Just cruisin´

Finally an update on our more recent adventures. After more than 10 beautiful weeks in Peru we moved on to Chile. We planned to buy a car in Santiago to travel around in for the next months. While chasing for a car we re-discovered Santiago. Four years ago we didn´t think too much of this city, but now we did find the nice spots in town, some beautiful art deco architecture, some great bar and restaurant ´barrios´ and heaps and heaps of car yards.... We did go to a fab Joe Satriani concert and we did find our new pride and joy... a small Toyota Land Cruiser Prado from ´97 and that for a few million pesos only!

Our first test ride was to Valparaiso, a nice old port town build on the hills on the coast. To get around town you use the more then 100 year old ascensors/elevators (see pictures) which take you up the steep hills. A very nice place to hang out, stroll around the historic city centre and eat some fresh fish near the harbour. The views are breathtaking, we walked around for hours and hours. Some petty criminal did find it neccesary to ´baptise´our new car overnight by smashing in a window and steal Hans´ jacket and a camelbag.
While waiting for a new window we had to hang out in this very enjoyable place in the sun a bit longer, which was no pain at all.

After this we started a skiing tour around the Andes mountain ranges. Dotted along the Andes are several little ski areas on both the Chilean and Argentinean side. Compared to European or North American standards the ski resort are tiny, but they form a nice excuse to explore the Andes, get to some spectacular mountain scenery and have some snow fun along the way. Most ski areas are actually build on vulcanoes. In Chile alone there are more then 2000 vulcanoes, of which there are only (?) 120 active. From Santiago we slowly travelled down south on the Chilean Andes side, driving for a few hundred kilometers, then skiing (or hiking) for a day or 2, then continuing further south. At about 800km south of Santiago we crossed the border to Argentinia by means of a ferry and low mountain pass and then coninued the same ski resort-hopping in northern direction. After 9 ski areas and 2 more to go we could probably write a ski guide to South America, but we won´t bore you with that, just some highlights.

Probably the best and biggest ski resort is Bariloche (Cerro Catedral, Arg), we had the most fun in Villa La Angostura (Cerro Bayo, Arg) because of a pack of fresh snow and some challenging off-piste possiblities. On the Chilean side we had some great skiing in Termas the Chillan. One of the highlights for me was Antuco (Chile), even though the ski area was actually closed due to lack of snow. The day we arrived it was raining and the valley was green and the forecast was pretty bleak. We stayed in the national park in a cabin where we were the only people around. The next morning we woke up in ´winter wonderland´ with clear blue skies and a fresh thick blanket of snow spread out over the vulcano and surrounding landscape. We went for a long hike along the huge silver lake on the foot of the perfect cone shaped vulcano Antuco. In the whole national park it was just us, 200 army soldiers, ´battling´ on their 30 year old ski equipment under the closed ski lifts and a bunch of workers, who had been cleaning the road whole night while drinking schnapps. While traveling we try to keep some space on the rear seats for hitchhikers. In Corralco (Chile) we happened to pick up 2 of the ski instructors (well, the only ski instructors of this tiny 3-lift ski area). The ski instructors Rayen and Colin happened to be from Pucon, our next destination, and also happened to have just opened their own hostel. And luckily for us they invited us to stay there as their second guests ever. Their hostel was a small cosy, homely house with a giant fireplace, just behind the main street of Pucon. Pucon is a fairly modern tourist destination, for whole year round outdoors activities near a lake and on the foot a vulcano. It reminded us a lot of Wanaka, New Zealand, where we stayed last year with Britta, Tim and Sharon. In Pucon we joined a tour to climb the vulcano Villaricca. First morning it was cancelled due to the weather, second attempt was cancelled after several hours of climbing at about 2/3rds of the way because bad weather with zero visibilty came in.

Right now we are in Malargue on weather standby. In the ski resort Las Leñas it is snowing and windy with not many lifts open. We are looking forward to some powder skiing tomorrow! Amigos, hasta luego!