Chile, February 2007

Our Chile trip began in Santiago where we spent our first two days.  For some reason we had low expectations for Santiago and had avoided it on previous trips feeling it was a poor second to cities like Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro. However, we were pleasantly surprised and found it to be most hospitable with lots to see and do.  With the Andes mountains towering above the city, balmy and dry summertime weather (our winter), eclectic architecture, a world-class restaurant scene and a cosmopolitan feeling, Santiago takes its place as one of South America’s great cities.

After two days of sightseeing and enjoying Chilean cuisine, we rented a four wheel drive Suzuki Grand Vitara knowing, that we’d be traveling on rough roads.  From Santiago we headed north on the Pan American highway into the areas called Norte Chico and Norte Grande, stopping the first night at Valparaiso, which used to be the largest port in South America and is home to the Chilean navy (armada). 

It was a Friday and we had read in Lonely Planet that Valparaiso has an active night life on the waterfront.  We were curious, and the end result was probably the most drunken night I've ever had in my life, drinking Pisco and coca cola non-stop until 3 am, and dancing with every señora and señorita that would say si, which was most of them.  When I stood on a tabletop and started singing the Chilean national anthem in Spanish, with help from a karaoke teleprompter, I should have known it was time to go home.  My new found compadres finally poured me into a taxi and I made it back to the hotel in one piece.  I paid the price the next day, sleeping until after noon and then having to drive several hundred miles with a really bad hangover. 

We continued north on the Pan American highway, which is a good four lane divided road for several hundred miles until it becomes two lanes with lots of big trucks. Since it’s mostly desert, it’s straight as an arrow.  There are no police and no speed limits are enforced; we didn't see a cop the entire time.

We went inland several hundred miles up the coast toward the town of Pisco, which is the heart of Pisco production, Pisco being the national drink of Chile, although it’s also claimed as the national drink by Peru.  Pisco is a picturesque town with endless fields of grapes, but because it’s so far from the main highway there are few tourists.  We stayed in a great hotel and met four people from Brooklyn, about the only Americans we've seen so far on this trip.

Our plan was to drive north from Santiago as far as Antofagasta, a distance of about 700 miles, then on to San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama desert, which is reputed to be the driest desert in the world, then cross over the Paso de Jama into Jujuy, Argentina, stay in Salta, then head south on the infamous Ruta Cuarenta (route 40) through Mendoza to Patagonia and then cross back into Chile through one of the southern Andean passes to the Chilean Lake Country. Lots of driving but so much to see.

The last several hundred miles, before reaching Antofagasta, turned out to be more of an adventure than we had anticipated. We chose the ocean rather than the Pan American highway since we thought it would be more scenic, which it was.  But we found ourselves on a rutted and barely passable “road” with no services or direction signs.  Our little jeep bounced along and as day was turning to night we watched the gas gauge needle dropping toward the E.  It was getting cold and we were in the middle of nowhere, not looking forward to spending the night on this road.  As we pushed ahead lo and behold suddenly we saw the lights of Antofagasta and soon a wished for gas station.  We filled the tank, found a Holiday Inn, and because we had a member card were given a nice upgraded room. We didn’t have to spend the night freezing on the lonely road cramped in our little jeep.  All’s well that ends well.

Paso de Jama is the northernmost Andes crossing between Chile and Argentina, and reaches an altitude of 13,800 feet.  Misti was concerned about the lack of oxygen at that height, so we purchased two oxygen bottles in San Pedro de Atacama, a common item there for Andes backpackers. 

We were smart enough to get a Chilean visa before leaving home, which greatly facilitated the crossing from Chile into Argentina.  Even though my Spanish is decent, border crossings are often a bit of a mystery, but we’ve found that a US passport and a ten dollar bill go a long ways in simplifying the process.

We arrived in Argentina after an eight hour crossing of the Andes mountains, perhaps the most beautiful scenery we've ever seen.  The pass reaches its highest point of almost 14,000 feet on the Chilean side, 100 miles before the border, and we both took whiffs of the oxygen to avoid any lightheadedness. 

Northern Chile and Argentina are very secluded, with Quecheua Indians selling their crafts along the road and spectacular Andean mountain scenery.  We saw wild herds of llamas, strange looking birds and vicunas and foxes that came right up to our car door. 

Our first city in Argentina was San Sebastian de Jujuy, in north central Argentina, near the northernmost part of the legendary Ruta Cuarenta, which we had read about in Lonely Planet.  Route 40, which Argentinians fondly refer to as “The Forty,” is the longest highway in Argentina and one of the longest in the world, stretching more than 5,000 km from the Bolivian border to Rio Gallegos in Patagonia.  It crosses 28 national parks, 18 major rivers and 27 Andean passes.  A large part of the road is unpaved and the road is known worldwide as a four-wheelers paradise. 

From Jujuy we drove on to Salta and then made our way south on route 40 toward Mendoza, in Argentina’s famed wine country.  Along the way we stayed at Cafayette and La Rioja, both small towns that served only as places where we could find both food and lodgings. 

Mendoza, which we had previously visited in 1998, on our first trip to Argentina, was about half way through our trip.  We stayed two nights enjoying excellent Argentinian food and wine and exploring the surrounding wine countryside.  This trip gave me a new respect for both Chilean and Argentinean wine.  We never had a bad bottle and the wines lean more toward the taste of Spanish and Italian than California. They’re good and at ridiculously low prices, like $4 to $8 for a bottle.

From Mendoza we continued south through a desolate part of Argentina with our destination being the border crossing of Paso Mamuil Malal, which would take us back into Chile.  We underestimated the distance involved, and the fact that there were no towns where we could spend the night.  We drove 430 miles to a small and nondescript town called 25 de Mayo, an oasis in the middle of nowhere for us where we found food and lodging.

We crossed the border from Argentina to Chile and spent the night at Curacautin, which means “Gathering Stone” in the Mapadungun language, and is located near three volcanoes (Tolhuaca, Longuimay and Llaima).  We spent the next two nights at the wonderful Hotel Antumalal in Pucon, a major town in Chile’s Lake Region, which we just happened upon, and were able to snag a deluxe room overlooking the lake. 

The hotel is sort of a mini Awahanee with fantastic views of Lake Villericca, fronted by an active volcano with the same name.  The volcano sends out plumes of smoke and glows at night.  It’s had more than eighty eruptions since the1500’s, the most recent of which was in 2015.  It’s a thrill to be so close to an active volcano and you can almost sense its power.  Chile has more than fifty active volcanoes, part of the ring of fire, the most of any country in the world.

Before heading back to Santiago for our trip home, Misti had read about Hacienda Los Lingues, a sixteenth century working hacienda seventy-five miles south of Santiago.  We decided to spend our last night there and then head directly to the Santiago airport.  We stayed in the colonial building, toured the ranch and had dinner in the hacienda’s huge dining room; a nice way to end our trip.

This was a road trip mainly about seeing the countryside, the magnificent scenery in the Andes mountains, the great deserts in northern Chile with some parts that have never seen any rainfall and are considered the driest places on the planet, the vast altiplano that stretches for hundreds of miles on both sides of the Andes, the pampas in Argentina and the snow capped volcanoes and crystal clear lakes in the Lagos region of Chile.  We had many wonderful experiences and the three weeks felt like three months because each day was packed with so many new experiences.  We drove 3,900 miles, which is ambitious for a three week vacation, but it’s the only way to see the vastness of these two countries.

Being able to communicate in Spanish made a big difference for us and enabled our getting great rooms in hotels and having good meals. Without our Spanish we never would have been able to make the difficult border crossings. Chile and Argentina are wonderful countries to visit, much like many parts of Europe and especially Spain, but so much easier to deal with and unbelievably cheap, probably a third of what costs are in Europe or at home.  Having a wonderful dinner in a high-end restaurant with a great bottle of wine, and getting a bill for $20, is a thrill.

Art Faibisch, 2007