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Published: October 20th 2006
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We have just finished our first 24 hours in Valparaiso, or "Valpo" as its also known. And what a trip. We left Mendoza on Wednesday morning, later than we wanted, as always, and found our way onto Ruta 7, which snaked its way up toward the Andes, through a lower yet older range that looks out over Mendoza. The road was good, windy, yet not windy!! And so we made good progress upward. 20km from the border, we had lunch and ironically, our last meal in Argentian was mutton, not beef! Once we left the sleepy, out-of-season ski resort, we found the wind had picked up and it started to snow, although the flakes did not settle, so the road remained safe. We passed alongside Aconcagua, the highest peak of the Americas and reached the tunnel that passed beneath the mountains, to take us to the border control. This turned out to be a hive of activity as we signed ourselves and the bike out of Argentina and into Chile. The whole process proved very straight forward and our first experience of Chilean administration was one where the same process that had taken 7 hours 3 weeks previously, now took 40
mins. However, there was still the customs charge for the bike. It had cost us a mere 270 Argentine Pesos (50 GBP) to bring it into Buenos Aires, yet it cost us a whopping 5 pesos to bring it into Chile (1 GBP)! However, savings end there, as we soon noticed that things are more expensive on the pacific side of the Andes!
Whilst at the border control, we hooked up with about 5 other bikes: all argentines from Córdoba from what must be the Transalp owners club as they all rode the same bike (to the uninitiated its a Honda 600cc V-twin, in a Paris-Dakar style). So, in convoy, we departed for Chile and the first few miles left an impression, making my spirits soar: spec-tac-ular mountains (unshrouded by clouds on this side) and a road entirely made of about 15-20 hairpins: I may be on a boat of a motorbike, but that was close to self administering a class "A" substance to a biker who has only been fed 100s of miles of wind-swept straightness!!
So off we went for about 40 miles/60 km to Los Andes where we filled up. They then continued on and
Public transport in Valpo...
...one of the 15 remaining funicular elevators we followed a little later but would not see them on the road again. Now at "normal" altitude (please note that we had descended from 3500m to about 125m in 2 and a half hours!!) the bike truly sang: no detonation, or "pinking" on full chat... oh no, it flew despite all the weight and I was thoroughly enjoying myself. Such yobbish behaviour got us to Valparaiso by about 20.00. By now my back was a wreck and I was ready for a destination and so we struggled and tried to find the area our guide book suggested had budget accommodation. We got closer, and then I took a right which saw us riding up a 30 degree climb: clutches must be a common purchase here. When I had to stop the bike half way up to let someone out, I was sure that I'd flip the bike, just thinking about pulling away again! We finally found a place to stay that our guide book had said would cost about 9GBP. It didn't. This place was a beautiful Bed and Breakfast with all the trimmings and a fabulous decor! So it was in fact 35 GBP!! Slightly despondent we asked
the owners if they knew any other hostels as , despite their fine lodgings, their establishment was a bit out of our range! They then told us that the smaller of the two rooms could be ours for 20 GBP!! Still a bit high for us, but given the facilities: "don't look a gift-horse inthe mouth", so we graciously accepted their kind offer!
"Jeeves?! Fetch me my feet!! I wish to land on them..."
Our first day in Valpo was a splendid clear and warm spring day: we walked, walked and walked some more although given the gradients, the climb to Pablo Neruda's hill-top house was more like Alpinism. And a fine place that was too. Meanwhile, Valpo showed us its true colours as a vibrant and charismatic city. We finished off the day with a seat on some rocks to watch our first live Pelicans and the sunset on the Pacific, almost 2 weeks after having done so on a bay of the Atlantic, and we were left with the realisation that we had crossed a continent, coast-to-coast!! Life is good!!
Kris:
We are on "my territory" now! (I did all the homework for Chile) -
Sunset over the Atlantic...
...a view shared with the Southern Right Whales in Peninsula Valdes, 2 weeks ago and so far it has been everything I thought it would be and more! Don't get me wrong, I like Argentina a lot and I learned many things about myself when travelling through the land of expanse. The most important lesson was about respecting the nature - you can do all the planning the world but if the weather does not agree, you wait. The Andes on the Argentine side were spectacular, we were surrounded by cliffs and rocks coloured from deep red to bright orange and beige! And then came the snow and suicideal sparrows (that was at 2000m above sea level and higher - hundreds of sparrows throwing themselves in front of the bike! High-altitude-induced-madness??) and snow and then ... Chile! Who would have guessed that this is were all the trees decided to settle down? If Argentina is mostly desert or steppe, Chile is a forest! In Argentina, if you saw trees, that was a sign of human residence, in Chile that's a sign of the absence of people! 😊 The thorny bushes we were so used to have were now swapped with Rhodothendron forests, cactae, wineyards and fruit orchards. And hundreds of blue-watered rivers.
Our first
Sunset over Pacific...
...a clear sky decorated with our first ever wild Pelicans in flight destination was Valpo. For some reason I had decided a long time ago that this is the town where I would like to stay first in Chile. Followed by the deepening shadows of the night, we finally made it; we had no hotel booked and we didn't even have a proper map of the place, but as always, things worked out just fine.
We are staying in the old part of Valpo, a Montmartre-like area of the town. 25 meters from our house is a "vista" (a view point) to the port and if you catch an elevator you will be in the port in 10 minutes. If not, you will have to climb down the streets for 25 minutes or so! Yes, the locals must be very fit here to take their groceries back home as most of the city is on the narrow alley-ways and a million-billion steps! Valparaiso is full of colours, the houses are painted in every primary and secondary colour that you can think of and the people here are equally colourful. Not necessary by origin but by nature 😊 I can see now why so many famous artists have chosen to live here. Another
descriptive word for the town is ... buses. Green, orange, white - they are small and fast and they are everywhere. And they don't use their brakes much when going downhill.
Today, after a good rest in our cosy B&B, we are heading to the north - to La Serena - to visit the Humboldt Penguin national park and do some stargazing in an observatory in the middle of the Andes. We'll let you know soon what life has planned for us for tonight.
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Alessia
non-member comment
no yoga for you
Dear Nick I am soooooooooooooooooooooooo happy I can read every step of your trip; it all sound extremely fascinating and wonderful that it makes me dream (and want to start planning to go there and see it by myself!). Moreover, it has got some kind of calming therapeutic effect on me, after my stressful days at work. I am sure all those beautiful landscapes are contributing to mind relaxation (...no more yoga for you...). Beauty of nature aside, those argentinian stakes are something to dream about.................................................. Dear Kristina nice to meet you electronically. I was quite interested in your description of rather handsome argentinian men...........then, you carried on describing cows and whales............... :-))))) The sunset over Pacific must have been such a romantic view; that is my favourite photo so far! Take care Alessia