It's Chile in here

So today is our last full day in Chile so I thought I`d recount our adventures and try to get everyone all caught up. We crossed into Chile through a mountain pass via bus from San Martin de los Andes, Argentina and have spent time in Villarrica, Santiago, Viña del Mar and finally Arica. We also visited a number of other towns such as Pùcon, Isla Negra, Iquique and Valparaiso over the past two weeks. We have seen much that reminds us of California while traveling in Chile and have had a great time so far.

The route over the mountain pass into Chile was very interesting. We passed directly underneath Mount Lanìn, a dormant volcano, through the Paso Mamuil Malal. The scenery was stunning as we came into Chile, but the road conditions were pretty atrocious - roughly 5 hours of rough dirt roads. Plus the bus left San Martin as 6AM so we were up before 5AM and were unable to sleep during the ride. Once in Chile we passed through a pine forest along some beautiful mountian lakes and alongside a number of mountain rivers. It was fun but exhausting.

Once in Villarrica we made our way to the Hostelria de la Colina, situated on a hillside above the city and with stunning views of Lake Villaricca and the active Volcan Villarrica, which belched out a steady stream of smoke the entire time we were there. There were also two other active volcanoes that could be seen in the distance, which was a humbling site. We were assured none of them had errupted in 30 years, which told me they are probably due. The hotel is run by a couple of expats from the states and was definitely the highlight of Villarrica. If you are ever in the area we would highly recommend staying here. They really looked out for us and made us comfortable. The restaurant was excellent and they made a mean Pisco Sour, which is now Sarah's favorite drink. We also met a few fellow travellers while staying here and had a great time hangning out with Paulina the bartender at the hotel who told us quite a bit about Chile and its history.

The town of Villarrica was nice but not particularly attractive and was filled with stray dogs (even worse than Mexico). While there we went trout fishing in a row boat down a river coming off the lake and found once again that Sarah is a much better fisher than I am. She caught two large trout that we in turn ate for dinner that night - the trout was much more like salmon in both taste and appearance that we were accustomed to and was incredibly good. We also went to nearby Pùcon to catch a bus to nearby hot springs. Pùcon is the adventure sports center of the Lake District in Chile, but it didn't really strike me in the 15 minutes we were there. Instead we headed on to some natural hot springs up on the mountain side. No that might sound like a lot of fun and we did enjoy ourselves, but seeing as how we were dependent on public transportation and the last bus was at 7PM, we were there in the middle of the day, and it was a very hot day. Sitting in 90 degree water when it's 85 degress outside isn't all that enjoyable.

We then headed by bus to Santiago, which took a good seven hours. We were very excited to get to Santiago as we had heard that Augusto Pinochet, the long lived former military dictator of Chile had finally passed away. The bus ride was long and despite the enormous mountains in the background, somewhat borning. The one bit of excitement came when Sarah was doing some knitting to pass the time. A little girl with a bit of a cold who was no more than 4 years old began watching Sarah over the back of her seat. The girl kept leaning further and further over the seat to see what Sarah was doing, and just when you thought she would fall over she sneezed all over Sarah, who in turn yelped loudly. The girls mother pulled her down, but did nothing in the way of apologize and Sarah, having suffered from a series of colds before we left on the honeymoon already, proceeded to bathe her arms and face in Purel in the hopes of avoiding getting sick herself. Needless to say Sarah was a bit on edge for the rest of the busride, especially since the girl kept standing in her chair looking to see if Sarah was knitting again.

Santiago is an impressive city, much different from Buenos Aires. The city is surrounded by mountains on most everyside, some of which tower close to 20,000 feet. Sadly you can't really see them because the smog is so bad in the city. We've heard that on a clear day is dramatic, but that they only have a handful of clear days each year. As it was the mountains looked more like a movie set backdrop where you could faintly see the outlines with little deatil. The city itself was attractive, with fewer of the awful high rise apartment buildings that ruin the Buenos Aires skyline. Our hotel was funky, with weird art deco furniture from the 70s, but was across the street from a nice park. We spent a lot of timw roaming around checking out the colonial architechture and sitting in cafes. We had the pleasure of watching a communist protest one afternoon. About 250 mostly teenagers came streaming by reveling in Pinochet's death. Shortly there after a set of trucks with water canons came by followed by motorcycle police and the paddywagon, and the protest was quickly broken up.

We decided to avoid Pinochet's funeral at the military school thinking better of getting too mixed up in it, but we definitely talked to most everyone about his death and what they thought, often with very interesting responses. It`s a testament to how much things have changed since he lost power that most people seem to go about their business and tell us that we shouldn't waste our time thinking about it. We did trak out to the school later in the afternoon once the funeral was over just to see what was going on and a handfull of supporters and detractors were still there, but the scene was very calm. We also headed out to the municipal cemetary to see the monument made for the tens of thousands torured and killed by Pinochet's regime in the 70's and 80's. It was a bit overwhelming and really drove home the enormity of what had happened by listing the names of all those tortured or disappeared. It left us speechless.

Next we headed on to Viña del Mar, which is the beach town most preferred by Santiagoans. It was a surprisingly large city and we did`'t spend much time there. Garish high rises dominated the beach area and the beaches themselves were filled with cigarette buts. We did however spend a day visiting the nearby towns which was much more exciting. We took a bus down to Isla Negra, the location of Pablo Neruda's beach house and location of his burial. He had designed roughly the entire house himself and it was full of his personal collections. He was an enormous collector of things - sea shells, bottles, african masks, folk art, bow spirits from old ships, model ships in bottles, nautical instruments and wagon wheels. It was a really cool house that overlooked the ocean. Afterwords we went to Valparaiso, which is incredibly reminiscent of San Francisco. The city is separated into two sections, the lower port area bordering the ocean which is fairly industrial and unattractive, and the upper section in the surrounding hills. The upper area is largely reached by ascensores, cabled pulled elevators that are a site within themselves. The neighborhoods atop the hills are filled with beautiful and colorful old homes - it's one of the most photogenic places we've even seen.

Finally we headed off to Arica for some much needed rest and relaxation on the beach before entering Peru. Only, Arica wasn't what we were anticipating. First of all, Arica is situated in the northern reaches of Chile along the border with Peru. It is also in the middle of the driest desert in the world. Many towns in the region have never recorded rainfall. So the landscape is increadibly barren. Once we arrived we went to the hotel where we had a reservation only to find that it was a dump (at least from the outside). Our cab driver even mentioned that he hated the place because they misrepresent themselves on the Internet and that most people tend to stay one night tops and then move to a new hotel. Well, we didn't even get that far, and we had the driver takes us to another nearby hotel on the beach which turned out to be even worse. Next we tried one of the hotels listed in Lonely Planet, which was also quite disgusting, before finally setlling on the nicest hotel in town, the Hotel Arica. Although not 4 stars as they claim, it has been comfortable, if not a bit overpriced for what you get. Needless to say this was not a great introduction to Arica, and we have been profoundly unimpressed with most other aspects of Arica. I would not recommend coming here unless you are taking the overland route to Peru. There is a cool church from the turn of the century that was constructed as a kit by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. The entire church is cast iron and the individual pieces were pressed cast iron that was put together as a kit in Paris and then shipped and constructed in Arica by the Peruvian government (Arica was Peruvian before the Chileans took it over in the War of the Pacific). Other than that we saw some mediocre beaches, got sunburned and drank Pisco sours. Oh, and we have been constantly serenaded by tens of thousands of marine birds that have nested on the rocks outside our hotel room. After awhile it begins to sound like each one is trying to talk over the others, creating a cacophany of sound that is deafening.

Fortunately we leave for Peru tomorrow.