If you ever want to see the most beautiful airport view in the world, I invite you to visit Ushuaia, Argentina. As soon as you disembark, you are greeted by bright blue skies over blue ocean surrounded by white capped mountains. We were expecting freezing temperatures in Ushuaia but our first day was a glorious 55 degrees. We easily found our Airbnb which was on one of the two main streets and had an amazing mountain view. Ushuaia had a feel similar to one of the old west towns in the States. It had what you needed with no frills. The next day, we awakened to bright sunshine and clear skies. We joined a tour and made our way to the train station for yet another did-not-know-it-was-a-thing-but-now-it-was-added-to-the-bucket-list item….The Train at the End of the World. The train was built in the late 1800s to transport prisoners out to the forest so they could cut firewood. Ushuaia was essentially formed as a penal colony and it was a harsh life for those who made poor choices. The average temperature in the winter hovered around freezing and we were enjoying the highest temperatures of the year in Ushuaia which were in the fifties. As we boarded the train, we were greeted by “prisoners” taking funny pictures with the tourists and they were definitely embracing the darker side of their history. Across from the train station was a small golf course. We have now seen the world’s highest golf course in La Paz and the southern most golf course in Ushuaia. I can’t say much for the golf course which was basically in a pasture but they did have their claim to fame. Our train was much more comfortable than the original prisoner train and we enjoyed our beautiful ride along the 7 km long route into Tierra del Fuego National Park. The train made one stop along the way to see the “waterfall” which looked like a water hose dripping off a small hill. After Iguazu, it gave me a chuckle. Then, the train passed through the tree cemetery which was all the remaining tree stumps from where the prisoners had chopped wood. It was interesting because the stumps were all different heights which indicated how deep the snow was at the time of cutting. The deeper the snow was, the taller the tree stump. As we passed into Tierra del Fuego, we were greeted by stunning vistas that soared over large inlets. We were really looking forward to mailing postcards from the southern most post office in the world but the one in the park was closed for repairs. Our tour guide told us we could mail them in town which still counted as the southern most post office since the one in the park was closed. We also stood at the dead end of the Pan-American Highway which starts in North Slope, Alaska and runs contiguously for 19000 miles (except for a 60 mile gap between Panama and Colombia which is all swamp). That would be quite the drive! When we arrived back in town, we got our passport stamped with an “End of the World” stamp and then headed to the post office to mail our postcards. We mailed our postcards on March 26 and as of this writing, no one has received them yet!
On our second day in Ushuaia, we followed in Darwin’s and Magellan’s footsteps by taking a boat ride on the Beagle Channel. As airplanes were taking off over us, I had to wonder what Magellan would have thought of the wonder of an airplane. On the ride, we saw hundreds of sea lions surrounded by thousands of cormorants. If we had not been told otherwise, we would have mistaken the cormorants for penguins. Unfortunately, the penguins had already migrated for the year so we missed seeing them. The wind roaring down the Beagle Channel took our breath away as it cut through us but luckily, the boat had an enclosure which kept us warm most of the time. After the tour, we had been given a coupon for a free hot chocolate at a local bakery so we stopped in for some yummy hot chocolate and bought a few delicious treats as well. Finding dinner was a bit more challenging as so many of the restaurants in town did not open until after 7pm but we managed to find a pizza joint that was open so the day was a success. Our final day in Ushuaia was spent at the Maritime Museum which was housed in the old prison. As we wandered about the cell block, the weather outside began to turn and we were greeted with freezing rain for our walk back to the apartment. As the temperature dropped, we were blessed with lovely snow that sheeted sideways, blocking all the views and Ushuaia finally lived up to its’ reputation. Luckily, we woke the next morning to snow capped mountains and clear skies for our flight to Calafate. Calafate was the thorn in my side from the beginning of planning the Chile/Argentina trip. No easy/reasonable way in and no easy/reasonable way out. To get to Calafate, we bit the bullet and paid far too much for a one hour flight from Ushuaia. When we landed in Calafate, we were surprised at the terrain which was so different from Ushuaia. Calafate sat on a beautiful lake with water the color of cyan. Calafate’s claim to fame was Glacier National Park so the waters around Calafate were glacial water and it was extraordinary. The town of Calafate reminded us of Pigeon Forge, TN because it had so many little boutiques and shops. Our hotel was nice but it was the smallest room we have had in a long time but we had twin beds so at least we could walk between them. We ventured out for dinner at a restaurant Bill had found that was a small brewery. We ordered and an delicious pile of meat arrived at the table. We had pork, chicken, lamb, beef and many parts of those animals that I was not going to eat. Even Bill passed on a few of them. With only one day in Calafate, we were picked up early in the morning to make our way to Glacier National Park. When we arrived, most of our group hopped onto a boat to go out and watch the glacier from the water. We voted not to take the boat because we had read that the walkways were just as close and we did not want to be stuck staring at the same wall of ice for two hours. In true Argentine fashion, the walkways surrounding the glacier were top notch and we enjoyed our hours of wandering the paths. The glacier was beautiful and I do not think I missed a single angle in pictures. The last path we took led us down the river to another visitor center. Exhausted and not wanting to climb the number of stairs needed to get back to the other center (I swear it was enough to get to Heaven), we cheated and took the park shuttle bus back to our meeting point. One thing that did shock us was the number of people who thought Glacier National Park would be a fabulous place to bring children. Let’s face it….how exciting is a huge piece of ice to a four year old? By the end of the day, the toddlers were crying, the tweens were rolling their eyes and the teenagers had all but abandoned the family fun day. In the end, we were glad we made the effort to get to Calafate. It was a great day! Now came the challenge in the trip planning. How do we get out of Calafate and return to Cartagena? If we flew from Calafate, it was super expensive and the shortest flight was at least an 18 hour event with two stops. After much mapping, Bill figured out we could fly out of Puerto Natales, Chile to Santiago. Spend the night in Santiago. Then, fly from Santiago to Lima and then to Cartagena. Financially it made more sense and at least we could spread out the flight torture over two days. But first, how to get from Calafate to Puerto Natales? We could take an eight hour flight from the end of the world back up to Buenos Aires and then back to the end of the world in Chile….or we could take a 5 hour bus ride across the southern border. We voted for the bus. The bus ride was quite pleasant and the scenery was very unique in the Patagonia region so we enjoyed the ride. The two border crossings (one out of Argentina and the next into Chile) were a bit laborious and the trip ended up taking about 6 hours but it was better than the airport option and the tickets were only $25.00. Puerto Natales was a small town that had seen better days. It had a revitalized downtown square area with restaurants but Puerto Natales was the kind of town that rolled up the sidewalks at 7pm and went to bed. Most people came to Puerto Natales to begin their trek through the Patagonia region so backpackers were everywhere. I can not imagine what it looks like in high season! The next morning, we were picked up by our tour to explore Torres del Paine National Park. Torres del Paine was one of those places that you have seen in pictures everywhere but you just don’t know what it is or where it is. It is filled with glacial lagoons and rocketing cliffs and landscapes that seem to go on forever. As we turned into the park, we saw an unbelievable sight. Dozens of condors were soaring above us and even the guide got excited and grabbed his camera. He said, “We are usually lucky to see one or two condors! I’ve never seen this many together!” It was incredible! As the day went on, we stopped at beautiful overlooks and learned about the park’s plants and animals. Everyone was on the lookout for a puma but our luck seemed to have been all used on the condors. At the end of the day, the guide said everyone could go on a “glacier hike” which sounded cool. The more we investigated information at the head of the trail, the more Bill figured out that there was no possible way to get to the actual glacier from where we stood. We did not want to do a walk in the woods to see a small glacier from a distance given the current weather. Our warm weather luck had run out and the winds howling through Torres del Paine were bitter and tore right through my new coat. We decided to grab a drink in the visitor center and as we sat talking with other travelers a torrential rainstorm began. Some people who went on the hike came back drenched and not too happy about their walk through the woods so we were very glad we had stayed warm and dry. The next afternoon, we caught our flight to Santiago where we spent an uneventful night. Up early the next morning, we flew to Lima and then onto Cartagena. The trip was one of the most amazing trips we have done but it was also the hardest trip we have done. We were exhausted and it took us several days of being bums to recover. One bit of humor….as I threw my backpack on the bed, I noticed something tucked under the sheet on the bed….my coat! Bill had a good “I told you so” moment since he figured I had left it on the boat in the first place. So, now a woman who lives on a boat in constant 90 degree weather has two winter coats. I am not sure what coat the hotel in Antofagasta found but if you are in the area….you can drop by and pick it up! Coat mystery solved! ****More pics on Pictures tab
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The first thing we noticed in Buenos Aires was that we were once again blending in with the crowd. We have gotten used to being easily identified as the “tourist” in South America. Buenos Aires was just like stepping off the plane into Spain. Even the Spanish language in Buenos Aires was different…which did not help our cause at all! Any Spanish words that had a double “L” were pronounced as a “zh” instead of the usual “y”. So chicken was no longer pronounced ‘poyo’, it was ‘pozho’. And rain was ‘zhuvia’ instead of ‘yuvia’. Plus, the Argentinians were as rapid-fire as the Chileans with speaking. Given that we no longer stood out as tourists, the Argentinians would just start talking to us in Spanish so we were lost in a sea of rapid-fire zhuzhing. After checking into our hotel, we walked along the waterfront boardwalk that lined our part of the city. We felt at home with the many marinas filled with sailboats and enjoyed two quick tours of old schooners that were docked at the waterfront. The waterfront was a hive of activity with restaurants, bars and even tango dancers performing for the crowds. It was a wonderful introduction to Buenos Aires! Our first full day in Buenos Aires started with a trip to a very unique bookstore. The Ateneo Grand bookstore was housed in an old theatre complete with box seats for reading nooks. It was amazing! I could have roamed for hours but we had to move on to the next unique event for the day…the Water Museum. As we approached the Water Museum, we felt we had made an error because it looked like a palace. In the late 1800s, Buenos Aires had a deadly outbreak of cholera. The leaders decided they needed to make clean water the focus of the time and they certainly did it in a big way. The incredible building was definitely a tribute to how important their cause was and the museum was very interesting. The overall architecture in Buenos Aires was based on the Beaux Arts movement (which Bill actually guessed correctly and won our debate! Who knew he was such the architecture connoisseur?). Breathtaking buildings stood on every corner. Amidst the buildings in Buenos Aires was nestled one of the most famous cemeteries in the world…La Recoleta. La Recoleta was home to over 4600 mausoleums which lined concrete walkways like a small city. Mosquitos were everywhere and we had to make a quick stop to douse ourselves in repellant before continuing on our way. While the mausoleums were impressive and housed famous figures such as Evita Peron, La Recoleta did not have the same vibe as the cemetery in Santiago. However, La Recoleta was a bucket list item I had so I can mark that one off the list. The funniest part of our day was witnessing the Buenos Aires dogwalkers. Dog walking is a fulltime job in Buenos Aires and they do it up with style. One dog walker would have anywhere from four to a dozen dogs on a leash at the same time. When one dog walker would meet another dog walker, the dogs would all bark and jump and get entangled. It was a chaotic mess but the walkers seemed to handle it perfectly, do a little Jenga type disentanglement and go on their way. Fascinating! Our last stop of our very busy day was the Galerias Pacifico Mall. Yes, it is unusual for us to visit a mall but this mall was special. It had ceiling murals that were reminiscent of the Sistine Chapel so we had to stop in and take a couple of pictures. Buenos Aires certainly loves art!
Our second day in the city, we started at the train museum which was reviewed as “okay” on the internet. Not sure who was doing the reviewing but we found the train museum to be much better than ‘okay’! The museum was housed in an old train station and had two trains with old cars you could tour. There were hundreds of items on display from old cash registers, adding machines, clocks, whistles, bells, etc. Maybe we are just dorky but we loved it! We then wandered down the street to the clock tower and local park. This area was the only area in Buenos Aires we visited where we had to side step a few homeless people. For the afternoon, we had a scheduled tour at the Teatro Colon. Our English tour was actually in English this time and our guide clearly loved the theatre. The theatre was opened in 1908 and looked as if it stepped straight out of the Gilded Age in New York. It was voted one of the top ten best opera houses in the world and we could definitely see why it was so popular. Our last stop for the day was to another Buenos Aires institution….Geurrin’s Pizza. As we approached, the crowds reminded us of The Varsity in Atlanta (if you have never been to the Varsity, then your life is not complete). We were seated and I ordered a Fuggazeta pizza (must translate to huge pile of yummy onions) and Bill ordered something that must have translated as “huge monstrous meat pizza”. When the server delivered our pizza, we all had a good laugh at the amount of food on our table. The pizza was amazing and Bill had leftovers for days! The next morning, we visited the Holocaust Museum. Buenos Aires had one of the largest immigrations of Jewish people in the 1930’s and 40’s in the world. It also housed some of the most notorious Nazi’s including Adolf Eichmann who had supervised over the death camps. It was another interesting part of Buenos Aires’ history. For lunch, we ventured over to the San Telmo market and found an Argentinian man making Swiss Raclette. It was a cheezy bowl of goodness! We spent the afternoon trying to locate the Metropolitan Cathedral. You would not think they could hide an entire cathedral but we walked past it several times before finally discovering the entrance. It was worth the search and we called the day a success. The final day in Buenos Aires was an odd hodgepodge of activities. We attempted to visit the Planetarium but it was closed so we wandered down to the Japanese Gardens that were across the street. We then wandered to the Eco Parque zoo which was no longer a zoo and was in need of some love. Our final adventure was attempting to pick up our money from Western Union. We went to several locations only to be told that we needed to go to another location. We finally found the correct location and the line was very long. As we approached the front of the line, there was a man getting pesos. He had a huge duffel bag and loaded it with pesos. He took that duffel out to his car and returned with another duffel and then another. I don’t know how much money he got but it definitely looked like he robbed a bank! After much ado, we picked up our heist, retrieved our luggage from the hotel and headed to the airport for our flight to Iguazu Falls. Iguazu Falls sits on the border of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Argentina and Brazil share the falls so we knew we would need to cross into Brazil to see the “Brazil side” of the falls. After reading online about the slow, hours-long process of taking a bus across the border, we decided to hire a taxi for the day to hopefully streamline the process. As our driver approached the border, he stopped at the Argentine side, showed our passports and drove right across the border. At the Brazil checkpoint, he just blazed on past without even a wave. We voted right then the taxi had been money well spent! Our first stop was the Itaipu Hydroelectric facility. Itaipu was the third largest hydroelectric facility in the world secondary only to two plants in China. Itaipu was shared by Brazil and Paraguay because the border of the countries split straight down the middle of the dam. As a result, equal numbers of Paraguayans and Brazilians worked in the facility. The facility was huge and we enjoyed learning about the process and seeing the huge generators at work. The facility supplied 100% of Paraguay’s electricity and 10% of Brazil’s which was an impressive task given Brazil is the 5th most populous country in the world. Take that solar panels and windmills! Following our tour of the plant, we met our taxi driver who shuttled us over to the Brazilian side of Iguazu Falls. We hopped on a shuttle bus at the national park and after a long ride through dense forest, we disembarked at the falls drop off point. We followed the crowd down the stairs and as we approached the first viewing area, we heard a roar of water and felt mist on the air. Bill turned the corner just ahead of me and when I heard “holy shit!” I knew it was going to be spectacular. Iguazu was like a scene from a Walt Disney movie. Words and pictures could never do it justice. We walked along the falls with Bill towing me along at times with my camera still on my eye. Our amazing day ended with another blow past the Brazil border guards, a brief check at the Argentine border and a not so good dinner at our hotel restaurant. I had a hard time believing the Argentine side could beat the Brazil side but I could not wait for the next morning to arrive! The Argentine park was about a half hour drive from the hotel so our trusty taxi driver picked us up and started our day. When we arrived at the park, we boarded a train (much like Disney World) and chugged through the forest to the falls. The difference between the Brazil and Argentine sides was the Brazil side offered the expansive view of the falls while the Argentine side allowed you to literally be on top of the falls. The park had metal walkways that meandered about the falls and we decided that no matter how poor Argentina had been in its’ history…those people could build some first class walkways! The view points were placed on the edge of the falls and the power of the water was terrifying at times. We could not visit the most famous area of the park, Devil’s Throat, because the river had washed away the walkway earlier in the week. One attraction that we chose not to do was the speedboat ride. The boat would take visitors under the falls and we watched from a distance as they were pummeled with water and disappeared into the mist. As the day drew to a close, we were sad to leave the falls. We also realized that we no longer need to go on death hikes in search of “falls” again because nothing could ever top the Iguazu experience. The last morning in Iguazu, we walked through a small biopark that was adjacent to our hotel and finally saw some orchids. Our flight back to Buenos Aires was uneventful and we spent the evening resting and preparing to leave our warm weather to travel south to Patagonia. Luckily, I had purchased a new coat in Buenos Aires so I was somewhat prepared for what was to come….Ushuaia, Argentina….the city at the End of the World! ****Mores pics on Pictures tab (especially for my foodies!) Santiago, Chile. The city of reflections. The main thing that struck us immediately upon landing in Santiago was the European feel of the city. It was so different from other South American cities and the European influence was everywhere. The buildings were made of mirrored glass and the way reflections of the old buildings mirrored into the new was incredible. Our hotel was located in the heart of Santiago so we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to the sculpture park for a stroll. As we entered the park just before sunset, we noticed a trend. Couples of all sorts were very affectionate in this park (for lack of a more socially acceptable description). We named it “Love Park” and as we made our way deeper into the park, the ‘love’ became more and more apparent. Let’s put it this way, if my father had ever seen me behaving that way in public, I would have been locked in the basement. We definitely made sure our walk was completed prior to the fall of darkness! As we wandered the streets heading to dinner, we passed by a line of people at least 20 deep waiting at the Dunkin Donuts. I am not sure what the Chilean Dunkin Donuts added to their recipe but evidently it was worth waiting.
The next morning, we began our exploration of Santiago. We took the Metro (one of the cleanest we have seen) to St. Lucia Hill. St. Lucia Hill boasted an old castle and beautiful views of the city. Our afternoon was a scheduled tour of Palazzo Moneda. Two months earlier, I had contacted the Palazzo via email to request a tour in English for the palace. I had to send copies of our passports for background checks and wait for security to approve our visit. Once we were approved, we were scheduled for the 4pm tour in English. We arrived and were shuttled to the main entrance of the palace. The tour guide came and took everyone’s passports and handed them to the guards on duty. We were told we would get them back at the end of the tour. We felt like we were going into the Pentagon. As the tour started, our guide began to spit out rapid-fire Chilean Spanish (which is about 10 times faster than other countries’ Spanish). When she finished her first speech, I went up and asked about the English tour. She stated that the tour was not in English but she spoke English so she could answer any questions we had along the way. More than a bit frustrated, we fell to the back of the pack near a family whose father was interpreting the tour into English for his daughters. We asked him if we could hang out with them and he was very gracious to be our personal interpreter for the afternoon. As we made our way through the palace, we were not sure why we needed so much security. Evidently, some of the government offices were housed in the building but no president had lived in the Palazzo Moneda since 1952. It had originally been the mint in the 1800s and was the site of a military coup in 1973. Overall, the “palace” looked just like you would expect government offices to look so it was a rather disappointing visit. We finished the day with a trip to the Samsung store to buy a new phone for me. When I told the salesman I had “lost” my phone in Calama, he responded, “Lost in Calama? Or stolen?” I said I was not sure and he gave a nod and a facial expression that let me know his opinion quite clearly as he said, “Calama!” in a disdainful tone. With phone in hand, we returned for a quiet night of downloading apps and getting all the trip information back into the phone which made me feel much more settled. The next day, we took a funicular to another mountaintop that had hiking trails and a state park. We did not feel like hiking so we enjoyed the views and had some delicious berries and cream. It was a good thing I had my blood sugar steady because our next stop was Cemeterio General de Santiago. Of all the cemeteries we have visited, this one slid solidly into first place. The statues and headstones were incredible, the mausoleums were a reflection of the time they were built and the grounds were immaculate. Many of the mausoleums built in the late 1800s and early 1900s were Egyptian themed pyramids or Greek Parthenons. Bill patiently wandered the cemetery with me for at least an hour while I took pictures and enjoyed the peacefulness. We finished the evening with a trip to Sky Costanera which was the tallest skyscraper in South America. To access the elevator area, we had to go into the largest maze of a mall I have ever seen. After getting directions from several different people, we made our way to the top of the building for expansive views of Santiago and the surrounding mountains. Getting out of the mall proved to be even more of a challenge and we wandered aimlessly for 30 minutes until we managed to make our way out through the underground parking garage. We just waved a friendly wave as passing cars swerved to miss us on ramps but we were not going to stop until we hit fresh air and sunlight! The next morning, we headed to the airport for our one-hour flight to Mendoza, Argentina. We had no issues with customs/immigration and found our gate easily. When it came time to board, an announcement in Spanish followed by a collective groan alerted us to trouble. The flight was delayed for 20 minutes. Then, another 20 minutes. Then 2 hours. We finally figured out the plane was having a computer issue. When the next announcement was made, the crowd began to clap loudly in unison so we were very happy the computer was fixed. But it was not fixed. Evidently, the Chileans clap loudly in unison to indicate sarcasm for “job well done” when the job is not actually well done. Another hour passed and Bill walked down to another gate to see if we could get on the Sky airlines flight that evening. Just as he left, Aerolineas announced the flight was cancelled because the flight crew had reached their maximum hours on the clock for the day and were not allowed to fly. Needless to say, the Chilean mob was not happy. The counter agent immediately told us to follow him so he could get us hotel and transportation vouchers for the night. Without Bill in sight, I followed the mob. I texted Bill (thank goodness for the new phone!) and told him where we were headed. He met me in immigration and we were passed back into Chile and picked up our voucher from the agent. Instead of securing a hotel near the airport, they shuttled us 30 minutes back into the city. When we checked in, the desk clerk said, “This is a transportation only voucher. Where is the hotel voucher?” I am guessing my face must have spoken without words because she immediately said, “That’s okay! I’ll figure it out later. You go to your room and get some dinner.” The airline paid for dinner and we noted the airline crew eating and drinking wine at the table next to us so I figured we were not flying out any time soon. At 10pm, we received a text telling us to be in the lobby at 7am to transport back to the airport. While the delay was a huge inconvenience, we were grateful we did not have to spend the night in the airport. Mendoza, Argentina is the wine capital of Argentina. There are over 2000 wineries in the region as well as olive oil manufacturers. In order to visit the wineries and olive oil companies, I had to make reservations months in advance. The winery we had originally reserved for that morning was gracious enough to allow me to reschedule our tour to the next day. We rented a car in Mendoza because the wine valley was very large. Our first stop was at Western Union. Follow me closely because this next explanation is going in the weeds. In Argentina, there is the “state” exchange rate which is what international traders use (ie banks) and there is the “blue” rate which is essentially a black market rate. The government currently turns a blind eye to the “blue” rate. For example, if you get your money out of an ATM or use your credit card, the exchange rate would be 865 pesos for each $1.00 USD. The “blue” rate on the street for cash was 1200 pesos for each $1.00. Therefore, we had a choice to exchange money with strangers yelling “cambio” (change) on the street or we could wire money from our credit card to Western Union and get the blue rate. We chose Western Union. Bill dropped me off at a small shop that had a Western Union window in the back corner. I watched as a man counted out thousands of pesos, wrapped them in packs of 100 with a rubber band and handed them to me. I looked like I robbed a bank! The largest bill that Argentina prints is a 1000 peso so an exchange of $300USD equaled 360 individual bills (see picture below). It was one of the craziest things I have seen in my life. With money in hand, we headed to Laur Olive Oil company for our scheduled tour and tasting. The production of olive oil was a labor intensive event so I have a new appreciation for the cost of olive oil. Our tasting was delicious and we even got wine with it so the Mendoza leg started off well. After the tour, we checked into our lodging. The only hotels in Mendoza were luxury spa-type places so I had booked a “posada” which was the Argentinian version of an Airbnb. We were greeted by our quirky host who immediately had a crush on Bill. Bill affectionately nicknamed her “Mrs. Doubtfire”. She showed us to our room and as we stepped into the main area, we were transported back to my great aunt’s house in the 1960s. Absolutely nothing had been touched in the last 50 years. Luckily, the owner had updated the bathrooms so our room was small but functional and we enjoyed reminiscing about our childhood as we walked through the house. We spent the evening sitting by the pool, drinking wine and watching the birds….and watching Mrs. Doubtfire flirt with Bill. Day two in Mendoza started with our tour of Otero Ramos winery. The winery was beautiful and we were greeted by Otero’s son who said he did not speak much English but he would do his best. With our Spanglish, we did quite well on the tour. The winery did not produce much of their own wine but Mr. Ramos was a visionary and had installed state of the art equipment for wine production. He contracted out to other growers to help them produce and bottle their wines. By the time we got to the tasting portion of our tour, Mr. Ramos’ daughter had taken over the tour and she spoke amazing English. She explained everything about wine and spent so much time with us. By the time we left, we felt like we were part of the family and it was the highlight of Mendoza. We missed our next wine tour because the address on Google was not correct so we headed out to have lunch at the Posada de Cerdo (House of Ham). No way was Bill passing up a place called the House of Ham. After an amazing lunch, we headed out to SuperUco winery for our last tour in the Valley. The SuperUco tour was run by a couple of young people who were nice but had no real connection to the company so it paled in comparison to the Otero Ramos tour and in my opinion, the wine was not as tasty either. After spending another night in the 1960s, we headed back to the airport to continue on our way to Buenos Aires which we will visit in the next blog! For those who are curious, the hotel in Antofagasta asked me several questions about my coat and then claimed they had found the coat. However, they would not ship it to me so my coat was destined to live in Antofagasta forever…..or so I thought….. ***More pics on the Pictures tab For anyone who decides to venture into the deep southern regions of South America, I am giving you fair warning that it is a most difficult venture. The initial struggle began with figuring out flights in and out of the region. When we would find a flight that would work, it would mysteriously disappear before we could book it. The prices would double or triple depending on the day of the week, time of the flight, etc. We finally located a flight from Cartegena to Cali, Colombia on one airline. Then, a flight from Cali to Antofagasta, Chile. Where is Antofagasta you ask? I have no idea but it was the right price, time and day so it won the ticket-go-round. I won’t even get into the return home yet…we will save that for another day. Our flight to Antofagasta was around 4 hours and I believe anyone who lived in Antofagasta that had 12 children was on our flight. They screamed and carried on the entire flight so we were very happy to land in Chile for our night in a town neither of us had ever known about prior to a few weeks ago. I must say, Antofagasta, Chile was a very nice city! It was late so we had time to grab a quick meal at the local Peruvian restaurant (our choices were Peruvian, Italian or Indian, go figure). Antofagasta was located on the Peruvian border so I am guessing it has been part of Peru at least once in its’ history. The next morning, we hurried to catch the bus to our actual destination, the Atacama Desert. For the first time in our history of buses, we had an excellent 3 hour bus ride with no one sitting on our lap, no stops to pick up cousins and friends and no livestock. We caught a taxi at the bus station to take us to the rental car office. We had been driving about 5 minutes when I realized my cell phone was missing. We searched all the bags but no phone. The taxi driver turned around and raced for the gas station where he knew the bus would be re-fueling. I climbed aboard the bus and searched but no cell phone. We headed back to the station to search but no cell phone. At that point, we began to question whether I had lost the phone or whether someone had picked the phone. Since it was never turned in, we had to lean toward the picking. Unfortunately, my phone was the main source of our travel information and travel apps. Not wanting the loss to ruin our trip, we decided to worry about the phone situation once we got to a larger city so I had a good pout and we continued on our way. Driving from Calama, Chile to San Pedro de Atacama was like being on the moon. I expected the Atacama to be flat and brown. It was not. It was very mountainy and brown. The “city” of San Pedro was made up of a few blocks of dirt roads, a ton of hostel-type accommodations and a smattering of restaurants. It was the type of place where you could walk and know that your phone would not be lifted! Our first day in the Atacama, we headed to Rainbow Valley. Bill had studied the map and figured out we needed to take the fourth road on the right. The main issue was figuring out what Google constituted as a road. There were roads that looked like roads, paths that could have possibly been a road, rocky spots that wanted to be roads and spots that people just made their own road. After a few u-turns, we finally decided we were on an official road heading in the right direction. Our decision was supported by the fact that there were llama crossing signs along the road. It was very difficult to get lost enroute because there was only one road and it just went straight ahead. When we got into the mountains, we came around a curve and were halted by a farmer and his daughters herding a large group of llamas. To our left was a huge rock wall and to the right was a cliff falling into the river. Neither side offered us an option to get around the llama pack. The farmer expertly maneuvered the llamas to the narrow roadside allowing us to squeeze by and continue on our way. The Rainbow Valley lived up to its’ billing. The cliffs changed from tan brown to a glorious combination of browns, blacks, reds, oranges and greens. From the valley, we made our way across the Rio Grande which I could have leapt across with ease. We followed the river to a small town that was an oasis in the middle of the desert. It was covered with lavender fields and had a quaint church in the center. Locals wandered about while children played in the road. I am not sure how they made a living but it seemed to be a very peaceful spot to live. We spent our afternoon in the Valley de la Luna (Valley of the Moon) which was the most hyped location in the area. The valley did feel like the moon but after the Rainbow Valley, we were a little blasé on the Valley of the Moon. We headed back to our lodging to prepare for our main purpose of the Atacama trip….our star tour. As we were getting ready for a chilly night in the desert, I realized my coat was missing. Bill asked if I was sure I had packed it and I told him I was certain. I must have left it at the hotel in Antofagasta. Sigh, it was to be the trip of missing items. Fortunately, it was a very warm night in the desert so I did not freeze. Our star tour group had about a dozen people and we headed out to the edge of the desert. The reason star tours are so popular in the Atacama is because of the lack of ambient light. The lack of light also makes walking down a dirt road at 10pm a bit challenging but we made it with no disasters. Our tour guide was an Italian astronomer who moved to Atacama to start his own tour business. The tour started with a guide to the constellations which looked much different in the southern hemisphere because they were all backwards to us. We also saw the southern cross which is only visible in the southern hemisphere so another bucket list item checked. Our guide then explained about the formation and aging of stars. He had two high powered telescopes that he trained on stars of different ages so we could see the difference in brightness levels and clarity. Just staring above us, we could see the milky way spreading from horizon to horizon and the amount of stars was astonishing. All the screaming children on flights, bus rides and lost phones were worth it to get to that moment.
Day two in the Atacama, we drove back into the unknown in search of hot springs and flamingos. We were not expecting much from the flamingo search because let’s face it, our past flamingo adventures have generally resulted in either no flamingos or large blobs of pink in the distance. After a 40 minute drive through ever-changing terrain, we rounded a mountain and came upon a lagoon filled with flamingos! They were white flamingos because obviously there were no shrimp in the desert lagoon. It was like a scene from the Lorax (before the Onceler destroyed the Swomee Swans). Reluctantly, I got back in the car and we headed down from the mountains to the hot springs. Along the way, we were amazed at how the terrain varied mile to mile. At some points, it was covered in green and yellow brush. Then, it would turn to huge piles of rocks followed by endless views of flat clay. When we came upon the streams covered in Pampas grass as far as the eye could see, we ruled the day a complete success. It was a good thing we were happy with our day because when we arrived at the hot springs, they had closed for a three hour lunch break so we decided our life would still be complete without the hot springs experience and we headed back to town. We wrapped up the Atacama leg of the trip with a drive back to Calama to catch a flight to Santiago, Chile. On the way, Bill needed to stop at a local Ford dealer to see if he could locate a thermostat we needed for Larry the Lehman engine on Galt that had eluded us in Colombia. As I waited in the car, I had to laugh at the irony of sitting in the middle of the desert in Chile while Bill visited an American car dealership looking for a boat part. Life is definitely interesting! ***More pics on pictures tab |
AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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