Adios Chile

Chile stretches 4300KM long, over half the continent of South America, longer than the length from Canada to Mexico, but in most places is only 175KM on average in width. It ranges from glacier fields to the driest desert on the earth, with volcanoes, lakes, valleys, geysers and islands in between. We started off our time in Chile hiking mountains in the freezing area of Patagonia, and finished in the Atacama Desert. It was an amazingly diverse country with very religious people (70% of the country is Catholic) which means lots of churches, confusing road signs, amazing food, and some hysterical images I cannot forget - like the 3 story children's slide at the playground, a telephone pole in a quarry where instead of readjusting the direction of the wires they just dug around the pole, huge christmas trees made out of plastic bottles, a skyscraper that looks exactly like an old Zach Morris cell phone, and llamas walking on the beach. Since I pretty much saw everything there is to see in Chile, I don't think I will be returning in my life, but it certainly was a memorable adventure - it will be missed.

Santiago Chile, is a city I could live in, and a great place to spend 4 days. The architecture is beautiful, the streets are clean, there are several amazingly cute suburbs and the people are friendly. Our hostel, Casa Roja, had a pool, hot tub, and my favorite, a ping pong table where I was able to showcase my talents (and whip Mick's butt each and every time.) We spent the first day cleaning out the van and giving it back (yipee) and hanging around the hostel. The next day we did a "free" walking tour (which after tipping turned into a not-so-free tour) and that night we ate Mote Con Huesillos - a liquid meal the Argentinians love, consisting of peach juice, a half of peach and whole grains of wheat (which was surpringsly tasty.) We took a tour of one of Pablo Neruda's eccentric homes and took a ride to the top of the mountain overlooking santiago for sunset.

The following day we took a bus out to Valparaiso, described as the cultural center of Chile, I would have called it the sketchy center of Chile, or at least most of it.
Since it used to be the main port down the Pacific coast (before they built the panama canal) the "old section" is amazing, and not surprisingly a UNESCO protected site. It is littered with Ascensors (outdoor elevators people used to use to climb up the huge hill which overlooks the bay, and is now ussually used by tourists), clock towers, markets and in the center of town a lot of people looking like they wanted to steal my purse.

We signed up for a 6 day tour to Chile's Atacama Desert, which started the following day, in a white minivan with 6 other international passengers. I was of course, the only American, to which someone said after they heard I have been travelling for a whole year, "how unAmerican of you!." Our first destination was the beachtown of La Serena, Chile's second oldest city, where we ate Empanadas and Mick took a quick dip. That night we headed to the local observatories, where stargazing is at its best, and where you will find the RLT and SLT ("creative" acronyms for Really Large Telescope and Super Large Telescope.) We got to take some amazing pictures of the moon through one of the telescopes and learn about a website where you can stargaze without ever leaving your computer screen - www.stellarium.org.

The next day we travelled hours through the bleak sandy landscape, stopping to see a 4 story ceramic hand planted in the desert by a famous artist (whose name I can't remember), an old cemetary located next to an abandoned nitrate mine (where you can still see flesh on the 70 year old remains because of the lack of humidity), and a "train cemetary" where people left perfectly good trains because the Germans discovered an artifical way to make nitrate. After two nights in the beautiful beach town of Bahia Inglesia, we headed to San Pedro de Atacama, A "brown town" (all the buildings seem to be square and brown) in the heart of the desert. We toured the "valley de luna" (an area which is said to look like the moon), a lagoon where flamingos hang out, and swam in a salt lake which causes you to have such boyances that its like having a life preserver attached all over your body when you jump in.

Mick and I are currently in La Paz, Bolivia. Tomorrow I head off on a 30 day Gap tour through Bolivia and Peru, while he is heading north directly. We hope to meet up again in Lima for a couple of days before I head back home, but in the mean time, I will miss my favorite travel companion!!

A Mobile Home for the Holidays

Having spent the last 27 Christmases of my life, toasty warm in a family member's home, surrounded by colorful decorations, festive music, and a winter wonderland outside, the view of a trailer park from the window of my van was definitely a change. Luckily I had skype so my electronic floating head could still speak to my nephew Pierce while he opened his gifts, back in his warm living room in Washington CT. I had a love/hate relationship with our Wicked two-seater camper van. The van allowed Mick and I to tour southern Chile and Argentina, and cruise with true freedom through Chile's lake district, the island of Chiloe, and to the coast, before heading to Santiago. We could stop when we wanted to take a picture, leave cities whenever we wanted, and never had any roommates. On the down side, everything we owned was under where we slept so you had to rubix-cube everything to find what you were looking for (which resulted in one blood blister and a lot of cursing), we spent a lot of money on gasoline and food to stock up the van, and let's be honest here, I drove Mick crazy with my horrible front seat driving. But it was an experience of a lifetime, doing things I have never done before, like driving in South America (3 times down one way roads), picking up hitchhikers (6 total!), pulling up to the house of a native Chilean family and living with them for two days, and getting honked at all the time (because apparently the spanish writing on the back of our car said "honk if you like my driving", which until I figured it out, gave me severe road rage.) In the end, I think the freedom was worth the price, but I will be sure to be stationary for Christmas next year!

After 4 days in Ushuaia, the "fin del mundo" (end of the world), which included a boat trip into the Beagle Channel (where while there weren't any canines, there were lots of other wildlife), a day hike to the national park and a day spent touring the Maritime museum (because Mick loves boats as much as my father), we headed to Punta Arenas, Chile to pick up the van.
From there we did a solid two days of driving, taking three hour shifts, arriving in Barlioche, Argentina on Christmas Eve. The central region of Argentina and Chile (not coincidentally known as The Lakes Distrcit on the Chilean side) is picturesque, with beautiful blue lakes, surrounded by snow capped mountains (but most are actually volcanoes!) Each town emminates the feeling of a Swiss ski village, with quaint shops and log cabin bungalows and hotels. In Bariloche we had our Christmas dinner at a fondue restaurant, watched a movie on my laptop, and went to bed.


From Bariloche we headed a couple of hours west to Villa la Angostera, which had a similar feel to Bariloche but was all encompassed in a one street town. Here we did a 24KM hike into the Parque Nacional Los Arrayanes to see the forest of arrayane trees, which basically look like trees in camoflague, and we sat on the shores of the beautiful Lago Nahuel Huapi. Entre Lagos was just over the border into Chile, and at this point huge volcanoes were so common, they nearly faded into the background.
We spent two days here, camping by a lake and one day at the thermal pools. Much to my dismay, we spent an afternoon fishing, and even though I didn't want to go in the first place, I was the only one who brought home a Salmon to eat for dinner (much to Mick's dismay.)

After a full day drive through the mountains, and some large cities (for Chile) like Puerto Varas and Puerto Mott, we pulled onto our ferry heading to the Island of Chiloe. The humble Chilote people were never an ally of the mainlanders, so their culture is unique. The island is well known for its numerous inglesias (churches) made completely of wood (some of which are over 200 years old), fishing villages and curanto (a dish of poultry and shell fish vapor-smoked in giant leaves and moss.)
We decided to immerse ourselves in the culture by staying the night with a local family through Chiloe's agrotourism program. At 9:30 in the morning we pulled up to one of the homes on our list, and were greeted by Jardi, who we later referred to as Papa. He brought us into his home, sat us down, and woke up Mama. They chatted in Spanish to us at light speed, and we did the best we could to make conversation. Mick, who knows zero spanish, became the family joke because he would always smile and say "no entiendo", which means "I don't understand." Jardi took Mick into town to buy a sheep, while I stayed with Mama and their daughter Carol to cook lunch for 5 other tourists coming later that day. We couldn't have felt more at home after two full days with our new Chilean family, where we helped them cook a curanto, move the cows to different paddocks, and even spent New years Eve with their family being kissed by more people than at my own family events!! The highlight of the stay was when Mama Maria told Mick that when he had been saying what he thought meant "I want a little" he had actually been saying "I want a little penis." Probably one of the funniest (and finally clear) moments between 4 people who has so previously struggled to understand eachother!!

After 4 nights in Chiloe, we headed northwest to Baldivia, a college town, right on a lake where we took a boat ride to an old spanish fortress and watched the sea lions prowl at the fish market. From there we went directly to Pucon, an amazingly fun town located directly next to the 2,847 meter Volcan Villarrica.
When I looked up at this snow covered volcano, spitting hot hair into the sky, looming in the background of every photo, I never would have imagined I would be climbing it the next day, but I was. Although we received severe wind warnings that morning, I encouraged the other people in our group to climb anyway (because we needed 7 people to make the trek), and after some arm-twisting they conceded. The first hour was a tough hike up dirt and loose gravel (because the chair lift was closed due to the wind), and the remaining 4 hours required an ice pick to hike up the nearly vertical snow covered face, until we finally reached the summit. Being at the top of a volcano is kind of like being on the moon, minus the lack of gravity; the sulfur smelling air burns your lungs, smoke fills the air, and the rocks and molten lava are strange colors and shapes.
The views out were amazing of the neighboring lake and yet another volcano. The best part of the entire hike was the way down, where we got to slide down ice luge paths with plastic seats we had carried with us the entire way. 5 hours up, 1 hour down, and the new best way to travel. Also in Pucon I did a white water rafting trip, while Mick spent the morning fly fishing.


Our last stop before heading to Santiago (where we are now), was the coastal town of Pichilemu. Known worldwide for its left break it is a popular beach town and serious surf spot. Mick spent one day surfing while I played the role of the surfer's "beach babe", and the next day we just walked around the town. So far we are loving Chile. From here we head north to Atacama Desert and then onto Bolivia!!