Chile with Tim’s Parents

The music for this post is the entire Pearl Jam set from Lollapalooza in Santiago. Link at the bottom.

On Thursday, April 4 Tim and I rose before the sun to get to the Lima airport. We flew north to Panama City, where we connected with a flight back to Santiago. We checked into a 2-bedroom apartment in the center of the city where Dan and Mariellen joined us the next day.

Mis suegros were left to their own devices that first weekend as Tim and I had long-standing plans to attend Lollapalooza! It was great to see some live music again, even though the festival was a little strange for us as there was no alcohol allowed. It certainly made the event safer and more tame, but a cold beer would have been really nice. You would never see a festival in the states that passed up alcohol revenues for security. A lot of people probably just wouldn’t come! Gotta hand it to the Chilenos, they love their rock and roll. Regardless, we still had a great time.

Pearl Jam was incredible as the first night closer. The last time we saw Pearl Jam headline a festival (Outside Lands a few years ago) we were both pretty disappointed, but they were exceptionally good this night. Other highlights included Queens of the Stone Age, Passion Pit, The Black Keys, A Perfect Circle and Gary Clark Jr.

A surprising number of people were wearing these umbrella hats:

Maynard. Tim would have prefered Tool, but A Perfect Circle was pretty great too.

On Monday, the four of us caught a bus to a city called Valparaiso on the coast, only about an hour away. We checked into an apartment that had great ocean views, even though the cleanliness of the place left something to be desired. AirBnb can be a mixed bag. But there was a vintage scooter to cruise around the living room.

Valparaiso is a really charming place with a lot of history. It was a very important port before the opening of the Panama Canal. It is also the cultural capital of Chile. We took a free walking tour around the city and saw brightly colored houses with tin roofs, cobblestone streets, tons of street art, and several crumbling buildings that speak to the city’s former glory days. Valparaiso is a UNESCO World Heritage site, which is a mixed blessing because the buildings must be restored in a historically accurate way, which is expensive. As it is, there are several houses and buildings in ruins that are just sitting there because the owners can’t afford to rebuild. During the city’s golden age, a lot of immigrants came from all over Europe. They settled into different hillside neighborhoods, and even today each has its own character and flavor. Valparaiso has a lot of steep hills which are connected with staircases and, if you are lucky, functioning funiculars. From the hills, you get incredible views of the bay below. It is a beautiful place. But really, the stray dogs are out of control. It would be a lot more pleasant if you didn’t have to always concentrate on avoiding the pooch poo.

Valpo is known for its street art:

and its colorful corrugated metal houses:

A funicular crawling up a steep hillside:

We took a little boat trip on the bay. This boat was taken over by sea lions:

A sandwich served italiana:

We took the train to Vina del Mar one day, just 15 minutes up the coast. Another picturesque little town. There we visited the Museo Fonck, a cool natural and cultural history museum with a Moai statue from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) out front. We would love to visit Easter Island someday, but that will have to be another trip.

Some gruesome shrunken heads:

More Vina del Mar:

We returned to Santiago for a few days, settling into another apartment which was fine, if a bit tiny. One afternoon we walked for hours and hit several sights, including the cathedral, Mercado Central, and Santa Lucia hill.

Santiago is wedged into a valley between two big mountain ranges and experiences bad smog. Some days we couldn’t see those mountains at all:

Churches in Latin America are full of really gory depictions of the crucifixion:

We saw a little more of Santiago the next day. Santiago also has some interesting street art:

Chillin’

No hay banda!

Tim and Dan saw this sign, but after they had already ordered the chicken. A couple weeks later Tim returned and tried the Grande Rumano Ass. It was delicious.

Our last night in Santiago we went out for a steak dinner that was pretty good, though a little too well done for some of us:

Dan did much of the planning for their visit and Tim and I just tagged along, which was a nice change. I think we definitely saved the best for last, spending several days at Cascada de las Animas, a private nature preserve in the Maipu Canyon a couple of hours outside of Santiago. A van from the resort came to pick us up at our apartment in Santiago early one morning.

On our way out of the city, we made a stop at Concha y Toro winery, the largest vintner in Chile and one of Dan’s favorites. The grounds were beautiful, the wine was delicious, and it was delightful to step back in time (the winery dates from the 1870s). My favorite spot was the Casillero del Diablo wine cellar. The wine cellar had been targeted by thieves in 1871, so the founder spread a rumor that the cellar was haunted by the devil, which put an end to the thefts. The winery’s best bottles are aged in here.

After the winery visit, we continued our journey to Cascada de las Animas. We had a cute and comfortable little cabin to relax in for the next several days. The setting was gorgeous, and there was a lovely outdoor restaurant overlooking the Maipu River. There were several activities to pass the time. We took a hike to the Cascada de las Animas, which means waterfall of the spirits. The name comes from a local legend. Apparently old time cattle rustlers would speak of how they saw naked fairy spirits playing and bathing in the falls. We also went ziplining over the river canyon. Mariellen wasn’t too sure about it, but she ended up having more fun than she anticipated. The last day, Dan, Tim and I went white water rafting on the Maipu. Amazingly, there was a group of students from the University of Cincinnati where Dan is a professor. We all had a blast and it was a nice reminder of how small the world can be sometimes.

Laina on the zipline:

Now Mom’s turn!

Rafting!

We fell in love with this dog. He slept on our porch every night and followed us around every day. We called him Jimmy in tribute to a friend who was on our minds that week.

We took the shuttle van back to the Santiago airport to see off Dan and Mariellen. We were sad to see them go, it was really nice to spend time with family after being on our own for so many months.

We caught a bus into central Santiago and then a taxi to our hostel. We were only in Santiago for the one night before returning to Valparaiso, but it is worth noting that we found a bar/pizza joint called Amadeus that serves some heavy German beers on tap (for a heavy price). A couple Gulden Draaks set us back about $17, but it was worth it.

This guy reminded us of someone we miss a whole lot.

The next day, Tim and I returned to Valparaiso for a long weekend. We really love that place. There is so much to see and do and we barely scratched the surface.

On our second visit, we explored Pablo Neruda’s amazing house and tucked in to a Valparaiso specialty: Chorrillana. It is basically chunks of steak, onion and fried egg over french fries. It was a serious guilty pleasure, and the restaurant J. Cruz is worth visiting for the kitsch factor alone.

Latitude Adjustments, Parts 4-7

Part 4: Puerto Varas

After an amazing weekend in Ancud, Chiloe, Tim and I took a bus/ferry back to mainland Chile and then connected to Puerto Varas, on the shores of Lago Llanquihue. It was a charming little town with a lot of German influences, but the weather was overcast and rainy for the majority of our time there. We spent 3 days in the area, but never got a good view of Volcano Osorno, which towers over the lake and allegedly looks like Mt. Fuji.

We decided that if we were going to be wet, we might as well be really wet, and we booked a white water rafting expedition. Good call, best Tuesday morning I´ve had in awhile! Tim and I both love roller coasters, but somehow we have never been on one together. We plan to rectify that this year, but in the meantime, nature´s roller coaster is a good substitute. (Unfortunately my GoPro experienced some fogging on the lens.)

We also viewed Petrohue Falls, saw more cool arrayanes trees, and spent a magical evening camping on the shores of Lago Todos los Santos. Our campsite was set apart from the rest of the campground and was right at the spot where the forest meets the volcanic sand beach. It was one of those times where we needed to pinch ourselves to see if this is all real. Kings and queens, a little over 100 years ago, would hardly have been able to embark on the kind of journey we are now on. We realize that we are very privileged individuals in the scope of human history, and every once in awhile we are very humbled by that fact.

Part 5: Grey Pucon

After a couple of days in Puerto Varas, we took a bus North to Pucon. A friendly dog adopted us on the way to the bus station. We decided to name him Chico. Good boy!

We had another grey rainy day after arriving in Pucon, but then things started looking up. We loved Pucon! We had three really memorable experiences. First, we visited some lovely hot springs (Termas Los Pozones). It was a rainy day, but in keeping with our wet outside/wet self philosophy, we had a great time. The next day we went white water rafting again. It was much cheaper in Pucon than in Puerto Varas. While the trip in PV was more beautiful, the trip in Pucon had more technical rapids (Class IV), plus a crazy guide who made me happy that we have travel insurance. It was a great adventure to say the least!

The highlight of Pucon was our ascent of the Villarrica Volcano. We hired one of the cheapest outfitters in town, which was safe and smart because the conditions were perfect, but the gear provided to us was pretty substandard. In marginal weather it would be much better to pay more for better gear. Anyway, we gathered at 6:30am to arrange our packs and pull on our torture devices (shoes). Our group was all men except for me and one of the guides. It was mostly young Israelis just out of the military. As such, we made great time and passed several groups on our way up the volcano.

We drove to the volcano and began our ascent around 8:15am. There is a ski lift that you can take to cut off about an hour of the trek, but it costs about $15 per person. Our entire crew was in the cheap traveler category, so we all decided to hoof it. We are also just too hardcore. The lower portion was not too bad, pretty steep and rocky, but definitely doable after all of the trekking we have done so far. My rented mountaineering boots were pretty miserable though. I had several blisters and a painful swollen welt on the front of my left shin when it was all over.

After ascending through the lava rock/debris field, we reached the beginning of the snowpack and glacier. Time to strap on the crampons and grab the ice axe for the remainder of the ascent.

After about 5 hours of climbing we reached the top and were treated to sweeping vistas of the region, a view into the mouth of the volcano, and whiffs of noxious gasses belched from the center of the earth.

One of the best parts of climbing Volcano Villarrica is coming down. It is much faster to slide down on the snow rather than walk, so that is what we did. Sitting on out butts and using our ice axes as brakes, we glissaded down over 2,000 vertical feet in elevation. It was a lot of fun and made us miss skiing!

We were pretty destroyed after the volcano hike, so we delayed our departure from Pucon by a day and set up camp in a local campground. We must have snagged one of the best sites, right by a little creek. The rushing water drowned out the local nightlife (partiers, barking dogs). We got a great night´s sleep and were ready to face the ordeal that was the rest of the week…

Part 6: Pucon to Salta Bus-o-Rama

When we originally mapped out our trip, we knew that we needed to keep it loose as things will always take longer and you want the flexibility to see things that you find out about along the way (e.g., Pucon). Even so, we had planned to get to Bolivia in early February, and now the month was more that half way over and we weren´t even close. Plus, our budget has certainly been impacted by our two months in Argentina and Chile. So we decided it was time to make a move.

First was an overnight bus from Pucon to Santiago, Chile. We left at 9pm on Tuesday night and arrived at 7am on Wednesday morning. Our next move was from Santiago across the Andes range to Mendoza, Argentina. However, we discovered the pass is a one-lane road. You can cross from Argentina to Chile from 8am to 8pm each day, but to cross the other way you can only enter the pass from 8pm to 8am. So, we puchased a ticket to Mendoza that left at 3:30pm in the afternoon. This gave us several hours to kill in Santiago, so we hit the Museum of Natural History (cheap), as well as the Museum of Memory and Human Rights (free), which is focused on the atrocities of the Pinochet dictatorship. We didn´t get enough time in this museum, so we plan to return when we are back in Santiago in April.

Our bus for Mendoza left at 3:30pm and arrived at 12:30am. We caught a few hours of sleep, then grabbed another bus north to Salta, which left at 1pm and arrived at 8:30am the next day. All in all, it was 38 hours on buses over a 59-hour period, with 1,450 miles covered. Doable, but a little tough on these aging backpackers. We rewarded ourselves in the Argentinean way – with some red meat and red wine.

Part 7: Pass the Salta

Salta is a pretty big city and is notable for the preservation of its Spanish colonial heritage. We visited the Cabildo, which dates from 1717, as well as a pretty impressive Cathedral. The highlight of Salta was the Museum of High Altitude Archeaology, which houses three exceptionally well-preserved mummies of Incan children from the 1500s. The Incan empire was vast, and one unifying ritual involved the spiritual ¨marriage¨and sacrifice of children from different regions of the empire. These children were given alcohol to put them to sleep, then they were buried alive on mountain tops. The three mummies in Salta´s museum were discovered in 1999 on top of Volcano Llullaillaco, at an altitude of over 22,000 ft, the highest archaeological site in the world. The museum only displays one of the children at a time. We viewed the body of a 15-year old girl. You could still see the expression on her face and the tiny braids in her hair. It was fascinating and kind of creepy.

On Sunday night we took a midnight bus to the Bolivian border. After an interesting border crossing, we made is safely to a town called Tupiza.

In just over 3 weeks, we will have traveled from Ushuaia, Argentina to Tupiza, Bolivia, by land and sea. The total latitude adjustment is from approximately 55 degrees south to 22 degrees south, which is like going from southern Alaska to central Mexico.