Santiago and the Andes Crossing

We spent two days in Santiago arriving by bus from San Fernando. Luckily our next bus from Santiago to Mendoza leaves from the same station, it will be our third time through here.

We had booked a room at a hotel recommended to us by some people from Victoria that we continue to run into since we met them on the ship. It was a nice hotel in an upscale neighborhood. We are still being cautious of where we book hotels. We spent the first day exploring the neighborhood.

This is a building under that Ivy

 The next day we took a four hour walking tour through the main downtown areas. We started at Plaza de Armas, the central plaza where in the early 1700´s all the arms were kept and the towns people had to report to the plaza to get weapons to defend Santiago when it was attacked by the local indigenous. The plaza is surrounded by old buildings that now house various government offices or museums, and the Cathedral Metropolitana, built between 1748 and 1800 which is still in use today. Our guide was very knowledgeable about the history of Chile and the present day economics.

Cathedral Metropolitana

 Chile has a bloody past, in that when the Spanish finally decided to settle it they endeavored to wipe out all the indigenous tribes, either through slavery in the mines and plantations or through elimination by warfare. Today there are few indigenous peoples left in Chile and those that have survived are far removed from their original homelands. Not quite as bad as Argentina, where the tribes were wiped out, Chile still has some indigenous in the far North and the far South.

Tallest Building in Santiago, called the cell phone, owned by a telephone corporation

 In guide speak, today ninety percent of the monetary wealth in Chile is controlled by ten percent of the population and that ten percent is in some way related to or controlled by six families. The Chilean economy is booming and unemployment is low, however with a minimum wage of US $330 per month, I am not sure how the people house or feed their families. Teck Mining from Canada is in the process of opening a new mine in Chile that will employ 1700, about 350 coming from Canada, US, Australia, etc.

I found Chile to be as expensive as traveling in North America, they charge "first" world prices for "second" world services. All that said, Chile is a beautiful country and the people in the service industry treated us extremely well and were pleased that Canadians come to visit their country.

Water Line Chilean Andes

Then off to Mendoza over the mighty Andes and close to Mt. Anconcagua, the highest peak in the Americas, in fact the highest peak outside of the Himalayas. It was a seven hour bus ride with five hours either climbing or descending the Andes. The road coming up to the height of land on the Chilean side is an absolute engineering feat as well as a nightmare. I will never complain about the Rogers Pass again, well I probably will, but I shouldn't. We climbed and climbed through switchback after switchback. After curve sign 28, I failed to note the number at the top, but it must have been 30 or 31.

About switchback 14

 These are switchbacks, not nice little corners, no passing lanes, no guardrails, lots of truck and bus traffic and very competent drivers. There are not many major international highways in the world where the big rigs coming down stop above a curve so the big rigs coming can make the corner.

At the top

 Once at the top there were a few miles of valleys, ski hills and mules that outfitters use for taking climbers to the base camps on Aconcagua, and then down the Argentinian side, which was much more sedate, with wide river valleys and lots of sedimentary rock.

On the Argentina side

 At last we arrived into the Maipu valley where the grape rows run long and true, now to figure out which ones to visit.