To continue where Tina finshed in the previous post ... Yes, I was "at home" watching Liverpool completely humiliate Real Madrid in the 4-0 win at Anfield! And since then, we (Liverpool) have also enjoyed a comfortable win over our fierce rivals Man U at their home soil (ended 4-1 after some spectacular goals by Torres and Aurélio). But that's history, enough about football ...
Since our last post (from San Rafael), we have left Argentina and headed over to neighbouring Chile. We left San Rafael early in the morning (5.30 AM) and switched bus in Mendoza to cross the Andes to our final destination in Chile - the costal town named Valparaiso ("Valpo"). The bus drive wasn´t that bad at all (3 + 8 hours), but that border crossing could have been easier - we spent two hours in the customs ... A LOT of paper work to be done (seem to be a common denominator for Arg). And when you think your finally done, there is always another queue to stand in (also very Argentinian) ... But we had read about it earlier so it was expected ...
We arrived late afternoon in Valpo and (after having spent the whole day on the bus) we decided to walk the 2 km to our hostal. The city of Valpo in located on and around a number of small hills (each like 100 m high), and there´s a funicular up to each of the hills. Our hostal was on Cerro ("hill") Constitución. Since we didn´t had any change yet (only 10000 peso bills (like 15 Euro)), we decided to (instead of taking a funicular) walk up a street to get to our hostal. In was that a hard "climb", but in those conditions (heavy backpack, warm sun, too much clothes) we were really happy when we found the hostel ... On the evening we went the restaurant recommended by LonelyPanet (LP) - "Pasta y Vino". The specialized on just that, and nothing else! Since we both love both pasta and wine, it wasn´t a bad choice :-) And the whole experience was fantastic - superb food, excellent wine, cosy interior and friendly service! The only downside was probably the cost - well over budget at 50 Euro (for Chile that's really expensive) but if was worth every penny of it!!!
The next two days we walk around all the Cerros and Barrios (neighbourhoods), looking at all the exta-ordinary architecture and wall-paintings. That´s pretty much all there's to do in Valpo, and although it´s indeed a really nice city, two days are more than enough. Hence, the next morning we catched the "collectivo" (like a small bus) to nearby (10 minutes) city of Viña del Mar. We were told that the train/metro was a safer option (than collectivo), but why play it safe ... I want to go local!!! (Sorry mom!)
Since our last post (from San Rafael), we have left Argentina and headed over to neighbouring Chile. We left San Rafael early in the morning (5.30 AM) and switched bus in Mendoza to cross the Andes to our final destination in Chile - the costal town named Valparaiso ("Valpo"). The bus drive wasn´t that bad at all (3 + 8 hours), but that border crossing could have been easier - we spent two hours in the customs ... A LOT of paper work to be done (seem to be a common denominator for Arg). And when you think your finally done, there is always another queue to stand in (also very Argentinian) ... But we had read about it earlier so it was expected ...
We arrived late afternoon in Valpo and (after having spent the whole day on the bus) we decided to walk the 2 km to our hostal. The city of Valpo in located on and around a number of small hills (each like 100 m high), and there´s a funicular up to each of the hills. Our hostal was on Cerro ("hill") Constitución. Since we didn´t had any change yet (only 10000 peso bills (like 15 Euro)), we decided to (instead of taking a funicular) walk up a street to get to our hostal. In was that a hard "climb", but in those conditions (heavy backpack, warm sun, too much clothes) we were really happy when we found the hostel ... On the evening we went the restaurant recommended by LonelyPanet (LP) - "Pasta y Vino". The specialized on just that, and nothing else! Since we both love both pasta and wine, it wasn´t a bad choice :-) And the whole experience was fantastic - superb food, excellent wine, cosy interior and friendly service! The only downside was probably the cost - well over budget at 50 Euro (for Chile that's really expensive) but if was worth every penny of it!!!
The next two days we walk around all the Cerros and Barrios (neighbourhoods), looking at all the exta-ordinary architecture and wall-paintings. That´s pretty much all there's to do in Valpo, and although it´s indeed a really nice city, two days are more than enough. Hence, the next morning we catched the "collectivo" (like a small bus) to nearby (10 minutes) city of Viña del Mar. We were told that the train/metro was a safer option (than collectivo), but why play it safe ... I want to go local!!! (Sorry mom!)
Valparaiso
After two days in Viña, we took an early train in-lands to the village of Limache. From there, we catched a "collectivo" to the nearby village of Olmue. Next to Olmue is a natural park containing the 1890 m high montain called La Campana. I´d read that the walk/hike up this montain should be really nice, through green forrests and with rewarding views at the top. The LP stated that if you don´t go in sandals, you should have to trouble doing the walk (up and down) in about 7 hours. It sounds like a long and quite hard walk (7 km to the top, +1000 m altitude), but I figured we had the whole day so we didn't have to stress. We found a nice cabaña (cabbin) right away, changed clothes, dropped off our backpacks and catched another collectivo to the park entrance. We signed in and paid the park entrance fee. The ranger told us that it normally takes 4,5 hours to the top, and another 3 hours back down. Still not knowing what waited, we eagerly started the hike at 10 AM ... After some two hours walking in the (partly shaded) forrest in a pretty steep trail, we arrived at a sign telling us that we only had another 1,8 km to the top, but that 1,8 km would take another 2 hours to complete ... We looked up at the summit (which felt really close but at the same time the trail seemed to disappear or at least it looked much steep now. We hadn't expected another 2 hours to the summit (since we had been walking quite fast), but we decided to take it in small steps, and take a decision later on whether to abort and return back down or to continue. The trails did continue, although it was much steeper now and sometimes it felt more like climbing than walking. We paused often and discussed whether to continue or not. We didn´t had that much water either ... The sun was burning and we started to get really tired. Obviously, this "hike" was much harder than we had expected! It felt like the summit was so far away, and it was mentally hard not knowing how close (or far) we were to the summit. After quite a lot of swearing (from both of us) and after a final suger kick from some snacks, we could finally see the a glimse of the sign declaring the top of the mountain! What a relief! And what an achievement!!! We were tired, happy, proud, all at the same time! The 360 degree view was breath-taking! In the west, you could see the Andes and Aconcagua and in the east, you could (if you really tried hard) see the Pacific Ocean! We snapped some pictures, entered our names in the log book, and put a card deck card (with a swedish flag on the back side) with our names and the date on it next to a rock.
However, we were very aware that we had the hardest part left - the decent! We knew that a small mistake could be really dangerous. So we decided to take it really careful on the way down. That we did, some 4 hours later (at 6 PM) we finally returned to the ranger station, just in time to "sign out" before they closed. Even more tired, with dust all over us and with several aiking chafes ... But still happy and if possible even more proud over our selves! We made it!!! We looked up at the summit from the ranger station ... It we would have seen that sight that same morning, I don't think we would have started the hike at all ... =) A memory for life!!!
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