Valparaíso

Hey Guys!

Our next stop was the ultra-cool Valparaíso, full of so much art in so many forms- there are galleries everywhere, well-preserved historical buildings, plus the streets are absolutely full of fantastic street art graffiti. It’s one of the best places in the world to come see just how interesting this form of art and expression can be.
I’m slightly ahead of myself because the day before we made it to Valparaiso we explored some of the coast to the north. This picture is from Horcon, where the coast was a welcome sight to us- the last time we saw the ocean was in Uruguay!


So we took advantage by eating some fantastic seafood


Another momentous thing that happened before we properly made it to Valparaiso was that I brushed out my last 4 dreadlocks. I had started this project back in Montevideo (Uruguay), where I brushed one out just to see how terrible it would be. It totally sucked, but for some reason I kept going-intermittently brushing other dreadlocks here and there. I think it helped that I was on no set schedule and we had lots of long hours in the vehicle where I could just sit and brush away (with very large quantities of conditioner). When I started the project I had 66 dreadlocks on my head and I was down to my final five. I left one for good luck, but the last four I finished while we sat on a beach in Viña del Mar, waiting for the Airbnb we had booked to be able to let us in. So although we were stuck waiting, in a way it was a very poetic send-off to my dreadlocks. When the last one was brushed out I performed a ceremonial dance on the beach where I threw my steel comb, small elastics and other dreadlock associated tools into the garbage. Jared just kind of sat on a nearby bench pretending to not know me.


Now I will finally get down to our tour of Valparaiso’s sights. This was inside of a cemetery, and the alcoves had concrete windows with fantastic views out over the city.


Don’t you think?





We then descended down into the city to be able to see the art up close and personal.


It’s an explosion of colour, as most of the houses are brightly painted and then people cover the bottoms in fantastic graffiti








“The illusion of life is a moment” “Life is short”





“We are not hippes, We are happies”





The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page”





Plus there were SO many cats, which was so very nice. There are just so many dogs in South America and it was nice the cats got at least one city





This is a drawing of the late Pablo Neruda, one of Chilé’s (and the world’s) most beloved poets. Check out ‘20 Love Poems and a Song of Despair’ if you get the time.


Some of the oldest houses in Valparaiso, beautifully preserved. Back in the day people in Valparaiso would build their houses out of leftover corrugated tin- which used to be used to package up goods being sent by ship. This was before shipping containers were invented. However, as they were in a pretty salty climate by the sea this corrugated tin rusted quite quickly so they would paint it with leftover paint from the ships. Ships were always painted in bright pastel colours so that they could be easily seen through the fog. This is what resulted in Valparaiso becoming a rainbow of pastel houses made of corrugated tin.


Gato!


This wall depicted some of the ancestral dress of the Selk’Nam people, an indigenous group that inhabited Tierra del Fuego. They are unfortunately now considered extinct as a tribe. When Spanish conquerors came to South America these people resisted valiantly and as a result of the trouble they caused the Spanish placed bounties on their heads. Only one person in the world- Joubert Yanten Gomez- can speak their ancient language. He is of part Selk’Nam ancestry and taught himself the language. He uses the name Keyuk.





Since Valparaiso is so crazy hilly, the city built funiculars in the late 1800s and early 1900s so people could get home after a long days work without having to climb all those stairs. Some of these funicular‘s are still working today, like this one. It only cost us 100 Chilean pesos to ride, about $.20


The house of Pablo Neruda, which he mostly used for parties and entertaining. I also toured the house he lived in the most of the time in Santiago, which was full of the coolest art and knick-knacks.





Ok, so there were actually a ton of dogs in Valpo too, some of the fattest we have seen all trip!





Down by the docks











This is a famous piece of street art done by Chilean artist Milan. He is from Chiloé originally, a small island off the west coast of Chilé. His art speaks about the issues faced by the people of Chiloé- namely the isolation they feel because the services to the people Chiloé are substandard when compared to people on the mainland.





A very famous and larger than life piece done by @Inti. In this piece he incorporates trinkets from the indigenous people of Chilé

It was a fantastic city, and one I would go back to in a heart beat

Until Next Time!

Heading Back South

Knowing that our time with the vehicle was coming near an end, we stopped at quite a few random places heading south from Northern Argentina. One of the not so random stops was a the Mountain of 14 Colors. It definitely reminded us of rainbow mountain in Peru although at a different angle.

















Our next major stop was in the city of Salta. We found ourselves in the campground in the city and did a little exploring. Well Roberta did some exploring and I just hung out. She tends to like to see everything and I tend to like to take a day off here and there. Here some pics she took while strolling around.

















After Salta, we hit the road again headed towards Cafayate which is a wine region. The drive was quite scenic.





























We saw on IOverlander that there was a cool Laguna to camp at off the beaten track so we decided to check it out. We weren't disappointed with the scenery.











Roberta was feeling a little ansy that night and just felt like something was watching her. We had ourselves a great fire and hit the sack. Apparently, Roberta couldn't sleep and heard something outside. I was awoken by the statement, " Jared there's a puma outside!" I quickly looked and didn't see anything. In the morning, I looked around for the tracks where Roberta said she saw it. I was not able to find anything, but she still firmly believes she saw one... It will forever be a mystery.

While driving south, we stopped when we saw all these goats fenced in. Roberta was loving the little kids.

















Need a tissue?





The road went by some pretty cool rock formations.





We arrived in Cafayate and promptly tried out some wine as it only seemed fitting. Being that it was still "winter", the vines were dormant. We ourselves some great wine and it's one of the two things that you don't have to spend a fortune on to get a great tasting one in Argentina (the other being steak.)
We went on a little hike up a valley near the town to this waterfall. Being the dry season, there wasn't a lot of water.







We kept heading south, stopping at the odd winery.



The next day, we made it to Mendoza which is the most famous wine region in Argentina. It is especially known for its Malbec wine. We rented some bikes and started winery jumping. It brought back great memories of doing the same in New Zealand.














After getting a little tipsy, we decided we needed to have an asado (BBQ with fire). It was our last night in Argentina after all. And what better way to spend it than with Argentinian wine and steak. It was very tasty.




The next day, it was back to Chile to check out Valparaiso.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

San Pedro de Atacama Desert

Hey Guys!
It was definitely a crazy transition emerging from the high-altitude, freezing cold, windy, Bolivia into the desert of San Pedro de Atacama- a full 2000 m lower. Things were definitely a lot warmer and we were actually able to break out some hot weather clothes which was lovely.


Looking over the Valle de la Luna, a viewpoint outside the town


A place we wild camped for a night. We had an excellent view of Volcan Licancabur.



In the Atacama desert, excellent sunsets lead into excellent star gazing. They get so many cloudless nights, are at high elevation, plus the fact there aren’t any huge cities around it makes it one of the best places in the world for astronomers. In fact, the larger ground telescope in the world, ALMA, is found here.
We took a star gazing tour one night where we learned about some of the major constellations, including the zodiac, and the planets. That night we could see Jupiter and Saturn.
After the sun, we learned that the next closest star to planet Earth is Alpha Centauri, which is still 4 light years away. There is an awful lot of space in, well, space!



Taken with my phone through the telescope objective. I will admit, the astronomer took it for me. Having just a bit of moon made the stargazing really excellent.



Interestingly enough, the Atacama desert is in fact the driest desert in the world. There are rain stations here that have never actually received any rain. nope, none. This is because it is sandwiched between the Chiléan Coast Range and the Andes, creating a double rain shadow. On average, the desert receives 1 mm of rain per year. 1 mm!
One plus of this lack of rain is the preservation of the Chinchorro mummies, which predate Egyptian mummies by thousands of years. It’s the first known artificial mummification of human remains.
There is definitely a cool vibe here, it was hard to put my finger on it at the time, but we ran into multiple backpackers that had planned to stay for a few days and ended up staying weeks.





Desolation at its finest











It’s also rare for a desert to have snow, but here the peaks are at a high enough elevation that it doesn’t melt away.





Here is a salt laguna on the drive into Argentina. It really felt like you were on the moon sometimes, or Mars. I read that NASA uses the terrain to test equipment destined for the Red Planet, and many a movie and tv show have been filmed here, like Space Odyssey: Voyage to the Planets.

















Working on my jumping pictures......





Once in Argentina we started making our way south, bound for Santiago with a few choice stops along the way. This was Purmamarca, where we stopped simply because it ‘looked cool.’ The joys of your own vehicle on the road.





Plus there was a mini-hike to a great mirador, the Hill of Seven Colors.





For geological reasons I really don’t understand, there is a lot of mining in Northern Chilé and Argentina. Which is good, because these people need something other than agriculture- their goats were pretty skinny!





A salt flat where they had scraped up heaps of wet salt to dry and later harvest.





Vicuña! Which I pretty much yelled everytime we spotted them. They were my faves.





Ok, so I’m kind of just stopping at a random place. Jared is going to take over for the rest of the journey south through Argentina. Even writing about this now, I’m thinking about how we had to leave my dear, sweet Argentina. How I will miss her beautiful landscapes, people, wine....and fantastic steak!

Until Next Time!