Mendoza and Beyond

Well it's been an expensive 3 days since I last posted. I'm now in Mendoza, Argentina - a small city that sits about 150km east of the main Andes cordillera, but a good base for exploring them. It's a really pretty city - low buildings, wide avenues and loads of trees. Most of this is because the city was destroyed a few decades ago by an earthquake - a common phenomenon up and down the Andes it seems. Like every other South American town it has a Plaza Independencia:



Argentina is much cheaper than Chile; you can eat out for a quid and a bottle of wine will set you back 70p. There are lots of bodegas (vineyards) in the surrounding areas that you can visit and sample the produce. Whilst Chilean wine is more popular, the Argentinians reckon that's down to better marketing and not quality.

Since I arrived from Santiago I've found myself in Campo Base II hostel, which turns out to be pretty lively and very friendly. These are also the people I am also going to try and climb Aconcagua with. The 3 week expedition starts tomorrow so I won't be posting for a while.... although I hear there is a hotel with internet access at base camp (4700 metres). The trip has been the main expense over that past few days - the climbing permit itself costs 300USD.

The mountain is now almost regarded as a trekking route, which is pretty misguided. The summit is 6962m (ish); so far I have met 2 people who have had frostbite and last week someone reached the top too late in the day and never made it back down. Having spoken to a few people who have done it, the key to it is mental stamina and good adaption to altitude; physical fitness is not top of the list. I have no idea how I will react to the altitude, and nor have I been in a situation that required such prolonged mental stamina, so I guess we'll have to see. On the plus side it is a fully guided trip and I have rented some really good equipment, which should at least look after the frostbite side of things. And don't worry, I'm not going to try a Touching the Void thing either.... I'd rather go back!

Anyway, back in Mendoza it's hot, and the beer is cheap. I'll leave you with a photo of the road running through the huge, beautiful municipal park that lies to the west of town.



Aconcagua here I come!

24 hours in Valparaíso

Well, I just a really good 24 hours in Valpo, as it is known, and the neighbouring posh seaside resort of Viña del Mar. I went to Valpo with an Argentinian girl called Claudia who was going to meet some American friends she had made.

Valpo sits on the coast about 2 hours west of Santiago, built around a series of hills rising up from the coast. It has a network of ascenores or funiculars, to take you up the steepest hills. They are all about 100 yars old and so are as rickety as you like. The ascensor Concepcíon:



We arrived and caught a bus to Cerro Alegre, one the nicer hills where there are a lot of hostels. We found beds in a dorm in an OK hostel overlooking the port (and most of the Chilean Navy). There was a 2km walk around Cerro Alegre and Concepcíon that we tried to follow but ended up at La Sebastiana, another home of the famous Pablo Neruda. Like his other house, it was inspired. From that part of town, the view:



We then headed to Viña del Mar to meet the Americans. These guys turned out to be amazing surfers (from Hawaii and California), totally tanned and male model-esque (sorry girls, no photos!). They also appears to have had a Bill and Ted personality transplant - here's the conversation when I met them:
"Hi Christian, I´m Pete, how are doing?"
"Hey bro, like how´s it hanging dude, I´m like totally stoked to meet you. Dude."
We had a really good chat about all the amazing surf things he did (only happy catching "sick" barrels on 10-16 faces but could surf up to 25ft waves, along with his pro-surfer buddies).

After a very late dinner we headed to a club back in Valpo until the early hours. This was really good fun, great atmosphere, very Latino music.

After far too little sleep we headed back out to explore a bit more of the town, and found the ascensor polanca which goes up at the end of a 100 metre tunnel through the rock - here´s me there:



When we had reached to top we headed back into downtown, visiting the Plaza Sotomayor before heading off. Valpo was devasted by an earthquake in 1906, so few old buildings survive, and what do tend to be next to some very modern structures:



So now I´m back in Santiago, staying at the excellent Bellavista hostel, heading to Mendoza overnight tonight. I´ll be starting an expedition to climb Aconcagua on the 27th, all things being OK, that will take 3 weeks. Then I´ll fly down to Tierra del Fuego and start heading north.

Santiago, Chile (Safe and Sound)

Well, now that I have been here 48 hours I thought I should let you know I´m not still stuck in Madrid :-)

My flight was delayed 14 hours in the end so arrived at my hostel at 1am, where a BBQ was in full swing. Suffering from lack of sleep, I decided the best option was to join in.

Santiago is a large city sitting right at the feet of the Andes. In summertime (now) there´s a serious smog problem due the heat, lack of wind and mountains. Despite it´s size the city centre is pretty small and can be covered in a day or so. Around the city there are several small hills jutting from the otherwise flat landscape, which tend to make good viewpoints.

Yesterday I explored the downtown area of Santiago, visiting a couple of museums (as you do) before eating a ubiquitous hotdog (completo) for lunch and heading back to my cultured part of town. On the way I stopped at Cerro Santa Lucia, one of the little hills that was a really nice park. The view:



After getting back over the (very smelly) river I visited the excellent house/museum of Pablo Neruda, the famous Chilean poet, politician and communist (as if you didn´t know). Then I headed up San Cristobal, the largest of the hills overlooking Santiago, on the funicular. At the top:



And of course, I don´t think there is a South America hill complete with a statue of the Virgin Mary at the top:



So tomorrow I´m off to Valparaiso, the "essence of Chile", a couple of hours away on the coast. I´ll spend a day or 2 there, before decided to either head south to Pucon and the Lakes region of Patagonia, or to Mendoza in Argentina to join an expedition up Aconcagua that would last 3 weeks.