And off into the land of Chile...

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Although it was not easy to leave the leisure lifestyle of the wine drinking Mendocinos, eventually we had to say goodbye to Mendoza and head over the Andes into Chile. This took a bit of patience after a snow storm closed the pass which peaks at 4500 meters (14400 ft). The storm also made impossible a suicide style attempt on the summit I failed to reach the week before. Though attempting in one day what we failed to do in ten may have been just that, suicidal.


Over the mountains and through the snow we headed to Santiago. The mountains in the Cordon Plata had a fresh blanket of snow and now appeared much more formidable than the week before.

We arrived in Santiago after a extended bus ride due to the closure of the pass the days before. Chile was not on the original itinerary (not that I really had one), but since it was just a hop and skip away I thought what the hell.

Santiago seemed to me a smog filled capital with neither the style nor elegance of cities such as Rio or Buenos Aires. If the surrounding mountains had been visible through the haze I may have enjoyed the contrast of the rugged Andes and the bustling city.

Unfortunately for myself as well as Tasha Chilean food consist mainly of seafood. So meals were basic and did not stray far from the typical South American cuisine.

To its credit Santiago has an amazing subway system. Clean, new and futuristic looking, it beats anything in the states. Between meals and admiring the subways we checked out some of the tourist site which were mainly view points poking out of the smoggy atmosphere.

Due to time consideration we decided it best not head to the Atacama Desert as we had planned and headed to the coast.

Valparaiso and Viña del Mar are two cities minutes apart and just a few hours from the capital. Highly recommended we arrived excited to spend a few days at the beach. My first impression of Valparaiso was, to be blunt, a dirty port town. It had some resemblance of it past appearance, but even the famed street lifts were not as impressive as I had heard.

Though it is possible my impression was tainted by bad weather I still did not understand the popularity of the town. My hostel experience was equally as disappointing. Besides having to sleep in a damp, dark and just down right dirty room I also had the pleasure of waking up to the sounds of a guy vomiting his guts out all over bathroom floor. If anybody is headed to Valparaiso I do not recommend the Yo Yo hostel.

Moving on was not a hard decision to make here and we quickly decided to head to Vicuña, a place known for star gazing and pisco distilleries.

I think we were all pleased with the town laid back feel. With only a few thousand city dwellers it was a nice change from Valparaiso. Not a long way from the city is a small observatory made just for the public. Though nothing compared to the international observatories in Chile, the Mamaluca observatory was enough to dazzle any stargazer.

The last leg of the tour was to head to Pisco Elqui, a valley near Vicuña known for its pisco.

Pisco, made from grapes, is the national alcohol in Chile. It is made by first producing wine from the grapes and then distilling the wine to produce a much more potent hard liquor. The better quality stuff is quite tasty, but cheaper stuff is a recipe for really bad hangover.


The landscape of Pisco Elqui was arid, with grape vines creeping high up onto the terraced canyon walls and an atmosphere which could lull just about anyone into tranquility. Sipping pisco in a Napa style vineyard I couldn’t help but imagine retiring in such a peaceful place as this.


After drinking our fair share of Pisco it was back to Santiago, then to Mendoza, on to Cordoba and finally Buenos Aires all in three days.

I am headed to back Brazil where I will attempt to bronze my pale skin before heading home in just a few weeks. The end is near, but still enough time for a few more adventures.

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Photos

High in the Andes
Crossing into Chile

Old Building
Run down part of Valparaiso

Dorks
Some sort of dungeons and dragons festival in Viña del Mar