Spending The Holidays in South America.

Did you know that 1.3 billion people are  traveling annually theses days? Frequently a city will have more tourists than locals.Venice and Cinque Terra, Italy come to mind. For this reason we look to travel to places that are less impacted by tourism. And places that are genuinely different. This includes lesser known destinations like Chile. We have visited twice, both times during Christmas week. I don’t recommend this season and it just a coincidence that we have done it twice.
Chile really takes Christmas seriously. There are nativity scenes everywhere and each other has a local flavor.Here is one in front of a broom store where the figures are made out of brooms. The second one is electric lights

The entire country closes down midday on Christmas eve, at least overnight and in some places for two or three days.
When I say everything is closed what I mean is every store and restaurant is closed and no one is on the streets. The restaurant we planned to try on Sunday before Christmas was so closed, they took in their sign off the building. That is seriously closed. In fact that night we were not able to eat at all. Even McDonald’s was closed.

Six years ago, our last visit to Chile, we took sn overnight bus on Christmas Eve heading to the Lake District (where all the snow capped volcanoes are). It was rather luxurious, like first class airline seats. Dinner was provided on the bus. We spent Christmas in a small, classy resort of faded elegant in Pucon, their version of Aspen. Previous guests included Queen Elisabeth, Bing Crosby, and John Wayne.  It was lush and green and a unique experience. Their restaurant was open through the holiday. Good thing too as there were no other choices. Sorry, no photos. I don’t currently have access to my older pictures right now.

This year for Christmas we headed to a Chilean beach resort, Viña Del Mar, about two hours from Santiago. Viña  Del Mar has a casino so we figured at least their restaurants would be open over the holiday. Our thinking was wrong. Even the casino closed. But our very nice beachfront hotel had a restaurant and we ate a delicious seafood dinner. We spent two days walking along the beach. There was a full moon and very high tides with big waves. Here are two photos, showing the strong surf. The beach photo is from our room. That is Valparaíso in the distance. Valparaíso is a hilly city on the ocean full of hundreds of murals. I have posted photos on Facebook. I would post more here but it is extremely difficult to post photos on this blog.

After Christmas we headed back to Santiago for a few days then on to visit friends near Mendoza, Argentina for New Years. More about this year below. However,  six years ago we spent the holiday in Puerto Vargas, a popular lakeside town in the Chilean Lake District. Sorry I can’t access any photos from that trip either. There were snow capped volcanoes and very nice hiking trails.Like this Christmas we were the only English speakers at the hotel, which is always unexpected. For New Year’s m Eve the town offered fireworks and the best viewing spot was on the grass below our window. We watched them from our room which was wonderful and magically. I wish I could share photos of the magic of that evening.

This year we are visited friends in a small town or Pueblo in the foothills of the Andes in Mendoza Province in Argentine. Susan is a tango dancer formerly from Phoenix. She married and Argentine man 8 years ago. Last year they bought a large old farmhouse with  many kinds of fruit trees. For New Year’s dinner we use plums from their orchard. Then we danced. Their farmhouse is huge and the living room is a gallery more than 100 feet long with other rooms off of it.

New Years Day we went to the county park at the edge of the Andes to listen to local music.   Here are some photos of folk dancing and one of a family having a picnic in the park.
The statue is a mate cup. Literally a teacup with a metal straw.  Argentines drink a lot of mate tea all day along and often walk around with a thermos or picnic basket with a thermos of tea. This is what a mate cup looks like.