Days 565-579: Quick Trip Around the Southern Cone
Uruguay: Colonia, Montevideo
Argentina: Bariloche
Chile: Santiago, Valparaiso, La Serena, San Pedro de Atacama
Llamas. Cool!
Uruguay is a quick boat ride across the Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires. So we checked out of our fancy apartment and hit the road again. Who knew that a boat would have the same travel restrictions as an airplane; they busted us with our tiny leathermans at the xray machine. We had to use all our español skilz to sweet talk the guards with a huge german shepard to let us stick them into our already checked-in bag.
First stop was the cute town of Colonia. What a pleasant town full of really nice folks. When people run into a shop, they leave their cars running and their babies in strollers outside. Practically everyone carries a maté gourd and thermos of hot water for sipping on the go. The best part of Colonia though: pedestrians have the right of way.
Some of the cute buildings on Colonia’s cobblestone streets.
Next and last stop in Uruguay was the capitol of Montevideo. Pretty nice place for a capitol city and it had loads of cool colonial architecture. While in Montevideo we followed the goings on of the US midterm elections. Marc also sampled the local brews and has one piece of advice: avoid anything with the word “malta” in the title. Ug.
Montevideo has some remarkably cool architecture.
We swung back through BsAs for a couple hours before catching a 21+ hour bus to Bariloche. It was remarkable how different we were treated on the pedestrian street that we spent the past month when we had a daypack on. Nothing attracts beggars and shop touts like tourists with a daypack!
The ride to Bariloche at night goes through an area with millions of fireflies. It was incredibly cool except for the luminous beasties getting squashed on the windshield so frequently that it sounded like rain. Bariloche is in the Lake District on the eastern side of the Andes. It feels a lot like the Sierras with loads of evergreens, lakes, and snow-capped mountains. Good place for going hiking.
A view of some of the lakes of the Lake District from the hike up the Arroyo Lopez trail to Refugio Lopez.
We went on two day hikes that couldn’t have been more different. The first hike to the Refugio Lopez had stunning views and fantastic weather. The second hike to Refugio Frey had cold, rain and sleet and we couldn’t see squat. We were surprised by the amount of bamboo in the Andes.
Cool tree bark on the hike up the Cerro Catedral to Refugio Frey. About the only thing we could see.
Not just known for its beautiful scenery, Bariloche is home to a ton of chocolate shops.
Last glance at the beautiful lake from the bus station in Bariloche.
There is some gorgeous scenery on the way to the Argentine/Chilean border. The border crossing itself takes place at two widely-separated locations and takes forever. Each side had fruit/drug sniffing dogs and xray machines. They even made the bus driver unbolt a sealed metal panel in the luggage hold (it was empty).
Once in Chile, we immediately hopped on a bus to Santiago to try to meet up with Kelly’s mom, Suzi. Suzi happened to be starting a trip from Santiago and we were able to catch up with her the day before she took off. It was great to see her and we have to especially thank her for bringing us a copy of The Economist and for taking a bag of souvenirs home for us.
Kelly, Suzi, and Marc in front of the oldest church in Santiago.
As far as big cities go, we liked downtown Santiago. It is a huge city with lots of people and is very clean, modern, efficient, friendly, with virtually no visible poverty. There is a really nice metro in Santiago but it was possibly the most crowded one we’ve been on during rush-hour. It took us five trains before we could squeeze in with our bags over our heads. When we arrived, Santiago was getting into the holidays with more Santas than you could shake an empanada at.
The big cathedral in Santiago. They were erecting a multi-storied Christmas tree of lights in front of it.
We didn’t understand the term café con piernas (coffee with legs) until we got into a cafe in Santiago. The coffee bar is staffed by women in short skirts and stockings. We were impressed by the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino. The skill and variety of artwork before 1492 was quite impressive.
We headed west to the coastal port town of Valparaíso (or Valpo). The town has two levels and a bunch of ascensores that save folks the hike up the hill. Valpo was also our introduction to Chile’s many roaming gangs of stray dogs. Every town after Valpo seemed to have them as well. They are nice enough, and seem to get along with each other, but someone needs to start a spay and neuter program.
One of the many ascensores to wisk you to the upper levels of Valparaiso.
We were told that the town of La Serena was quite pretty but we wouldn’t know. We spent a day there but Kelly was so sick that we didn’t see much more than a couple churches and a museum with stuff from Rapa Nui (Easter Island) including one of the big moai heads.
Our only picture from La Serena: a church and (of course) a dog.
San Pedro de Atacama is considered to be the backpacker town in northern Chile. It is really pricey for a town with dirt roads, adobe buildings, and a frontier feel. But it is high in the Atacama desert and had enough awesome displays of mother nature nearby to (almost) justify the prices. At an elevation of about 8,000′, we were expecting it to be a bit chilly (all pun intended). But it was hot as hell. They take the mid-day siesta very seriously in these parts. Because of the restaurant prices, we decided to cook ourselves a soup for dinner. But because of the elevation it took forever to cook.
The old adobe church in San Pedro de Atacama.
Since all of the cool sights are out of town, there are a huge number of tour companies competing for your pesos. We were really glad we found the complaints/suggestions book in the tourist office before we booked any of the more expensive tours.
Our first tour was to El Tatio Geysers up at 14,000′. There were fields of steam columns and hot pools of colorful algae. They pick you up at 4am to get you to the geysers before sunrise and the wind picks up (and wisks away the steam columns).
The field of geysers at Tatio. If you look closely, you can see a small herd of vicuña making their way through.
Kelly’s reflection from the surface of a multi-colored spring at Tatio.
Nice scenery in the Atacama.
On the way down from the geysers we saw a lot of fantastic scenery and stopped at a very odd pueblo. This was a weird government project (to the tune of 28 million pesos) to re-settle people in a barren location where the previous inhabitants had completely consumed all of the available fuel (a slow growing moss). Maybe we have been reading too many Jared Diamond books, but we didn’t get it.
A small church in a tiny pueblo on the way back from Tatio.
Neat construction methods in the pueblo.
Wooly llamas snacking near the pueblo.
The other tour we took from San Pedro de Atacama was to the Valle de la Luna (Valley of the Moon). Neat eroded landscapes.
Eerie sand dune in the Valle de la Luna.
Sunset colors at the Valle de la Luna.
We booked a three-day overland trip from San Pedro de Atacama, Chile to Uyuni, Bolivia. Besides stocking up on supplies for the journey, Marc had to do emergency zipper repair to his pants which broke just before the two tours above. His pants had been hanging open all day. The Runyan men may be reminded of the old Mexican fisherman’s proverb: Sí, sí. Muy grande. Cuatro, cinco poundos.
Tags: Argentina, Chile, Uruguay
Kelly & Marcus
November 29th, 2006 at 8:15 pm
Love the llamas!
November 29th, 2006 at 8:48 pm
Otro refrán tradicional de los Muchachos de Runyan en español que también se parece aplicar a sus pantalones problemo: ¡Como un salami de la maldición del dios!