October 9th 2018: Ruben

Life can be very cruel. We lost a very  good friend this week after a tragic car accident. Ruben (on the right with Nienke while doing the Heaphy track in New Zealand 2 years ago) leaves behind Sabien and 3 children. This tragic loss makes us realise even more how fragile and precious life is and how important it is to enjoy every minute of it. Ruben will never be forgotten and Sabien and the children will always be in our hearts.

This is Paco, the guard donkey at the last place in our previous entry. The owner had just put his property on AirBNB when we booked. Wasn't really ready for it yet, but he was very friendly so we helped him with a lot of tips.

A night later we stayed at a quirky place from South African owners. A totally recycled and upcycled house. Very nice people indeed, invited us over for the BBQ right away. Had some interesting talks about politics and travelling.

And he gave us some good tips about wineries in the area. Here we're at Villard winery in Casablanca. Pretty huge compared to NZ.

His son helped us getting rid of the lock on our spare wheel. Used a huge angle grinder to cut it through. Turned out the car dealer had been lying all the time. No spare keys, papers not ready, etc. So we spent our 25th anniversary at the car dealers place, being angry at them and upset with with the bad news about Ruben in hospital.

We were quite happy to leave Chile and drive through the Andes. On the phone you can see the many bends we had to take to get over the very high pass. With our mind still gone a bit we managed to completely miss the Aduana, the Argentinian Immigration. When we finally noticed it we had to drive back 17 km to get the necessary stamps. Luckily the Aduana did not see the mistake in our paperwork. The idiots from the car dealer made us 'Germans' on the authorisation form. Germans!!! Now we can go to the 'Beerfest' with Birgit, our German friend.

Magnificent view over the many hairpin bends on the Chilean side.

At the top, Cerro Aconcagua, an impressive mountain, 6960.8 meter high.

Stunning drive through the mountains of the Andes.

The colours of the spectacle around us were amazing.

Driving around in this scenery is definitely not boring.

Nienke filmed quite a bit when we were driving and taped me singing along with Mumford and Sons.

Got our first taste of the great Argentinian wines in the very first village we ran into. We ordered a quick lunch and both got a rather generous glass of Malbec, about 3 to 4 times the size of the portions you get on the Chilean side. Lesson well learned as we still had a few miles to travel to Mendoza.

Mendoza is a town in central west Argentina, famous for its wine. So we booked the 'Trout and Wine' tour (?) and visited 4 beautiful wineries. Here you see an experiment, ageing wine in concrete barrels. They were even thinking of going back to concrete amphora's.

Humongous tanks in the Alta Vista winery.

We have done quite some wine tasting in New Zealand, but this was something special. Almost laboratory like. Each of us sitting at a table with sinks in front of us.

Unfortunately we could not book a room here. Would have been nice to put our tent up here between the barrels.

I think our tour lasted about 5 hours and we're absolutely fans of the Argentinian Malbec now. But also of the Torrentes, a white wine made of the Torrentes grapes from the north of Argentina. It's a bit comparable with Viognier.

Somehow we woke up again the next day and had a nice stroll through Mendoza. In the evening we stumbled upon a big party (I think they're following us) in the main square with lots of folklore and nice food. Several really big paella pans. Delicious.

These beautiful mountains we saw on out way to the Talampaya gorge. We had the idea of walking through it, in 34 degrees. Unfortunately for us there had been sightings of a puma, for the first time in 30 years. This meant that the word 'puma' was present in every sentence around us.

Our 5 hour walk was reduced to 2 hours as we were not to disturb the puma, or it was too dangerous. We think our guide was just lazy and used it as an excuse to get back to the shade.

It was beautiful enough not to be too disappointed. On this picture you can see Nienke and I at the bottom doing something I still do not understand. Is apparently funny.

Haven't seen a puma or even signs of it. The other tourist saw puma signs in every piece of animal pooh around.

The excitement was all a bit hilarious. A single puma would not attack 5 adults walking in a canyon, let alone a minibus full of lazy tourists. Besides, they found a cadaver in the small gorge we were meant to walk back through, so it wasn't hungry any more. It all made me think of the hysteria in the Netherlands when "poema's" and wolves were sighted in the Veluwe.

We decided to use the time we would have spend sweating in the gorge on a new road, piercing and winding itself through the Sierra de Valle Fertil. So nice. Not sure why they called it 'fertil', everything was extremely dry.

This Argentinian version of Uluru marks the border of Ischigualastu, or Valley of the Moon. According to the guide in these prehistoric surroundings the Inca's already named them the Valley of the moon.

Nienke wondered, to the amusement of other English speaking tourists, how the Inca's knew what the surface of the moon looked like. Ah well, never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

The guide was talking so fast that even Nienke had troubles understanding her. I guess the round stone balls were dinosaur pooh. Fossilised of course.

What a beautiful park. We saw animal shapes in the rock formations around us.

A snail?

The sun emphasised the beautiful colours around us.

A group of guanaco's were curious what we were doing there.

I think this is pretty much proof South America and Australia were once connected. The red dust is starting to cover our car which we actually don't really mind. A dirty car may attract less burgles. Not that we feel unsafe, the people are so very kind here.

We've picked up a some locals a few times. That's what you do here, you help each other. Gave Nienke the chance to practise her Duolingo in reality. It was already dark when we drove back to our hotel. Driving in the dark is quite a challenge here. Black horses standing half on the road, Argentinian cars without lights (not kidding you), cyclists and scooters without lights, people walking in the dark, etc. We'll try to avoid driving at night from now on. Amazingly you see quite some Renaults 12, Peugeots 504, deux chevaux and other in Europe and New Zealand extinct cars. Driving very slowly of course, often hanging in there with duct tape and pieces of string. Usually missing some apparently unnecessary parts like lights, bumpers, and windows. And they told us to make sure the car was in tip top shape to avoid fines from the Argentinian police!

Last picture for today. The sun going down over Ischigualastu, casting our shadows over the mountains. Fitting picture, makes us realise how Ruben has casted his loving shadow over our lives. We will always remember him.

30 september 2018: Street art

All good on the South American front. No news for 2 weeks was just because we were too busy/having fun/did not have internet access. So we've got a car. That is, we paid for it, got the car, but the paperwork is still in process. Mañana remember! A combination of festivities, siesta, afternoon naps, a dealer who finds working 2 hours a day more than enough and owner being on a holiday caused the delay.

The festivities were the Fiestas Patrias, three days of partying around the Chilean independence day. Sitting on the Plaza des Armas a day after the 45th anniversary of Pinochets coupe d'état (11 september 1973), enjoying the busy city scene, we were suddenly surprised by military planes flying very low over the town. Apparently a practise for the military parade on the next day. We thought it was pretty bold to do that 45 years after military jets bombed 'La Moneda', the government house.

Anyway, the Chileans were more busy with preparations for the party. Meat, terremoto (the earthquake drink), music and the cueca (a very sensual Chilean dance) are the main ingredients. We were warned to stay away from certain places as people there would be drunk and disorderly. We found a relatively quiet 'fonda' the first day. School children performed the local dances while we enjoyed the meat/terremoto combination. In the evening we enjoyed the baptising of Jirka and Coco's new BBQ.

Next day Anto took us to a much bigger fonda. More meat (oversized sateh!) and terremoto. The clear presence of navy, army, airforce, carabineros and PDI (police investigation department), together with several upper class horse riding activities made it quite clear that the organisers were fans of the current government, leaning to the right again.

Emphasised by this parade of emperor Wilhelm the third look-a-likes. No problem for us though, we found a different spot where everything was all about dancing and music, no politics.

Here you see Nienke dancing the cueca with a local charmer, who charged his batteries by dancing with as many women he could. He told Nienke just look at me and follow me. So Nienke did just like him not realising she performed the male side of the dance. No problem though, she just did it and was applauded by the locals.

Great night, again. The small Chilean flag and other decoration in Chilean colours Nienke and I brought turned out to be 'overdressed'. Although hugely proud of Chili and their flag, nobody was wearing any party clothes. We felt like orange dressed Chinese tourists on the Dam in Amsterdam on the wrong day (a problem if your old Lonely Planet still mentions Queensday instead of the Kingsday, which is on a different date now). Sleeping in starts to become a habit.

Next day was supposed to be a quiet day. Maybe stretch the legs for half an hour? We had just left our apartment when the music started. A convalesce parade in 'our' neighbourhood brought us to the next area of festivities. All right then, but only one......

We needed a change of scenery and invited Jirka and Coco to a walk in a nearby valley. Maybe not so quiet as we expected though. On our arrival in the park the around 30 BBQ's were occupied by big Chilean families and the familiar smell of cooked meat and smoke filled the valley. A small track along the river brought us to a natural hot pool. An old toothless man tried to convince us to take a bath. "Tal vez la próxima vez" (maybe the next time).

In the absence of togs and presence of cold weather we decided to get back for a picnic. The ipad on the table is Jirka's who had hoped to be able to see Ajax-AEK Athens live. Overestimated the Chilean mobile internet network just a tiny bit. We managed to watch the game later that evening though and finally fell asleep with a smile on our faces dreaming about a revival of the glory days of Ajax in the early 80's.

Since there was absolutely no sign of any progress on the car-paperwork we decided to leave Santiago and head for Valparaiso. Anto reminded us of the fact that Curacavi was halfway and they were having a "asado" (BBQ). Since we had not attended one in a while we gratefully accepted the invitation to her families 'granja'. Her grandma had prepared a huge amount of lovely food. Another great night.

Anto's boy friend Ivan loved the same old rock songs we do and we had turns taking the role of disk jockey. Nienke was the nights' champion on the air guitar.

New guests arrived in the morning to help us finish the 'asado' from the night before. Dutchies that work with Ivan to meet the other Dutchies, very nice.

During our walk over the property Nienke proudly showed her progress on her language app 'Duolingo'. She speaks Turkey now as well.

Valparaiso is known for it's street art. In the battle against graffiti home owners allow artists to decorate their houses with street art which is pretty much respected by graffiti-scum.

Street humour! 'Zona de abrazos' = hug area.

This slide was part of our city tour. Being the oldest Although we were the more senior members of the group we just had to participate.

Apart from the street art there is not much to do in Valparaiso. We visited Neruda's house and felt a bit like Korean tourist who visit Guus Hiddinks house in Varsseveld. After leading South Korea to a 4th place in the 2002 world cup bus loads of Koreans were dropped in the tiny village. Neruda was a winner of the Nobel price for literature. His house was just a house.

Dogs, heaps of dog in town. You do not need an alarm in Valparaiso. Dogs bark from 6 pm to late in the evening and the dog concert starts again around 7 am. It seems to be part of the safety paranoia here. Steering wheel locks, tyre locks, gated communities, high walls with glass on top of it and dogs for personal protection. We feel perfectly safe here though. It's such a friendly country. Everybody eager to help you, the bus stops when you raise your hand (no matter where you are), swinging street bands and smiling people. We seem to be tolerant to weed in the Netherlands, but here everybody seems to be smoking it. During lunchtime we walked between university buildings and we did not see any students not smoking weed. You can buy the utensils anywhere and ready made joints are openly sold in the street. It all gives Valparaiso a special vibe.

This picture shows the colourful face of the town. Houses in all colours. A favourite explanation for it is that most people used to be fishermen and they painted their houses with the left overs from the boats. 

More street humour. After an other day of walking we settled on a terrace of an inviting bar. People enjoying the great view, sun peeking between the clouds and ... Fat Freddies Drop (Kiwi band) coming from the speakers. A bit of home.

We saw many half burned down buildings. Even though there is an Italian, a German and an English fire brigade. Valparaiso is a Wold Heritage town. That means that the faces of burned down buildings need to be restored to it's original state. Because of the costs nobody starts such a project. Well, almost nobody, this bank complied to the rules, but with a modern Chilean twist.

Our apartment had a surprising feature. A pull-out stair brought us to the roof-deck from where you could look over the harbour. Great place to end another day of strolling through the town.

Looking at the amount of 'farmacias' the Chileans must be unhealthy people. Maybe it's the lack of greens in their diet. We saw a lot of 'completas' (basically a Frankfurter in a bread roll, covered with guacamole, chili sauce and mayonnaise), choripans (chorizo sausage in a bread roll, covered in chili sauce) and the many different types of empanadas. The last one is something you better not eat while walking. The fatty stains on our pants are proof of that.

Nienke had to get a picture of this garbage truck. Must say, they make people smile.

Not much news about our car. Things don't go fast here. Our car needed a repair and the garage said we could pick up the car at 1 pm. Gotten used to Chile time we arrived at 1.30 only to be told that they needed another hour to align the wheels. So we went shopping and returned two hours later, only to find the car on the bridge. The alignment in progress. You get used to it.

Go with the flow and eventually you'll get there. Luckily we've got the time. At the moment we don't even know if we'll drive to the south of Chile next week or cross the border to Argentina. And actually, after my first objections to Nienke about travelling without a schedule, I don't really care. We've met great people and had some great experiences, all mostly unplanned.

Another project Nienke started, photographing doors.

In the evening we visited a jazz cafe in town. There would be live music that night. We met a friend from New Zealand there with his Chilean girlfriend and her sisters. We had some nice food, drinks (Nienke trying out the locally brewed beers) and chats and did not even notice that the live music only lasted less than an hour. Can't even say if it was jazz or blues.

Ah, another projects, vans!

Having walked a hundred miles in Santiago an Valparaiso we were longing for the sea. So we walked away from the town along the coast. Great to sniff up the salty sea breeze. Overlooking the rocks with pelicans.

We walked till this bay where a strange formation of graveyard/apartment like buildings gives the deceased a sea view. Weird. The workers on a new high-rise cemetery kindly warned us not to go further, as the area behind the cemetery was deemed dangerous. We would almost certainly be robbed there. Not sure if this was part of the 'un-safety paranoia', but we decided to return and find a nice spot for lunch.

We've been staying in airBNB accommodations and so far have not been disappointed. We had a great home in Valparaiso with a really nice host and again in Melepilla with a couple that just started on airBNB. We were able to help them with some tips. Currently we're in a fantastic place in Casablanca, but we'll tell you later about these great guys.

You can save energy by bypassing the steep roads and torturing stairs by taking the many escalators. Mini trams that comfortably transports you to the nicer areas.

Just like this grandma we decided it was time to say farewell to city life for a while.

We walked 'home' a last time, but not before Nienke added another great pair of doors to her collection.

The sign is so right. Maybe we'll return another time (I wrote at the time not knowing Nienke left her tablet and two wallets behind, we'll pick them up tomorrow).

Finally some rest. A hot tub like we have at home. Not a necessity, but together with an Escudo (local beer) and our own music heaven.