5-3 I went with Carola in the morning to the huge city fruit and vegetable market. By far the best fruit and veg market I have been to so far in South America. The funniest sight in the market though was a closed stand. It was covered in flags to cover the fruit. It was covered by 6 large flags. The flags of choice...none other than 6 with the great seal of Idaho. We had some street food of fresh squeezed orange juice and sopapillas for breakfast. Carola needed to go work on her Thesis, so I then went off to explore Santiago by myself. Santiago is not a super impressive city. Nothing wild or crazy or standoutish about it. But that's okay. It was just very calm and sane and rather relaxing and easy for a city.
I took an ascensor (funicular) up Cerro San Cristobol, a small mountain in the middle of Santiago which has a giant 40ft tall Virgin Mary statue on the top. It was kind of cool bc it was very relaxing up at the top, away from any noise of the city. For awhile there was meditation music playing, then someone began saying the rosary in Spanish. From up on the top, you could look down all across the city, though it was quite foggy. Santiago sits in a valley between the mighty Andes and the coastal range, so it has notoriously bad winter fog. And right across the city, through the smog, but still visible, rose the giant snow-covered Andes (some up to 20000 feet). Had it been clearer, I would have been able to see the 4 ski resorts just outside of Santiago, including one called Cerro Colorado.
I walked back down the hill and grabbed some lunch. Street food of empanadas, completos con palta (avocados), and mote con huesillo (a drink with dried apricots, barley, and nectar). After lunch I walked through the downtown and visited the plaza de armas (which of course they have in every town in Chile), the huge downtown cathedral, mailed a postcard from the beautiful post office, and visited the presedential palace. Also went to the central market which is full of fish being thrown around everywhere.
In the evening I made it back to Carola's where she hosted a bbq up on the top of her sister's flat on the rooftop. It was full of beef and beer and chilean wine. Her friends were really cool and the bbq was fun. Being part of the educated upperclass, they all spoke English and a few had been to the USA.
It was interesting to hear their stories about the real Chile, the chile you don't know about as a traveller. And the most entertaining were their stories about being in the 8.something earthquake that ocurred in Concepcion and Santiago a couple of years ago. It lasted for 3 and a half minutes, and they said it was like being on carpet waves like when a carpet is being shook outside. They definitely couldn't stand during it.
They were also telling me about the big student protests going on right now. The students are peaceful, but the police get pretty violent with tear gas and riot gear, and they have this vehicle that the students call a guanaco (named after the llama like animal in patagonia) bc it spits out chemicals just like a guanaco. This is actually the first time that Chileans have even been able to protest bc they have always had such a militaristic and dictator gov't. They are currently protesting bc of high cost of education. They are actually pretty mad at the USA as well bc we apparently helped put in the current president bc he was capitalistic. But he is so far capitalistic that he has no social programs, so everything costs lots of money, including schools. He went way further capitalistic than the USA. Speaking of the USA, people often complain about how hard it is to get a US visa and how even if you are denied, you still have to pay the 150 bucks, which is quite expensive for a lot of countries. Carola tried to get a US visa a couple of years ago to visit a friend in Vermont. She didnt even make it to the interview portion before she was denied. Our immigation is so crazy. I mean she comes from a wealthy family, has an apartment, and was a few months out from starting a masters degree in London for which she had a full ride scholarship, so obviously she wasn't going to try and stay in our country. And even if she did, she would be the type of person we would want. Highly educated, worldy, an entrepeneur (she is going to be starting a sustainable cultural tourism company in Chiloe). The kind of person we should want in our country.
5-4 Took a bus from Santiago to Mendoza. It was a GORGEOUS drive. The most exhillerating ride so far in South America. We went over this huge pass to get into Argentina. We passed by Portillo, the best ski resort in Chile, which I could definitely tell would be awesome. The road wound up 35 plus curves (I forgot to look at the last few signs counting the curves to know the exact number). The road was impressive not only in scenery but in its engineering feat and in the fact that hundreds of buses and trucks go over it everyday carying goods from the ports near santiago to mendoza, buenos aires, and even Brazil. As a Coloradoan, I have been over my share of pretty cool passes, but this one still took my breath away. Such beautiful scenery, intense drops, and right up along a ski hill with chairlifts going over the road. Along with the curves it had several very long avalanche tunnels and at the end, a tunnel, about as long as the Eisenhower tunnel in I-70 that took us into Argentina.
The argentine side was drier and with less snow. The road snaked down a deep, red canyon. It was like Utah or Nevada in some ways, except with bigger mountains. The river running through the canyon was red, like the red of rivers full of blood in movies.
Colin and Andrea, who I climbed Mera peak with in Nepal, picked me up at the bus station and took me out to a very nice dinner at place that had its own microbrews for a fun friday night out in Mendoza, one of the most happening cities in Argentina.
I took an ascensor (funicular) up Cerro San Cristobol, a small mountain in the middle of Santiago which has a giant 40ft tall Virgin Mary statue on the top. It was kind of cool bc it was very relaxing up at the top, away from any noise of the city. For awhile there was meditation music playing, then someone began saying the rosary in Spanish. From up on the top, you could look down all across the city, though it was quite foggy. Santiago sits in a valley between the mighty Andes and the coastal range, so it has notoriously bad winter fog. And right across the city, through the smog, but still visible, rose the giant snow-covered Andes (some up to 20000 feet). Had it been clearer, I would have been able to see the 4 ski resorts just outside of Santiago, including one called Cerro Colorado.
I walked back down the hill and grabbed some lunch. Street food of empanadas, completos con palta (avocados), and mote con huesillo (a drink with dried apricots, barley, and nectar). After lunch I walked through the downtown and visited the plaza de armas (which of course they have in every town in Chile), the huge downtown cathedral, mailed a postcard from the beautiful post office, and visited the presedential palace. Also went to the central market which is full of fish being thrown around everywhere.
In the evening I made it back to Carola's where she hosted a bbq up on the top of her sister's flat on the rooftop. It was full of beef and beer and chilean wine. Her friends were really cool and the bbq was fun. Being part of the educated upperclass, they all spoke English and a few had been to the USA.
It was interesting to hear their stories about the real Chile, the chile you don't know about as a traveller. And the most entertaining were their stories about being in the 8.something earthquake that ocurred in Concepcion and Santiago a couple of years ago. It lasted for 3 and a half minutes, and they said it was like being on carpet waves like when a carpet is being shook outside. They definitely couldn't stand during it.
They were also telling me about the big student protests going on right now. The students are peaceful, but the police get pretty violent with tear gas and riot gear, and they have this vehicle that the students call a guanaco (named after the llama like animal in patagonia) bc it spits out chemicals just like a guanaco. This is actually the first time that Chileans have even been able to protest bc they have always had such a militaristic and dictator gov't. They are currently protesting bc of high cost of education. They are actually pretty mad at the USA as well bc we apparently helped put in the current president bc he was capitalistic. But he is so far capitalistic that he has no social programs, so everything costs lots of money, including schools. He went way further capitalistic than the USA. Speaking of the USA, people often complain about how hard it is to get a US visa and how even if you are denied, you still have to pay the 150 bucks, which is quite expensive for a lot of countries. Carola tried to get a US visa a couple of years ago to visit a friend in Vermont. She didnt even make it to the interview portion before she was denied. Our immigation is so crazy. I mean she comes from a wealthy family, has an apartment, and was a few months out from starting a masters degree in London for which she had a full ride scholarship, so obviously she wasn't going to try and stay in our country. And even if she did, she would be the type of person we would want. Highly educated, worldy, an entrepeneur (she is going to be starting a sustainable cultural tourism company in Chiloe). The kind of person we should want in our country.
5-4 Took a bus from Santiago to Mendoza. It was a GORGEOUS drive. The most exhillerating ride so far in South America. We went over this huge pass to get into Argentina. We passed by Portillo, the best ski resort in Chile, which I could definitely tell would be awesome. The road wound up 35 plus curves (I forgot to look at the last few signs counting the curves to know the exact number). The road was impressive not only in scenery but in its engineering feat and in the fact that hundreds of buses and trucks go over it everyday carying goods from the ports near santiago to mendoza, buenos aires, and even Brazil. As a Coloradoan, I have been over my share of pretty cool passes, but this one still took my breath away. Such beautiful scenery, intense drops, and right up along a ski hill with chairlifts going over the road. Along with the curves it had several very long avalanche tunnels and at the end, a tunnel, about as long as the Eisenhower tunnel in I-70 that took us into Argentina.
The argentine side was drier and with less snow. The road snaked down a deep, red canyon. It was like Utah or Nevada in some ways, except with bigger mountains. The river running through the canyon was red, like the red of rivers full of blood in movies.
Colin and Andrea, who I climbed Mera peak with in Nepal, picked me up at the bus station and took me out to a very nice dinner at place that had its own microbrews for a fun friday night out in Mendoza, one of the most happening cities in Argentina.
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