Final Week in Chile

Our last week in Chile began with shopping for me at the nearby mall.  Randy and I walked there and enjoyed an hour or so of perusing the many shops.  I bought a pair of Chilean made linen pants with an interesting semi-harem design which were surprisingly long enough for me at the Paris department store and a great white blouse from the Ripley's department store.  Randy picked up some dual language baby books for Henley.  

The big mall near our apartment serving both Vina and Valparaiso.  This end is the large Paris department store.

I worked that afternoon at the university and gave a talk on ABET engineering accreditation to a College of Engineering committee thinking about this matter.  That evening, we went with Rosa and some other new friends from PUCV to the hills of Valparaiso.  We intended to go to a hip restaurant with a great view, Fauna, but it was full so we took one of the venerable ascensors, Reina Victoria, down to the oldest brewery in Chile (from about 1825!) - a popular hole in the wall called Altamira.  It was crowded and lively and our international table (Americans, Chileans, a Spaniard (well, Catalan), a Mexican, a German and Argentines) enjoyed beer, wine, pisco sours and some food too.  The food was reasonably tasty and we enjoyed it a lot.

Looks like a great place for a drink and some food but we didn't get to confirm that because it was too busy

Dusk on the Valparaiso hills

The beautiful church across the hill, the 1897 Igelsia de la Santa Cruz, a two-tone green German-Lutheran church that was renovated in 2011

Lorena, Rosa, Armando and Frederick

 Lorena, a professor in transportation originally from Argentina, with Alice

We did not go to this cafe but the sign reminded Alice which ascensor we took that evening

View looking down from the ascensor - our goal is the building at the immediate left, the Altamira brewery

Beer!

The oldest brewery in Chile (and that is saying something)

Randy and Frederick on the way in

Some of the brewing equipment

Enjoying a lively evening in Valparaiso

Francis, a Catalan, and Armando, an Argentine

Frederick, for a German, looks less than thrilled about the beer (or maybe we was not enthusiastic about Alice disturbing his beer drinking with a selfie)

Two of the brews

A great place for beer and a casual meal in Valparaiso - and you will experience part of beer history

This small hotel in a historic mansion near the Reina Victoria ascensor looked awesome - maybe we will spend a night there next time

Afterwards, we reversed our trip on the ascensor up and walked to the cars (parking in the hills of Valparaiso is very difficult and requires courage and verve - and luck too - and preferably a four wheel drive vehicle).  We visited the interesting offices of Rosa's friend.  This building had a breathtaking view but the neighborhood is, let us say charitably, Bohemian.  The building has been redone in a very modern style and is inhabited mainly by architects.

The exterior of the renovated building belies the modernist and sleek interior - note the graffiti - a way of life in Chilean cities and towns

View of Valparaiso from the building patio

Another view of the hills - this time looking away from the sea

The rest of the evening was devoted to cats.  First, we visited Lorena's townhouse in Vina and met her two cats - one Chilean and one Argentine.  Then, we stopped briefly by Rosa's small Vina apartment to meet her feisty cat, Palusa.  Palusa is sassy and sweet at the same time.

Lorena and one of her spoiled cats

Lorena's housemate and xx enjoy some tea

The other spoiled cat

Two cat lovers

Rosa's little girl Palusa

Palusa rolls over for us

She is a little bit chubby :-)

Tuesday was spent in Santiago.  I had been invited to give a seminar to Andres Weintraub's class at the University of Chile which is near the city center.  Andres is quite esteemed and is the patriarch, I think I can safely say, of operations research in Chile.  It was a pleasure to lecture to his class.  Thanks to my student, Alejandro, at Auburn, I used slides in Spanish but spoke in English.  The students were attentive and asked wonderful, insightful questions.

The class in logistics at University of Chile in Santiago

Another view of the talented and insightful students (at least some of them are)

Before the lecture

Alice and Andres

Afterwards, another faculty member, Richard Weber, took Randy and I to a historic and very delicious restaurant, Ana Maria, nearby for lunch.   We met a faculty member, Victor Parada, from the University of Santiago.  The four of us enjoyed wine, a fantastic assortment of cold seafood and main courses (trout for me).  It was a great mid-day meal.

Highly recommended for dining near University of Chile

The impressive assortment of cold seafood (with a pisco sour) - with an offering like this Alice will work for food

Richard looks at the Spanish / English book that Randy bought for Henley while Alice lectured

Alice and Victor wait for lunch

After lunch we all needed a siesta but didn't get one

Driving across the city, we then visited my colleagues at the Pontifica University of Chile - Santiago (PUCS).  This is a newer school with a large campus in a more suburban part of the city.  I was primarily meeting with Alejandro Mac Cawley, a youngish professor who specializes in improving agricultural production with a specialty in wine.  We are trying to initiate some wine production research and had hoped to meet at winery for first hand discussions but my schedule got too busy.  Next time!  We were joined for part of the conservations by Sergio Maturana, a senior faculty who has also worked in wine production improvement.  Alejandro gave me two unusual and (I am sure) excellent bottles of red to take home (they are currently in my wine cellar).

Sergio, Alice and Alejandro in Alejandro's large and calm office at PUCS

We spent the evening in eating leftovers and watching Netflix (the series Marco Polo).  Our last chill evening in the condo.

Sunset over the Pacific as seen from our terrace on the 15th floor

The sun moves quickly once it is near the horizon

Later, the clear night shows the waxing moon, also from the terrace

Wednesday was our final full day of work at the university.  We packed some in the morning then headed to PUCV.  Needing a bit more space, Jimena came to our rescue and lent us another small suitcase.  We did not buy that much except we ended up bringing 12 bottles back (don't tell the customs please!).  We brought back five assorted bottles of pisco and seven of wine (including four from the airport duty free). At the university, Randy helped students with their English skills while I met with Rosa, Diego and Jimena about our project.  I also had a Skype with another project back at Auburn.  We ate lunch at a really delicious nearby Italian place and had the set menu.  The weather was nice so we ate on the patio.

The ladies at lunch on the patio

That evening, Jimena invited us to her apartment, near the Valparaiso/Vina border.  It is on the 8th floor (I think) and has great views out to the sea.  She stuffed us with ravioli (actually it is a bigger version of ravioli with a different name that I have not seen in the U.S. before) and salad washed down with pisco sours and wine (my contribution).  Rosa came too and it was a festive way to spend our final evening in Chile.  We briefly saw the three kids and also met Jimena's parents.  Her father is a partially retired professor of statistics at PUCV and got his degree at the University of Wisconsin - Madison where Jimena and her siblings lived during that time.

Preparing food and drink in Jimena's kitchen

Pisco sours in the blender

Pedro and Randy chill in the living area

The dining table is set

Salud!

For desert Randy has his new favorite - coffee with vanilla ice cream

Agustin y Pedro en su casa

Thursday, we finished packing and straightened up the apartment and sadly sad good bye to our wonderful sea view.  At PUCV, we met up with Jimena, Rosa, Norberto, Ricardo and another faculty member and headed to Dimalow, their favorite restaurant for lunch on Thursdays.  On Thursday, they always offer a steak dish which is revered for its deliciousness.  This restaurant is in a historic building in a very picturesque part of the Valparaiso hills.  We ate and drank (a last pisco sour for me followed by red wine) and enjoyed a live guitarist too.

Randy and Alice with some of the industrial engineering faculty at PUCV

Outside the building near the parking entrance

A final view of the Valparaiso hills - note the cobblestones

Incredible tile work at an entry in a random building

The enthusiastic guitarist at Dimalow

Waiting for lunch - Randy, Rosa and Ricardo

Across the table, Jimena, Alice and Norberto

Another table view

Norberto took this one

The last pisco sour - this one a "Peruvian" with frothed egg white and a dash of bitters

Well, the pisco sours had to end sometime...

Alice did not opt for the steak but had the fish instead, which was very tasty

Randy gets down with his steak and potatoes

Walking back to the car along the colorful streets of the Valparaiso hills

Back at PUCV, we said our bittersweet goodbyes and headed for the airport in Santiago.  After checking in our rental car, Randy told me he had wrecked in a most minor way at the beginning of our trip by trying to back out of PUCV's underground parking garage (What??).  This was a sore subject as he had done a similar boo boo when we visited last September and we had to get a bit of body work done by Jimena's mechanic to our rental vehicle then before we turned it back in.  This time, the boo boo was small enough no one noticed.  We checked two bags each and exited through immigration and security.  At the duty free, I found bottles of the Malbec we tasted with Juan Ignacio at Caliterra.  And, the price was quite attractive!  I bought four but wished I could have carried more.

We whiled away some time in the Delta lounge drinking some wine and eating the pretty superior food - soup, salad, snacks.  Our overnight flight took off on time and we began the too long flight (9 1/2 hours flying time) back to Atlanta.