SA4: Mendoza, Valparaiso, Horcón, Santiago

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Our last blog... sigh. At least we covered a lot of ground since the last one. We spent some time in Mendoza, Argentina, then moved on to Horcón, Valparaiso, and Santiago in Chile. I know you’re probably thinking, “Wow! With that many destinations, this is sure going to be an action-packed blog!” Well, cool your heels missy. I’m afraid that our time was mainly spent doing such fun but uninteresting things as: eating copious amounts of the insanely cheap Argentinean blue cheese ($1.50 for 300 g), eating copious amounts of cheap and fresh cherries ($1 per kilo), eating ice cream… well a lot of eating, really. Well, we did drink, too, since the wine is very cheap and good (we drank some good Malbecs). Of course, we have an excuse: the heat. It has been prohibitively hot to do much.

From Buenos Aires, we took the overnight bus to Mendoza. That was OK - only occasionally in the middle of the night did Dance Mix ‘93 come on over the PA. Mendoza is a fairly nice, medium-sized city. Our hostel (Hostel Savigliano) was affordable, air conditioned, and very social. We met several good folks, including one American fellow who was *gasp* a Republican (it was strange actually - he was from Boston). Needless to say, he and I had a civil yet heated discussion about American politics, with topics ranging from the chances of “victory” in Iraq and the real motivation of the insurgency (or “terrorists”) to the potential dangers of the American trade deficit with China and the benefits of a flat tax. At one point, he even invoked the Laffer Curve, so I was like “Dude! You know that you’re not operating on right-hand of the curve! The point of equilibrium is 80%, yo”. He was a complete fiscal conservative - but supported Bush’s economic policies. Whaaaaa?? Then one night a French-Canadian, a Irish guy, an Israeli, a German, the American, and myself played “beer pong”. That is a version of ping pong modified for maximum drinking by the maximum number of people. Let’s just say that the Quebecois guy and I stood up for our country’s honour (he was a separatist, incidentally), and I sure felt it the next day.

Despite the heat and the cheapness of luxury food items, we did manage to do one thing in Mendoza in the four days we were there: On our last day, we went to a winery. It was pretty interesting. We learned about the grape-crushing process, saw the vines, saw the oak barrels that the wine is aged in, and drank some free wine. All the while we were thinking of John. Funnily enough, next door there was a bike rental place called “Bikes and Wine” and their logo was a picture of a cyclist drinking a bottle of wine.

From Mendoza, we took a bus across the Andes to Chile on the way to Horcón. It was a great bus ride. We saw lots of mountains including the tallest outside of the Himalayas. And best of all: no Dance Mix ’93! In fact, they even had headphones for the movie instead of blaring it over the PA. This level of consideration was completely out of our range of experience for South American busses (it was Tur Bus, by the way). The destination of the bus was Viña del Mar, which seemed unimpressive, so we got on the first bus we could to Horcón.

Horcón is a little sea-side village just North of Viña. It is a relaxing, quiet place with large beach nearby. Unfortunately it was cloudy each day we were there, so we didn’t do much on the beach besides walks. There seem to be lots of cheap places to stay. Our first night we found what seemed like a nice place, right on the beach. It was huge - like a small house. However, we discovered that the bed left certain things to be desired… The next day we moved to a smaller, cleaner place.

After Horcón, we caught the bus to Valparaiso. We were, of course, lugging our huge backpacks (they seem to keep getting bigger somehow…) We didn’t want to carry the bags on our laps - that could be dangerous - so we put them on two seats across from us. But, the bus was a colectivo, so people kept getting on and off. We were anxiously monitoring the number of people for fear that we would have to move the bags to make room. Several nerve-racking times all of the seats were full. Luckily we never had to move them.

Valparaiso is a fairly big costal city. It has a big port. The houses are all painted really bright colours, which lends an artiness to the place. (That’s one thing about South America - they love to use bright colours. Even townhouses are each painted a different, bright colour.) We didn’t spend too much time there, so there really isn’t much to report.

Now we’re in Santiago, the last city on our itinerary. We fly out of here tonight at 9:15. We arrived here two days ago. It is freaking hot! Yesterday we saw the Museum of Pre-Columbian Artifacts, which is truly an excellent. The nativos of Central and South America were truly skilled potters. Some pieces rival anything that I have seen before.

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