Fourteen days in Santiago turned out to be way too long a visit. The problem was that nearly all the museums and art galleries, which is the reason I went there, were  closed. Not even the tourism office knew they were closed. Stranger still, neither do the museum websites let the public know.  One day…

Today is my final day in Valparaiso.  I will be sad to leave this unique city. After walking up and down numerous hills, I think what interests me the most are the artists who paint huge murals on or next to very small dwellings, like the one in the featured image.  Here is another one: My photos…

The poet, Pablo Neruda, in an ode to his city,  captures it: "What nonsense you are. What a crazy insane port. Your mounded head disheveled. You never finish combing your hair. Life always surprised you." The city is in a continual state of delapidated and new construction. The old area of "Valpo", where Europeans lived during the…

Before I knew anything about the painting in today's featured image, I took  a photograph of her.  She is part of the permanent collection in Santiago's Belles Artes Museum.  A woman alone on a train, going somewhere, accompanied by a book. The 1928 painting is by Chilean artist Camilo Mori and is titled La Viajera,…

This is my third trip to Chile (although have not been to Santiago before) and this time, I had the presence of mind to bring along my own ground coffee, filters and filter paper holder. It remained a mystery to me until yesterday why when ordering coffee, even in the best hotels, means you will…

The featured image shows me sitting with Claudio Amarza, a renowned Chilean photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic, among other publications.  Here is the back story: In December, 2013, I went on a hiking tour of Patagonia. Our group stopped for lunch in Punto Arenas and a black and white photograph on the wall…

See all the primary colors?  Red, blue, green and  yellow.  Our 18 year old bus attendants wore white shirts, ties, dark slacks and tie shoes. The passengers piled on dressed in shorts, t shirts and atheletic shoes and carried backpacks.  This "establishment shot" set the tone of a 10 hour bus trip from Mendoza to…