2016 South America again

South America

The bucket list of ours? More to see and explore?

Our next major outing was only a few months after the Yukon trip, this time to Chile and Argentina, during our winter, their summer.

This is a very civilized part of the world, but certainly not Europe. The cathedrals are enormous, the large cities well organized with public transit, second to none. But, it is a culture that we don’t really know much about.

I had been to various parts of the continent several times earlier, the first time when I was 19, remember, and then occasionally for business, selling or installing engineered products. This was to be different, we are going as tourists, some time on our own, and at other times with hired guides.

The sun shone, the nights were clear and my pictures all came out clear and sharp. As usual, I had a small camera that fit in my hand so I could photograph people and events without being too obvious.

First a few days to explore Santiago and the coastal areas near Valparaiso. The vineyards are impressive. The wine tasting was a bit silly for us, travelling with our 8.5 kg backpacks we, certainly, had no room even for the best wine in the world.

Northwards to the Atacama Desert, the driest place on earth. Records say that there hasn’t been any rainfall in the last 1,500 years. There is still water, very brackish water, that comes out of very deep holes. We did go for a swim in one, the water was cold, even though the air temperature was over 40^o C.

This is where I visited the highest elevation in my life, 4,400 metres above sea level. We were driven there in a Diesel-powered van. Regular automobile-type gasoline engines lose their power at those elevations.

Considering the day-time temperatures we could only visit the hot springs before sunrise. These are the second largest hot springs in the world, but of no commercial value due to their inaccessible and high location.

What a spectacle, seeing the hot water or steam spurts into the, still below freezing, morning air.

We soon became chilled to the bone in the thin and hard-to-breathe air. Why not go for a run to warm 

up? Nope, that was impossible, I totally ran out of air and had to walk after only a few steps. Rose, of course, had no problems at all with the altitude, she had already trained and practiced for her 5,895 metre elevation Mount Kilimanjaro climb a few years earlier.

I was “done” with high altitudes after that day. Rose took off, without me, on an even higher trek the next day, visiting some spectacular rock-formations and bird populations. They were mostly non-flying birds such as pelicans.

Our hotel was in the middle of the desert, at elevation 2,200 metres, many kilometres from the nearest dwelling. The night sky was totally in this, the most dust-free air on the globe. You could see some of the many space observatories on the surrounding mountains during the day.

One evening, we were treated to with a star show by a 50-cm reflective telescope with a computerized navigation system. Have you ever seen a really dark sky? Few have, other than in photographs. Here we were, this was the real sky. Many constellations divided into individual stars. Saturn’s four moons were clearly defined, identified by size and luminicity, nothing we can ever see “at home”. The desert air did cut our outside time short. An hour after sunset the temperature had dropped to below freezing, from the over 40^o C degrees earlier. Fortunately we, in spite of our seemingly small packs, were prepared for the climatic extremes on this summer trip.

I had ignored a small ache in a toe for a few days and not even noticed that one nail had cracked. There was an infection brewing in my foot. Suddenly, the shoe pained me. This could be a trip-ending event for us, walking and hiking as much as we do.

We needed antiseptic cream but none was found in any of the first aid kits we found around the hotel. Rose, again, solved this problem in an admirable way. The nearby little, very little, town had one pharmacy. It was full of impatient locals, each clamoring to be served first.

Nobody had the least understanding of English, French, German or even Swedish. (I tried.) We stood around for a while, buffeted by the other impatient customers. I left and sat down in the shade outside.

Within minutes, Rose came out with the exact tube of antiseptic cream needed.

“How did you do that?”

“I just explained what you needed to the pharmacist.”

Rose is a genius, she probably doesn’t quite know what happened in the general bedlam there. But - she got a message across and received the medication she wanted.

The swelling and pain soon subsided and our trip could continue, unimpeded. But, not risking any injury to my toes again, I wore my hiking booths almost every day for the next few weeks.

Our next destination took us from the hottest to the coolest part of Chile, Punta Arenas. That put us in the area of temperate rain forest and, on our side, the east side of the Andes, some very wild areas.

This, the largest city in that part of the world was, officially, founded by Magellan who travelled through on his way to the Magellan’s Sound. We walked around and enjoyed the vistas from the surrounding hills.

Then, a long automobile trip north, into the wild. The signs of human life subsided. Then a sign, “no services next 400 km”. It was summer time, but you could clearly see the effect of the ferocious storms that would blow, sometimes for weeks on end, over this part of the country.

Again, a hotel in the middle of nowhere. This place prided itself on their small ecological footprint. The surrounding nature is very barren and cannot be disturbed.

The hotel had heating and electricity from a thermal well, the electricity was produced by means of a heat pump-generator combination. My engineering mind was impressed. (I have seen similar installations in Australia, in my earlier life.)

Oooh, the nature. It was barren with pristine lakes, full of fish and other life, but very little vegetation. We hiked wide and far and also up a couple of “lesser” mountains. We saw several pumas and some of their kills, mostly mountain sheep. Our guides were all locals, and very well informed about geology and biology. Many of our fellow guests were professors, engineers or teachers, here to learn more about our globe. We were well entertained at the dinner tables, as you can well imagine.

Our next stop was certainly a world away, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, far north of where we came from.

I visited Buenos Aries the first time as a 19-year old sailor-boy in 1959. I brought one 58-year old photograph from then to show my guide, perhaps she could direct me to the same wharf in the arbour.

She could, but the wharfs are gone, now replaced by some very fancy looking offices and condos. Everything changes. I also had a menu from a bar I had visited with my shipmates then. That address had a 30 story condo now. The bar was closed…

Another observation of changes. Then, all cars were old and very ratty, now, all cars were of the latest model years and ran smoothly without any noticeable exhaust smell.

Argentina – the home of tango. No changes for me. Tango in the parks, tango in the bars, and – some super tango shows. Did we take them all in? Of course not, but we enjoyed the shows.

A lunch time tango swing in the street

We also met some distant relatives. They could no longer afford a car, the economy of Argentina had gone backwards for a few years and their personal wealth had taken a strike, too. Their fear of crime was palpable, as were the security arrangements in so many places. Where there is too little money for the people, there is a lot of crime, affecting the people. That seems to be an axiom, true in so many countries.

I had traveled the pampas as a young man, experienced the best meat, cooked asado, and, of course the Argentinian wine. It is all there, still.

A comment about public transit. The Argentinian railroads, built with so much effort in the 19^th century, had largely been abandoned by now. Instead – the worlds best equipped highway bus system. Take your pick. First class buses came with private cabins, built in shower and a small but working dining room with a cook and server. We toured one at a bus-terminal. Since some trips can be over 24 hours long, many buses had fold-down seats of a comfort level that would make many a first-class aeroplane passenger full of envy.

I checked out a few schedules, reading the distances. Some of these buses really move, they had a scheduled, terminal-to-terminal speed of almost 100 km/h. Our trains in Canada can barely do an average scheduled speed of 70 km/h even if the trains hit 160 km/h on some stretches.

We walked all the Avenidas in Buenos Aires, saw the obelisks, there are many, and enjoyed the wide side-walks. This time, we could take in the, obligatory, tour of The Opera house, Tetra Colon. It is ranked the third best opera house in the world by National Geographic. We were in luck, the Argentinians state symphony orchestra were practicing. We got to sit and listen in for a while.

It didn’t matter how poor the state economy had been in the past, the opera house had always been kept in good repair.  

Tetra Colon

Our next stop was all the way north, on the Brazilian border, at the Iguazo Falls. (Now we have visited the three largest water falls in the world, Niagara, Victoria and Iguazo.)

We did, of course, get thoroughly wetted and so did the camera too. It dried out and here we are.

Iquazo Falls, Brazil, in the background

This is in a real warm, humid and fast-growing jungle with lots of both insects and mammals to look out for. Of course we hiked up and down hills and across lesser water falls. Again, Rose was in her chosen world, a place with excitement, just being alive in. No big city services here, except our hotel, of course. We took the bus and walked the nearby cities, just mingling with the people. Our jungle ziplining was scheduled early. I was first to go.

“Be careful so you don’t get hurt by any branches, use your arm to protect your eyes.”

The jungle grows fast, many branches would have grown ten-fifteen centimetres since last day and would hit me in the face. Again, no lawyers nearby to protect me. I’m on my own. (Ha, ha.) Sure, I did get hit really hard by branches that I zipped through. The jungle…

The authorities had no interest in crashed cars, as we saw so many examples of, both in Chile and Argentina.

This car had been left in place since it sliced into the pole
a couple of years ago. (All four occupants died.)

Oh, how we had enjoyed ourselves in this so interesting and varying countries of Chile and Argentina.

Our farewell dinner at a Michelin-star rated
steak house in Buenos Aires.

And so ended our three weeks of summer south of the equator. Back to our climate.