August 25th 2019: Back in Santiago

The advantage of being on a holiday without a plan is that you can change your mind at the last moment. So we were driving north with the idea of visiting Atacama desert before heading home. We did change our minds though and went off the beaten track, which in this case meant it was not in our travel guide, not on iOverlander and hardly on the map. It turned out to be a difficult but beautiful road with superb views. We met this lovely calf on the top.

Of course when you reach a top, you need to go down as well. Let's say it was a bit windy, lost count at hairpin 40 or so. Amazingly enough we found some souvenir salesmen hoovering around a fire on a deserted car park just below the top. No idea what they were expecting but we were really glad not to encounter a bus full of eager souvenir hunters heading for the top.

We were in the northwest part of Argentina again, more or less in the area where our journey started. Enjoying the beautiful coloured rock formations.

We could not agree on accommodation in the few towns we passed so we finally headed to the 'Valle fertil', an area we visited the year before. We knew there was no accommodation around, so it was a safe bet😏😅. This is actually the parking space of our luxury resort. But before we reached this attractive place we ended up on the spot where Google thought accommodation was. Some toothless men curiously crawled from some hut like buildings around a few hundred meters from the road, surrounded by broken carts, multiple car parts, stray dogs and weary looking cows. I'm not sure Nienke really understood what they were saying, but her body language made it very clear, this was not the place.

About 2 km further down the road we found the real accommodation, in the middle of nowhere. But, there was internet, heating (essential at that point) and we could even get dinner. This picture is hazy because I don't want to identify the person who is responsible for the premature death of a small goat that evening.

The next morning Nienke had to face the grieving family.

Back on the road we ran into an amazing scenery, canyons as far as they eye could see. A great place for some yoga, ... according to Nienke.

Some beautiful streams where vicunas came to drink.

A really nice spot for lunch and a dip. Well, we did not have lunch with us and the water was freezing, but in summertime....

We reached the famous routa 40 where we had to head south to go to Mendoza. The village of San José de Jáchal was not the most attractive town, especially not the new residential areas, which looked like a maze. Bought some lunch and we decided to head for the Andes instead of going for the wineries around Mendoza. 😲 I know......

Nice small unpaved roads again with deep canyons and amazing views. Nobody there. We actually stopped for lunch here, but after both losing our sandwich to the wind we quickly ate the rest in the car and drove on.

Reached this amazing lake without a name. Met a nice young couple from Austria who had found the perfect spot for an overnighter. Too much rock and way too cold to put our tent up.

So we walked a bit along the shore of this stunner.

So peaceful.

If only we had brought a kayak...., and a fishing rod...

From there the landscape changed drastically. We were suddenly driving through a desert like scenery. The only hill in the area was decorated with a cross of course, the moon guarding it. The road changed as well. The asphalt was long gone, but now there were many stretches of deep soft sand. A road condition which is less favourable for a 2x4. Nevertheless, 'The Beast' saved the day again.

The desert disappeared and the beautiful coloured mountains popped up again.

Our iOverlander app proved to be worth gold. Someone had added a nice location we would never have found ourselves. A vague sign did mention something about a nice drive between the mountains. Over a stretch of about 3 km we saw the complete spectrum of pastel colours. Stunning.

Booked a few nights in Barreal because we wanted to do some hiking again. Cerro El Leoncito was our next challenge. Maybe not the highest of peaks, but the only one around with a marked track. Besides, we hadn't done much lately. Our bodies had to adjust to hard work again. Quite a climb in a very dry environment on a hot day.

Nienke proudly on the top with the snowy peaks of the Andes behind her. It was our farewell to Argentina, the country we came to love most. For its variety, its beauty, its unspoiled scenery's, the wines, its hospitality and its many surprises.
We left the next day, heading for Chile. About 20 km out of town, in the middle the wops wops a few buildings appeared. When we got closer by we saw road barriers and about 20 people in uniform. We must have be the only car until that moment of the day. We kind of expected to have to turn everything upside down, but it turned out to be a training session of the National Police who had a school here, far away from everything. The young female officer looked, hiding a very puzzled look from her superiors, at my New Zealand driving license. I think she passed the exam, because just like all her graduate colleagues we have met during our journeys she pretended to examine everything thoroughly, not showing she had no clue what to look or ask for, and waving us through after enough staring at the papers.

So that's it, don't cry for me Argentine, we will be back.

Via the beautiful Paso Libertadores we entered Chile again. Just passed the border we saw these people training for the Mount Everest, climbing a frozen waterfall. We drove into a valley with a supposedly beautiful walk. After about 5 km there was a sign that it was closed. Why indeed would you put a sign like that at the beginning of the road ay, far too logical.

Back in Santiago. The town full of extremes. People living in tents or cardboard structures in nicely maintained parks, while others enjoy the sun lying around listening to nice music and talking to their friends, while eating from their richly filled picnic baskets. I know, or Kiwi tourists walking around.

Some people are begging, others try to sell some chocolate, bandages or toilet paper. People dressed as flower girls or LEGO robots. Occasionally you see eh....well.... I'm not completely sure. What is your opinion Guy?

'The Beast' needs a new owner. I'd love to bring it to New Zealand, but the steering wheel is on the right side (left) and in NZ they drive on the wrong side (left again). Not a good combination. So we put some ads on the internet and several people were interested, we actually have sold it today! That was not the reason we were back in Santiago earlier than planned. We wanted to say goodbye to some people we had met. And so we were in Valparaiso for the fourth time. The town with the beautiful murals and painted stairs.

Wouldn't this be great in Wellington?

We were there to meet Mario Claudio and his family again. We picked them up in Vina del Mar and headed into Valparaiso for dinner. Mario had to hold the carrot cake his wife had made for desert and keep it from flipping over while we manoeuvred through the bumpy, steep and windy roads.

A really nice dinner with a special family. Afterwards the cake was transported to Concon where we finally ate it. Delicious of course.

And then Nienke became more serious. Here she is preparing herself for a job interview with ... (I'm sorry, at this point in time I'm not allowed to disclose the nature of the job). This young ambitious lady is, while on holiday, already working on her career again. Playing around with several ideas. We'll let you know when it is champagne time!

So nice to go to the big markets again, fresh fruit and veggies!!!!

This is the Artequin, originally the Chilean pavilion for the Universal exposition in Paris in 1889. Build in France out of steel, like the Eifel tower. Later it was dismantled and arrived in Santiago after having been in Valparaiso for a few years. It now functions as an exposition area, currently a tribute to Leonardo da Vinci, mainly for his inventions. A nice and interesting one it was.
It made up for the disaster of our visit earlier that day to the Interactive museum Mirador. It was not exactly in the centre of town and when we finally arrived there were about 30 buses and hundreds of screaming kids in more or less orderly groups. That is to say, one desperately looking adult in the middle of a bunch of kids in more or less the same uniforms, swarming around them like bees, but every minute or so, losing one group member to a candy store, toilet or other vague attraction. Needless to say that we just quickly moved on.

We decided to walk a bit. Passed a small playground where young mothers, their kids hanging onto their knees, were sniffing cocaine. Passed a cardboard village full of homeless people, many from Venezuela and Haiti. People are more kind to street dogs. You see structures like this everywhere, for the dogs. Like we said, a city of extremes.

And then all the big office buildings, this one close to where we stayed. Mainly banks and insurance companies. While I can admire the architecture, I detest these institutions with their arrogant puppets in suits. They are all thieves! I'll leave it at that, but if you want to hear more, let's have a drink....

Just loving the art. Nienke found this piece at a theater near our AirBandB. A combination of cloth and photograph.

And some nice sculptures somewhere in town.

On our way 'home' again, we photographed a detail of the tower previously mentioned, showing the snowy tops of the Andes.

These plaques show the names of the people who were murdered or simply disappeared after being detained at Vila Grimaldi during the Pinochet era. The bodies were loaded in helicopters on the airport on the opposite side of the road and then dumped into the ocean. Most have never been found again.

In the meantime we had to do a few things in order to be able to sell our car. The car needed a new 'Revision Tecnica' (WOF in New Zealand). In Chile you don't go to a garage, but to a special centre. You do not have to make an appointment, you simply arrive, hand your keys over to an inspector, go inside to fill in the paperwork and pay. From a big window you can watch the inspectors test your car, thoroughly. Interestingly our car 'failed', curious why we asked an inspector. He said because the rear window was laminated. I simply opened the rear door, removed the sun blind and looked at him again. With a sheepish look on his red face he walked back to building and reappeared with a new form. Passed with flying colours! Afterwards the car got a maintenance service and another visit to the beauty salon. It looks great again. I even enforced the roof rack with steel bars as the heavy spare wheel and petrol containers had made the aluminium squeak. Replaced the roof rails as well with steels bars. Gave them a nice layer of black spray paint on 'our' balcony. Not for nothing, as like I said earlier, the car is sold.

Relieved we could avoid a lenghty sale process from abroad we enjoyed the town even more. Not that we ever doubted 'The Beast'.

We met some nice Dutch people last year in Santiago and I promised then that we would play tennis when we came back. And so I was playing tennis again, after a year, on clay, with shoes a size to big and a racket a grip too small. Nevertheless, great to hit the ball again.

Impressive statue coming out of the subway station. A huge skinny guy with huge feet and hands, right between the business buildings. I guess a message from the artist for the herds of suits speeding to their feeding stations around lunch time. Haven't told you yet I think, most people do not have breakfast here, unless you can call a Starbucks and a brownie breakfast. For lunch you go out of course or when you are really busy or lazy you do the same as in the evening and just call Rappie or Uber eats. 9 out of 10 scooters, bikes or bicycles is an Rappi or Uber eats. They manoeuvre dangerously between the cars. And boy, do they drive fast. The cars I mean. 50 km speed signs are just to bring a smile on the face of Chileans and orange lights are a sign to speed up a bit more. And buses... We only use public transport in town. People with handicaps can't use buses. The acceleration and deceleration would really make them handicapped. From 0 to 70 in 2 seconds. And don't worry about missing your stop because of falling asleep. At every busstop half of the people in the bus are sharing bodily fluids with their face jammed against the windscreen.

Went to a jazz concert one evening and saw this great mural that got even better when you walked past the front door in reach of the light sensor.
That's it for now, last holiday post in a week.