Chile

Doug wanted a memorable Birthday, so he decided to take us all to Chile. I dreaded the flight, the culture shock and the inevitable gastric upsets that you hear so much about. It turned out that I had nothing to worry about as Chile is a wonderful country with very nice people, great food and wine and a climate similar to the western coast of the US.
We (Tera, Ciel, Doug and I) arrived in Santiago on April 1st, but the only trick we suffered was trying to figure out what time it was since Chile had failed to change their clocks for daylight savings time like they said they would. We figured it out the next day when the hotel put clocks in our rooms as a subtle reminder that we were an hour behind. And it was fall, not spring!
We walked around Santiago and the first thing I noticed was all the dogs. Apparently, they don't put a high priority on neutering their dogs, and they just let them run all over the place. People feed them and give them water, they are just considered "free dogs". I found it rather disconcerting and felt sorry for them, but I had to realize that the dogs do not feel sorry for themselves.
The next day we drove up to the Andes to go to a national park that turned out to be closed for the season. It was a treacherous drive on a dirt road with all these mining trucks going up and down at unsavory speeds. On our trip back down, we were delighted to spot a condor soaring down the canyon. A first for me!
For the next few days, we drove out to the coast to stay in Zapillar (Hotel Isla Seca), Valparaiso (Zero Hotel) and Algarrobo (Winery Hotel). Ciel was very good at communicating with the people, and had fun signing us up for these boutique hotels. We saw Penguins! They were on an island, just a few yards off the coast so we could not actually pet them, but we could see them very clearly.
Humbolt penguins.
Then we drove back to the Andes and on the way went to a winery Vina San Estaban, and had a tour that Ciel talked them into giving to us after hours. The wines were delightful, and the best was the Carmanera which is no longer produced anywhere else.
We stayed at the Hotel Portillo in a little cabin, and the next day we went to see Aconagua the highest mountain in that half of the world. The only problem with our plan was that it was just over the border in Argentina, and we would have to go 10 kilometers or so into it to see the peak.
We drove on, through the border (which was in a giant tunnel) and got to the park. We got out of the car and could barely see the mt, so Ciel and I walked a little up a trail, took pictures and got severely yelled at for it since we were in forbidden territory unless you had a permit. We got in the car and soon found out that we could not so easily pass back into Chile since we didn't go through the customs in Argentina. Their stupid border control was another 10k down the road from the park and we just didn't bother to go. Once again Ciel got us out of trouble with her "just good enough" Spanish and after an uneasy half hour or so they signed some paper and let us go. "Whew"! On the way back, we were treated by the sight of another Condor! I flew right over the car and we were able to appreciate how big they really are.
Tera and Ciel had to go back to the states, so we put them on the plane on Saturday, and on Sunday Doug and I flew down to Porto Montt to see the northern part of Patagonia and the Lake district. We visited strange forests that reminded me of the Pacific North west, with all the volcanoes, but the plants and birds were all wrong! Bamboo! Cara Caras! Hanging gardens of fushias!
That night we again stayed at a place that Ciel had arranged for us The Guest House in Porto Varras. We met several other Americans, A Swiss, and a Serb with whom Doug proceeded to party until I fetched him at 2:00am. They were drinking Pisco Sours, the national drink of Chile which consists of a brandy like liquor mixed with lemon aide. He was not a very happy camper the next day, but he still drove me all over the place to see the sights. I wanted to drive the not so frequently traveled routes, and this was beautiful. The houses all have a German influence because they settled there in the 1850's. At one point, our dirt road ended at a river. We were set to have to go back when we noticed a tiny ferry carrying one car coming toward us. It was being pulled over the river by man power: ropes and pulleys. We waited for the car to drive off, we drove on and away we were pulled. Very interesting and free!
That night we stayed at the Antumalal Hotel which was very nice on the side of a hill overlooking a lake which nestled under a smoking volcano Villarica.
We had to drive back the next two days to catch our plane, but the country was mostly beautiful vinyards, cow pastures and occasional forests planted for paper pulp. They grow eucalyptus, which was imported from Austrailia for this purpose. The air is often full of smoke from paper mills, and the smog in the big cities is awful, I hope they can get that under control or you will never be able to see the Andes.