Portland (2)

The second day in Portland wasn’t the most enjoyable one… We all know that the companionship makes or ruins the place and even though you may have the best of intentions, it doesn’t mean a thing is somebody is “pulling the hand brake.”

I woke up and found the person in particular wanting to go the Japanese Gardens, “we need to go there!” So, after going to Starbucks and still figuring out how to understand the transportation system, we took the bus towards downtown and inside we learned from a woman we were going to the CHINESE Gardens. Indeed the bus left us really close, but it was a disappointment to get to a tiny place in the middle of the gay district where we should spend 10 dollars to get into. We didn’t.

We walked to Powell’s bookstore and the four of us split up and just explored the bookstore. It’s huge! At some point I bumped into the dreaded friend and he asked, “Are you ready to go?” I was certainly enjoying my time there, but I wouldn’t mind going some place else. I said, “Sure.” We all gathered and decided to find the fucking Japanese Gardens. We eventually did and took the MAX to the park where the gardens are located, the problem was that the station was on the other side of the park and it was a long walk to the gardens. There was a bus that would take us there, but we would have to wait some 20 minutes and it was cold and we were hungry.

Inside the park, we didn’t walk more than 5 minutes and decided to go back.

It looks beautiful, but much more of a summer activity…

We decided to eat. But where? We took the MAX back to downtown and the dreaded friend started, “How about Thai?” Maybe. We passed by a pizza place, “mmm, pizza sounds great now.” Okay. “Look, there’s a Chinese restaurant over there…” Right… And it was like that for EVERYTHING! Make a fucking decision, man!! If we wanted to go ANY place, we would waste maybe 20 minutes deciding how to get there and once there, we would spend some 15 minutes deciding which bar/restaurant/store/bathroom to go to. At this point I just couldn’t take it any more…

We ended up eating a slice of pizza at a food truck at Pioneer Court — which was excellent.

Pioneer Court, at the heart of downtown. We ate at the food truck with the white awning, the pink truck is the famous Voodoo Doughnut, which we didn’t have during the trip. And I actually heard people saying it was overrated…

Pioneer Court.

At Pioneer Court, the city’s main square, there is the information centre. The dreaded friend went there and spent about an hour getting information on the “ultimate Portlandia experience.” The people referred us to Mississippi Street, which was indeed totally Portlandia, but the directions were so shitty that once again we wasted our time walking to and from the place to get the MAX. There was a bus, Number 4, that not only would leave us ON the street, in front of all the bars, but also would take us back to downtown and leave us near the hotel. Of course we only found out about it the next day…

From this moment on it was all down hill for me. The guy was just soooo annoying! His nephew stayed with us part of the day and my friend noticed that every time the Dread (let’s just call him that…) started to bother people in shops, his nephew went outside for a cigarette, meaning that he KNEW what we were dealing with, that the guy would be like that and there was nothing we could do about it. My friend started to pay attention to the nephew and every time he went outside, we would follow suit. The nephew became the canary in the coalmine.

The Dread went to Portland with us because he wanted to get the “feel” of the city as he is considering leaving San Francisco and retire in another place. However, what he basically did during those four days was to literally interview people (shop attendants, waiters, passers-by…) about Portland. “Do you like living here?” “Do you think the city has changed in the last 10 years?” “Do you think the city will change more?” “What is the main industry here?” “What do you think about the gay scene here?” (and this one he would ask straight people as well) It was just so overwhelming and people clearly felt uncomfortable and we really felt embarrassed.

The nephew split ways late afternoon and my friend and I saw ourselves with the Dread tagging along. We were missing all the happy hour places walking around with the guy and putting up with his interview sessions. We then decided to get to the west side of town and go to 21st street, which seemed to have lots of bars and restaurants. We had our eye on a Belgian pub called Abbey Road and we went for it. The neighbourhood was a bit more upscale and this would reflect on the price of places. We walked a little bit the see the bars and the Dread asked “Are we going to have dinner?” “How about Thai? Chinese? I don’t want bar food.” At this point I had been silent for half an hour already. Is it too much to ask for a pint of Belgian beer and a side of French fries???

We finally sat at Abbey Road and the combination Beer-fries was the highlight of the day, which can be really sad if you think about it. The pairing was excellent, don’t get me wrong, but having NOTHING positive to talk about during the whole day seems to me just a waste of time, money, energy and life. I was pissed because I don’t know if I will have another chance to go there, and the guy lives just a short flight away from the city; he doesn’t have to fly half a planet to have a “Portlandia experience.”

After the one beer at the Abbey Road, we gave in and had dinner with the guy, Chinese. But as I expected, the food was plenty and after we were finished, I was just too full and bummed out to do anything. My friend asked me if I wanted to go to the bar near the hotel, and I was “yes, let’s do it!” but then the Dread really wanted to check out this gay bar, and we ended up going there. That was it for me. The bar was not what they were expecting and we walked back to the hotel, even though I wanted to get the MAX, but went along because if I opened my mouth to utter a word, things would get ugly.

Second day was pretty awful. I didn’t do anything I was looking forward to, only managed to squeeze in a small Belgian beer with fries. The lack of pictures in this post just proves that things around me were not worth photographing.

Portland Feb 2015 (1)

My friends and I spent five days in Portland, OR during my month-long trip to San Francisco. It was about 1h20min flight and the day couldn’t be more beautiful in SF.

At SFO, waiting for flight.

The bay.

Beautiful snowy mountains on our way to Portland.

About to land. I believe this is Mt Hood.

There is a MAX line (Red) from the airport to the city centre and back then my friend and I were not sure how to get to the hotel, which was located on Montgomery St between 4th and 5th Ave, and the hotel could’ve provided better directions because we ended up taking the streetcar to the hotel, but we could’ve taken the MAX (Green) and avoided doing some walking with all the luggage. By the fourth day we were mastering the public transportation in the city!

Inside MAX Red line from the airport.

Figuring out how to get to the hotel. We could’ve changed at the Convention Center stop, hopping off the Red line and onto the Green line without doing any walking with luggage…

The hotel location was excellent. We were there to have a taste of some of the city’s famous breweries, which are mostly located in the east part of town. Still, we were happy to stay in the SW part because it was really close to downtown and transportation. As of February 2015, the single ticket was $ 2.50 and the daily pass cost $ 5.00 and you can use it as many times as necessary. However, the weekly pass was $ 25 dollars and we were just dumbasses for not buying this one, as we spent five days there. The city is divided by the Willamette River in east and west and Burnside Street divides the city into north and south.

From portlandoregon.gov

We arrived at around noon and two people would join us later in the evening, and Daniel would come on Thursday. So Ro and I had the whole afternoon to get around town and see what was near the hotel.

On 4th Ave, towards downtown.

We were pretty hungry, so ended up going to a sportsbar to get some cheap food and beer. Next to us (which you can’t see here…) was US soccer coach Bob Bradley and what we believe was some of the technical team just watching a match (Man City X Barcelona?)

Just a few blocks from the hotel.

I had some trouble framing, I’m afraid.

We started with the craft beer later in the afternoon, when we went to Bailey’s Taproom (213 SW Broadway). People really take happy hour seriously and basically all places are packed. I wish we had the same eagerness in Porto Alegre, where there aren’t many happy hour places and people have to go out at around 8pm or 9pm because they work until bloody 7.30pm!

Bailey’s Taproom.

Ro went for the sour, I stuck to lager…

Afterwards we travelled to the other side of the river after a suggestion from a former student of mine and went to the Hair of the Dog (61 SE Yamhill St). We missed the stop and had to walk a great deal to get there. It’s in the industrial part of town and there’s basically nothing but warehouses around, so people go there just to go there! It’s an AMAZING place! Unfortunately I haven’t got one decent picture in it, the beer there was so strong (mine was around 11%) that I think it showed in my ability to take pictures…

Crappy picture of the Hair of the Dog…

As a couple of people would join us later, Ro’s friend and his nephew, we decided to go back to the hotel to meet them and do something together. We had been walking the whole day and I was pretty tired already, dying to just sit down at a bar or brewery and just drink some beer. Oh boy, little did we know that Ro’s friend is all about the meals… We HAD to have breakfast, we HAD to have lunch, we HAD to have dinner… So we found ourselves at almost 10pm walking around downtown trying to find a suitable place (for the guy) to eat. At this point, I had been looking forward to go to this bar on 10th Ave that would serve the happy hour menu again at 10pm, and I was about to strangle a person if I didn’t have a pint. We ended up at Rock Bottom, which was decent, but rather far from the hotel considering the situation (late at night, tired, and soon to need a bathroom after beers…) But hey, we didn’t want any conflict and went along with it… But conflict was just a matter of time…

Chile (4)

It was cloudy in Santiago during the whole week, but it rarely rains there, it’s just a combination of clouds and pollution. It was actually good because walking around under a hot noon sun would be very unpleasant.

But the last day reserved a surprise: clear blue skies since dawn and we still needed to go to the Cerros (hills) Santa Lucía and San Cristóbal. We took the subway in a long-weekend Santiago – apparently October 31 is a holiday in the country, and people started to crowd the subways and taking the highways out of the city the day before. The city was definitely emptier and better to walk around, although many places were closed, except for the outdoor activities, and we started in Cerro Santa Lucía.

One of the many beautiful views in Cerro Santa Lucía.

This one is usually done on foot and the way up is pretty mild, until you get to the top… The place is very peaceful, a drop of greenery in a highway-filled city. The steps to the top were very treacherous and slippery, people must be careful when visiting the place. As you make your way to the very top, the steps are just built around the volcanic rocks and are protected have very thin and rusty banisters around them. I wanted to get to the top but I just couldn’t, every step I took just made me freeze a little bit more and at the end I gave up. But that’s okay, I made it to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal…

View from Cerro Santa Lucía. The weather definitely contributed to the amazing views…

Midway to the top, with places to sit down, drink some water, enjoy the views and rest and build up courage to the top.

This is where stairs start to become treacherous. It’s the gateway to “climb up at your own risk.”

Statue of a native man. I tried to get some information online about it but couldn’t find it… Open for suggestions!

One of the many steps to the top. This one I dared climb up. I don’t know what happened with the camera, I remember taking MANY more pictures but they weren’t there…

Pathway to the top, surrounded by volcanic rocks

This part is called Neptune Terrace. There is a beautiful fountain where you can throw a coin and make a wish.

Another shot of the fountain.

“Magic Fountain”

My wish…

Crossing the avenue there is an artisanal market and I bought a set of shot glasses to drink my two bottles of pisco sour with my post-grad classmates. There was a parade (which looked like a protest at first) praising Jesus Christ! “Jesus has arrived! Get ready!” they would chant.

Parade for Jesus. Hey, whatever makes you happy…

People walking for Jesus apparently…

Afterwards we walked around barrio Lastarria, which is right next to Cerro Santa Lucía and close to Universidad Catolica subway station and a walking distance from barrio Bella Vista and Salvador station, but on our 5th day and this one being under the sun, it was really tiresome. There was a little restaurant square and we ended up having lunch at Nolita. Great place, great food, but pricier than the rest of the city.

Beers at Nolita. Pricey but good. This is Cerveza Austral, produced in the south of Chile and excellent! I drank the blue label one (Calafate Ale.)

Walking through Parque Forestal, we headed towards barrio Bella Vista to Cerro San Cristóbal to try to go up the hill via Funicular (my friend had told me it hadn’t been working a while ago, so if it weren’t we would just go back to the hotel). It turned out it WAS working and it was crowded!

Line to board the Funicular, which is the little tram that takes you to the top of the hill. It was around 3 p.m. and probably around 32ºC.

After waiting some 20 minutes, we finally boarded the funicular and up we went. The views were amazing, the breeze was cool and we got to sit down and contemplate the whole city in the shade. I wanted to make my way to very top, which holds a statue of the Virgin Mary. Many steps ahead and my mother decided not to go. I gave my bag with the shot glasses for her to hold and started my way up.

Funicular, waiting to go up.

It’s possible to see very little ice on the top of the mountains. Was there supposed to be more? Climate change? Either way, I wish I had a better camera or were a better photographer.

Statue of Virgin Mary on the top of the hill.

Amphitheatre on Cerro San Cristóbal. Look at the view…

More mountains and great views…

Jesus Christ head in the middle of foliage.

View from the bottom of the amphitheatre. The place is breathtaking!

Way to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal.

Funicular, on my way down.

I was already very tired and didn’t stay at the top for a long time, I just climbed down to meet my mother and buy some water before leaving the Cerro. As we were drinking water, I saw people entering the funicular and presenting the return ticket to the attendant. I wanted to fetch mine and asked my mother ‘Where’s my plastic bag?’ It turns out she left it where she was sitting waiting for me and forgot it, just like she had forgotten her coat at Tea Connection, but there the waitress saw it and gave it to her. I went up those stairs as fast as I could, but all I saw was the empty plastic bag tossed near the spot where she had been sitting. I just lost it…

You know when you just want to get out of the place right away? Having to wait for the flight would be torture. I just wanted to get it over with the trip, go back home and watch Jon Stewart and have a beer. A beer… That’s what had been missing in my life in the last few days… Austral was a great one, but I needed some ten more bottles to cope with the pressure…

But I’ve learned my lesson, never travel with somebody that can’t help out, that doesn’t read maps, makes suggestions, ask questions and is unaware of their surroundings. I’m done with that. If going on holiday means doing extra work, I rather go alone…

But my impressions of Santiago: wonderful city. Big, cosmopolitan, clean. People are friendly and polite. Many, many bars and restaurants to enjoy local and international cuisine. Countless parks, squares and outdoor activities to do. Great local art, and lots of museums and historical buildings to visit. One regret is not spending more time in Valparaíso and Viña de Mal, these are fantastic places to visit and I would recommend spending some three or four days for the both cities. October proved to be a good time of the year to go, as it wasn’t so hot nor so cold, but because of the low humidity the temperature can vary some 20°C during the day. I can’t wait to go back!

Chile (3)

On the fourth day things had become more familiar. It was nice because I saw one of my classmates from Famecos who now lives in Santiago, and I hadn’t seen her since those days, which may be some 15 years now. We talked about the differences between the countries and she painted me distinct picture from what we had been hearing from the tour guides. Those guides almost brainwashed us into thinking that Chile is the greatest place in Latin America. What they said is that people have to pay for everything, there isn’t one thing provided by the government: education, health, retirement. There aren’t government “handouts” (it reminded me of Fox News…) My friend, on the other hand, said that some people literally work until they die.

I have a problem with extremes. I believe the government should provide free education and health care to the population, but I see their point in always bringing WORK into the equation. Brazil may have become, say, too generous… One point that I found really interesting and perhaps should be implemented in Brazil is that inmates have to work to keep the prison functioning: water, electricity, food, clothes, everything. If they don’t work to pay the bills, they don’t have anything. Also, there isn’t reduction of sentence, they have to do their time, not like in Brazil that prisoners may only serve a third of their sentence for “good behaviour”… Yeah, behaving well so they can be freed and resume their criminal activities… But this a matter for another post.

The afternoon was to explore Providencia area, Concepcion, Pedro de Valdivia. Really nice places, and of course, EXPENSIVE. The idea that R$ 1 is worth 200 pesos chilenos is deceitful. Everything is priced up. In cafes and restaurants, you can’t spend 30 minutes without coughing up some 5,000 pesos, which is about R$ 25 (10 dollars). Now that the Dollar is worth more in relation to Real, that may not sound so much, but 25 reais is A LOT for me! As of November 2014 and buying in restaurants/cafes, a bottle of water is around 2,500 pesos, or R$ 10 (in Brazil, around R$ 4,50.) An iced tea in this really nice place (Tea Connection) costs 3,300 pesos, or around R$ 15 reais (we don’t have this store in Porto Alegre, but in São Paulo these are the prices I found in Itaim Bibi store, and the equivalent iced tea – águas de frutas – costs R$ 8). I would NEVER pay R$ 15 for iced tea in Brazil, no matter how delicious. But during trips money doesn’t seem to be a problem and we actually expect to spend more for things we don’t even buy in our hometowns, even though afterwards, when calculating the damage, we think “How there hell could I have spent so much money?? On what??” Now I know: water and iced tea.

The way back to the hotel was through Parque de las Esculturas (Sculptures Park), and the name is pretty much self-explanatory. The amazing thing about it is that among many of the sculptures that were there, some of them having been awarded national prizes, only ONE was spray-painted. If the same was in Brazil, there would only be the wholes on the ground marking where the sculptures used to be. Also, it’s a park for couples. I felt pretty bad walking along the pathways and seeing all those couples in love enjoying a nice day out… Ugh.

Parque de las Esculturas, Santiago

Parque de las Esculturas, Santiago

Parque de las Esculturas, Santiago

Parque de las Esculturas, Santiago

Parque de las Esculturas, Santiago

Finally, we went to the supermarket to buy some things to make the good old ham and cheese sandwich, since things had become pretty pricey, as you could see by the water and tea prices… I also kept my promise to my post-grad classmates to bring a bottle of pisco for us, and bought not only one, but two pisco sour bottles. Lime-y!!!

And below are some pictures from the third day. What I did was to write about my impressions at the end of the day, but on Wednesday we went for beers and I got to the hotel not feeling like writing anything down.

During the city tour in Santiago. Nice obelisk!

City tour in Santiago. Can’t recall what this building is…

This is Palácio La Moneda, the government building. The Changing of the Guards happens every other day at 10a.m.

More guards. The band played pretty nice tunes!

There was a protest going on when we were there…

People hanging out in front of La Moneda. Some protesting, some touristing, some walking to work, it was nice!

More historical buildings.

Old congress building.

View from Cerro San Cristóbal (more of these in the last post about Chile.)

Hot guy on the subway, Line 1. Btw, he was NOT with that woman, but sitting right next to a person in an empty carriage seems odd to me…

At the end of that street there is a market called Los Dominicos (at subway Los Dominicos, west end of Line 1) for traditional local art.

Entrance of Los Dominicos.

On the way back from Los Dominicos. Later the carriage got a bit crowded and there were two guys standing in front of us. When we stood up to get off at our station, they didn’t sit down, they let two women take the seats. We saw that happening a few times in Santiago, waaaaay different from Porto Alegre…

Chile (2)

On the second day we visited Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, and I have to say I wasn’t happy about the experience as a whole. I agreed to go with a group tour because a) I don’t drive (and later learned that drivers need to pay tolls all over the country and cities, adding to the price of rented car and petrol) and b) My mother asked for it, in order to be more “organised.” We got to Valparaíso and stopped at the city’s port, not passing even close to Pablo Neruda’s house and the trademark colourful houses on the hills.

The closest we got from the hillside houses of Valparaíso.

Houses in the background, I wish we had gone there…

This is a church that suffered damage during the 2010 8.8-magnitude earthquake. (The top is cracked and lost some parts of the structure)

Valparaíso, Chile

Monument of heroes at Plaza Sotomayor, Valparaíso.

Valparaíso, Chile.

Monument of heroes of Iquique, Valparaíso, Chile.

Main square in front of seaport. Starting to look pretty pissed off upon realising the we were NOT going to go to Pablo Neruda’s house…

Porto of Valparaíso, Chile.

Port of Valparaíso, Chile.

Some of the city’s architecture, which I hope to experience with more time in the future.

And the tour guide scared us into not being late to meet at the bus, but two Brazilian couples — it had to be Brazilians… — were late after taking photos by Viña del Mar’s flower clock and the guide just took off. He did, however, come back for them, driving very slowly around the block, but it was definitely a way to say, “I will leave you here next time.”

Viña del Mar Flower clock at the city entrance.

Viña del mar, Chile.

Viña del Mar, Chile.

So, I had great expectations for Valparaíso, and they were highly unfulfilled. I will have to go back some day.

Then, Viña del Mar. It kind of reminded me of Sausalito, across the bridge from San Francisco. It looked really nice and clean, safe. All buildings and houses without any iron bars around them. The ocean-front buildings are all constructed in weird angles and different positions (not side by side or one behind the other) because, by law, a building cannot obstruct the ocean view of another building, so you see different shapes, sizes and heights. Also, the most expensive apartments there cost around US$ 160,000, about the same price we paid for MY flat in Porto Alegre, but the difference is that I don’t have an ocean view, a safe street and tonnes of space as they do.

Viña del Mar, Chile.

Viña del Mar, Chile. Beautiful day out.

Viña del Mar, Chile. More of the beautiful seaside.

Viña del Mar, Chile.

Viña del Mar, Chile. More and more in love with the nature.

Those are the buildings that, according to the guide, are worth less than US$ 200,000. Not too shabby… Although, it strikes me as odd that flats are more reasonably priced than water and tea – read post Chile (3).

Viña del Mar, Chile. Wouldn’t you like to live in one of those?

After lunch we went to a place that, according to the tour guide, groups rarely go. Unfortunately, I don’t recall the place’s name, but it almost made up for the whole Valparaíso fiasco. It’s a very steep cliff, with very shoddy protection bars throughout. The views were gorgeous and the waves breaking on the shore made everything feel so peaceful. There was a couple sitting on a rock that stood in the middle of nowhere, without any visible pathway to it. How they got there was unclear to me.

Viña del Mar, Chile. They say it doesn’t rain much in the region.

A little reminder that we are in the Ring of Fire zone. The guide said “if you hear a loud siren, just run! Run towards the highest place you can find.”

View from the unknown cliff, Viña del Mar

View from the unknown cliff, Viña del Mar

Unknown cliff. One of my favourite spots. The rock formation is just incredible…

Unknown cliff, Viña del Mar, Chile.

This is the view from the cliff…

… and this is what’s behind it, weird sand dunes.

Me and the dunes…

This is such an incredible place… I could have stayed here for hours…

A couple sitting in the middle of the rocks. It’s not possible to see it in this picture, but the rock they’re sitting on is in the middle of a whole. I’m sure the pathway they used is on the other side, but I still wonder how they got there.

Common buildings on the beach in Viña del Mar.

All in all it was an okay experience. This was the first and probably the last (not counting the one we did the day after, in Santiago) group tour I take. Usually organising the logistics yourself is hard, painstaking and time-consuming, but it’s worth it in a sense that you can change plans, spend more time in one place and ditch another. Or at least they should fully disclose what the sightseeing route will be so I can decide if it’s worth it or not.

Chile (1)

My holiday had finally arrived. I voted early in the morning and it was interesting to see the election results at the airport. The airport, by the way, one of the dullest experiences ever. We ended up finding the Starbucks corner with free wi-fi and stayed there checking out the elections coverage and seeing drivers get confused by this absurd sign. Many, MANY drivers couldn’t tell which way to go.

We arrived very late in Santiago and were ready to do the city tour Monday afternoon, but decided to take the suggestion of doing it Wednesday morning. However, on Monday morning we got contacted by the travel agency saying that we WOULD go later in the afternoon, so we went for a little walk in Bella Vista and came back to wait for the tour, only to find out one our later that they WOULDN’T pick us up that day. Lunchless at 3.30pm, we went to one of the shopping malls (which I had planned to do that day, but in the evening.) We took the subway in rush hour on our way back to the hotel and it was almost like Tokyo, four to five rows of people waiting to get on the train but without the guards pushing people into the carriages.

The subway price system isn’t the best. There isn’t a weekly pass like London and NYC. EVERY TIME you ride the subway you have to buy a ticket, and the system is divided into three categories: peak, normal and low. Peak fare is 700 pesos, normal 640, and low 590. So you get to ride the subway paying a reasonable price ONLY after 20:45, when you pay 1,180 pesos assuming you are buying return. There is a card that you can top-up and it is the only accepted currency on the bus, but you can use it on the subway, too. As I didn’t want to pay for the card (I believe is a fare of 1,200 pesos, plus the amount of money you wish to spend) and I wouldn’t get the bus anyway (because why take the bus if there is subway?), we ended up having to get in line to buy the ticket every time.

First day is to get acquainted with the city, walk around the neighbourhood, learn where the supermarket is, see bars and restaurants nearby. First impression: good impression.

A little square (plazuela) near Pablo Neruda’s house in Santiago, barrio Bella Vista.

Plaza de la Aviación in Providencia, near the hotel. At night the fountain is all lit up in different colours, but I didn’t catch the show.