Corrugated City

My Old House: Old

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 00:30:00 +0000

People never really believed me when I said that my old house in Valpo was one of the very oldest on Cerros Concepcion & Alegre. Well, here's a bit more proof. (Note also the colour- it's red. When I painted the house red, the idiot members of the Junta de Vecinos from Cerro Concepcion made an official complaint for the Municipalidad because I changed the colour from rusty white to red. Well, look who was right).

Hiatus

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 00:18:00 +0000

Well, it's been a while since I posted...and I'm so busy at the moment with travelling (I'm getting married and my fiancee is from Barcelona so I've been over there and we also drove all the way to San Pedro de Atacama in April!), work, and renovations and construction for myself and for clients that I think it'll be a while before I post again. It's also been quite some time since I was last in Valparaiso and I probably won't be back again until October, when I'll try to take some photos and write an update of how things have changed in the city (there are a lot of good things happening in the city right now).

As ever, if you're interested in real estate in Valparaiso or Chile in general, please do get in touch by clicking on the Chile Investments logo on the right hand side of the page.

Valparaiso New Year 2011-2012

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 18:29:00 +0000

Quick post with a video of the last minute or so of the fireworks last night. They get shorter every year- under 20 minutes this time, which is a shame- but they're still awesome. This year I was at a friend's house on Cerro Mariposa. I much prefer to be closer to the action, but as I don't own my house on Cerro Concepcion anymore, I can't complain too much!

Happy New Year to all.

Old House

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:09:00 +0000

On Saturday I had to go to Valparaiso for the day (or rather, for about 3 hours), to show this property for sale. It's a bit of a hike from Colchagua but as I was invited to the Los Vascos Jazz Festival I had to get back by 6pm.

I had about 15 minutes in between meetings so went to take a look at my old house. The new owner completely re-renovated the house (you can see my own total rebuild process here and by clicking back through 'older posts') and has just had it freshly painted. The renovations he did weren't really necessary, but the changes he made inside look great anyway. Here are a few exterior shots. I really, really miss this house and wish I hadn't had to sell it...but without the money from the sale, I wouldn't be able to own the properties I have in Santiago and Colchagua. Trade-offs and all that.

La Bolsa de Comercio

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 00:14:00 +0000

Valparaiso was home to South America's very first stock exchange. I blogged about it a while ago here.

From that first building, knocked down to reclaim more land for Plaza Sotomayor, it moved onto this one:

And then when this was knocked down to reclaim even more land, it moved to its current location on Calle Prat.

Real Estate in Valparaiso, Chile

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 14:51:00 +0000

I've been working a little bit more in Valparaiso over the last couple of months and there are some great properties for sale- commercial and residential- if you're interested in investing in Valpo.

Have a look at Real Estate Valparaiso, Chile for a few of the options. There are a lot more out there, so please feel free to get in touch and let me know what you're looking for.

What Avenida Errazuriz Used To Look Like

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:16:00 +0000

Photos Of Valparaiso From Cerro Alegre

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:52:00 +0000

I really have been neglecting this blog of late. I've been meaning to update for a while now, but just never got around to it. Anyway, this is just a very quick post with a couple of photos of Valparaiso taken from the top floor of a house on Cerro Alegre, last week. I've been back 3 times to Valpo in the last month, looking at a project there with various investors and architects. I won't say any more right now, but if it comes off, I'll be spending a fair bit of time back in my old home city over the next 18 months.

I've certainly missed the views...

That's my old red house in the middle of the photo. I love the way the colour makes it stand out so much. The new owner, an architect I bumped into in the Peruvian restaurant in Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley, is currently undoing all of the interior renovations I did to put his own stamp on it...you'd think I'd be annoyed, but I don't get emotionally attached to the properties I own. Plus, he loves the house and is doing a really interesting job with it. I'm looking forward to the house-warming party.

Interested in real estate in Valparaiso? Chile Investments can help you find exactly what you're looking for. Feel free to get in touch.

Real Estate in Chile

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 13:51:00 +0000

If you are interested in investing in real estate in Chile then please visit Chile Investments.

You can also follow Chile Investments on Twitter.

Vineyards for sale, Chile. Real estate Chile. Farms for sale Chile Недвижимость в Чили

Viñedos en venta Chile. Campos en venta Chile. Viñas en venta Chile. Bienes raices Chile. Inversiones Chile.

Another Old Photo

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:16:00 +0000

Just to keep you interested in this exceptionally slow moving blog...

Looking up towards Cerros Alegre and Concepcion to the left and Cordillera to the right. The photo is from around 1875, I reckon.

Valpo For A Day

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:59:00 +0000

On Saturday, I went for a very quick trip to Valpo for a friend's housewarming party. He bought a place on Cerro Mariposa, not an area I'd recommend for buying property in Valparaiso, to be honest. But his renovation job was awesome and the views of the port and the Pacific from the house are amazing.

Things seem to be changing in Valpo, but at the customary snail's pace...and it's almost all private investment that's happening. It's clear the Municipalidad isn't really doing anything at all to improve the city. I hope that'll change some day, but I really doubt it.

It was great to catch up with friends still in Valpo. Hopefully, I'll be there longer next time so I can see the friends I missed. Here are a few photos from the trip. Enjoy.

View from the top of Valparaiso after taking Camino La Polvora:

Views from a friend's house on Cerro Alegre:

That's my old house. The person who bought it decided to completely renovate the freshly renovated house, at great expense. He's currently completely ripping it apart...It's going to be lovely, I'm sure, but he's clearly crazy...

Looking up towards Lautaro Rosas:

View from Cerro Mariposa:

That's a giant fish...

Views from the deck, at night:

If You Like Football...

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 01:20:00 +0000

...then you should watch this one minute video on You Tube. And even if you don't, you should still watch it. It's hilarious. And it's embarrassing.

It's Chilean DIY.

Ecuador

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:19:00 +0000

Isn't Summer lovely? I just got back from Quito, in Ecuador, where the temperature rarely gets above 20C due to the altitude. Quito is the world’s second highest capital city at more than 2800m above sea level. Actually, it’s officially the highest; its contender for the title is La Paz, in Bolivia, at more than 3600m but La Paz is only the de-facto capital of Bolivia. The official capital is Sucre.

Anyway, I had a really fantastic little break with the lovely Carolina. I hadn’t been to Ecuador in 7 years (almost to the day) and it was interesting to see how much things have changed there. Or, rather, how much some things have changed.

La Mariscal, or Gringolandia (as it’s where all the backpackers congregate), has completely changed. I lived in the barrio for more than 3 months and, although I had a great time, there weren’t very many bars or restaurants of any decent standard. Now, it’s been completely redeveloped and has loads of cool bars, restaurants and boutique hotels. It all looked really nice. If if weren't for the fact you constantly feel that someone is going to rob you with some kind of loud or pointy weapon, it'd be a really nice part of town.

And Quito’s UNESCO World Heritage Centro Historico is even more magnificent than before. It is truly an amazing place, renovated, cleaned-up and stunningly beautiful. Ecuador, compared to Chile, is under-developed, poor and horribly corrupt. But it has Chile completely beaten when it comes to historical preservation. Chile, and particularly Valparaiso, should be ashamed and embarrassed by its absolutely pathetic mismanagement of its architectural heritage. This country is painfully lacking a cultural conscience. It’s changing, but far too slowly and it’s going to be too late for much of Chile’s most beautiful architecture. It’s time the government stopped passing the buck to private investors (where no profit means no project) and got involved in safeguarding Chile’s heritage for future generations. If less well-off countries like Ecuador, Colombia, Peru and Bolivia can do it, Chile should be able to. I doubt it’ll happen though- most people here just don’t care.

One of my favourite things in Quito when I lived there was climbing one of the Basilicas. In most other countries, you wouldn’t be allowed to get anywhere near where you can in this one…namely, to the very, very top of one of the bell towers. You start off at ground level and take a normal staircase for three levels. At each level there are panoramic views of the Centro Historico. At the third level, you then take a small spiral staircase to the clock tower. From the clock tower, you take a homemade metal ladder to the next level, another ladder to the next level and finally, another ladder up to the very highest point in the tower. The views are spectacular, obvio.

And then you go back down to the third level, cross a narrow and fairly unstable wooden bridge across the roof of the nave to the Basilica’s spire, where you take a couple of steep ladders/staircases to the viewing point. Awesome.

Basilica exterior:

Basilica Interior- nice fan vaulting:

The basilica is still unfinished...

Inside the clock tower:

Views of El Panecillo and the rooftops of the Centro Historico from the clock tower:

View of the spire from the high point of the clock tower- you can get up to just below the top of it...

Crossing to the spire- that's the fan vaulted roof of the nave you can see:

View of the clock towers from the spire- we climbed to pretty much the very top of the tower on the left, about where the photo gets cut off:

We were followed everywhere by a large group of Mormans, none of whom tried to convert us. Which was nice.

After this excitement, we headed down to the Plaza Independencia and Plaza San Francisco, went into a couple more churches (the Centro is full of them as it used to be pretty much one giant convent) and just wandered around, taking in the sights.

Plaza Independencia- if you click on the link further up the page, you'll see the same photo taken from a film-based camera more than 7 years ago:

The Centro Historico is gorgeous:

View from the hotel in Guapulo, Quito:

We went for dinner at Zazu, a fancy-pants Peruvian restaurant. It was very good, but over-priced at US$50 per person, without wine...They had the biggest roses I've ever seen in the entrance, 6 feet tall:

We also headed off to Banos for the weekend, a 3 hour drive from Quito. Banos itself is a pretty crappy little town, but it’s the countryside around that is the attraction. It’s kind of like the Elqui Valley, in that it feels as if the mountains are right on top of you, but, unlike Elqui, it’s pure green scenery with lots of small waterfalls. If you’re into adventure sports, it’s a great place to go to. I like that kind of thing, but we didn’t have all that much time, so we just ate and drank a lot and drove along the road out of town, taking in the views and hiking the short distance to El Pailon del Diablo, the largest falls in the area. It’s a beautiful part of the country.

I can't remember the name of this fruit, but it looks like a giant pea-pod. The fruit inside is like eating a slightly sweetened cotton swab. As nice as it sounds.

Hotel in Banos- the house was beautiful, the hotel part of it, not so much:

Around Banos:
Me, spoiling the view:
El Pailon del Diablo- it was tricky getting a decent photo of it, so here's one of me:

Other things I like about Ecuador would be the food and the people. Ecuadorian food is fantastic, a mix of tropical and Andean and so much of it is fried, which makes almost everything taste better. The beef is pretty awful, but the chicken and pork (and goat) are amazing. I ate too much. And I drank a lot of tomate de arbol juice, which was always my favourite flavour. I smuggled back some tomate de arbol seeds as well, so hopefully I’ll be producing my own in a couple of years.

Mmmm, seco de chivo (that's goat):

Also, Ecuadorian people are really friendly- everyone smiles when you walk into a shop and they’re almost always helpful and courteous in any situation. This is another thing Chile could learn from Ecuador.

On the flip side, Chile has Ecuador beaten in quite a few other, important ways. Ecuador has a serious crime problem with lots of gun and knife crime. La Mariscal is a den of thieves and the Centro Historico is really bad after nightfall. You do have to be careful as a tourist and, to live in Quito, you have to make some major changes to the way you live your life. The roads are a mess with pot holes everywhere, dangerous sign-posting and some of the world’s worst drivers. Corruption at every level is rife. It’s for these reasons why I think Chile is such a great place to live. You don’t have to change your way of life in Chile. A few small adjustments here and there, maybe, but not major concessions and compromises. Chile is a really livable country and Ecuador, for me, just isn’t. It can sometimes be easy to forget the advantages Chile has. A few days in one of the other South American countries tends to remind you.

So, I’m now back in Colchagua and enjoying the Summer again. It seems to have cooled off a little after 3 weeks of serious heat. I’ve got a busy couple of weeks coming up with clients and other projects so it’d be nice to have some cooler (but still sunny) weather for a while. Tomorrow, I’m hiking up what would be considered a mountain in England with clients to visit this amazing property in Colchagua Valley. The clients will be on horses, but my back problems mean I can’t ride. I prefer the exercise anyway and after a week at altitude, it should be an easy stroll. Maybe.

What Vinamarinos and Portenos Think Of Each Other

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 23:10:00 +0000

Here's a link to an interesting article in the Santiago Times, that cites a study into what people from Vina think of people from Valpo, and vice-versa. There are no real surprises- Portenos are uneducated malcontents, Vinamarinos are cuico snobs, Valpo smells bad and Vina has too many traffic jams. Although they do say some positive things about each other as well...

Valparaiso Earthquake 1906: Some More Images

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 01:35:00 +0000

Calle Maipu down on the Plan:

And a panoramic view of the devastation taken from probably around Cerro Bellavista, judging by the curvature of the bay.

Click here to see more posts (below this one).

Christmas, New Year and Summer

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 14:38:00 +0000

It's been a while (again) since I last posted. So here's another quick summary of what I've been up to for the last few weeks.

Well, I swapped Summer for Winter in mid-December, when I headed home to England (I also call Chile 'home'). And what a Winter it was...one of the coldest on record, a whole heap of snow and the country shutting down due to the total lack of preparation from the utterly, utterly useless government.

But anyway, I started off in London, staying with my brother and family. My other, Paris-based, brother was there as well. Plus, a plague hit my family in early 2010...a plague of babies. Both my brothers and two cousins had little'uns between January and March (and also one of my best friends a couple of months ago). Not being a huge baby fan, I was expecting the worst, but they were all surprisingly well-behaved. Not that you could get a word of sense out of the parents between 6am and 9pm, when all conversation revolved around babies, vomit and poonamis but everyone seemed very content (and tired) and that's the most important thing. I'm happy my family is happy. And I'm looking forward to them all getting older and being able to interact a bit more (the babies as well, ha).

So London was nice. And cold. I met up with some great friends, had a curry down on Brick Lane and large amounts of lovely London Pride.

London snow...

And then after two days, it was time to head up to Knowle, near Birmingham for Christmas number 1, with my Dad and his wife, Pat. We headed out on Saturday morning with severe weather warnings ringing in our ears. I had slept less than 3 hours, due to sleeping on the sofa and had woken up with a pinched nerve in my shoulder, leading to rather savage pain all down my right side. And a hangover. So when we got stuck in traffic caused by the freezing conditions and snow about 10 miles outside of London, I knew we were in for a long day...

We made it a total of 30 miles...in 6 hours before deciding to postpone the trip and pull into a hotel in a little village off the M40. Many people got stuck in their cars overnight, so we were lucky.

English travel chaos...

Anyway, we made it up the next day and had a nice time, despite it being cut short by a day.

A huge Chilean Araucaria in Knowle...

The bros. And a huge barbequed turkey (barbequed in minus 10C...)

Christmas number 2 (the real one) was spent down in with my cousins in the New Forest and was as fun as ever, watching the cricket (that was a hell of a beating you took there, Australia), drinking nice wine and eating so much food. The traditional Boxing Day walk was definitely needed.

The cold weather didn't really bother me all that much. It was a lot nicer than the usual mild, damp, drizzly weather I usually experience when I go back to England. Freezing cold, snow and blue skies are so pretty. It warmed up after Christmas and it wasn't as much fun. Christmas should be cold, anyway. But a Summer new year is a lot more fun that a Winter one. But I still had a good time, hanging out with friends and playing with indoor fireworks (which I hadn't seen since I was about 6 years old).

There was even the one that looks like something a baby produces several times a day...

After new year, there was time for some fairly serious sales shopping in London and also for a trip to Fulham's Craven Cottage to watch my beloved West Brom get beaten 3 nil. And, as I was sitting with the Fulham fans, I had to 'celebrate' all of their goals. Oh well.

And now I'm back in Chile, walking the dogs and enjoying the Summer.

The flight was ok, despite the lack of legroom...

And look who were waiting for me at home, in Santa Cruz, Colchagua Valley...

Summer dog walking. Nice.

I'm also really busy. Work has picked up massively already this year (lots more people interested in real estate in Chile) and I have two, possibly three projects of my own to do. I'm feeling very optimistic about 2011. Here's hoping for a good year for everyone.

And I'll leave you with my favourite book section in WHSmith's ever:

Plaza Sotomayor

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:51:00 +0000

Here's a photo of Plaza Sotomayor from the 1880s, looking towards where the big blue Naval building now is and also up to Lord Cochrane's house.

Elqui Valley: Awesome

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 22 Nov 2010 15:46:00 +0000

I haven't blogged much recently. I just can't really be bothered- I love my life here but it's not all that exciting. It's usually just a mix of walking the dogs, hanging out with friends and going to Santiago every now and again. I would be blogging about the flat renovations in Santiago but they're on hold for about a month, so we'll probably restart when I get back from England after Christmas.

But I went last week to Elqui with a lady friend and it's such an awesome place that I really thought I should share.

It's a bit of a drive to get there from Santiago, which is where we started out from on Tuesday morning. It's even more of a drive when you decide to take the scenic route through Ovalle and over the mountains direct to Vicuna, instead of the 5 Norte via La Serena. Still, it was worth the extra time and the 140km of single track dirt road with sheer drops to one side and goats running around trying to force you off the edge every now and again. The views were amazing the constant changes in the colour of the ground was interesting.

See- pretty.

We arrived late afternoon in Pisco Elqui, the last village in the valley with paved roads and a really gorgeous little place full of well-maintained adobe houses.

There's lots of accommodation around as well and we got lucky with the first place we tried. Los Datiles has pretty decent cabanas but the grounds and the garden are incredible, a real oasis of loveliness.

We didn't really do all that much apart hang out, relax and admire the stunning scenery. The green vines against the backdrop of the dry mountains, which look like cardboard cut-outs is just amazing.

But we did make it the 5 km down the road to Montegrande, birthplace of one of Chile's two Nobel Prize winners, Gabriela Mistral (the other being Pablo Neruda, obvio). The museum/house devoted to her is pretty poor but the Plaza and church are nice for a few minutes.

And a few more minutes down the road is the valley's only winery, Cavas del Valle (well, Falernia's also in Elqui but much closer to La Serena. The rest of the vines are all to make Pisco, for which the valley is famous). They make an interesting Syrah which I enjoyed enough to buy a bottle of and a couple of less than interesting whites, both of which I found to be almost undrinkable (although some people really like them). It's well worth a drop in as there are very few truly boutique wineries in Chile and they need to be supported.

We also spent a few hours in La Serena- a very pretty historic centre and a windy as hell beach.

That's Coquimbo giving La Serena the finger.

And that's about all for now.

Chile Investments on Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 12:09:00 +0000

If you're interested in getting news and views about Chile and finding out about real estate for sale in Chile, then you can follow Chile Investments' Twitter feed by searching for @chileinvest or simply clicking here.

At some point, I hope to have time to actually blog about something. Until then, look me up on Twitter.

Changing Santiago

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:51:00 +0000

December 2003, Cerro San Cristobal.

Anyone who knew me or met me more than about 18 months ago might be a little surprised by the fact that, not only do I rent a flat, but I have also bought one to renovate in Santiago. For years, I loathed Santiago with a maniacal passion and made this clear to anyone who would listen (people learned to back away slowly when my rants were just getting started).

Why did I hate it so much? Let me take you back to December 2003. I'd just spent 3 of the most fun weeks of my life in Argentina, my first stop after Ecuador. Argentina in December is probably the most fun you can have anywhere in the world. Seriously. Schools and universities break up for Summer at the end of the first week, the weather's fantastic, Christmas is around the corner and January and February holidays are coming up. The atmosphere and energy are almost tangible. It's an energy I've never experienced anywhere else. If you don't believe me, go out on Aristides Villanueva in Mendoza for the first or second weekend in December and you'll see what I mean.

So after partying and generally having a great time every single day of the week in BsAs and Mendoza, I rocked up in Chile on a Monday afternoon. And I hated it after my first 13 seconds. In Argentina, everyone queues up in an orderly fashion to put bags on and off the bus. There's no pushing, no shoving. Getting off the bus in Santiago, I was elbowed in the face by an 85 year woman and pushed over twice whilst trying to pick up my rucksack by other Chileans who had clearly been trained in the art of social niceties by a pack of rabid chimpanzees (this was, and sometimes still is, my view of how Chileans act in public).

And it didn't really get much better, to be honest. Santiago was, in 2003, possibly the world's most tedious city. There was nothing to do. Bars and restaurants were either not open on week nights or they were completely empty (in Argentina, they were full every single night until early morning). Everything was grey. There was no atmosphere. I was unsurprised to learn that Santiaguinos have one of the highest suicide rates in the world.

And Santiago Centro was sketchy as hell. In the Plaza de Armas, you could literally see the thieves eyeing up their next victims. A friend had his camera stolen from a pew in the cathedral when he looked away for 2 seconds. Cerro Santa Lucia was also really dodgy at that time and I was warned away from it by everyone I met (a German guy in my hostel got mugged and pretty badly beaten up there, which rather reinforced the warnings).

And it wasn't like I was there on my own and didn't know what to do- I had two Chilean friends who were showing me around (and who became increasingly desperate to show me something fun and interesting to do- they failed, quite miserably, until we went to Renaca after Christmas).

I also spent Winter 2004 living in Santiago, in a freezing house on Salvador con Bilbao. That was a truly miserable experience and I spent the entire time desperate to get back to my home in Buenos Aires, a city I adored with as much passion as I detested Santiago (I had come to Chile to see whether a relationship would work- it did for 4 years).

After moving to Valparaiso in January 2007, my hatred of Santiago continued. But it started to change towards the end of the year when my mum came to visit and we spent a couple of days there. We made the obligatory trip up Cerro San Cristobal via bubble lift and came down the other side in the funicular. That was my first time in Bellavista since 2004 and the neighbourhood had really changed. Patio Bellavista had just opened and that development made me realise that there was hope for the city.

Not only that, but the Costanera Norte, which opened in mid-2006 (I think) had a huge effect on the livability of the city. Anyone who arrived after it opened will have no idea of the traffic misery that people used to have to deal with. To get to and from Vina del Mar, for example, pretty much everyone had to go down Alameda. Alameda! I remember getting stuck in 2 hour + traffic jams on Sunday evenings upon arrival on the outskirts of Santiago on a regular basis. Airport trips, which now take 35 minutes in rush hour and 15 minutes at other times could easily take up to 90 minutes. It was hell. The CN took thousands and thousands of cars away from the city centre and improved the lives of millions of people- not just car owners, but pedestrians, cyclists and public transport commuters as well.

And in the past couple of years, Santiago has improved so, so much in terms of decent restaurants, bars and cultural life. The cultural centre under La Moneda is an incredibly beautiful space and Barrio Lastarria and Bellas Artes have exploded in recent times. There are foreign owned businesses catering to expats and the general security in tourist areas is way better than it used to be. Cerro Santa Lucia is now completely safe to walk around and the Plaza de Armas has constant police patrols. And the fact that a lot of banks and offices have moved up to Las Condes and El Golf has reduced the amount of people in Santiago Centro dramatically, making it a much more pleasant area to wander around.

Although I know I could never live permanently in Santiago (the smog is as bad as ever and I prefer living in the country), I do really enjoy the time I spend there now. It's fun to do all the tourist stuff I never did before. That is something I can honestly say I thought would never be true.

View Of The Port, From Cerro De La Concepcion

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 01:54:00 +0000

Photo from the around the late 1880s, when 'de la' still appeared in Cerro Concepcion's name. Click to enlarge.

The 7 Year Itch

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 22:35:00 +0000

It rather shocks me to say this...but September 1st will be my 7 year anniversary since I left England (not for the first time but this is the longest I've been away) and moved to South America. It was never supposed to be this long. The original plan was to spend 6 months out here, learn Spanish and then move to Spain. Barcelona was high on my list of places I wanted to live.

But things never work out as you expect...and here I am, 7 years later, living in Santa Cruz with a house, a business, 2 cats and 2 dogs and a whole life in Chile. Incredible. But really nice. I really like my life here.

So to celebrate this milestone, I'm going to bore you with a photo tour and commentary about what I've been up to all this time. It's going to take a few posts, so feel free to have a nap.

I started out in Ecuador. Why Ecuador? Well, I wanted to learn Spanish and someone had mentioned that Ecuadorian Spanish is really clear and pure (it is- definitely the 'best' Spanish I've heard down this way). And Ecuador is a small country with a mix of everything South American- tropical beaches, Andean culture, jungle, temperate rain forest, mountains...the lot. The perfect place to start out. Added to that was the fact that when I took the decision to come to South America, I was working in Bournemouth, England as an English teacher to foreign students. Once I decided on Ecuador, I successfully set about making Ecuadorian friends and had a couple of locals to look up when I arrived.

And here's a weird coincidence...I fell out of touch with the friend who was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and show me around Quito on September 1st, 2003. We're friends on Facebook but hadn't actually spoken or emailed or anything for almost 6 years. That was until last week when she borked her Facebook profile and had to create a new one, re-friending me (uh, that's such a horrible phrase and I feel dirty writing it) in the process.

Anyhow, I asked how she was and we got chatting. It turns out she almost died a couple of months ago from a serious case of pneumonia and is taking some time off to recuperate and travel. She said she wanted to visit Chile at some point, I offered to show her around and she's now arriving on guess which date...Yep, on September 1st, I'll be picking Caro up from the airport in Santiago, 7 years to the day she did the same for me in Quito.

So I spent 3 months in Quito. I left sooner than I expected as I got itchy feet and then robbed at gun-point (well, I'm pretty sure it was the guy's finger but I was tipsy, it was 4am and he had 6 friends with him so, despite pointing that out to him, I still handed over the $20 I had on me). But at least 5 other friends were mugged at gunpoint and I got tired of living in fear. Having to sprint the 4 blocks home from a bar or club to avoid getting robbed after dark got old pretty quickly.

Despite the danger aspect, I enjoyed my time in Quito and made some really good friends, some of whom I'm still in fairly regular contact with.

So I bought the cheapest ticket to another country that I could find...and that happened to be Argentina. Which I'll tell you about in another post.

Here are some photos from my time in Ecuador, back in the day when I was 25 years old and had pretty much no responsibilities. How times change. Apologies for the random picture sizes. Long story, too dull to tell.

Caro, the aforementioned old friend who's coming to visit in a couple of weeks, up at some Volcano near the equator. It was cold, windy and foggy and we saw nothing. I ate a guinea pig. A fun day out.

Me up El Panecillo, overlooking Quito's beautiful UNESCO rated old town.

I can't remember the name but this church had been under construction for something like 100 years...you could climb to the very, very top of one of the steeples and the views were incredible.

Quito's main Plaza in the old town.

I lived with some great people and made some good friends in the house known to everyone as La Casa de la Felicidad, on account of the massive, impromptu parties that were always thrown. It wasn't conducive to the 7am starts I sometimes had for work but, hey, I was 25 and could handle it. My leaving party lasted about 3 days. Good times.

That's Arne, Sophie, Gary, me, Frank and Sissy. The hand thing was in honour of that whenever the phone or doorbell sounded, whoever was last to put their thumb to their forehead had to answer. I was incredibly quick on the draw and only answered them about 5 times in 2 and a half months.

Sophie, Zia & Sissy

Lily acted as my guide on a trip Cuenca (she was a friend of a friend). Despite me not speaking much Spanish and her not speaking any English, we muddled through and got on quite well. Sometimes it's better not to be understood.

She took me with her family up to a tiny, dusty little village high in the hills where they were having some kind of festival (I never understood what it was about). It was weird and interesting. I ate guinea pig again. It's actually rather nice, a little like rabbit. And I really liked Cuenca- such a beautiful town. Apparently, the Cuenca accent sounds like bird-song, but my Spanish was so low-level at the time that I didn't notice. I'd love to go back and see if it's true.

I also went to Mindo, a gorgeous little town in the cloud forest. I took a lot of photos that weekend. Then I asked a friend to take one of me up in a place where you jump off a mini-cliff into a freezing pool of water. It's next to a waterfall. She walked backwards off the waterfall. And broke my camera. And she miraculously came out completely unscathed. Which kind of annoyed me a little- for a broken camera, I wanted at least a concussion.

And I went to the hot springs resort of Papallacta a few times- it's only a couple of hours from Quito in bus and a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday. No photos- my camera was wet, remember?

I also spent a weekend in Montanita, Ecuador's top surf town. I took no photos with my new camera on that trip because it rained solidly for 3 days and the town was, literally, knee deep in mud. It's apparently a fun place when the sun comes out.

Next stop was Buenos Aires, where I ended up living for 3 years...

Good Moods, TV & New Project

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 21:47:00 +0000

*I posted this over on Colchaguino first but realise I've neglected this blog even more so I'm re-posting here as well. But to make it more relevant to Valpo, I've added an old photo. :) *

See- old photo. Don't you wish Valpo still looked like this?

As anyone who has been following this blog for a while can tell, I haven't really been in the mood to post much over the last year or so. I just really haven't had the desire or energy. I think I'd been in a low-level bad mood for so long, it became my reality and I didn't realise why I felt so low on energy and general bounciness. Not that I've ever been particularly demonstrative...I did go to boarding school in England, after all. Trying to get me to show any emotion at all is something that has driven some past girlfriends to the edge of insanity. :)

After my short trip to Colombia, I feel completely different. My good mood is almost tangible. It's really strange...it's like a physical change. I'm feeling positive about work for the first time since the earthquake hit my business really quite hard (that's www.chileinvestments.com in case you haven't worked it out), I'm feeling positive about living in Chile and I'm loving calling Colchagua 'home'. There's a really great little community here and I'm starting to feel like a real part of it now. That's a nice feeling. And I've rented a small flat in Parque Forestal, Santiago to spend time there when I need a change of scenery (get in touch if you want to meet up for a drink or something- I've never lived in Santiago so don't actually know many people there!).

Something I thought might throw me out of my good mood was what I was doing all weekend. I filmed an episode of a wildly popular real estate show in the US and around the world that I'm contractually obliged to be positive about... :) I thought that a weekend of filming would drive me insane, but it was actually a lot of fun.

The crew were a real laugh and my clients were great as well (I won't mention who right now as she doesn't seem to have mentioned it on her blog so perhaps doesn't want anyone to know...). Anyway, both her and her husband are really fun and I had a fun time with them (despite helping her buy her place a while ago, I did so remotely and we only met for the first time very recently.)

So the show will air in January in the US, most likely, and then in Chile later in the year I guess. I'll let you know.

And finally, I haven't knocked any walls down recently (maybe that's why I haven't been particularly happy?)...but my drought is soon to come to an end. I've just bought a flat overlooking Parque Forestal (around the corner from the place I'm renting). It's a big renovation job and there are two walls that just have to go. I can't wait to get started...hopefully within 2-3 weeks. The plan for this property is to renovate to a really high standard, furnish it luxuriously and then rent it out to tourists, aiming for the high-end hotel market but providing a far better product at a much lower price. Mid-November we should be good to go. Here are some photos...

The 1960s building.

The view of the park is fantastic.

The little, unusable balcony will be incorporated into the living room by getting rid of the first set of sliding doors (see later photos) and replacing the nasty aluminium outer doors with fancy double glazed ones.

And I also like the street view going the other way.

Master bedroom (looks smaller in the photos than it actually is, although it's still not huge- the 2 bedroom apartment is 85m2 total).

Second bedroom.

The wall on the right will go, which will open up the maid's room (next photos), creating a 30m2 open kitchen, dining and living room.

And this wall in the middle...it'll move to the right in line with the door frame, linking up next to that window you see. That'll open up the toilet, which will be converted into the kitchen (also all along the wall on the left). The kitchen will then become a large bathroom.

Lovely carpets, eh? Happily, underneath is the original parquet floor.

Yey, renovations! I've really missed you.

For photos about my previous renovations, take a look at my old Valparaiso house and my house here in Santa Cruz...

Colombia II: Bogota

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 04:14:00 +0000

As I mentioned before, I had originally planned to spend my entire time in Colombia lounging on a beach doing nothing. I used to love lounging on a beach doing nothing. Turns out, I've kind of grown out of that habit.

After my first 24 hours in Taganga, I knew I wouldn't last more than a few days without going insane. Perhaps if I lived in a city, like I used to, I would have enjoyed the peace and quiet a little more. But I think that the rather tranquil Colchagua Valley has made me see a relaxing holiday as one which involves noise, people and stress.

Now that's not to say I didn't enjoy my beach time. I really, really did. But I just get bored quicker than I used to when doing nothing.

So after chatting to a few people, I decided to change my ticket and head to Bogota for a few days. Well, I didn't change my ticket. I bought a new one with a different airline. Lan's absurd exchange policy meant that this was about us$200 cheaper (the flight cost about us$90).

I arrived in Bogota knowing almost nothing whatsoever about the city. I hadn't planned on going, I had no guide book and I had very little clothing suitable for the permanent Spring weather (due to Bogota being about 2600m above sea-level). I'd booked a cheap room in a cheap hotel and arrived around lunchtime. I didn't really know what to do with myself so I grabbed a taxi, asked to be taken to the Centro Historico and asked what there was to do in Bogota. The driver's enthusiastic response to his hometown made me happy I'd come.

After a short wander, I decided to phone a friendly Colombian girl I'd met in Taganga. She'd given me her number and offered to show me around Bogota if I ever went after we'd got chatting in a restaurant on my first day . I'm pretty sure she did so safe in the knowledge I had no plans at all to go to Bogota at the time. Ha. Little did she know that this is a common tactic of mine- meet a local, wheedle their number out of them and then turn up unannounced asking to be shown around town. "Surprise! It's the annoying Englishman from the beach/plane/bar/supermarket/restaurant/hike/medical convention (don't ask). Drop whatever you're doing and come be my tourist guide." I've made long-term friends in some odd places over the years.

As chance would have it, Daniela was less than 5 minutes walk away at the time and even remembered who I was so we met up in front of the cathedral on Plaza Bolivar, the city's main square in the heart of the Centro Historico. It looks like this:

This second photo was taken in a moment of rare sunshine.

Even luckier was that she was currently on holidays from her studies and had loads of free time to be my personal tour guide. Lucky for me, that is. Not so much for her- she was stuck with this ingles mañoso for the entire weekend (my back was playing up and I was whingeing a lot).

However, despite having lived in Bogota for over two years, Daniela's knowledge of the city was, well, really quite poor. She'd never done anything touristy. Which meant neither of us really knew what to do, apart from wander around looking at the pretty stuff.

And the Centro Historico is bursting with pretty stuff. Most of the Colonial buildings have been renovated, there are bars, restaurants and cafes all over the place and there are some brilliant museums. This is what Valpo would look like if it didn't have a thieving, corrupt Municipalidad running the show.

Look:

And look at this gorgeous Church- so cool:

And the museums...there are 3 all together within the same complex just up from the Plaza. La Moneda with its history of Colombian money (more interesting than it sounds), a really good art gallery and, finally, the best of the lot- the Botero collection. I love Botero. To me, art should provoke a reaction. So much of what is considered 'fine art' leaves me cold. I look at it, scrunch my eyes up, put on a serious face, put my jaw in my hand and feel absolutely nothing.

Botero has always made me laugh and smile. His art is fun. Here are a few examples:

(this is the Mona Lisa, in case you hadn't noticed)

The Botero museum houses the artist's private collection that he donated to the nation. Not just his own paintings, but some fantastic pieces by other artists, including Picasso, Henry Moore, Joan Miro and others. I can recommend a visit to Bogota just to see this, and the other two museums, alone.

Oh, and it's all FREE. How cool is that? The museums are run and maintained by the Banco de la Nacion. More info here.

On one of the days I was in town, the Plaza Bolivar was taken over by a gigantic farmers' market to promote local and indigenous agriculture- most of which seemed to revolve around plantains, tangerines and unripe strawberries, although there was other stuff as well. Actually, there's a supermarket chain that sells predominately fruit. I wish I'd had my camera when I went in as there was so much variety of tropical fruit, much of which I'd never seen or heard of before. Some of it was so big I was able to imagine an end to famine in overpopulated Asian nations.

In the end, I only stayed in the cheap hotel for one night. It wasn't well located and the mattress was actually harder than the floor. Believe me, I tested.

I decided that I should splurge and get somewhere decent in the area in which I'd be going out at night, so I moved to the Hotel Virrey Park (horrible website music alert) a little to the north, just around the corner from the Zona T, Zona Rosa and Parque de la 93, the main nightlife areas. It wasn't too expensive, around us$100 a night. For the location and quality, I actually think that it was a bit of a steal. It's more than I'd usually spend on a hotel, but it was a short time and I wanted to enjoy myself. And I'm old enough to justify not being a scuzzy backpacker anymore.

Nightlife in Bogota is really fun. This part of town is kind of like a mix of Vitacura in Santiago and Palermo Viejo in Buenos Aires. The former because it's all new, shiny, safe and packed with good-looking people of both sexes and the latter due to the style and design of the bars and restaurants. This is a really good mix. Even better is that every place I went to beat both cities for service and style.

The food was also good, better than most of what's on offer in BsAs (apart from the steak, obvio po). And it's about 10-25% cheaper than going out in the equivalent neighbourhoods in both Santiago and BsAs. I was a particular fan of the Bogota Beer Company, a micro-brewery gone large, with pubs all over the city. They have real beer in real pint glasses and the decor is a half-decent approximation of an English pub. I mean, you're not going to think you're down the White Hart, but for someone like me who really misses the whole concept of 'The Pub', it worked well enough.

Apart from the museums, wandering around and going out, I managed to drag Daniela out for another day of turisteando and we headed up The Big Hill, just outside of the Centro Historico. (I'm pretty sure it's not called 'The Big Hill' but I never found out its name and for some reason would rather maintain the mystery). The Big Hill is really similar to Cerro San Cristobal in Santiago- there's a cable car or funicular to take you up and down and a load of religious stuff at the top. The views on a clear day (ha, good luck) would be great. On a cloudy day, they were still pretty cool. You can see about half the city of 7 million inhabitants from up there.

If you go, don't get up too early. They only run the cable car after 2pm so we had to take the boring funicular up and down instead. Silly me for wanting to get out and do something with my Saturday.

That's about all. You can probably tell I rather enjoyed my time in Bogota. I think much of that had to do with hanging out with someone who lived there and being able to talk about the city, ask questions about the country and generally get a little more insight into things than if I'd just hung out and got drunk with a bunch of foreigners I'd met 10 minutes beforehand in a hostel. That second option can be fun, but it can also get old pretty quickly.

So, I've been wondering if I'd go back to Bogota. There aren't all that many cities that I've enjoyed enough to want to go back and repeat. Buenos Aires, Paris, NYC and San Francisco are the only ones out of the many I've visited that have really got under my skin. I think Bogota is pretty close to that but not quite there. I think I'd go back if I got the chance, but perhaps wouldn't make a special plan to do so. I don't know...I'm kind of on the fence with Bogota. Maybe I should give it another go and see which side I end up on. It would definitely be a fun experiment.

If you're planning a trip, though, I would absolutely suggest Bogota and Colombia in general as a fantastic holiday destination. Don't believe the hype about the dangers. Colombia is, generally, a safe place to visit and I certainly didn't feel any less secure than in, for example, Argentina, where I lived for 3 years without a single problem (I think Chile is safer than both, mainly due to the fact there are very few guns here). It is way, way safer than Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. I'm sure there are areas of the country that are sketchy but in the places I went, I felt absolutely safe at all times.

That's it. Back to reality, normality and Winter. I arrived back in Chile more tired physically than when I left. The weekend in Bogota really took it out of me. But I am definitely less tired mentally and emotionally. I really needed a break from my life in Chile to help me put some things into perspective, forget about work and make a fresh start with some stuff that's been bugging me. The trip did its job and I've returned refreshed and relaxed.

That really doesn't often happen with me. I can't usually switch off. So, thanks, Colombia. It was fun.

Caribbean Coast, Colombia: A La Orden

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 20:35:00 +0000

I’m posting this on Corrugated City and Colchaguino as I haven’t updated either for a long while, just to prove that I am still alive.

I’ve just got back from Colombia.

Over the past few years, I’ve travelled quite a lot- England, France, the US, Argentina several times…but I haven’t had what I call a real holiday- relaxing, doing nothing or doing something or doing both at the same time- since going to Brazil 5 years ago. After the stress of the earthquake in February, seeing all the destruction and nightmare living situations for a lot of people (and setting up a charity to help the worst affected in Colchagua has been even more stressful than the actual event itself), finding myself living on my own with 4 animals and trying to get through this colder than normal Winter, I really, really, really needed a break.

So 3 weeks ago, I just Googled ‘beaches, Colombia’ and ended up buying a ticket to Santa Marta, without really knowing what I was letting myself in for.

To get the negative part out of the way first, Santa Marta is only ok. It’s nothing really special. The beach is pretty crappy. There’s not much to the town apart from a small (but pretty and well-preserved) Centro Historico.

And that’s the negative done.

On the positive side, Colombia is absolutely awesome. I think speaking Spanish completely changed my experience. Last time I travelled around, almost 7 years ago, my Spanish was basic and everything was a bit of a struggle. I’d walk past a couple of girls in the street and hear this…

“Gjhmsou gringo blahrio smurpado gringo mupppsharekhou skewehah hahahahahahaha”

…and my brain would translate it all to:

“Oooh, look, a gringo, I’m going to call my brother around the corner and get him to mug the stupid gringo, beat him half to death and steal his kidneys hahahahahaha.”

This would make me feel uncomfortable.

But this time, I was able to understand what people were saying. And it turns out that what almost everyone was really saying was:

“Oooh, look at the gringo. He’s gorgeous. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a finer looking human being. That’s one hell of a good-looking gringo. I want to take him home and make him tomate de arbol juice until he just explodes with happiness. Hahahahahahaha”

This made me a little uncomfortable too- I’m quite humble - but uncomfortable in a happy way. And I do love tomate de arbol juice.

Also, speaking Spanish enabled me to pick out words and phrases particular to Colombia. That was impossible a few years ago- it was all just new vocab to me, I couldn’t tell the difference between accents or local dialects. Having lived in Argentina, Ecuador and Chile, I now can.

Colombian Spanish is lovely, particularly in the north, along the coast where the accent is kind of laid back. Vowel sounds are elongated and 'Js' are semi-optional. Trabaaa'o, vieeee'o. Watch a Colombian or Venezuelan telenovela and you'll notice.

I also really enjoyed hearing ‘A la orden’ all the time, meaning “What would you like?”, “How can I help?” or “You’re welcome”, depending on context. It seemed formal, but friendly at the same time.

Other little words that spring to mind…the weather in Santa Marta was ‘sabroso” (tasty) and everything else in the world is either ‘chevere’ (cool) or ‘tenaz’ (bad, but also good depending on context. Kind of like saying ‘fierce’, if anyone uses that word anymore. Do they? I don’t really know, I've lived too long away from the English speaking world.)

And finally, contrary to what I’d been told repeatedly- that this word is only used in Spain- Colombians love to ‘coger’ public transport and various other things. Childish fun. Yey!

Anyway, after just a night in Santa Marta, I moved 15 minutes away to Taganga, a backpackers haven in a tiny fishing village. Again, the beach there isn’t really all that great but I enjoyed my stay in Taganga. I found a private room for about us$10, met some nice foreigners, drank a lot of beer, ate a lot of fried fish, drank a lot of mango and tomate de arbol juice and had fun chatting to the natives too.

Set lunch for about us$6:

Ahhh, the natives. Really friendly, really gorgeous and really approachable. If you’re single, I would suggest that Colombia is the place to be, for both boys and girls. Of course, I was only interested in talking- pure political insight is what I was after.

I also spent a day and a night in Parque Tayrona, a national park with pristine beaches about a 60 minute boat ride away. The trip was a bit rough and, as I woke up late and got on last, I had to sit right at the front of the boat. When we started hitting waves, I got slung about a fair bit and ended up with a monster bruise on my thigh (look away now if you don’t want to see my bruised thigh).

And the boat ride that caused it:

But it was worth it. I only went to the main beach as I was feeling lazy, but that was gorgeous. You can sleep in hammocks there or hire a tent (I did the tent). It was a fun day or so.

Hammock tower:

Beaches:

Cost-wise, for tourism, Colombia is probably about 10-20% cheaper than Chile. Both food and accommodation are this much less. But, as with anywhere, you can spend as much or as little as you like. Having had my trip back to England in March cancelled last minute because of the earthquake, I had some cash to spare and didn't really skimp on anything. I only had 10 days or so, so spending a bit more here and there wasn't going to make much difference.

And safety and security- both Santa Marta and Taganga are really safe. Police everywhere, friendly locals who never gave me the impression I was getting ripped off for anything. It was really nice to be able to relax.

The funny thing was, before I booked the trip, I was convinced that all I wanted to do was lie on a beach on my own, doing absolutely nothing. I spent several weeks doing just that in South-East Asia about 10 years ago and loved it. That was my plan for the whole 11 day trip. But it turns out that I get all the alone time I need in Colchagua, and after a couple of days, I was a-hankering for some stuff. Like people, noise, museums and bars. Particularly bars. So I changed my ticket and headed to Bogota for 4 days. A good decision as it turned out…