NektaR in the World Wild Web: From Santiago (Chile) to El Calafate (Argentina)

After a long but pleasant flight over the Pacific, we landed in Santiago de Chile. After passing rigorous checks at the border we tried to withdraw cash from a cash machine. New currency and the ATM menu in Spanish. Well, we did manage to take out some pesos and walked outside to the south american heat. It felt nice as in New Zealand we didn't experience much of warm weather. The cab took about half an hour to take us to our hostel. So different than the previous country; it seems so far from Oceania. We've seen lots of colonial architecture and it was certainly more populous than New Zealand. People were out and about, at the streets, at the parks and open squares.

Santiago_Plaza De Armas station

Santiago_The most beautiful post office

Santiago_Colonial heritage

Santiago_Walking down the aisle

Santiago_Chilling by the motorway..

One thing someone can easily notice is the immense smog sitting above the city of Santiago. The city is located between the Andes range to the east and the Cordillera of the Coast to the west making the smog, especially between months May and September, pretty heavy. An hour and a half from the city and you can be up in the Andes, although due to the smog, it is quite difficult to see the mountains even if they are located near by.

For the first few days, we had some easy walks around the centre while we acclimatised to the new environments. The jet lag was evident, sleeping and waking up at 5am every night. We stayed at a a nice hostel in a central location called Santa Lucia. There was a hill (cerro) nearby so we went up with Polly to get our first glimpse of the city from above.

Santiago_Views from cerro Santa Lucia

I think that Santiago shares some passion with Athens. Here people, especially young students, are often out on the streets fight for their rights. They don't just sit and stare accepting whatever they throw at them. Although we didn't see any riots or disturbances but the police presence was evident almost everywhere. After few days, while watching the news at a tv from Pucon some kind of riots were actually taking place in Santiago. Pinochet's 16 years of military rule has left its marks in the society which still recovers. The economy however is considered to be strong, one of the strongest and most stable in Latin America.

Santiago_Periptero

Santiago_Bellavista street art

Santiago_Watch out...

We went to visit another hill, San Cristobal. We took a small funicular to go up. At its peak there is a church and a twenty two meter statue of Virgin Mary. A great view point, it would be nicer if the skyline was clear, perhaps after rain.

Night life in Santiago is pretty active with many bars and clubs open until the early morning hours. We went out to an area called Bellavista, at a house-converted-to-bar with two live stages and cool people. We had such a good fun. I also visited Andrew and Pillar, two good friends, our nice ex-neighbors in Greenwich, London. They have relocated back in Santiago and already have three wonderful kinds. They gave me good tips for Chile and I was so happy to see them all.

Santiago_Virgin Mary

Santiago_Skyline from cerro San Cristobal

Santiago_Happyyyy (Clemente and Amelia)

We also visited Santiago's Polytechnic school. We wanted to check out the education standards and feel the rebellious student vibe. We spent few hours there, wondering around the buildings and classes. It was interesting to see young engineers within their educational institution. They looked enthusiastic.

Santiago_School of Engineering

Santiago_Exam time

Santiago_And then ping pong..

Having acclimatised, and refreshed our Spanish, it was time to move on and start our journey to south Latin America and the great Patagonia. Polly left us to go north; Spyros and myself we moved towards the south. As always, we got yet in another bus and headed to the village of Pucon, kindly suggested by Andrew. Its location next to a lake and a volcano makes it a popular destination for tourists, from within and outside of Chile.

Pucon_Almost like in the Alps

Pucon_Another day in Pucon

Pucon_Peaceful

Pucon's offers numerous adventures in the region but the most distinctive attraction is the Villarrica volcano. The region of the Andes hosts some of the most active volcanoes in the world. Villarrica is one of only five volcanoes worldwide known to have an active lava lake within its crater! Despite this, the upper part of the volcano is permanently covered by snow. It's peak reaches an altitude of 2,847 meters asl. Unfortunately, we didn't manage to climb it. Weather restrictions restrained all agencies of offering guided tours to the volcano. We stayed contemplating its beauty from below and had some relaxing time around the village and the beautiful lake.

Pucon_Villarrica volcano

Pucon_Volcanic sand by the lake

Pucon_Mitch Buchannon(!)

Pucon_Sunset at Villarrica lake

We left Chile behind to border cross over to Argentina. We could go down south with a ferrie going through the Chillean fjords but the price for it was prohibitive. So we decided to get on a bus and go to San Carlos de Bariloche, a popular Argentinian tourist destination. On the way we stopped at San Martin de Los Andes, a picturesque, kind of posh, village at the far north of Patagonia. We only stopped there for few hours but had enough time to walk around and discover a place that looks pretty similar to central European mountain villages.

Border crossing on a rainy day

San Martin de Los Andes_From a fairytale

San Martin de Los Andes_London's double decker

We stayed in Bariloche for almost a week, a record breaking stay in one place in our RTW trip. It is indeed a beautiful place to spend some time, but the real reason was that the bus route we wanted to take next was scheduled only to run twice a week. And we missed one.. However, we had some good rest, gaining energy for what is coming ahead.

Bariloche is a major tourism centre with ski, trekking and also mountaineering facilities available. Again, the weather was not in our favour. Trekking and mountaineering tours were stopped due to the immense winds and there was no snow to justify a day out skiing. It was middle season, neither summer or winter. Although, there were many visitors around the city, international and Argentinians who flew from Buenos Aires for few days of relaxation.

The city is relatively large (about 100,000 inhabitants). In the 1930's it underwent a major remake and since then it is one of the most notable Argentinian touristic destinations. Some say that many Nazis and SS soldiers, including Hitler and his wife Eva Braun were hiding in the hills around Bariloche, following the Second World War. Some of the buildings in the main square do remind Austrian architecture. The centre of the city was built to have the appearance of an alpine town.

Bariloche_Civic centre, a national monument

Bariloche_Occupied..

Bariloche_Beautiful building

We were lucky to experience a bit of folklore by attending a march for the celebration of the 110 years since the foundation of Bariloche. It was so big, with proper Argentinian music playing loud and hordes of groups and even army marched in front of us. They were even groups of Harley drivers, old mini cars and of course a lot of horses. It was a nice sunny day, our last in Bariloche.

Bariloche_Karate kids

Bariloche_Patagonian pride

Bariloche_Bring back the Malvinas

Following our relaxing days in San Carlos de Bariloche, we were ready for the longest bus ride of our lifetime (not just of our RTW trip). Ruta 40 is a route in western Argentina that runs from the very north near Bolivia down to Rio Gallegos, mainly in parallel, to the Cordillera de Los Andes. It is the longest route in Argentina and one of the longest in the world! It crosses through parks, rivers, Andean passes and about 10 Argentinian provinces. The bus from Bariloche would take 27 hours(!) to reach El Calafate at the heart of Argentinian Patagonia.

It was a relentless bus ride and we knew it. In fact we chose it ourselves against another route to El Calafate that avoids the dirt parts of Ruta 40 and goes through the east coast. We were well rewarded by the vast Patagonian plains and the sense of remoteness of this place. They say there are some unwritten rules apply to the drivers of this windswept highway. If you see someone stopped you must stop to help, or always fill up with petrol when you have the opportunity etc. Our bus had two cool drivers to exchange the work and a tank-looking-like shield in front to avoid pebbles hitting the front window. They even let us smoke by the window. Only 5 people in the whole bus, it was pretty comfortable. We stopped at some out of this world places (in respect of their remoteness). There is no vegetation at all in these remote steppes. On the way we've seen bikers travelling along and only few, if any, local cars. They were long sections of gravel road but the dramatic surrounding landscapes justified the cause. A journey to remember...

Ruta 40_No turn

Ruta 40_Patagonian remoteness

Ruta 40_Granite rock

Ruta 40_Tibet?

Ruta 40_Steppe

Ruta 40_Driving the gravel sections

Ruta 40_Fill up your tank or...

Ruta 40_Expedition stamps

Ruta 40_Local residents

Ruta 40_Sunset in the Patagonian horizon

El Calafate is a lovely Patagonian village. It is located by lake Argentino and is the main gateway to the magnificent Los Glaciares national park. A small lively village, mainly there to serve the tourists visiting the great Perito Moreno glacier. There is a number of glaciers in the region, with some others being 6 times larger than Perito Moreno however access to them is limited and more restricted. The glacier was an epic experience into this trip. I have never seen anything like that in my life. We took a boat and went closer to check the ice from closer. The glacier itself was something like a massive moving ice cube. There was a nice platform to walk around and get better views of the facade. We spent a whole day there and enjoyed the natural beauties that Patagonia offers to its visitors.