After we left Bs.As, which was sad parting and will probably remain one of my favorite places on my travels for it’s energy and beauty, we went to a City on the other side of Argentina called Mendoza. Famous for it’s outdoor sports and great wine thought it would be a good place to stop on the way back to Chile.
Unfortunately on arriving found the weather was truly crappy! Suddenly rafting and trekking didn’t seem such a good idea in the cold and the wet, and wine tasting did. We hooked up with three lovely American guys who were planning to go out on their own and do a wine tour around a couple of the more famous wineries of the area. We drove around some beautiful countryside, with mountains and pretty valleys, to search out some classic Fincas. We spent the day doing 20 questions and getting lost in the countryside, though did manage to visit a couple of wineries which were pretty stunning.
They were big amazing buildings, very impressive. They looked like the secret lair of some Bond baddy with great cavernous dungeons and very plush offices and tasting rooms. You really could imagine 007 and Dr No. running around them. The wines were top notch and we got to see the process of how they are made and stored and even taste a few. We bought a few bottles to sample back at the hostel as well. We seem to have drunk an awful lot of red wine over the last week but it is one of the top things about Argentina and Chile and haven’t had a duff bottle as yet.
One of the Americans was living over in a little port town in Chile at that time and was about to go back there with the other two guys to meet up with his housemate, he invited us along and we thought we would check it out as a stop off on the long trek up Chile. Valporieso is quite a cute little town. It starts by the water and spreads back up the steep hills around the bay. There are lots of steep and winding little streets and multi-coloured houses perched precariously on the hill. We wandered around the town a bit and went to a beach in the next town where we were a bit of a novelty, a group of gringos in swimming cossies on the beach playing frisbee on what Chileans would class as an autumn day.
We had a crazy night out over in Santiago that involved getting back home at 9 in the morning and went out a bit in Valpo as well. It’s a bit of a student town so has plenty of nightlife and cool young locals to meet. Even danced salsa with a Chileno in a bar, needless to say he lead well and threw me around so that I was dancing even though I didn’t know what I was doing.
It started to rain in Valpo and we thought it was about time to move on so said a sad farewell to the Yanks, they had been a lot of fun some of my favourite people so far on the travels.
Next was La Serena up the coast where we were a novelty on the beach again, and went touring round the local area famous for it’s Pisco production (an evil but lovely South American spirit). The valley they grow it in is Beautiful, so lush but arid and desert like on the hills above it, a strange contrast. We visited cute little mountain villages and got a first real taste of rural SA with men on horses in traditional hats, and small isolated but pretty villages with little plazas and churches.
We also tried to go and visit one of the world famous observatories there but sods law said we had one of the 60 cloudy nights a year that they have. Disappointing especially when back in La Serena the skies were clear, we had to make do with just looking up at them there.
Next we headed to the desert up in Northern Chile. A little town with the most tourists we’ve seen so far and the best food and drink in Chile. Weird considering it’s in the middle of the desert. We met up with a couple of fellow Brits there and had a great time visiting the sites with them. We saw a lot of barren and beautiful scenery, climbing a huge dune to see the colours of the desert and surrounding mountains at sunset.
Also we got up at 4 in the morning to visit some geysers out in the desert. It was too early and too cold but worth it to see the crazy dayglow colours made by mineral deposits and the steam rising through the early morning air, a very atmospheric place and beautiful at that time in the morning. We had breakfast of coffee and eggs cooked in the hot bubbling geysers just as the sun crested the mountains to illuminate the valley and warm our frozen noses.
Also we visited some hot springs where us four girls had a private pool that was warm and had a mini waterfall cascading into it. We basked in the warm water and the sun surrounded by reeds and cliffs on both sides, all we needed was a bottle of champers to complete the moment. After saying good bye to Anna and Naomi promising each other we’d meet up in San Fran when we are all there in July, we headed back to Argentina. Another long bus journey through more desert and salt flats to Salta.
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