Gol versus the Volcano

We are so proud of our little Gol - it has crossed the Andes not just once, but twice since our last post!!
We left San Martin de Los Andes and drove for about an hour on a highway, and then another hour along a dirt road to the border of Chile. It was a foggy and drizzly day, but just after Martin said sadly, "I guess we won´t get to see Volcano Lanin" the clouds parted and the sun was up in a clear, bright blue sky - only interrupted by the giant cone-shaped volcano completely covered in snow. It was quite an amazing sight. After crossing into Chile, we drove down the Andes (rally argentina style) through forests of red and yellow trees, and small farming villages with pigs wandering around the side of the road. We then hopped onto the pan-americana, a.k.a. the 5 freeway - the same one that passes right through San Clemente, California (and apparently goes all the way to Alaska). We drove north through Chile´s main agricultural area - which is actually quite similar to California - orchards of oranges, lemons and avocados, and lots of vineyards as well, and stayed the night in a small town. The next day, we continued north, passing through Santiago, then west to the coast to the city of Valparaiso.

Valpariaso is actually quite a big city, right on the Pacific. It contains one of Chiles main shipping ports. You can tell by the ornate details on the buildings and mansions over-looking the ocean that it was once a very wealthy city, but it is now a bit run down. From the shore, it´s width is only about 3 blocks before it becomes steep hills - covered in orange, mint green, purple, yellow and blue houses, small shops and cafes. The main commercial center of the city is on the flat part near the water, leaving the narrow, cobblestone streets that twist up though the hills relatively quiet (and exciting for Martin to drive on). To get up and down these hills, if one is a bit weary from the stairs, in the early 1900´s the city built elevators for public use along the hill sides. They are like box cars that hold about 4 to 6 people each. They are pulled up or down along tracks by the weight of an opposite traveling cart. We stayed at a small hostel up in the hills and quickly made friends with many of the other travelers staying there. We met people from Austria, Canada, England, Germany, Switzerland, Australia and France and we would all sit together in the mornings to have breakfast and swap travel stories and advice. A group of us also went out to dinner one night for a Chilean specialty that is called Chorillan - a pile of french fries covered in scrambled eggs, onions, roasted pork, and to our delight - spicy chile sauce! We spent our first full day wandering around the city with our new friend Toto, from Germany, admiring the immense amount of art that adorns nearly every wall in the city. Some were publicly commissioned murals, some were private artists decorating the outsides of their homes and shops, and others were illegally placed stencils and drawings. Along with paint, many were also made from mosaics of colored tiles and broken mirror pieces - making them sparkle in the sun. Our second day in Valparaiso we spent visiting 2 of Pablo Neruda´s three houses. One high up on a hill in the heart of the city, and the other about an hour south in a smaller village right on the beach. The house on the beach, in Isla Negra, houses many of Pablo Nerudas collections including: boats in glass bottles, masks from all over the world, the feet of antique pianos, bugs, bottles, sea shells, plates with hot air balloons on them, porcelain roosters, the sculptures of women they put on the fronts of ships, and more. It was such an interesting, and beautiful house and we learned a lot about the poet, who himself was quite unique.

With our friend Toto squished in the back seat, we left Valparaiso and made our way through the curvy and steep roads through the Andes (this time with much more of a desert landscape than when we crossed further south). Immediately after crossing the Argentinian border, we stopped to see Cerro Aconcagua - the highest peak in all of the Americas - at 6962 meters. We also stopped by the small cemetery near it for the many climbers who have attempted to reach its peak since the late 1800s but never made it, or did make it but never all the way home. Also near there is the Puente del Inca, a bridge over a small river that was naturally formed from sediment left by warm sulfuric water. The bright orange stone streaked with green lines sparkled in the sun, and water continues to drip from it. It was quite a strange sight amidst the bare red mountains.
For more pictures of Chile, Valparaiso and our southern and northen border crossings, go here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/martinswims/Chile

We arrived late last night in the city of Mendoza and have already had our first bottle of wine with lunch. We plan to spend today exploring the city, and tomorrow exploring the wineries!