Los Penitentes to Chile

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After Mendoza we headed further in to the Andes to try a bit of snowboarding. The bus journey was beautiful; snow topped mountains, aqua lakes and blue, cloudless skies. The snowboarding was great, although to begin with it was pretty icy because it hadn't snowed for a few days so we ended up with very sore bottoms! The only downside was the accommodation we were staying in. Places to stay were quite expensive in the ski resort so we stayed in a very basic hostel. There were 5 other people in our room and no heating even though it dropped to minus temperatures. We went to bed at night with wooly hats and gloves on. I was very pleased to leave that place! We then headed back to a little town called Uspallata to catch our bus through the mountains to Santiago. The town itself was quiet but very pretty. The mountains surrounding it were polychrome and it had been used as the setting for the film 7 days in Tibet because it looks so much like Asia.

We ended up being stuck in Uspallata for two days because the road across the Andes to Santiago closed due to heavy snow. When the road did open we had quite an epic journey. The road was still really icy and there was a backlog of lorries lining the road waiting to go through customs so the bus had to go on the other side of the road to pass them. If there was something coming the other way, the two lane road became a three lane road! At one point a lorry coming the other way jackknifed on the ice into our bus, which was pretty scary,but fortunately no harm was done. In some ways it was good that our bus was there to stop it or it could have been worse for the lorry. There was a driver and assistant but a passenger at the front practically became part of the crew as well! Every time the assistant got out to do something the passenger would move in to his seat and start giving the driver instructions! We stopped a lot of times, although we weren't sure why as our Spanish wasn't good enough to understand what was going on. Whenever we stopped all the men on the bus got out. Eventually at one of our stops a policeman came along and was not amused to see a bus parked up in the middle of an icy road with half the passengers scattered around it. He stopped his car, got out and shouted at everyone and all the male passengers came trooping back onto the bus like naughty children. We finally crossed the border to Chile where it was all really quiet and organised, in stark contrast to the Argentinian side. The journey back down the mountains on the Chilean side was pretty dramatic, with the bus taking hairpin bends. We were relieved to finally arrive in Santiago, after a 10 hour journey that was supposed to have taken half that time.

We found a beautiful converted colonial mansion to stay in and started to explore Santiago. It is hard to believe it is a capital city, it feels more like a large town. It is surrounded by mountains but it is really hard to see them because the city sits in a bowl so it gets really polluted and obscures the view. It is really strange because when the sky clears these mountains seem to appear out of nowhere. Although it was not recommended in the guidebook, Bruce ensured that one of our first priorities in Santiago was to watch Transformers. I believe he would highly recommend it, despite the fact that it we watched it in Spanish without subtitles! We also went to the most amazing fish market, Mercado Central, which had every kind of sea creature you can imagine, and some you can't. You would lean in to have a closer look and then realise that what you thought was a rock was moving and about to nip you! We had lunch at a little restaurant in the market. Bruce ordered a beer and the waiter asked what brand he wanted. Bruce asked for something that Chileans typically drink and was quite perturbed to be offered a Budweiser! We also had a guided tour around Pablo Neruda's house in Santiago, which was really interesting. Hard to imagine a poet as a massive celebrity these days!

As there was not that much to do in Santiago we decided to explore the north of Chile. Lulled in to a false sense of security by our wonderful Argentinian experiences we booked a 24 hour bus to the Atacama desert. The Chilean buses were not nearly as good and we regretted our decision. We have since renamed the bus company 'Turdbus' rather than 'Turbus'. We thought we were going to need to be surgically removed from our seats by the time we arrived! We stayed in a tiny village in the middle of the desert called San Pedro de Atacama. The Atacama desert is the driest place on earth, and in some places rain has never been recorded. It was difficult adjusting to the climate in the desert. The days were really hot and the nights were freezing. San Pedro was full of dogs, none of whom seemed to be owned by anyone (although many were, they were just left to their own devices). They all just seemed to be trotting around going about their own business or passed out in the sun. Unfortunately Bruce had an unpleasant encounter with one. He was exploring, or 'mooching' as it's known in the Garnham household, in the grounds of our hostel but didn't realise he had walked on to someone else's property. The two guard dog alsations let him mooch around for a while but then one obviously decided he was taking liberties and proceeded to attack him. As this is a very serious anecdote I am sure you will not conjure up any funny images of Bruce being chased all the way round a tree by one of them! Fortunately although the dog completely ripped up his trousers he did not hurt Bruce.

We saw so many different landscapes while we were there. On the first day we went on a tour to see the 'Valley of the Moon'and the 'Valley of Death', which had lunar landscapes. They were very striking and it felt strange seeing something that was so far removed from my frame of reference. The wind was so strong that I was worried I was going to be picked up and carried away by it and it whipped the sand at us, which really stung. The climax of the tour was supposed to be this amazing sunset and we sat there in the cold wind waiting for it. After about 45 minutes we were bemused to see lots of people walking away. Bruce and I were still waiting for our wonderful sunset but then we realised that it had happened. We hadn't seen any of the amazing colours we were supposed to have seen so it was a bit of an anti climax!

The following day we went to some massive sand dunes and tried sandboarding. Buoyed by our experience with snowboarding we were looking forward to it, however, it was really hard. We were either going so fast that we were unable to control it and wiped out, or we would just stop on the sand dune and not be able to move. At least the sand was softer to fall on than the snow had been!

We then went on one of the most hardcore tours we have ever been on. We had to get up at 4 a.m. in the morning to go and see some geysers that were at 4300 metres altitude at a temperature of minus eight. At that height you are warned about altitude sickness, but we were assured by the operator that as long as we didn't drink alcohol, eat red meat and had a light dinner the night before we would be fine. We arrived there and Bruce felt a little bit dizzy and short of breath but I felt fine, if very very cold. We then had breakfast outside (as you do in minus temperatures). I had one mouthful of food and I instantly felt really ill. I felt really sick and dizzy and short of breath and felt like I was going to faint. The tour operator made me some mate de coca, a tea made out of coca leaves. Coca leaves are used to make cocaine, but they are also commonly eaten in Chile, Peru and Argentina because they help alleviate symptoms of altitude sickness. I started to feel better after a sit down and some cocaine...er coca leaves! I even started to notice the geysers, which were pretty impressive, with many of them spurting as high as 10 metres. The ground that we walked on was full of craters with boiling hot water bubbling underneath. You have to be really careful not to step in the wrong place because you can fall through in to the water below. We all followed the tour guide in a line to make sure this didn't happen to us, but he explained to us that one time he told a group of the dangers but a German guy didn't understand him and strayed from the path. He fell through in to the boiling hot waters and lost the skin on both his legs. We were not in any danger at all of course parents because we could understand the tour guide! We also saw lots of vicuna, which are a relative of the llama and some really funny ostriches which looked like turtles with really long legs! After seeing the geysers we had the option to bathe in the thermal waters nearby. I declined the offer as I couldn't bring myself to get into a swimming costume and jump in, even if it had warmed up to zero degrees temperature. Bruce, the water baby, couldn't wait to get in however and wallowed away in the steaming mineral waters.

The following day we were delighted to have a lie in, as our tour didn't start until 6.30! We set off in our bus with the same tour guide, Eric, who must be a Chilean relative of Robin Williams. The scenery was amazing. There is a massive salt lake near San Pedro, which is the size of Luxemburg. The extremely dry climate and the flatness mean you can see for miles and miles. Obviously this distorts your concept of distances; we could see mountains and volcanoes in the background, which didn't seem that far away, but Eric explained that they were actually hundreds of miles away. We arrived at Laguna Chaxa, which is a shallow lagoon made of salt water, and is populated by three different species of flamingos. It was so magical. The lake was like a mirror, which reflected the flamingos and surrounding mountains. The sky was suffused with red, purple and pink colours and the strange rock formations made it seem other worldly, almost like being in a Salivador Dali painting. We then headed up to see two lagoons, at over 4000 metres above altitude again. I was rather worried about suffering from altitude sickness again, but fortunately I was fine this time. They were certainly worth the risk, because they were absolutely beautiful; glistening blue water surrounded by a crust of white set against the backdrop of undulating mountains laced with ice. Absolutely breathtaking.

So, with our minds buzzing with the surreal, beautiful landscapes we had just seen, we reboarded turdbus for our return 24 hour journey. We thought it could not be any worse than the journey there, but we were wrong, because this time there was no water or toilet paper in the toilet! So, rather inauspiciously, finished our South American adventure.

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Comments

[Vicky M]

To the Bill Brysons of South America
Once again, have sat at my desk trying to stifle many laugh out loud moments whilst reading your blog. My team are hiding it well, but keep casting slightly concerned looks in my direction. Very relieved that Bruce got through his dog ordeal safely. The photographic evidence is scarey! I also hear on the international COTC grapevine that you've been staying with the Penny and Isaac in NZ but then I guess that's for the next installment of the travelblog..... Anyway, lovely to see the world through your eyes and hope you're having a great time in NZ. Vx