Santiago & Snow-Capped Volcanoes
Trip Start
Oct 13, 2007
1
8
14
Trip End
Jan 10, 2008
Pucon,
Chile
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Back in La Serena, after a couple of relaxing days at sea level, we headed after dark up into the mountains beyond the city and towards the Observatory sitting up above. This region of Chile has the best views of the universe in the Southern Hemisphere, and through the telescopes, we could see Jupiter and four of its moons, several other galaxies, and an incredible close up view of the moon.
From here, we headed to Santiago, clearly the most developed city so far, with highway systems, road signs, traffic lights, skyscrapers, people in suits, and Christmas trees sponsored by Coca-Cola.
The first night, we dined nearby the hostel at one of the best
restaurants, in town, Las Vacas Gordas (Not just an unfortunate insult), where, as you enter, you pass the massive grill, stacked with huge slabs of Chile´s finest meat. Needless to say, I tried the Biffe de Chorizo and while perhaps not quite as large as the one in Salta, it was a fantastic steak, and still not too expensive.
We stayed in the bohemian/student area, Barrio Brasil, but a quick walk into the centre revealed a modern, relatively clean district of shopping malls, plazas, banks, and governmant buildings.
In the corners of the centre were some beautiful gardens, one in particular rising above the city in layers, to a peak providing beautiful views of the city, its suburbs, and the stunning snow-capped, mountainous backdrop of the Andes.
Perhaps the most obvious indicator of the wealth and size of the city is the new and very clean and seemingly efficient Metro system (although apparently, there is alot of controversy surrounding the implementation of the new Transantiago system and the subsequent decimation of bus services and overcrowding of the Metro as a result).
Nevertheless, using the Metro in off peak, it carried me out to the upmarket Las Condes suburb with little fuss, as I attempted to locate the Australian Embassy. This patriotic endeavour was in order to do what none of the other aussies I´m travelling with could be bothered doing : Vote in the election.
And so, I strolled along past numerous cafes and restaurants lining the main street in Las Condes, most of which looked quite nice (there was also Starbucks, TGI Fridays, and Hooters(!)) and eventually located the Embassy (handily with industrial sized Australian Flag towering 10 metres into the sky).
Inside, up on the 13th floor of a high rise building was the office, where I waited comfortably watching BBC World with another man, a government vet with the Department of Agriculture, in town to assist in the quarantining of some alpacas to be brought to Australia.
Eventually we were ushered into an office and without showing our passports, we filled out our respective electoral ballots, and put them in the box.
Having happily fulfilled my patriotic duty for the trip, I returned to Barrio Brasil, picking up my Augusto Pinochet mugshot shirt (for 70´s and 80´s South American dictator fans) from a local satirical store on the way.
That night, I caught up with a Swedish friend I met in the USA last year, who has been studying in Santiago for the last 4 months. After a spot of dinner, we headed to a few house parties with lots of exchange students from around the world which was great fun, although I felt a little monolingual amongst scandanavians and other europeans who could speak 3 or 4 languages fluently.
The next night I headed to another couple of parties, this time via the metro, in a very nice high rise apartment in the ritzy Provedencia, although with a 6.30am departure the next morning, I couldn´t stay too late (ie past 6.30).
That morning, we said goodbye to many of the group who were leaving the tour in Santiago, and welcomed some more who were joining us on the way to Rio.
A long drive (12 hours) then ensued, as we headed south to Pucon, in the Lake District of Chile.
Ostensibly a ski/outdoor sport resort town, and a little quiet before the summer peak, Pucon is situated on Lake Villarrica beneath a breathtaking active volcano, covered in snow even now.
Yesterday, we left camp at 6.30, collected our boots, crampons, ice-picks and protective gear and made our way to the bottom of the volcano. Six hours later we had made it to the top, after a tiring slog through thick snow. The views of and from the top were amazing but the best was yet to come as we returned much quicker than we had risen, donning helmets and special trousers to slide down the edge like a tobogganless toboggan ride. For someone who hasn´t even been skiing, this was too much fun.
Rather fatigued after yesterday´s long day (returning to a triple huge scoop ice-cream after
11.5 hours), I spent today splurging somewhat at a fantastic cafe, gorging on a gourmet platter of homemade bread, smoked salmon, sundried tomatoes, local cheeses and soft white chocolate covered apple and raisin pie with homemade ice-cream.
And that´s why I´m here working it off typing.....
