Los Andes - Chile side

Crossing the Andes is incredibly awesome, I found it very moving.  We began the day at sea level in Valparaiso, then headed east for Mendoza.  After picking up our delayed permit to take the rental Peugeot to Argentina in Santiago, it was north to the town of Los Andes for diesel and snacks.

Road trips need snacks.  We went for a variety of things that weren't available at home.  Pap, Kem and Bilz are popular local sodas, with some Canada Dry limon too, and Pepsi.  Motumbo is a chocolate marshmallow bar covered in chocolate.  The chips on the left are steak flavour.  

The Andes are massive.  They're rugged.  It doesn't feel anything like driving through Rogers Pass or something; it feels desolate, like people can just barely make it through, and aren't firmly established there.

I didn't know if these signs would compare with caution signs in the alps or north america.

Semis are visible on the first set of switchbacks.

Lots of vertical is gained in a short distance.  There are no guardrails.

These switchbacks are steep.  I think there were close to 30 by the top, here's the first set.  It's all very raw feeling.

 View from a higher set of switchbacks after a short "plateau".

How steep are they?  Well, they're steep enough to justify covering some of the avalanche chute things with gravel and putting a ski lift up over them.  This grade doesn't look too flat to me.

This is either a worker camp for construction or part of the ski lodges.  There's a ski area that sprawls all over the place here.  That's also a seriously large mountain behind.

The border crossing comes in 4 stages, two on each side.  The actual "line" of the border is under the continental divide, which is now traversed by tunnel.  At the first and last sections they give/check a piece of paper stating how many people you have with you.  As far as I can deduce, it's to reduce drop offs/pickups with hiking across the mountains, as they're spaced far enough apart that you couldn't feasibly do it.

Thanks for having us, Chile!

There's massive infrastructure efforts happening on the Chilean side.

Here's the entrance to Tunel Cristo Redento.  There's  a new, larger one say 50m to the right that looks like it's being completed.  I should have taken a photo of the original up and over road too, darn! 

Valparaiso sights

Here's a backtrack to a few more photos of "valpo".

This wall was a few blocks down from hotel Cirilo Armstrong.  Someone thought this corner wasn't complete without a little blue boy.

Pepsi is expanding the distribution of it's products... through Minimarket "Coke".

Creepy putty face being handed over/held by a brain with spiky arms.

This street is wicked steep, almost as steep as those stairs to the left.  If you let your eye follow the street up, you'll notice it kicks up at the top of the picture.  Cars going around the corner had the inside rear wheel squeal as they started climbing.

This is visible from the patio of Pablo Neruda's house.  This picture is for Olga with the nice colored trees.

Another awesomely steep street.

Pablo Neruda's house.  You can't take pictures inside.  To describe it as extremely eclectic inside is an understatement.

Another one for mom.  Cactus, flowers, blue wall, magenta flowers back behind the green wall down below.

Interesting way to decorate your house.  At least it included a bike.

Art in a breakfast joint called "permanent breakfast".  The door had a sign on it inside that instead of saying "exit" said "escape".  I can't figure out where the sign originated, but "escape" had a bit more urgency to it than a mellow breakfast joint warranted.

Colors for mom: the B&B delivered breakfast with a lime towel, and they really liked limey/yellow contrasting with purple to play off the flowers/shrubs.

It was Christmas Eve today.

This is one of an infinite number of dogs in Valpo that sleep all day.  They're tired mainly because they bark/howl/sing in unison most of the night with a million of their friends, and chase cats.  It's a tough gig.

Electric buses on "el plan", the flat part of the bottom of Valpo that's a bit like a "downtown".

This street vendor sells plumbing supplies and doorknobs in the middle of the road.

So this truck driver didn't start Christmas Eve very well.

Maybe he never heard "keep the rubber side down".

mi gusta

Here's the way to start christmas, sandals, shorts, t-shirt and my buddy juan valdez visiting from colombia to brew up some coffee.

Andes bound

We've stayed in Valparaiso an extra day to accommodate a time delay on my Argentina with rental car permission "difficulties", which basically means someone neglected to do their job they perfectly stated they'd do. Oh well. Nice day. Overcast but earned a tiny sunburn through the clouds. Visited one of Pablo Neruda's houses which is now a museum. So eclectic and fascinating. Did some biking later in the afternoon, which was nice to do not in the mid-day temperatures.

If I had to sum up Valparaiso in 3 statements, I'd say it has an amazing amount of dogs (that sleep all day and "chat" all night), an amazing amount of ridiculously steep hills, and an eclectic color scheme. It's great.

Tomorrow, pending final success with the rental permits, we drive through the Aconcogua valley and through the Andes. I'm excited.

Valparaiso, Chile

We drove this little Peugeot Partner out to Valparaiso.  I like it - small, handles nice, and entirely practical.  Between a Renault Kangoo and a Citroen Berlingo, the French certainly have market saturation in little car/van vehicles.  Maybe when I get home I can fall in love with a Ford Transit.  It corners well, but I might be able to get it to fishtail in a traffic circle ; )

Our little scaninavian styled bed and breakfast in Valparaiso.  It's called Cirilo Armstrong.  It's nice, I'd recommend it to anyone.  Main floor with kitchenette and fireplace.  Notice in the back left that the window goes up to the second floor with open space.

Second floor.

View of the 'burbs.

It's mind boggling how hilly and steep this city is, everything is straight up and down.  This is right out front of our place (it's our Partner to the left, and that round sign is the sign for Cirilo Armstrong).  This road is so freaking steep.  Notice the sidewalk on the left.  If there's stairs, it appears you need a railing.  But if its just straight sidewalk with a 7' drop to the road, you're safe without a railing.

Photos of steep stuff always sort of fail, it's hard to capture skiing or biking on steeps too.  The road I'm on is say a 6% grade; it's a real hill.  That middle one with the lazy dog sleeping next to it is like a black diamond ski run.  If you stand and don't keep weight back, your rear tire can slip traction - like that kind of steep.

The suburbs feature donkeys, horses, and a view of the harbor.

A german shepard "guard dog"didn't get mad at Cindy.

This is some family's front walkway.  I should have take the picture from the side.  It's steeper than one of those old school fold down ladders that people had going up to attics.

This is more of a second world suburb than Las Condes in Santiago.  Three derelict Beetles are parked to the right, but they do have quite a view. 

It's weird having a blackberry on these days.  I've got a thread going with my Belgian friend since we've now signed up for the Claro Brasil race in October.  The TransPortugal people are emailing me.  BC Bike Race and TransRockies have sent out updates.  Acquaintance emails from Mendoza with tips on what to do.  I've got work emails coming from Colombia, London and France... and yes even a few from Calgary, including a 4 location conference call yesterday.  Feels like the world gets so small.

This van and building are up the street from our hotel.  They match.

Skylights with stained glass art.

Funny art in a restaurant we ate at.

Ride from Santiago into Los Andes

Did a 3 hour ride into the mountains "behind" Santiago in what felt to me like baking heat.  3 bottle ride for sure... lots of sweating.

Here's what the Ibis looks like packed.  Man is this a nice machine.

Tried to go up to a ski hill, but mis-navigated a bit.  No worries though, personal experience has taught me that observatories are also located at high elevation.  Follow the signs!

Bummer it's closed.

Hiking trail to top of mountain.  You'd need a VO2 over 90 and a body weight of 120lbs to ride the trail, it went straight up and was in the baking sun.  I was where the red and blue lines meet on the top right picture, the hiking trail just climbs up to the top by the most direct route.

I could see the buildings of Las Condes in the distance, but the photo didn't capture them.  It's right beyond that last visible hill.  On the way up I was almost hit by a Chilean Evel Knievel who was downhill skateboarding down this massive hill.  He came flying around a corner, both our eyes widened, he made it past me and just kept booking it.  He was going faster than I'd ever want to travel on a skateboard.

On the way down my front disc for my brakes started jingling around, I had forgotten to tighten it when I build the bike.  Coming into town I spotted a bike shop that helped me out, and also snugged my cassette and rear one.  They didn't have a tube I could buy in the entire shop, as I realized I didn't have any.  Strange.  Big shop too.  Said everyone buys tubeless, or commuter tires, and they just hadn't had a shipment in.  All that makes sense... but a bike shop without a 26" tube is still funny.

Workout at the gym plus pool time was in order too.  Feels so good!