Chillin in Chile

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So we left Mendoza, Argentina and headed up the Andes to cross the border into Chile. The Fronteira at Los Libertadores was high up in the Andes. High enough that their was still a fair bit of snow around, I was reluctant to go and play in the snow however for many reasons. 1 I thought I might get shot, and two I didn´t want them to refuse me entry. Like all good borders they had doggies that sniffed bags and scary looking guards and people who pointed you in the right direction because I lacked the language capability to understand what they were saying.

We arrived in Santiago and set up our hostel room. A lot of what I had heard from other travellers, suggested that Santiago was dodgy and not really worth seeing. Whether they were just dirty at having to pay the massive tax for flying in, I´m not sure, but I really enjoyed it. We went to a few muesums, including San Fransico Monestry/Muesum, Pre Columbian History muesum (my favourite) and a brief history of Chile muesum (I can´t remember the name). The good part about all those muesums was they either had blurbs in english or mp3 players that explained every thing briefly in english.

On our exploration of the city we noticed a moutain, and there are many mountains near Santiago because of the Andes, but it had a statue of the Virgin on it. So we took this tram that goes straight up the mountain, it was steeper than imagined and explored San Critobal.

We left Santiago and headed to Puerto Montt, which is about 1000km maybe more south. Its regarded as the Lakes district, but is also the beginning of PAtagonia. It wasn´t as cold as I imagined, however once we get further south I imagine I will be wearing my thermals and sleeping bag down the street.

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Photos

Presidential Palace
I´m not sure if it has been renovated since the 70s or if its a different one, but I think it was the one that got bombed just before Pinoch took control in the 70s.

Virgin on the Mount
At night she is lit up with a noice purple neon light, I personally think it adds to it and so do the locals apparently

View of Santiago
From San Cristobal. It was the mountain we took the tram/tower of terror ride up. It was pretty much 360 view, but there was a lot of smog, which distorted the view of the Andes.

Andes 1
at the start of the bus trip

The Switch backs
I´m not sure if it was the lack of guard railes, the constant turning, or the trucks that hogged the road on corners that increased my chances of motion sickness. but this was from halfway down.

Comments

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Daaaaamn Ann! Those views are awesome, I am envious once more. I admit I am also a little sad that I don't have any rad mountain biking injuries either :P