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Chile-Argentina 2019

December 2018 - February 2019
Pre-cruise travel in Chile (Santiago, Atacama Desert, Valparaiso); Celebrity Eclipse cruise: San Antonio, Chile, around the Cape to Buenos Aires, Argentina with various ports of call; post-cruise travel in Argentina. Read more
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  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019

    Pre-trip at home

    December 23, 2018 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 45 °F

    Getting ready for our trip to South America. I will use this app to blog about the trip. Not sure I'll get to it every day but should be able to keep it reasonably current.

    While traveling, I have an overseas phone plan so my cell phone number will still reach me. I will, however, have my phone in airplane mode most of the time. I'll check text and calls occasionally. For most messaging, I will use the What's App? app on my phone. You can download and install What's App? for free. I will have my tablet with me so e-mail should work.

    Only a few more days!    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 2

    Day 1 - Santiago

    December 28, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Day 1. our flight to Santiago was long but uneventful. Left Dulles midafternoon to Panama where we had a short layover and our flight to Chile, arriving at 0530 local time (same as Denver). Had to walk a long way to get to passport control but breezed through that, got our luggage and our van was waiting for us. A 45 minute ride into Santiago to the Hotel Magnolia in the heart of the downtown. We were early and our room wasn't ready but we had a light breakfast and coffee and tea. Checked in and took our room. Napped for a couple hours to catch up then for a walk around the city center. Took the small streets filled with small shops and people to the central square - Plaza de Armas is the center of the city and the country. Many of the streets are pedestrian only but others are crowded with cars. It is warm - temps in the mid 70s (it's high summer, here) - with slightly hazy sun. Plaza de Arms was crowded with Friday midday Chileans and some street performers. Stopped to explore several churches, the Municipal Cathedral and the Basilica. Both subdued and ornate. Passed the presidential palace (Palacio de la Moneda) and visited the Chilean Cultural Center where they display and sell artisan works from the whole country. Wandered back toward the hotel but stopped at an outdoor café for a lite lunch of a loaded hot dog (Gail) and empanadas (Bruce). Empanadas are a national treat and come in many flavors. It's a pastry shell wrapped around a filling that can be simple cheese or a variety of meat, vegetable, or cheese mixtures. Passed the Municipal Theatre, currently showing the Nutcracker. Now catching some rest in the afternoon at the hotel. Will hit the hotel happy hour this evening and find dinner.

    Santiago is vibrant and busy with shoppers and office workers hurrying past the single window store fronts selling electronics, clothes, pharmaceuticals, eats, and many other wares. There are larger, more up-scale stores mixed in with the small ones and small empanada shops everywhere. I'm back into speaking Spanish and don't find the accent too hard to deal with. The Magnolia is a boutique hotel in an old mason that has been modernized and deluxed. The streets are mostly clean and cobblestoned.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 3

    Day 1 - Continued

    December 29, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    After resting at the hotel, we went up to the hotel's terrace bar for a drink. From the seventh floor terrace, we had a view of the Cerro Santa Lucia (Saint Lucia Hill) just a few hundred feet from the hotel entrance, Cerro San Cristobal (Saint Christopher Hill), the east side of the city, and the Andes rising further east. Santiago is plagued by smog, which is quite bad in winter (July to September) but not too bad now. Gail ordered a Pisco Sour, the national drink. Pisco is a liquor made from Muscat grapes and taste a bit like grappa or tequila. The Sour is a mixed drink with lemon juice and a dash of bitters. There were a smattering of other guests and I picked out Spanish, Portuguese, and French as well as English among the different tables.

    We headed over to the Lastarria neighborhood. This is the "bohemian" area with many restaurants, street vendors, street performers and boutique shops on the other side (east) of Cerro Santa Lucia. We heard the drums long before we got there. As we came to Lastarria street, we passed a troop of folk dancers performing on the corner to their drums. The vendors had there wares set up on tables or laid out on the ground. For sale they had books, antiques, trinkets, marijuana brownies, small art works, and much more. Moving along the street, packed with Friday night revelers, were mobile vendors with paper birds that flutter in the breeze. On other corners buskers playing and singing music from classical violin to Queen. The restaurants were packed but we found a place and had a great ceviche and a clam chowder. We wandered back to the hotel in the twilight - it's summer here and the days don't get dark until about 9:00 pm. It had been a long day without much night so we went to bed about 10:30 - early by Chilean standards.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 3

    Day 2 - Santa Lucia and Museum

    December 29, 2018 in Chile ⋅ 🌙 64 °F

    After a restful sleep and breakfast at the hotel, we climbed Cerro Santa Lucia. This small (225-foot) rocky hill was the site where conquistador Pedro de Valdivia finally conquered the local Mapuche tribes in 1541 to establish the city. A later mayor transformed the hill into an extensive garden with narrow paths, thin iron railings, and a cobblestone road winding around and up the hill. We walked to the Neptune fountain at the south side and followed the paths to the top. Charles Darwin visited the city and remarked on how pleasurable it was to walk the gardens. At the top, the ruin of a fort afford a 360-degree panorama of the city and the Andes to the east.

    We strolled through downtown to the Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. Here we toured the two floors of exhibits of works fashioned in stone, wood, pottery, semiprecious stone, silver and gold. The collection spans 8,000 years with mummies from 6,000 BC and increasingly sophisticated objects from all the Americas. When the conquistadors arrived in the middle of the second millennium, the were amazed to find works in gold and silver using techniques that had yet to be discovered in Europe. Definitely worth the visit.

    A walk up to the Mercado Central (Central Market) past the Supreme Court building led us to fish. The central market is where the fresh fish from the ocean and freshwater are sold. Rows and stalls of all kinds of fish from sea bass to octopus and everything in between. We wandered up and down the stalls and settled in the central courtyard at one of the several restaurants specializing in - you guessed it - fish. Had ceviche and beer then wandered back to the hotel as the shops closed up for Saturday afternoon.

    A short rest and then over to the Lastarrias neighborhood to find a recommended ice cream place. Another wander through the streets as dusk settled in and to the hotel. Went up to the terrace for a drink and watch the stars come out in the eastern sky.

    I was mistaken in my discussion of the time here. Santiago is two hours ahead of New York (not two hours behind). Noon in New York means it is 2:00PM in Santiago.

    H    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 4

    Day 3 - Church, Park, Ripoff

    December 30, 2018 in Chile ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F

    It's Sunday so, after breakfast, we went to mass at the central Cathedral at the Plaza de Armas, the central square. The 9:00 service was in a side chapel to the main sanctuary. We were early and sat waiting as the gathering congregation said the rosary. With the marble walls reverberating with the sound, I caught only fragments, although knowing the rosary allowed me to make out some of the chant. The service was familiar although in Spanish and, again, I caught some of the flow but not a lot - knowing the general flow helped. Gail caught more than I did. We walked back to the hotel in the cool morning.

    After changing, the hotel got us a taxi that took us to the Municipal Park and the cable car ride to the top of Cerro San Cristobal. The park is a large (3 square mile) area covering the hills. Paths lead up, down and around the hill and it was full of Sunday visitors. We took the recently refurbished cable car up to the summit, passing over the trees while taking in the sights, which included a large and popular swimming pool as well as the people walking and biking the paths. Parts of the streets below the hill were closed for the use of bikers and there were hundreds of them. We shared the cable car with a mother and daughter from Venezuela and chatted a bit with them as we rode. At the summit is a large statue of the Virgin Mary and a chapel. We sat for awhile in the chapel then climbed to the statue for a great view of the expansive city laid out on all sides. Santiago has a population of 7.5 million inhabitants - roughly half the population of entire country. We wandered around among the crowds, had an empanada and rested. Empanadas are common everywhere from little mom and pop shops to the major grocery stores. It's a pastry shell wrapped around a filling that could be simply cheese or meat or more mixed ingredients. We had a "Pino" type which had hamburger, onions, half an egg and a olive - good! Took the funicular down the hill on the opposite side from where we came up.

    We took a taxi to the Costner Center, the blue skyscraper you saw in a photo from our hotel's terrace. This is the tallest building in Latin America at 63 stories and 1,000 feet. The taxi ride was our first ripoff. The ride from the hotel to the park was about 5,000 pesos, which was what the hotel had said it would be. The ride from the Cerro to the Center (a similar distance) was more than four times as much. I was suspicious as we drove there because the meter was going up much faster than had the first taxi's meter. When we went to pay, the driver palmed the 20,000-peso bill I gave him and claimed it was only a 5,000 bill. I was suspicious but forked over another bill.

    The Center is a huge shopping mall with six floors of upscale shops. It's bright and modern, like anything we'd expect in the US. We took an elevator to the 62nd floor observation deck that looks out over the entire city on four directions. Posted information plaques explain what you're seeing - the Andes to the east, the river Mapocho below, and the sprawling suburbs in all directions. Back down in the mall area after the observation deck, we had an ice cream and coffee/tea while watching the people thronging by.

    To get back to the hotel we took another taxi - a big mistake. I saw the meter climbing fast and when we arrived at the hotel, the same thing happened - the driver palmed the first bill and showed a much smaller bill. We argued but he keep insisting but finally settled for half what he first asked (in spite of the meter wanting more - a sure tip off). I was furious and complained to the hotel staff. They commiserated but couldn't do anything. They also told me another guest had been robbed in the streets earlier in the day. The lesson is, "Be careful!" They also said Uber (yes, they have it here) is much more secure.

    At the hotel we confirmed our flights tomorrow and arranged for a private hire car for the ride to the airport in the morning. Tonight there's a restaurant over in Lastarrias that is supposed to have the best crevice in Chile. I'm going for that.

    A word on finances. Chile is (according to the guide book) the most expensive country in Latin America. The exchange rate fluctuates a bit but is around 680 pesos to the dollar - I use 700 when I'm making a fast calculation. Our two waters and two empanadas up on Cerro San Cristobal were 6,000 pesos - about $9. The restaurant meals we been having usually run about $15 a plate plus the drinks. The restaurants add a 10% tip to the bill without asking.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    2
    Day 6

    Day 4-Atacama - Moon Valley

    January 1, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F

    A morning flight to Calama after checking out of the hotel landed us in "the great north," as Chileans call it. The smooth, two-hour flight took us up into the high plains to the west of the Andes and over a huge expanse of barren uplands. The denuded hills presented no vegetation and only an occasional road. A few (huge) open-pit mines broke the monotony. These are copper mines - once Chile's biggest industry but more recently affected by the fluctuations in world copper prices. Also recent are a few lithium mines. Approaching Calama, we began to see more evidence of mining with arrow-straight dirt access roads leading to drilling pads (?) or some type of exploration work. From Calama it is a bit more than an hour by bus to Pedro de Atacama.

    If we thought it looked barren from the air, from the ground it is stark! The Atacama is the world's driest desert and there is NOTHING on the ground except wind-blown dark sand and small gravel. There are no plants, not even grass and the terrain is gently rolling with a gully every once in a while. The road to San Pedro is good and our bus was comfortable.

    San Pedro is a oasis, both literally and figuratively, in this empty plain. It sits at just below 8,000 feet and you can feel the thinness of the air after taking only a few steps. The small town has the only trees and commercial operations around. The bowl of the Atacama exists because it is ringed and all sides by mountain ranges - the 15,000-foot Andes to the east and lower ranges on the other sides. One of these ranges is the Salt Range, which we traversed on the way to San Pedro. Twenty million years ago, the area was a large sea until tectonic forces lifted the Andes and drained the sea, leaving huge salt pans. The Andes here are a series of mostly dormant volcanoes rising to 19,000 feet peaks. These ranges block any rain from all directions, creating the dry conditions. The absence of rain has allowed what little does fall and the wind to sculpt an otherworldly landscape of salt and gypsum deposits into fantastic shapes. The same tectonic forces that lifted the Andes also pushed up blocks of the ancient seafood, allowing a look at the sedimentary layers of different formations.

    San Pedro is one of Chile's greatest tourist attractions and the town has over 100 accommodation options and dozens of restaurants. It is a once-in-a-lifetime experience (quoting the guidebook) since there is noting else like it on earth. Attractions include high-altitude climbing, sand hoarding, mountain biking, horseback riding, blue salt lakes dotted with flamingos, salt-encrusted valleys, geysers and hot springs. The cloudless skies and isolation from light pollution offer some of the best star gazing in the world and one of the world's biggest astronomic observatories. Lots to do, in spite of it's remoteness.

    We had a tour booked for the afternoon so we hurriedly checked in to the Hotel Diego de Almagro and went looking for the tour bus company. Our tour of the Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna) was great!. The name comes from the stark, barren landscape. There is nothing living here - no vegetation, no birds, no insects, not even tiny lizards scampering across the rocks. Our bi-lingual guide explained what we were looking at and led us on different, usually short treks to see particular sites. The rocks here are conglomerates of sediment, volcanic materials, alluvial deposits, salt and gypsum. At one spot she had us stop and be quiet long enough to hear the snapping and popping of the rocks, caused by the expansion and contraction of the salt in the sun and shade. We walked up to the top of one of the sand dunes to look over the lunar-like landscape. I sure felt the altitude and Gail didn't do the dune climb. The tour concluded with a sunset view from one of the higher cliffs.

     Back at the hotel, we found the dinner was by reservation only and we hadn't made them. The town was packed with tourists (it's New Year's Eve, after all and we'd had a bit of trouble getting a hotel). We were tired, hot, sweaty and hungry - not having eaten since breakfast. We searched out a restaurant but found them all asking for reservations. We settled for some cheese, crackers, meat and yoghurt from a tiny mom-and-pop store near the hotel and ate in the room. It was just about midnight by then and we started to hear the fireworks and revelers as we went to bed. Gail said the revelry went on until three in the morning but I was passed out by then. Happy New Year.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 6

    Day 5 - Chilling in the Desert

    January 1, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 64 °F

    Slept in and relaxed today since we had nothing planned and most tours were not running. Confirmed various things, such as the ride back to Calama and our pickup times tomorrow and Thursday. Sat by the big, nice hotel pool reading. In the late afternoon, we strolled around several streets, buying a few gift trinkets then had a great pizza and salad at a Ford's recommended place - Charrua. We'll be off early tomorrow so will bed early tonight.

    San Pedro de Atacama is small town, seemingly poor town. Coming in from Calama we were surprised at the difference between them. The houses in San Pedro are almost all one-story mud brick or cinder block with mud daub (stucco) finishes. Only one street (of maybe 12 total) is paved; the rest are gravel or natural surface. It is dusty. The streets are a haphazard grid that could never have been planned. The streets are narrow, two cars have difficulty passing each other unless they find a wider section. There are cobble sidewalks on some streets but mostly you walk on road. The main street, Caracoles, is lined with souvenir shops and restaurants with an occasional small grocery store. It looks much like rural villages in back country Ecuador or Africa. The streets are thronged with tourists with hardly any car traffic.

    When we got to the Hotel Diego de Almagro, we were surprised to find it does not have air conditioning. The daytime temps are in the 80s but overnight it dips down to the 50s so, apparently, AC is not necessary. We opened the windows for a while but there are no bars or screens on the windows and Gail is afraid to sleep without that security so she closed the windows last night. The hotel is quite nice - clean, well-kept (maybe on par with a Comfort Inn) but nowhere near that level of our Santiago hotel, Magnolia. Breakfast is included and they had a diverse spread of fruits, breads, cold meats, a few hot dishes, and coffee, tea, and juices. Because so many tours leave early (our tour tomorrow leaves at 6:30 and Thursday's leaves at 5:00), the hotel will pack you a bag breakfast/lunch - although the early tours often include breakfast. The room has a fridge and we bought water and drinks to have. We couldn't get the room safe to work and neither could the hotel staff but they assure us that our things are safe. There are, as I said, many lodging choices from backpacker hostels to a plush resort outside the town that has rooms at $1,200/night.

    An interesting mix of isolation and luxury.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 8

    Day 6 - Flamingos and Altiplano

    January 3, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    Just spent an hour writing up the day only to have my tablet crash without saving it.

    The tour picked us at the hotel around 6:30 and spent an hour picking up other participants at their hotels. With a group of 20, we headed south along the west side of the Atacama Salt pan for an 11-hour, 250-mile, 1-mile elevation change jaunt.

    The Atacama pan is an immense brine lake hemmed in on all sides by the four mountain ranges I mentioned yesterday. It is fed mostly by underground sources coming down from the Andes to the west. The surface is a thick crust of evaporated salt and minerals. It is a mile deep and was formed by the faulting, uplift and subsidence that formed the Andes over millions of years. The weight of the crust presses down on the liquid brine at the bottom, forcing it up to the surface where it evaporates to form new crust. The lake is about 1,100 square miles - one of the largest salt lakes in the world - and sits at about 8,000 feet.

    An hour into the jaunt, we arrived at the National Flamingo Reserve. Our guide, Roberto, kept up a constant, informative stream of information about the history, geology, ecology, and culture that we passed through during the entire trip - in good English. At the Reserve, Roberto led on a walk along the paths to see the shallow pools of brine where the three native species of flamingos waded while filtering the brine shrimp they eat and which give them their color. The crust is hard, jagged, and sharp - much like coral - brownish, with white or translucent nuggets of salt. We compared the coral-like surface to out memory of the smooth surface of Lake Nakuru, another flamingo reserve in Kenya. After the walk we had a light but filling breakfast, provide by the tour, by the bus. Roberto led us through the low-key but informative exhibits at the Reserve's HQ, adding additional information.

    Out of the Reserve heading west and south, we went up (and up, and up). The bus stopped at Socaire, a town of about 1,000 where the tour arranged our lunch on the return leg. The people of Socaire still farm the surrounding gullies using terraces formed with mud brick walls - much the same as they have done for centuries. The Conquistadors, arriving in the mid 1500s, were extremely impressed by the Inca terraced agriculture and called the uplands by their name for terraces (roughly, "atraves"). Usages and corruption changed that name into "Andes." Socaire sits at about 11,000 feet and the little walking we did left me lightheaded and breathing deeply. Alongside the path we saw vicunas, the small indigenous deer related to the llama and alpaca.

    Southward and upward we continued into the "Altiplano," the name for the region in Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia above 4,000 meters elevation. We stopped at Laguna Miscanti, another salt flat isolated by the eruptions of the line of volcanoes along this stretch of the Andes. There are more than 40 volcanoes along this line, many extinct but some mearly dormant. The last nearby eruption was about 1,000 years ago. The lagoon is blue-green and smooth, reflecting the peaks on either side. We walked down a path above the the lagoon and enjoyed the view. There were no others land animals and only a few birds.

    As we continued up it got cooler (maybe in the 60s at 2 PM) and windier. We got to Piedras Rojas (red rocks) and more salt flats with red hillsides due to the large iron content of the volcanic soil. We topped out about 13,500 feet and walking was a breathless experience (and to think just yesterday I complained about being out of breath in Atacama, a mile lower). At one location, fresh, 100 degree water flowed green into one of the salt pans. Roberto told us that there is evidence of human activity here dating from 12, 000 BC and human settlement from about 8,000 BC. As he talked he showed helpful pictures of various animals and indigenous culture from reference books he carried. As we headed back down into the basin, we could see on the far southern side of Atacama pan the white expanse of the lithium extraction process. The process pumps liquid brine from the depths of the lake and spreads it out in large ponds to evaporate the water, then refines the residue to get the lithium and other minerals.

    Back in Socaire, we had a great lunch of some Chilean dishes and headed north and lower toward San Pedro. We stopped at the marker designating the spot where the Tropic of Capricorn crosses the road. This marks the southernmost extent of the sun's annual oscillation. At noon on December 21st, the sun is directly overhead. Here, there is also the trace of the "Inca Highway" the road (footpath) stretching the length of the Inca empire and on which moved much of the empire's commerce and communications (carried by runners who could average 50 kilometers in eight hours). We rolled into San Pedro about 6 PM. Since we had an early start tomorrow, we showered and soon crashed.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 8

    Day 7 - Geysers and Thermals

    January 3, 2019 in Chile ⋅ ⛅ 68 °F

    The food yesterday didn't sit right and I woke with issues. We boarded the bus but I opted to get back off and stay near a bathroom. Gail went with the others tourists up the mountain to the Tatio Geysers.

    The geysers are a two-hour drive up a "relentlessly bumpy" (guidebook's words) road. Gail confirmed the description. It was just dawn when the tour arrived at Tatio. This is the world's highest geothermal field (at about 14,000 feet) with dozens of holes from which steam periodically erupts. The tour starts so early to reach the field at dawn when the steam is especially noticable in the cold (40s?) morning air. The guide provided some explanations in heavily accented English, though he seemed to forget what language he was speaking in the middle of some sentences and reverted to Spanish. The tourists walked around the vents along marked paths. After visiting Yellowstone and the towering geysers there, Gail was not impressed with the two-foot high spurts coming from these vents. The mountain scenery, though, was higher, closer and more striking than we"d seen. There had been snow overnight on the peaks and they were brilliant white even in the overcast day. Gail felt woozy from the trip and the altitude getting off the bus. The tour hosted a light breakfast before traveling a mile to a series of thermal baths. Here some of the tourists donned suits and sat in the hot waters. After half an hour, the tour started back down the very steep road.

    Next stop, some warm wetlands nourished by the geyser runoff where flamingos and vicunas grazed. Gail spotted a Horned Coot guarding its nest in one pool. Further down the mountain they stopped at an abandoned village, Machuca, now being reconstructed as a tourist destination. A bit further down, they stopped at a local farm but had no program. Gail thought the stop was mainly to fill up time. That was the last stop and the tour was back at San Pedro about noon.

    My malady seemed to a false alarm and I felt ok after some morning sleep. We whiled away the afternoon catching up on correspondence and this blog. A late afternoon stroll took us up the street to the town square and the church. Tomorrow we fly back to Santiago.    Read more

  • TravelerChile-Argentina 2019
    Day 10

    Day 7 - Down to Sea Level

    January 5, 2019 in Chile ⋅ 🌫 55 °F

    A travel day as we left the Atacama for ValparIso. Another way-before-dawn morning saw us on the road from San Pedro to Calama as the sun rose behind the Andes. An uneventful flight landed us in a crowded Santiago airport. We learned later there had been a power outage at the airport yesterday that caused delays and cancellations and the residue of that was still making for long lines. Got our car and headed west towards the Pacific.

    Coming out of the second tunnel on the freeway to Valparaiso, presented us with the lush, well developed Casablanca valley. This is a recently-developed (only 30 years ago) wine producing region. The land in the valley and up some of the hills is covered in vineyards. We choose one, VinaMar, to visit. The winery has a palatial mansion in the center of many acres of its vineyards and we went in to see about lunch. In the elegant second story dining room overlooking the vines and the valley, we had a leisurely, delicious four-course meal. VinaMar specializes in sparkling wines. Each course of our meal was accompanied by one of their wines. We'd learned that portions are big so we ordered one lunch and shared it. The appetizer was served on a oak stave from a wine barrel with a dry, light sparkling rose made from pinot noir grapes. Our waiter explained each course and the wines he served. With the starter, he served a brut sparkling wine made from chardonnay grapes. The main course was scrumptious beef and local vegetables with a weak red cabarnet from one of their sister vineyards and desert was served with another sparkling white. In spite of sharing the lunch and wines, we were both a little tipsy by the end of the meal. We walked around the grounds a bit to work off some of the wine since the guidebook warned us of Chile's zero-tolerance policy on drunk driving. Off after two hours of lunch to Valpariso.

    Valparaiso is a port city sprawling over 45 steep hills surrounding the harbor. The commercial and port areas are on the narrow flat around the harbor but the residential areas climb the steep hills. The hills are so significant that there are 14 funiculars to help you get up them. My GPS took us to the hotel through a winding route along narrow streets up and down several hills. We checked into the Thomas Somerscales Boutique Hotel high above the harbor. The hotel is the converted former home of English painter Thomas Somerscales who was active in the late 19th to early 20th century and lived in Valparaiso for 20 years. The small hotel has only 12 rooms but is elegant and comfortable.

    After checking in and setting up our room, we walked the residential area around the hotel. Valparaiso is noted for its street art covering the houses and walls and we saw examples everywhere. We had a hot chocolate at a small bistro that, we'd been told, has live music. As we drank our chocolate, two guys came in and started playing. I recognized some of the songs and talked with them. When they learned I played harmonica, they invited me to play a blues with them. We strolled back to the hotel in the dusk (now about 9:30) to finish the day looking over the lights of the city.    Read more

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