active ship harbor that you can literally watch all day? If there's a city with personality in Chile, this is it. 

"Café con piernas," literally means, "Coffee with legs," but I'm guessing you're going to need much more of an explanation than that. First off, you're going to think I'm a perv for being impressed by this, but it really is a very unique cultural element and I appreciate the reasoning behind it. Chile is a country that lived, until very recently, under the shadow of a very conservative dictator, Augusto Pinochet. As a result, Chile, even at present, has a very conservative culture and society. "Café con piernas" is one of the answers to this conservatism, and it's excellent. These are coffee stops that don't appear to be that out of the ordinary until you walk in, upon which you notice two very strange things, 1. all of the clients are standing, and 2. the baristas' uniform is far different from your traditional Starbucks drab, you can expect to see high-heels, high miniskirts and low cut tops (and this would be a more conservative joint). Many "Cafes con piernas" feature baristas wearing bikinis, lingerie and next to nothing. 

Still confused? Check out this cool little video I found:

If you are a bit let down by my Chile coverage, don't worry, Anthony Bourdain has the answer! Check out his episode on Chile on Vimeo, he did a much better job than I:

http://vimeo.com/24366762