Valparaiso

Due west of Mendoza lies the old port town of Valparaiso. We discovered that it was a seven hour bus ride away and so decided to visit it for a couple of nights. I had heard about it, but wasn't really sure what it was all about. I knew that it was an old (and current) port and that it had lots of funicular elevators - I'm a sucker for that kind of thing. I also had heard that it was 'cool'.

So, with little thought of why we were going or what we expected to see when we got there, we set off on an early bus.

In addition to going to Valparaiso, we also had the treat of going through the Andes on a pass that is 2,800m above sea level.

We had mentioned to our guide on the wine trip that we were off to Valparaiso and she said that she goes there quite often (as do quite alot of Mendocians, apparently) and told us to get a taxi to Corre Conception - wherever that might be - and stay in the British hotel - or something. Armed with such detailled insider knowledge, we felt we could hardly fail.

The bus journey was astounding. Well, the pass part was. Two hours of flat Chilean countryside was bit tedious - but the pass. Wow.

The Argentine side of the pass is quite a long, shallow incline for a couple of hours. Pretty much accompanied the whole way by the river, which sits in a vertically-sided gorge about 30-40 feet deep. Also going through the same pass is the (sadly defunct) railway line. Usually it is on the opposite side of the gorge to the road, which allows one time and scope to really see and appreciate the engineering miracle that it must have been. Apparently there is talk of rebuilding it (a pretty major undertaking in some places by the looks of things). I hope they do - it would be a truly stunning journey.

The Border was reasonably well organised (we are becoming quite the experts on Latin American borders - our fumbling around in no-man's land between Belize and Guatemala seems a world away). Chile and Argentina seem to be in a different economic trading bloc (Argentina is in Mercosur, along with Brazil, Paraguay and others I forget - Chile is not) and, as Chile exports fruit, meat etc.. to Europe, the border is strict about the importation of fruit, honey, semen and seeds (i.e. it is forbidden). One Argentinian woman got caught trying to bring a big bag of fuit across - she got a bit upset - the border guard was a model of a polite, firm, patient official (really - no sarcasm). Not only did she have a bag of fruit in her checked luggage, she also had an orange (which was discovered and confiscated with a phlegmatic shrug) in her hand luggage. Amazing.

The Chilean side of the pass is breathtaking. I don't know the statistics, but the road must drop an astounding distance as a series of zig-zags clinging to the side of the hill. T made a bus-friend - a Chilean bloke who told us a bit about Chile and was the source of the Border processing information. He said that he had learned English from chatting on the Internet. His English was pretty good (much better than our Spanish, I am embarrassed to say). We stopped in Vina del Mar which is a Chlean beach tourism destination about 10 Km from Valparaiso, and dropped off all the other passengers. T and I arrived in Valparaiso, mid-afternoon.

We had discovered that the British hotel on Corre (hill) Conception was called Hotel Brighton. With that kind of Karma, it would have had to have cockroaches; a dog pound outside our room; a poo-pot and be underneath a Tango dance school for us not to stay there.

Hotel on a Hill

Hotel Brighton was a little, um, rustic. But it was cheap and it was authentic. Corre Conception is th Bohemian, arty Corre and it has a real chilled-out vibe to it.

At some point over the last couple of days I'd started to feel a bit cold-y and, by the time we hit Valparaiso, had become a pathetic creature, incapable of regulating my own temperature - great for marching up and down hills - not. So, I went to bed and T had a mooch about. Then we both went out for a brief stroll and used the Corre Conception elevator which was cool. I dragged myself up for a nice meal and we went to bed early.

The view in the morning was beautiful. The concrete high-rises sort of spoil the view, but, at the same time they do help one to realise that this is a living city and not a tourist attraction. The legislature of Chile meets here (in a "love it or hate it" architectured building) and it is the capital of the region as well as a financial centre and a working port, not to mention a serious Naval base.

Morning over the bay

We took a walking tour of the city. It started with the first elevator being out of order, which did not help my condition, but then proceeded to be quite interesting, if a little sketchy on detail. The woman giving the tour seemed do do alot of "Look at that House" pretty enough, to be sure, but not any historical context. Oh, and if I had a centavo for every time she told us to go to Vina del Mar (where she lived) ...

Painted Houses on Corre Conception

The afternoon (for me) was spent in bed again; T did some hanging around the hotel and environs.

Trudi, just outside Brighton

In the evening, we walked down the hill and found another elevator (we took 3 of the 15 that the town has to offer) which was well hidden and went up to a recommended Thai restaurant on Corre Bellavista. It was O.K. We sat outside even though it was probabaly a teency-weency bit too cold to do so sensibly.

An early night, up for the bus back the following morning.

The trip back was just as spectacular as before with two exceptions.

1. Argentine customs was a ridiculous charade. They certainly know how to make a border crossing painful.
   
2. T obviously got illness-envy and spent the whole trip trying to sleep off an awful migraine. (I was quite fine by now). Pobre Trudi.
   

We did little in Mendoza upon our return, just laundry; shopping; eating and last minute wine tasting before catching our bus, Iguazu bound.