South America

Valparaiso – What Makes It Chile’s Capital of Culture?

Skyline of central Valparaiso from Planeta Lindo HostelWhen you travel around Chile, you will hear one expression in particular over and over again: “Valparaiso is the cultural capital of Chile.”  Other than a few poor attempts to describe the meaning of this expression, with the most common being “all the artists go there,” you’ll be left wondering what it truly means.

We were so intrigued by this expression that we decided to extend our stay in Chile to figure out why everyone has such a high opinion of a city we rarely hear about.  It only took a few moments in Valparaiso to understand, and the city quickly rose to a spot in our Top 10 favorite cities anywhere in the world.

But the question we were so interested in still needed an answer.  Why is Valparaiso considered to be a cultural highlight of Chile?

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The Best Shops for Dulce de Leche in Argentina and Chile

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream at MamusiaDulce de leche is an iconic South American flavor. Milk and sugar cooked until the mixture is intensely creamy, rich, and caramelized- what’s not to love?

Over the past two months that we’ve spent in Chile and Argentina, we’ve considered it our duty to seek out the best dulce de leche flavored things. While we’ve seen a few dulce de leche flavored desserts in Chile, Argentina has definitely felt like the epicenter of all things dulce de leche.

It’s in everything: ice cream, cookies, crepes, chocolates, and churros, the list goes on and on.

What’s even more amazing is that you can buy several kilogram tubs of it in grocery stores. Yum.

During our travels through Chile and Argentina, our top priority was finding the best dulce de leche ice cream, but along the way we also discovered some other delicious treats like dulce de leche crepes, cakes, and pastries.  

This post features only the best of the best that you must try when visiting these Patagonia restaurants and stores.

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Our Best Tips for Driving in Easter Island

Ahu Tongariki on Easter IslandEaster Island is one of the smallest islands I have ever stayed on, and definitely the smallest I’ve ever driven on. At about 10 miles at its widest point, you can drive around the island in a full loop in just over an hour with a few quick stops.

Prior to our Easter Island visit, we were quite torn about renting a car.   We read many stories online about some of the difficulties that other travelers faced, and were not even sure it would be necessary considering how tiny the island really is.  Once we realized that there is no public transportation on the island, and a rental doesn’t cost that much more than a round-trip taxi doing an island loop, picking up a rental car for half our stay was a logical choice.

But even with our eagerness to get out and explore Easter Island, we did have to consider those difficulties we’ve read about online time and time again.  Luckily for you, we think they’re quite overblown.

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Our Favorite Things to Eat in Patagonia

Aji infused beer at El BolsonIn such a barren landscape as Patagonia, you might expect the fruit and vegetables to be sparse and the quality of restaurant food to be pretty abysmal.  

You would be right.

For the most part we took to cooking our own pasta with canned sauces during our month in Patagonia because fresh food was so hard to come by and pasta was better (and much cheaper) than most anything we could buy in a restaurant.

As terrible as this sounds, there were a few top notch food experiences we had along the way- and they were even more amazing because we’d had so much gross food.

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