Santiago to Arica - Exploring the Upper Half of Chile

We're a little behind on our blog so we decided to cover all of Chile in one post. We spent over 2 weeks traveling the country so to keep this from becoming a never ending post, we're giving a quick recap and pictures of the different places we visited.

We began our adventure with a bus ride over the Andes. Just like a roller coaster, we went for the front seats so we would get the biggest thrill as we rapidly descended through the Andes in a double-decker bus, our driver taking hairpin turns like he was in a race car...did I mention no guardrails! 

Descending through the Andes

Santiago
Our time in Santiago was unique from the rest of our trip as we stayed with family friends instead of in a hostel.  As Patricio (the dad) put it...we harnessed our boy/girl scout spirits and camped out on their couch for 5 days. 

Our home in Santiago

The Hinrichsens were wonderful hosts and gave us a taste of Chilean family life and the opportunity to experience some really authentic, non-touristy activities.

The Hinrichsens

L-R: The wildlife of Santiago (tarantulas on the sidewalk!); Patricio showing us how to eat cactus - called tuna; a traditional Chilean eatery having something similar to tamale pie called Pastel de Choclo

A few of the highlights:
- Birthday party for a neighbor where they prepared paella.  I wish our cookouts included food this good!

Patricio sampling the paella

- A visit to a "horse breaking" event with "gauchos" equipped with capes, hats, lassos, and huge spurs.  The gauchos were amazing riders and it was incredible to see them mount the untrained horses and ride them around until they were bucked off.  Following this we went to a friend's almond farm and were able to shuck and eat fresh almonds.

 

Those are almonds behind me

- Hiking to the top of Cerro Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia

View of downtown Santiago

- Rodelbahn: basically flying down a large slide in a sled

 

- Visiting the museum of Pre-Columbian artifacts and the Plaza de Armas square in downtown Santiago

 
Valparaiso

City of Valparaiso

Valparaiso is a port city about 1.5 hours from Santiago.  Our first thought upon arrival - how could anyone be overweight here!  Valparaiso is known as the city of 48 hills so anywhere you go is very much uphill or downhill.  Scattered around the city are these old elevators from the 1800's that will take you up some of the hills.  Our hotel was at the top of a hill with one of these so we were counting on using it to get up there.  Of course, the day we arrived, it was shut down for servicing.  We had to hoof it up the hill (felt more like a mountain) with our 100 lbs of luggage.  At one point I couldn't make it with my bag so Mike carried both.  He makes a great pack mule!

The non-functioning elevator and my pack mule

We spent two days in Valparaiso exploring and enjoying the views.  The city is very grimy, but somehow also very picturesque.

Colorful views in Valparaiso

La Serena
In La Serena we rented a car and drove north to Punta de Choros to visit Isla Damas and two other uninhabited islands off the coast.  The drive included 30km on a dirt and gravel road in a VW Golf - We felt every bump.  We when arrived, we found some local fisherman willing to take us and a small group out to visit the islands.  As we circled them, we could see penguins, sea lions, seals - it was awesome (although floating around the ocean in a tiny little boat was a little unnerving).

Isla Damas

A fishing boat similar to the one we were in

Some of the wildlife we saw

The route to Punta de Choros was unpaved and obviously windy

The next day we traveled to the Elqui Valley and visited a Pisco distillery.  The Pisco Sour is the national drink of Chile. However, the Peruvians also claim Pisco and there is definitely some tension between the two countries over it.  For example, when entering Peru, you are not allowed to bring in any alcohol called Pisco that isn't from Peru.

Pisco sampling - 65% alcohol and 45% - this was some strong stuff!

Arica
Arica was an afterthought for us...a jumping off point for Peru after change in plans due to protests in Bolivia.  As the next day was Easter and this made flights expensive we ended up spending almost 3 full days here.  Lucky us!  It turned out an awesome beach was only a 10 minute walk from our hostel and it was actually warm enough to swim.  We could get used to spending Easter laying out on the beach!!  Our friends from the Czech Republic were also in town so we spent the last day hanging out with them, playing beach tennis, boogie boarding and surfing.  Yes, that's right, Mike is now a surfer.  He is also still black and blue from the experience. 

Wine, Llama Spit, and Police Escorts: Living it up in Mendoza

Mendoza, Argentina

Main Plaza in Mendoza City

Besides the month we spent in Buenos Aires where we rented an apartment, P and I have been roughing it in hostels.  Hostels run about $30-50/night.  To me, a hostel is basically a hotel with a couple of differences. 

Hostels have....
1. No TV in your room
2. No A/C
3. Thin Walls so you can hear what is happening in every room in the building
4. 21 year olds who make you mad because they are loud and because they are young
5. A floor
6. A ceiling
7. 4 walls
8. Wireless Internet access

We've had good luck with hostels.  P's done all the bookings, and she researches every place very thoroughly.  "Hey P, you haven't booked us a shitty hostel yet, " says I. 

You know when a TV announcer says during a football game, "......and the field goal kicker is a perfect 17 for his last 17 attempts.  He just doesn't miss!"  Yeah, you know where this is going.  Pauline shanked it...

The next hostel we stayed at was miserable.  Our room literally smelled like open ass.  Our kitchen was, in my estimation, the "place to see and be seen" if you were a fruit fly.  After 2 nights, we had to get out.  Our marriage was at stake. 

Sosahaus - Hell on Earth (the little black specks in right hand picture are fruit flys)

To help us forget, we decided to splurge on the next place.

It was about 20 kilometers outside the city, located in a vineyard.  A vineyard is basically a magical place where everything is pretty and the people that work there pretend that drinking lots of free wine is an art form and is not a sign of alcoholism.
 

Club Tapiz - Heaven on Earth

My favorite day went like this:

• Woke up and immediately went to a wine tour

We helped harvest grapes first

• Drank lots of free wine at wine tour

We tasted wine at every stage in the fermentation process

• Took a nap

Lounging by the grape vines

• Woke up to the sound of the maid bringing us a free bottle of wine
• Swam with llamas
• Fed llamas.  Seconds later a llama spits in Pauline's face (llama's barfing on people's faces is pretty sweet)

We took way too many pictures of the llamas (middle bottom shows llama spit on Pauline)

• Went to a free wine tasting
• Went to dinner in the winery (guidebook said it was the best restaurant in Mendoza), and ate the best steak of my life

Mendoza is either not safe at all, or it is safe and they really, really, really want to keep it that way.  The first day we arrived, we asked the concierge which other wineries were close by.  Most wineries were closed, because it was Sunday.  One was open, about a 25 minute bike ride away.  Our hotel provided us bikes and off we went.  As we rode by the guards stationed at the exit, they waved us over.  They inquired to the whereabouts of our little adventure.

"We are going to bike to the winery down the road!," P and I exclaimed in unison.

"Sounds like fun," said the guard.  "I'll just call the tourist police and tell them you are leaving.  Have fun you two!"  Note: All of this was in Spanish so this is only what we think he said. 

Within roughly 2 minutes of biking down the road, a cop car going the opposite direction passes us, and does a U-town.  The cops are tailing us (although at a distance).  P and I come to the intersection where we need to turn.  We do so, and find ourselves in a very not so urban part of Argentina.  After a while, it appeared that we might have made a wrong turn so we stopped and consulted our map. The cops flashed their lights and pulled up next to us.  Both of them got out of the car, walked purposely up to us with disdain on their faces, and proceeded to show us very politely where we made the wrong turn and showed us which streets to take to get to the winery.

I didn't remember at all where the cops said to go because even though I wasn't doing anything wrong, I'm always nervous around cops, so I wasn't listening to what they were saying, I was just concentrating on not being arrested.  Also they were speaking in Spanish.  So P and I are constantly turning and we'll hear a BEEPBEEP.  We stop, look back, and the cops are pointing which direction we should go.  Oh yeah, this entire time, the locals are sitting on their porch looking at us, probably thinking, "so this is where my tax dollars go."  Finally, fed up with the stupid Americanos, they pull ahead of us so we could follow them the remainder of the way.

Our police escort

So we get to the winery, take the tour and drink some free wine.

The tour concludes.  We get on our bikes, exit the winery, and lo and behold, a different cop car is waiting for us, following us all the way back to our winery. Needless to say, we didn't take any more wine tours by bike...

Images of Mendoza

Money Can't Buy Me Fish

 Bariloche, Argentina

They say money can buy you anything you want...I have single-handedly proven them wrong

After completing some world class hiking it was time to take it easy and do some world class fishing.  Some of the best fly fishing in the world was just a stone's throw's away from our current location in El Chalten...and when i say a stone's throw, the thrower of said stone is either Superman or the Thing.  It was a freaking 30 hour bus ride to get to Bariloche. I was not looking forward to this. Suprisingly, it turned out to be a pretty painless trip (thanks wine!)

Our home for 30 hours

The seats were wide and comfy

We arrive...

Bariloche - the land of lakes and supposedly fish

P and I have fished about 80 times in our lives.  Between the two of us, we have never caught a REAL fish.  We have caught roughly 50 baby blue gill, weighing approximately 8 grams combined (yes I have converted to the metric system).

I wanted this streak to end so we hired a guide named Juan.  Juan has been fishing since he was a zygote.  Juan knows all the best fishing spots in northern Patagonia.  Juan is a native to this great land of fishing.  Juan told stories of the tours that he had run in the past; a 10 year old boys catching 15 pound fish within minutes, skillless fishermen like Pauline and I catching 20, even 30 fish in a day.  He further explained that on average, one will catch about ten fish.  He was very nice, professional, and patient, even though I lost about 2 flys per hour.  He taught us all the tricks that the great fisherman of Bariloche have passed down throught the generations. 

We had a guide, a boat, the gear, even the clothes...now it was time to get the fish!

Putting on my waders

Our fishing outfits

Juan, our guide

We used various flys and a multitude of techniques.

Learning to cast

Casting in the Limay River

Eight hours, and many kilometers of river later, I had caught zero fish.  Juan looked truly sad and disheartend for me, as I handed him a large sum of money.

This story does have a happy ending however.  Although I have now been on planet earth for over 30 years and never caught a proper fish, P, in her 30 years, did manage to catch a beauty!!!  The fish was way bigger than this.  I had to demagnify it in photo shop so it would show up nicely.  It was no less than 35 kilograms.

At least the view was nice...

The Lord of the Rings

This post chronicles our adventures in southern Patagonia.  We spent a couple weeks traveling around Calafate and El Chalten.  After spending numerous days hiking many kilometers across the remote expanse of mountains and glaciers, we felt like we were in the Lord of the Rings, which was the inspiration for this post.

Disclaimer - If you hate Lord of the Rings skip this post.  If you are unfamiliar with Lord of the Rings, skip this post.

The sun had risen in a land far, far away.  Two weary travelers awoke.  "How long until we reach the glacier?" asked the smoking hot hobbit (Pauline).  She was a sight to see, the illegitimate love child of Frodo Baggins and Megan Fox, and a hot Spanish chick.

"Less than a fortnight," replied the half human half elf (Mike) who was stunningly handsome, more handsome even than Brad Pitt now, but not as handsome as Brad Pitt from Legends of the Fall.
 

It was less than a fortnight's travel, actually 14 km according to the map they acquired from the visitor's center.

"I'm cold", complained Pauline.  "The wind chills my hobbit bones."
"That isn't the wind, it is the breath of the ice giant, Perito Moreno,"  said Mike.
 

Onward they traveled.  

Stopping only to fill up their bottles with the fresh water flowing from the mountains.

"Look!!," exclaimed Pauline.  "Look Mike, are those the giant Magellanic woodpeckers of Southern Patagonia??"

"Yes they are...Good eye Hobbit!", exclaimed Mike.  "LOOK!!!  I see the glacier."
 

 

Our two intrepid travelers brave chilling wind, unstable ice, and woodpeckers.  Finally, they mount the glacier.

The holy grail they were searching for was hidden within the ice of this mammoth glacier, the third biggest in the world behind the ice masses of Antarctica and Greenland.

Legend had it, that a magical potion was buried deep within the glacier.  This elusive potion would make you feel happy, invincible, interesting, and most importantly, give you the amazing ability of never being wrong or losing an argument, basically transforming you into a master debater.

"Doth thine eyes deceive me," said Mike rather poetically.

"It's whiskey!!!!!"