Our hotel in Santiago, Chile. Image courtesy Ritz Carlton, Santiago
I was enjoying the first glimpses of Autumn just two weeks ago... It's true! While the USA, Europe et al begrudgingly hosted persistent wintery-mix at the end of March, South America- Santiago, Chile to be precise - was welcoming rainbows of fall foliage... and Jim and me! Visiting Santiago, Chile ranks right up there with my favorite travel experiences of all time, so of course I wanted to share a bit of the adventure with you!
Fall Foliage in front of a Santiago Home, forgive the quality of my iPhone shots please:-)
Although Jim and I were visiting on business, our endeavors involved lots of walking throughout the palm tree studded city and surrounding countryside providing ample opportunity to soak up the beauty of the Chilean geography, culture, people, food and wine.
Farmland near Santiago
Climate/Geography
Founded in 1541, Santiago is the beautiful and historically rich capital of Chile, located in the Central Valley, between the beaches of the Pacific Ocean and the slopes of the splendid Andean Mountain Range. Just South of Santiago lie the rich and beautiful vineyards of the Maipo Valley, one of the world's most esteemed wine producing regions. The country of Chile is incredibly long and narrow, stretching down the full western coast of South America's tail, a distance equivalent to the stretch between NYC and San Francisco! Due to Chile's varied terrain, the country experiences all climates, and in close proximity, making it ideal for skiers and beach lovers alike. Santiago's climate is very much like that of Los Angelos; mild year round and sunny all the time. It really was funny to see the leaves changing, boutiques displaying fall fashion, while back home we were preparing for the opposite season of Spring! Of course, the temperate climate of Santiago means sandals and layering are pretty much a go year-round, just like L.A.
Outdoor Patio of the highly acclaimed restaurant, Arola, in Santiago. Jim & I snuggled up under complimentary alpaca throws one evening to relive Sergi Arola's AMAZING puff pastry dessert we'd had just the night before! Image courtesy Ritz Carlton, Santiago.
Looking into the Eye of a Santiago Skyscraper
City/Culture
Santiago has a very European vibe. It's a clean, safe, walkable city, lined with elegant parks and winding side-streets. The architecture runs the gamut from 9th century neoclassical to art deco, neo-gothic, cutting edge modern styled glass skyscrapers and more. The landscape is shaped by the Mapacho River as well as the imposing Andes mountains, which can be seen glimmering in the distance from most points in the city. The city’s art collections are vast ranging from pre-Columbian to contemporary. Santiago is one of those wonderful cities filled with many unique neighborhoods where the more you look, the more you find; from cobblestone streets, to markets, boutiques, elegant restaurants, sidewalk cafes and discos. It's also very much a bar and pub city. Santiagans enjoy heading out to their favorite spot, perhaps to listen to some live guitar or jazz, which is exactly what we enjoyed one fine evening in the cozy lounge of our beautiful hotel. It was the best live jazz I've ever heard!
Late night festivities in the cozy lounge of our hotel.
People
Chileans are beautiful, warm, friendly and, as I noticed, quite romantic! I frequently saw couples sharing long kisses and sweet moments together :-) Santiagans dress with excellent style and tend to have great hair, the women usually wearing theirs in long, flowing styles. They speak a Chilean version of Spanish, and little to no English. I was inspired, for about a week, to take up Spanish when I returned home. Unfortunately for the purposes of this trip, I took French throughout school, and while it's similarties can come in handy as a Latin language, the rules of accentuation are totally different from Spanish and often threw me off.
Cuisine
The food and wine of Chile are amazing! The rugged mountains, pristine sea and fertile vineyards of the country permeate all aspects of its cuisine - not to mention the many cultural impacts neighboring countries, its native tribes and the Peruvian, Spanish and various other European influences have had. Given the vast Pacific coast of Chile, it's a small wonder that Chile's cuisine is heavily based on the fruits of the sea. Almost everywhere, you can find fresh seafood. The predominant dishes often feature grilled octopus, ceviches, clams, mussels, sea urchins, Chilean sea bass and abalone. Yes, I happily partook in all of the above :)
Tapas from Arola (Image courtesy Ritz Carlton, Santiago)
Menus are often categorized by: Mountains and Sea rather than the ubiquitous Land and Sea. Meat dishes tend to be Spanish-based with local modifications including Empanadas, meat pies in clay pots, and Chilean stews. Patagonian lamb, Argentinian beef, chicken and pork are commonly incorporated.
The famous Spanish Chef, Sergi Arola, of Santiago's famous restaurant Arola.
Wine
Carmenere Red Wine, from the signature grape of Chile similar to Argentinian Malbec, was our libation of choice during most the entire trip. We couldn't bring ourselves to order anything else, it was that special. Carménère is a medium body wine with a deep red color and aromas of red fruits, spices and berries. Best to drink while it's young, the tannins are gentler and softer than those in Cabernet Sauvignon. And yes, you guessed it, the Central Valley of Chile is the world's largest area planted with Carmenere grapes.
My beautiful friend, Jane, and me!
Staying Healthy While Traveling
So after all the flying, wining, dining etc. what do I do to stay healthy and feeling great while traveling? Glad you asked:) This should so be it's own post so for now I'll just highlite some major points. First, 15 hours of flying equals major radiation, dehydration, germy airplane air, bad food and general energy zapping. During flight I get as much rest as I can and:
- Drink as much water as possible avoiding all the dehydrating bevvies: coffee, tea, soda etc.
- I bring my own airplane snax including:
- My favorite sprouted granola: this stuff is actually green it's that unbelievably healthy- but the taste is majorly fab- like addictive! It contains all sorts of amazing things such as buckwheat, dandelion greens & sea vegetables like Spirulina.
- Chlorella Tablets: Enough easy to chew tablets for our entire stay: Sea vegetables increase the body’s capacity for detoxification and also help strengthen the body’s resistance to electromagnetic fields from the flight. Sea Vegetables contain the entire spectrum of trace minerals, which are critical for efficient detoxification.
- Fresh fruit including a banana and ripe avocado- just use a serated plastic knife to cut around the circumfrance of the avocado and spoon it out for an antioxidant rich, healthifying, beautifying, filling meal!
- Green Tea packets: (I stow extras in my suitcase) contain polyphenols to protect DNA from damage inflicted from radiation and harmful chemicals.
- Instant High Quality Miso Soup packets: (Again, I stow extras) a fermented soy product protective against radiation (used to treat radiation sickness), helps improve resistance to EMF exposure, neutralizes some effects of pollution, provides beneficial bacteria to the colon.
Upon arrival
Our first day in Santiago started with long hot showers, followed by the most amazing massage at the beautiful hotel spa (see the pool area in the pic below). Jim and I were majorly impressed by our masseuse, Natalie, and we discovered in talking with others, she's in fact really well known! If you’re ever in the area, be sure to book a massage with her. It's one of the best ways to detox after a lengthy airline flight. We took advantage of a good sweat in the sauna after - yet another excellent detoxification tool. Following the spa, we enjoyed a much needed, lengthy nap to recoup our energy before heading out to dinner and beginning our fabulous Santiago adventure!
The pool area of the Ritz Carlton, Santiago Spa. (Image courtesy Ritz Carlton, Santiago)
Staying Healthy During our Stay
While I practice and enjoy being Vegan, I feel the whole process should be fun so I approach it with an open mind. So, rather than holding myself to rigid standards, I am fairly comfortable compromising now and then, especially if I'm in a totally different culture or eating at a phenomenal restaurant. That said, I adhered to fruit for breakfast and salads as often as they were available. At catered cocktail events with beautiful appetizers floating by, I decided to indulge. At a tapas restaurant one evening, again, I indulged in some things I don't normally eat, as they were small bites. It didn't throw my system off because I stuck to very small portions of the foods I normally don't eat. This worked wonderfully as I was able to try everything I wanted without doing a complete 180. And, for the first time ever travelling, I have to confess, I experienced absolutely zero digestive difficulties! This is a major accomplishment as it's always been a challenge anytime I've travelled in the past. Neither did I gain any weight- probably another first :-) My energy was definitely down upon my return, which of course 15 hours of travel impacts. However, I really felt the few measures I took, below, gave me the most energy, health and fun experience possible:
- Avoiding coffee: I've always overindulged in coffee in the past when travelling. Since I no longer drink it at home, it was easy to maintain the habit- and crucial, since caffeine is dehydrating, acidifying to the body and messes up sleep.
- Drinking tons of water.
- Lots of herb tea.
- Tried to get as much rest as possible.
- Eating fresh fruit for breakfast every day. Although I was able to have a couple bites of croissant or omelette- never too much though.
- Having salads for or with lunches/dinners daily
- Brought digestive enzymes to take prior to meals which might contain products I normally don't eat - admittadly I pretty much always forgot to take them tho!
- Again, when indulging in gluten containing products, desserts, meats, dairy I'd only have a very small amount, and this seemed to work great.
Next time, I’ll probably make a few tweaks. While my system was fine if I limited myself to small tastes of the things I normally avoid. I did notice, the more I gave in, the more comfortable I became making less than ideal choices. Also, I noticed my cravings for the foods I'm allergic too (dairy, gluten, sugar) had returned somewhat when I arrived home. The awareness I gained from this trip's experiences helps me understand how to approach travel situations in the future. Yes, I want to experience the country and culture - yet, taking care of my body and soul is my first priority, always, so that I can be present and healthy in all my interactions in the world.
Until next time my friends!
Love,
XOXO
Juliane
What types of tricks do you have for staying healthy and sane during your travels?
The treasure house within you contains everything and you are free to use it. You don't need to seek outside.
- Zen Master Dazhu
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Wow! that was all but an awesome trip of yours Juliane. I'm sure that you treasure everything that you've seen there . The pool area of that Ritz Carlton, Santiago Spa looks so attractive for me. It looks so cool and relaxing. Before I forgot, thank you so much for sharing your wonderful travel tips.
Posted by: Maranto Mcclintock | Thursday, July 03, 2014 at 08:25 AM
Thank you for your kind comments Maranto! I'm so happy you enjoyed my stay healthy travel tips. Have a beautiful weekend :)
All my best,
Juliane
Posted by: juliane Porter | Friday, July 11, 2014 at 06:39 PM