A day in The Andes

Today we saw our first blast of Chilean scenery.. What a day.  Andreas our guide picked us up at the hotel and with two Aussies from near Brisbane, Richard from New Hampshire and our driver Pablo, and we headed for the hills.

Andreas was about 25 and hyper active, fascinating and knowlegeable.  He lives in Vina del Mar on the coast, is building by hand an eco house, does African drumming and plays the piano.  He has a cat called Murgatroyd and was into all things eco.

Well on we drove through the different barrios, all different until we crossed the river and started going up into the hills through the Maipo Valley.  As it was Sunday, the roads were filled with Lycra clad cyclists and other trippers.  It seems everyone does this on a Sunday.  We were in a long wheel bases 4 by 4 thankfully, cos we really needed it the higher we got.  Then the tarmac road disappeared and the trip really started.  At the back I felt like I was in a tumble dryer.

It was so beautiful and our first stop was a water fall.  There were a few other people here who had driven this far in cars.  Totally bonkers.. What suspension.

But as we headed off from here it became more remote and there were less cars.  You would stop occasionally at a green patch and find a tent pitched, or in the distant valley walkers with back packs and poles headed off.

Then we stopped and Andreas announced we were going for a walk.  For walk think trek, mountain climb, hill scramble, death defying activity, and all this at 8000 ft and at 30 degrees.  It was an interesting three hours of my life, at various points I thought I was going die, launch myself off a vertical wall, collapse of heat exhaustion, wheeze myself into oblivion.

But at the end of the day I managed it with the help of Rod and Pablo.  Pablo during the week works in an office and did this at weekends to get away.  What a lovely man he was, told us a lot about the area and history.  He was a keen photographer, so we both snapped away happily, me as an excuse to stop for a few minutes.

Some scenery for you

After scrambling back down the amount a inside were drive to a mountain refuge for some lunch.  It was built in the 1930's by some German people,for mountaineers.  We had a fan lunch of chicken and chips and then had a hours walk around the refuge,a it was quite beautiful.

What a day.we arrived back at the hotel at 7

Pm exhausted.  We said a sad good bye  to our guides and travellers and collapsed in heap.  But it was worth it.