A journey to the alter and South America

After an early morning start in Mendoza for our border crossing bus to Valparaiso, we found out why it had been so cold the last few days. By the time we got to the border we saw that a snow cover of at least 20cm had fallen since we came up here on a tour three days ago. The views were spectacular but, given what we know about Argentine drivers, we had a few misgivings about choosing a bus company called El Rapido with a few crazy passing maneouvers and some fresh fingernail marks in the seats....

Stuck at roadworks on the border crossing

Typical Valparaiso street

Ascendor in Valparaiso

We made it through ok and landed in the warm and colourful Valparaiso after getting off the bus a town too early and set about walking the hills and riding the Ascendors (railway cars that defy logic and gravity to get you up impossible slopes). Valpo is a perculiar town, they don´t have window washers at traffic lights, instead they have performance artists juggling and doing crazy ball tricks. Also artists of all description sit at every vantage point across the city and paint the view selling their wares once they are finished. It also is a town kind of bipolar, the hills are very haphazard and quiet but as soon as you step down onto the flat area of El Plan its all hustle and bustle with a blocked street pattern and heaps of traffic and noise, but at least you can switch between the two with relative ease if you´ve had too much of either.

Valparaiso view

Unfortunately, other than wander the streets and admire the view, there´s not a whole lot else to do in Valparaiso so after 2 days of boheimian relaxation we decided to hop on a bus and head up north to La Serena for one last town and area to explore before heading back to Santiago.... because we haven´t had enough bus travel yet.

La Serena, Chile

La Serena Church

After another 7 hour bus adventure we arrived in the small, but not without charm, town of La Serena and promptly booked ourselves on two tours of the surrounding area. We spend the first afternoon just wandering around and sussing out the place along with getting back into the swing of having a big, late Chilean lunch.

The next morning, just before we were to be picked up for our tour, we were greeted by an earthquake! Very strange experience that lasted about 45 seconds with slow rumbling climaxing to a reasonably big shake at the end, but nothing damaging. Our hostel host informed us that it was almost a weekly event!!! We now know why all the pavement around town is a bit uneven.

Guanacos - last of the ´big four´

Dolphins - Isla Choros

Our tour took us north of La Serena to Reserva Nacional Pinguino de Humboldt where we hopped on a boat out to Isla Choros and Isla Damas to see the wildlife and beautiful surroundings. What a great experience, we saw Sealions, Dolphins, Humboldt Penguins, thousands of birds, a massive whale bone and some beautiful coastline and on the way we finally saw some Guanaco! We´ve seen plenty of Llamas, Alpacas and Vicuñas in our travels but the fourth member of the family illuded us until now.

Sealion argument - Isla Choros

Humboldt Penguins - Isla Choros

Horsemen - Elqui Valley

View down river Elqui - Elqui Valley

Today we took a tour inland into the Elqui Valley famous for being a fabulous Pisco growing area, and also having a fog that stayed around until lunch time. Unfortunately today turned out to be the Chilean day of the Mariners or something like that so every town we went to had a parade going on which closed the only road through it and most of the museums and pisco factories we were supposed to visit! Nonetheless, we found some places open and saw some things that we didn´t expect so not all was lost. The valley is beautiful with lots of patchwork farming and fabulous barren pre Cordillera mountains as a backdrop. Also, this area is famous for having only 3 rain days per year, and guess what happened! Not a lot mind you, but we´ve seen something a lot of people haven´t.

Tomorrow its another long bus trip back to Santiago for our last two days before coming home - can´t wait to see you all.

Andy & Cath.

written by

Cath & Andy on May 21, 2007 from La Serena, Chile

from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America

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Santiago, Chile

Birthday cake for the birthday boy

Yep, yesterday Andy turned 30. We are back in Santiago and have been checking out other parts of the city that we missed the first time.

World Trade Centre Sculpture

For Andy´s birthday we started the day with a very cultural visit to the Museo de Bellas Artes, an amazing beautiful old building with plenty of classical and modern art. Then it was time for a coffee and the birthday cake at a local coffee shop before heading out to the Providencia area for some shopping and a ride on the subway. Its incredibly easy to use, fast, cheap and clean and is recognised as one of the best subway systems in the world! It is, however, incredibly busy with over 1 million people using it daily!!!

Andy´s birthday dinner

We had lunch at a bustling Italian restaurant and were fascinated by the speed and efficiency of the staff covering four floors and about 100 tables with only 6 wait staff. The food was amazing and its popularity is well deserved with a great dining atmosphere. We cruised down through the parks that afternoon back to the centre of the city before heading out to Off The Record, a hip and popular restaurant where the President is known to dine. There we had arguably our best meal in South America with an entree of some of the best calamari we have ever had and a main of a shared platter with various meats, stir-fried vegetables, potatoes and a great bottle of Chilean wine. Our photos don´t do justice to how GOOD the meal really was. The atmosphere was like an old cinema with ticket booths as bars and old cinema seats for chairs around the tables and photos of famous people all over the walls. Very cosy and a great way to spend your birthday dinner.

Look! Mountains!!

This morning we awoke to see the bazarre sight of mountains in Santiago! Usually the smog is so thick you can barely see their outline but today, even though still smoggy, at least on the Eastern side of the city, the snow-capped Andes loom large over the city - a magnificent sight and one that many people don´t see.

We fly home tonight and miss Seumas´ birthday due to crossing the dateline, but we will have a beer for him at some stage. Cath has a bit of a cold, we are a bit sad that our trip has come to an end but are also excited about our new apartment and seeing everyone.

written by

Cath & Andy on May 24, 2007 from Santiago, Chile

from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America

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Canberra, Australia

Well, we have made it home to good old wintery Canberra, but not without some unexpected travel adventures.

We arrived at the airport at 7:30pm Thursday night only to be told that our flight home had been cancelled. Lan Chile were actually pretty good about it and organised for us to stay at the Crowne Plaza for the night, with an anticipated flight out the next morning at 11am. It was really interesting to see just HOW BAD people are when unexpected things happen, people were so rude and demanding to staff, others were crying, some japanese fellow was snorting & spitting and others just generally carried on like pork chops - many I think wanting upgrades, but how can you upgrade an entire full plane?? Really is their any point in complaining? They said the plane was 'broken', there was no way we were wanting to get on a broken plane!

Cath was pretty sick with a head cold by this time & just sat on the floor in the airport, not really fussed by what was going on around us as we waited for our hotel and transport vouchers. By the time we got back to the city & to the free dinner it was midnight, and all we really needed was a bed.

Our 11am flight was delayed by an hour (because the transport company didn't get everyone back to the airport on time), and finally we were on our way. The flight for Cath was a nightmare as she had really bad sinus congestion and her ears screamed and squealed and her head felt like it was going to explode for the whoe 15 hour flight, Andy was lucky enough to get some sleep.

We couldn't get a connection to Sydney, so we had to spend a night in Auckland (once again on the airlines budget) and had to get back to the airport at 4am. Whilst we were in Auckland for almost 12 hours we didn't get to see anything as it was dark by the time we got out of the airport and unfortunately Cath was too sick to go sighseeing - we struggled through another free meal with Cath almost falling asleep at the table.

Eventually we did make it home with 2 more agonising flights for Cath and only just making our connection to Canberra with 10 mins to spare.

Much to our delight, Cath's parents had moved almost all our belongings from the old flat into our new apartment before we got home, meaning that we could spend our first night in our own place. We were outstounded at how much space we have, and cupboards and more than one room (I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon), very exciting! Now for the fun of decorating and actually buying some furniture...

Anyway, we will update again soon with some statistics from the trip - until then ciao ciao

written by

Cath & Andy on May 29, 2007 from Canberra, Australia

from the travel blog: A journey to the alter and South America

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A journey to the alter and South America

a travel blog by Cath & Andy

Valpo - city of escalators

Valparaiso, Chile

Rumbling earth, Penguins and Pisco

La Serena, Chile

Andy = old

Santiago, Chile

49 hours in transit... and a new home

Canberra, Australia