Highlights from Chile and Western Argentina

For the last two weeks, we have been gallivanting in Western Argentina and Chile. We are nearly done completing a large loop: Buenos Aires to Mendoza from where we crossed the Anes to Santiago, then to San Alfonso (mountain town close to Santiago), Chillan (a non-descript Chilean city that we stopped in on the way south just to go somewhere typical and unknown) and Pucon (about 9 hours south of Santiago in the Chilean Lake District), from where we crossed over the Andes back into Argentina. We are currently in San Martin de los Andes, from where we will return to Mendoza and then Buenos Aires later in the week.

Highlights have included:

Renting bikes in a wine-country town outside of Mendoza and visiting wineries via bike, on a scary road where there was no divide between us and big trucks! There are no bike-helmets in Argentina! I told Joe to tell my mom I was having fun at the time of my demise, if I face-planted in front of a truck that day.

Seeing the Andes from various locations. North and South, Argentine-side (where it is drier) and Chilean side (where there tends to be more greenery, especially further south. Joe calls it the "rain shadow." Moisture from the Pacific accumulates on the Chilean side of the mountains, but doesn't make it over to the Argentine side).

Having a beautiful, outdoor lunch on el Dia de los Trabajadores (as my Tio Hugo called it, a Holy Day in Chile...also, a federal holiday which occurs on May 1) in Santiago with 3 generations of the Jordan family (my Gramasita's brother Hugo and his family). We had such a nice time. Juan Francisco (Cacquico) cooked an enormous side of meat for the family and Francessca made such vegetarian rarities (in Chile) as tofu and tabouleh (or something like it). Joe and I felt like it was like being with my immediate family (if we all lived in Chile).

Visiting Felipe Orrego's (my cousin Jessica's dad) house and community in San Alfonso, a gorgeous, tiny town in the Maipo River Valley, in the foothills of the Andes, outside of Santiago. His house (which is about 1/2 a mile from the nearest road. read: everything in their house has to be brought by hand!) is unlike any we have ever visited. It has been built over many years by he and his wife and family, with things they carried there themselves. It has one of the best views I have ever seen from a private house. Joe and I sat on the roof-top deck one evening as the sun set, snuggled under blankets, freezing our asses off, as the Andes turned pink before us.

Spending gorgeous days in the northern reaches of Chilean and Argentinian Patagonia. Joe climbed a snow-topped volcano (Villarica) and said it was one of the hardest things he has ever done. We went hiking on a sunny day outside of Pucon and lost the trail, so we ended up traipsing through private land, where we met friendly domestic animals but no people and ate a picnic on a hillside overlooking the valley. It is now raining in San Martin de los Andes, in Argentine Patagonia, and we are inside by a fire. It is the first time we have seen rain in nearly 2 months in South America and the first time we have been in winter in nearly 1.5 years. I forgot that it can be kind of pleasant, especially when there is a nice view and a fire going.