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Published: March 10th 2009
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On the way
From the airplane we could see both the Andes and the coastal range ¡Hola! - we really wanted to take advantage of that cool upside down exclamation mark!¿
Well it´s been nearly a year since we completed our travels in Asia, so we decided it was time for another excursion! After checking our schedules we realized we had about 2.5 weeks with which to travel, so we narrowed our destination to two countries we´ve always wanted to visit: Chile and Argentina. What makes us laugh is our list of places to visit seems to be getting longer instead of shorter!
After working a full day our friend Lianne dropped us off at the airport. Our flight departed Toronto at midnight. We had a quick nap and were woken up for a full dinner at 1 AM. It was kind of funny but we thought we´d enjoy the meal so we watched a movie too. Then it was time to try to get some sleep. We were woken up again with another hot meal - this time breakfast - and after an 11 hour flight we arrived in
Santiago, Chile at 12:30 in the afternoon. It was a gorgeous sunny day and about 29 degrees celsius. We grabbed a taxi to
Barrio Bellavista which is
Santiago - Barrio Bellavista
Colourful buildings line the street under a clear sky a beatiful neighbourhood with lots of old tree-lined streets and nice building facades.
Both of us were pretty beat after the long red-eye flight, but after dropping our packs off at the hostel and showering we forced ourselves to get back out and explore the city. We tried a fantastic Chilean style restaurant and enjoyed some new foods. We had 3 types of
empanadas (seafood, cheese, and spicy beef), amazing home made salsa, a local bottle of white wine, Pastel de Jaiba - Greda Grande (fresh crab and cheese stew in a clay pot), and Pastel de Cho Clo (a kind of cornmeal hodge-podge that contained olives, eggs, chicken, beef, vegetables). Everything was great and it was a really nice introduction to South American cuisine.
We strolled the neighbourhood and took the fenicular to the top of
San Cristobal Hill to take in the great view of the entire city, with the mountains as a backdrop. We took the cable car down from the top of the hill and stopped at a picturesque public swimming pool. We wished we had our bathing suits with us since it was so hot, but it was a nice view nonetheless. We continued exploring
Santiago - Barrio Bellavista
We found a great Chilean restaurant the neighbourhood and strolled through the bohemian section, stopping to admire some interesting murals and a
famous Chilean writer´s house.
We finished the night with a streetside
Pisco Sour which we both enjoyed. We made our way back to the hostel and both were asleep within 15 minutes.
We got a pretty good sleep and woke up by 8:30 to try and get on a normal schedule. We had breakfast at the hostel and then headed out to do some more exploring before getting on a bus later in the day. We took the subway to the city centre -
Plaza del Armas. On our way there a lady tried to pick Travis´ pocket on the metro. Luckily we had been warned of situations like this so we were being extra cautious. Travis caught her and told her to back off. Of course she pretended she didn´t know what we were talking about. Good thing we had our wits about us! Travis suggested putting a mouse trap in his pocket and riding the metro again until we heard a loud snap!! Alas, we just didn´t have the time for vigilante justice!!
The Plaza was beautiful and was lined on all four sides
Santiago - Barrio Bellavista
We had 3 types of empanadas (seafood, cheese, and spicy beef), amazing home made salsa, a local bottle of white wine, Pastel de Jaiba - Greda Grande (fresh crab and cheese stew in a clay pot), and Pastel de Cho Clo (a kind of cornmeal hodge-podge that contained olives, eggs, chicken, beef, vegetables). by beautiful Spanish Colonial architecture. We did a walking tour around the square taking in so many beautiful buildings which eventually led to Mercado Centrale (Central Market). There was a vibrant fish market and fruit and vegetable vendors inside.
We had a bus to catch at 1:30pm so we grabbed our stuff from the hostel and took the subway to the bus station. The trip was an 8 hour bus across the highest part of the Andes mountain range into Argentina. We had great seats on the top floor of a double decker bus - we sat right at the front and had a clear view of the road ahead...which was both a blessing and a curse! There were a few white-knuckle moments snaking our way up the mountains but mostly it was one of the most stunning drives we´ve experienced. We passed
Mt. Aconcagua the highest peak in the Americas and the highest peak outside the Himalayas at 6,962 m (by comparison Canada´s tallest peak is Mt. Logan at 5,959 m). We crossed the Chile-Argentian border in the middle of the mountain range. We had to get off the bus and pass customs before continuing on. As we came
down the other side the sun was starting to set and the red-rock mountains were an incredible golden colour. ¡It was truly spectacular!
The long trip was made more interesting not only by the amazing scenery but by our eccentric traveling companion. His name was Armando and he was a former actor which we were pretty certain was true as many people at the bus station were taking his photo and waving! His look can only be described as Antonio Banderas meets Slash from Guns ´n Roses - you have to see the attached photo to understand. He was very nice and had some interesting stories to tell - especially after he finished the bottle of wine he bought at the border! Our favourite story was the one about how he almost made "the sex " to Tina Turner in Toronto back in the 70s! We loved his get up which included baby blue silk pajamas underneath black jeans and a curly black wig, plus obviously a shirt, suit jacket and tie.
We arrived in Mendoza, Argentina at about 9pm. A city renowned for its wine which we are looking forward to sampling!!!
It took us the
first day or two to get back into the swing of travelling again and working out our routines but we couldn´t be happier to be back in this lifestyle.
Hope you are all well.
Love Michelle & Travis
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Laurie
non-member comment
Armando sounds funny! I would love to have heard about the sex he almost made with Tina!!