Advertisement
Argentines exploring alternate fuel sources
Alas, pouring Pepsi into the bus did not fix the leaking transmission fluid problem.Hi,
Well, we have been in Santiago de Chile for the last four days. It´s been rainy here. For that matter, it was rainy in Mendoza. Which is why it was so much fun getting here.
To get from Mendoza to Santiago, we had to cross the Andes again. The pass is at about 9000-10000 ft. Since it is mid-May (Autumn), rain in Mendoza meant snow in the mountains. We drove two hours out of Mendoza to the foothills of the Andes where we stopped and were told that the pass was closed. The weather was blue skies (it stormed the day before), but at the top there was "viento blanco" and visibilty was down to zero. Luckily, we only had to wait about 45 minutes for the pass to open up.
But we didn´t get very far before the bus started having tranmission fluid problems. The bus ran fine, but kept leaking fluid as it neared the pass. The road ahead was going to be steeper and windier. So, we had to stop again and wait for the same company´s bus that was coming from Santiago to Mendoza and switch buses. Luckily, the scenery was beautiful. We
even got our 30 second glimpse from the bus of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas. Everything went completely smooth from there except for the minor 4 hour delay at the Chilean border. The traffic being backed up due to the road closure combined with an incredibly slow immigrations and customs process, led to a lot more sitting. But at least we had lousy movies to keep us company. After about 12 hours (it was supposed to take 7 hours), we made it to the capital of Chile.
Santiago has been a lot more relaxing than Buenos Aires. We´ve been staying at a place called Residencial Londres, near the center of town. It is in a converted mansion. We are staying on the 4th floor in what were probably the servants´ quarters. It is very nice and even has a built in alarm clock at 8:00 am. There is construction going on across the street, right outside our window. There seems to be a lot of construction projects going on around town.
We´ve done most of the touristy things here. We walked along the Alameda, strolled through the different parks, and browsed the markets. We climbed Cerro
Aconcagua
This view from the bus was as close as we got to the tallest mountain in the Americas. It is 6950 m (over 22,500 ft) and is the highest mountain outside the Himalayas. Santa Lucía, a 70m rocky outcropping near downtown. It is covered with a maze of paths, plazas, and gardens. Charles Darwin climbed it when he was in these parts. We also took a funicular up to the top of Cerro San Bernardo, the mountain behind the city. We took our pictures of the city (views of the mountains ringing the city) and got rained on. The usual. We also found the LUSH store (which is, of course, very important). We went to the Museo de Arte Precolombino. It had a lot of artifacts on the indigenous people of the Americas.
We also visited La Chascona (Big-haired or tousle-haired woman), one of Pablo Neruda´s former houses. It is named after his wife Mathilde who apparently never had a good hair day. Neruda was a much-beloved poet and an eccentric character. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1971. He was fascinated by the ocean, but could not swim. Each of his houses was designed to allow him to sail on land. La Chascona has portholes, staircases, and furniture from ships. It also has samples from some of his many, extensive collections (shells, shoes, dolls, colored glass, etc, etc, etc).
Our other adventure was finding the place where Ana´s Mom used to live (1462 Huérfanos). We found the approximate location on Huérfanos. However, we could not locate the building. There was a greenish building #1452, then an alleyway with #1460 1-10, and another building #1466. We have pictures which those who´re interested can view later.
And of course, we saw Star Wars Episode III today (estreno mundial). Who could possibly miss this event?
From here we are heading to Valparaiso and then north to the Atacama desert.
Ryan & Ana
Advertisement
Tot: 0.153s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 66; dbt: 0.1061s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
