Cross in the sky, star of the sea...
...Under the moonlight, there she can safely go
Round the Cape Horn to Valparaiso
Yeah I admit the song kind of biased me toward coming here, and it's been circling round my brainy brain for the last 3 days, but that's way better than the 80's pop music that invades my head when I've been in the mountains for a while with nothing to listen to. Like Poison, Whitesnake, oh no it gets worse - Debbie Gibson!! Yeah, I'll take Sting any time.
The last few days in Argentina were spectacular. I went to Puente del Inca for a day, to see the mountains around Aconcagua. Wasn't sure whether I was actually going to go into the park proper, but I opted against, partly because it was enough of a walk just to and from the entrance and there appeared to be a huge storm coming in, and partly because the scenery was already amazing where I was... so much so that I actually forgot to look for the turnoff to the park as I followed foot & horse paths up the valley, and ended up about an hour past it. It was freezing and gloomy with a stiff wind blowing, but the mountains were incredible. An eroded wonderland, rocky peaks jutting out from beneath massive piles of scree that reached all the way up to their chins, as if somebody had unloaded a giant dump-truck over the top. On the ground I was finding rocks to match the hillsides, from pinks to greens and lots in between. There's also this crazy mineral deposit bridge thang at Puente del Inca (the real reason most people stop there) with a thermal bath house built in. It was cool to look at from a short distance but closed off from closer observation as it was deemed peligroso.
The next day I packed up and left my beatiful campsite in Uspallata to cross the border into Chile, back up the same road over the pass and then beyond (this time it was sunny and perfectly clear, but still butt-cold, as one might say... if they were related to me.... or to anyone who's closely related to me). The mountains were as spectacular as ever, and after a couple of hours at customs/immigration bringing us into Chile, we proceeded down a loopy mountain road with a dozen or more hairpin turns that seemed to drop straight down into a dramatic valley. This was the first time the mountains really looked big to me.
As we reached the lowlands the views were still amazing, farms, groves of fruit trees, rivers sparkling in the lemony-yellow afternoon sun, occasional palm trees, towns and villages, a scene that reminded me a lot of Southern California. At least what it could have been, if people didn't totally screw it up. 'Thank You Irvine Company - Green Forever!' You know I don't often admit it, but I am truly a Californian at heart and probably always will be. I love that place, even the southern part that I always compain about, I just hate what people have done to it. Who knows, maybe that's part of the reason I've been displaced for so many years, because the place I love so much is so irreparably ruined that I can't even think of living there again. Damn you, Irvine Company. Damn you all to...... Irvine!
A few hours' drive and then a glimmer on the horizon: the Pacific!! Feels like home, could be the closest thing I have to a geographical home, eh? There's nothing like reaching that coast. When we arrived at Vina del Mar the bus all but emptied; this is the 'nicer' spot on the coast, with good beaches and fancy hotels. Bah-humbug. I, evidently along with the other 3 people remaining on the bus, was looking for something more interesting.
A travel writer once said that there's a magic to place names, and I totally agree. There's no counting the number of dreams that have been born from just hearing a simple name. It doesn't matter what's actually there or if you know anything about it, the name itself seduces curiosity and casts a spell over imagination till they ache for a visit: Madagascar, Machu Picchu, Nairobi, Kiev... Valparaiso.
I was expecting a dingey little port town, and indeed it's a dingey port town but a little bigger than I expected - or perhaps just more full, the half-circle of mountiainsides around the port totally packed with buildings. True to many ports, the utilitarian side of it can be kind of gross and uninviting... but the mere existence of the port is also what lends character to the town. And this is a town oozing with character!! When I arrived on the bus I was met by a guy who was looking for guests at his house, much the way those cute old ladies do in Croatia. I liked him almost instantly, and when I saw the house it was a done deal. He painted it himself, bright yellow in the dining area, blue in the hallway, green up the stairs, the kind of thick paint job that recklessly bulldozes over every nook and crack and peeling patch of wallpaper. I don't know if it's just this house or the town, but when I arrived I found the most fun people: a couple of entertaining young Israelis who you would swear were old-time friends but just met on this trip; two sisters from New York who seem to have a fantastic relationship and like to laugh; a Welsh climber who got me into discussions of religion, politics and family heritage before we even learned each other's names; two sweet Chileans who are here for a few weeks on work-plus-holiday.... not to mention Jorge who runs the place and is always eager to share information about his town, and even the gal who comes to clean up, and will sit down at the breakfast table with her coffee and try so patiently to make conversation despite my lacking comprehension. It's so nice to be in a home too, instead of a big crowded hostel; there are only 3 beds in my room - 2 of which are now empty - none of them bunks!! (I can't tell you how excited I am to have a real bed and nobody above or below).
The local people here so far have been just as kind and patient as those in Argentina, putting up fantastically with my broken Spanish, which often turns to Spanglish, occasionally Spatalian, and once or twice even Cropanish. So far (I think) I've kept the French words to a minimum, which is almost miraculous since my Spanish phrasebook is written for French speakers, an attempt to brush up on both at the same time which actually might be working. But sometimes words just pop into my head and I say them before I have any idea what they mean. Like today I tried to ask if the bathroom was free, and realized a few minutes later I had actually asked if it was a book. Thanks in part to my Croatian studies, I've also become one of those foreigners who leaves out a copious amount of articles and other words that make a language pleasant. Oh well, we can't be perfect all the time (or any of it), so I'll leave the shudders at my horrible grammar up to the native speakers who actually notice!
There are some amazing old buildings in town and century-old elevators up the hills, but after a walk around yesterday and a ride on the oldest ascensor, the magic I was looking for hadn't yet shown its face. Today I went for another wander, almost forgetting that I'd wanted to see the open-air museum, not a museum at all but a collection of murals on the sides of houses and walls. Uncharacteristic of my normal weakness for inertia, when I remembered I stopped and checked the map and then backtracked to get to the area, and it turned out to be the best thing I could have done. The murals themselves weren't too exciting (#20 is the only one I liked) but the neigborhoods up on the hill were amazing!! Old houses with walls made of plaster or corrugated metal or brick, most covered in thick peeling paint, all crammed together in equal and opposing bright colors, I think this place is even more beautiful for the fact that it's falling apart at the seams! Talk about character, steep streets with sea views, colors everywhere, and then there are all the other paintings on walls, steps and railings that people just did on their own independent of the museum, much of it accented with graffiti. I just knew there was a magic here that I couldn't see, I could feel it - and an afternoon up on the hillside showed me the place I was looking for.
As I walked down the hill I heard a pipe and drum band somewhere, but they must have just rounded a corner as I got there and were nowhere in sight. Later I walked down to the rinky-dinky little beach, past all the port stuff and the navy base (sorry, armada - when they have a word that cool you've gotta use it). The ocean views were worth the overly industrial walk, and then there was the surprising sight of a gigantic 4-masted ship, the 4 cross-beams on its front mast lined with about 50 sailors. They looked like seagulls perched up there. It was so bizarre, the only thing I can think is that they were taking an annual photo or something?
Lest we forget it's a whirlwind, tomorrow it's time once again to move on. I was planning to head to San Pedro de Atacama - known for the Atacama Desert of course. Yesterday I almost succeeded in roping G (aforementioned Welsh) into joining me for a few days up into Peru, which would have been lots of fun. I was going to scrap the San Pedro idea in effort to save a day or two on the way, and you know how it is - once you decide to change your plans, it just seems anti-climactic to go back to the original (does anyone else think that way?). So when in the end we couldn't get the timing to work out and G decided to stick to his original plan and head east, I still had this inkling to do something different. Today when I went to the bus station I asked about a ticket to Caldera, about 15 hours up on the coast, and before I realized what I was doing I bought a ticket. I walked away thinking, 'Oh yeah, guess I just decided to go to Caldera!' It sounds like a nice little beach town, & I'm really looking forward to it!
Do you see this thing ´ ? I think it does something over a letter, but it's on the key where our apostrophe normally is, and it looks exactly like an apostrophe, just a little fainter and maybe a little more angled. The real apostrophe key is up by the zero, and it's totally not natural. So if you see a bunch of these ´´´ ´ that's what's happening! A random bit of useless info to leave you thinking, 'Hmm, I almost liked that entry, but then at the end it went down hill...'
Round the Cape Horn to Valparaiso
Yeah I admit the song kind of biased me toward coming here, and it's been circling round my brainy brain for the last 3 days, but that's way better than the 80's pop music that invades my head when I've been in the mountains for a while with nothing to listen to. Like Poison, Whitesnake, oh no it gets worse - Debbie Gibson!! Yeah, I'll take Sting any time.
The last few days in Argentina were spectacular. I went to Puente del Inca for a day, to see the mountains around Aconcagua. Wasn't sure whether I was actually going to go into the park proper, but I opted against, partly because it was enough of a walk just to and from the entrance and there appeared to be a huge storm coming in, and partly because the scenery was already amazing where I was... so much so that I actually forgot to look for the turnoff to the park as I followed foot & horse paths up the valley, and ended up about an hour past it. It was freezing and gloomy with a stiff wind blowing, but the mountains were incredible. An eroded wonderland, rocky peaks jutting out from beneath massive piles of scree that reached all the way up to their chins, as if somebody had unloaded a giant dump-truck over the top. On the ground I was finding rocks to match the hillsides, from pinks to greens and lots in between. There's also this crazy mineral deposit bridge thang at Puente del Inca (the real reason most people stop there) with a thermal bath house built in. It was cool to look at from a short distance but closed off from closer observation as it was deemed peligroso.
The next day I packed up and left my beatiful campsite in Uspallata to cross the border into Chile, back up the same road over the pass and then beyond (this time it was sunny and perfectly clear, but still butt-cold, as one might say... if they were related to me.... or to anyone who's closely related to me). The mountains were as spectacular as ever, and after a couple of hours at customs/immigration bringing us into Chile, we proceeded down a loopy mountain road with a dozen or more hairpin turns that seemed to drop straight down into a dramatic valley. This was the first time the mountains really looked big to me.
As we reached the lowlands the views were still amazing, farms, groves of fruit trees, rivers sparkling in the lemony-yellow afternoon sun, occasional palm trees, towns and villages, a scene that reminded me a lot of Southern California. At least what it could have been, if people didn't totally screw it up. 'Thank You Irvine Company - Green Forever!' You know I don't often admit it, but I am truly a Californian at heart and probably always will be. I love that place, even the southern part that I always compain about, I just hate what people have done to it. Who knows, maybe that's part of the reason I've been displaced for so many years, because the place I love so much is so irreparably ruined that I can't even think of living there again. Damn you, Irvine Company. Damn you all to...... Irvine!
A few hours' drive and then a glimmer on the horizon: the Pacific!! Feels like home, could be the closest thing I have to a geographical home, eh? There's nothing like reaching that coast. When we arrived at Vina del Mar the bus all but emptied; this is the 'nicer' spot on the coast, with good beaches and fancy hotels. Bah-humbug. I, evidently along with the other 3 people remaining on the bus, was looking for something more interesting.
A travel writer once said that there's a magic to place names, and I totally agree. There's no counting the number of dreams that have been born from just hearing a simple name. It doesn't matter what's actually there or if you know anything about it, the name itself seduces curiosity and casts a spell over imagination till they ache for a visit: Madagascar, Machu Picchu, Nairobi, Kiev... Valparaiso.
I was expecting a dingey little port town, and indeed it's a dingey port town but a little bigger than I expected - or perhaps just more full, the half-circle of mountiainsides around the port totally packed with buildings. True to many ports, the utilitarian side of it can be kind of gross and uninviting... but the mere existence of the port is also what lends character to the town. And this is a town oozing with character!! When I arrived on the bus I was met by a guy who was looking for guests at his house, much the way those cute old ladies do in Croatia. I liked him almost instantly, and when I saw the house it was a done deal. He painted it himself, bright yellow in the dining area, blue in the hallway, green up the stairs, the kind of thick paint job that recklessly bulldozes over every nook and crack and peeling patch of wallpaper. I don't know if it's just this house or the town, but when I arrived I found the most fun people: a couple of entertaining young Israelis who you would swear were old-time friends but just met on this trip; two sisters from New York who seem to have a fantastic relationship and like to laugh; a Welsh climber who got me into discussions of religion, politics and family heritage before we even learned each other's names; two sweet Chileans who are here for a few weeks on work-plus-holiday.... not to mention Jorge who runs the place and is always eager to share information about his town, and even the gal who comes to clean up, and will sit down at the breakfast table with her coffee and try so patiently to make conversation despite my lacking comprehension. It's so nice to be in a home too, instead of a big crowded hostel; there are only 3 beds in my room - 2 of which are now empty - none of them bunks!! (I can't tell you how excited I am to have a real bed and nobody above or below).
The local people here so far have been just as kind and patient as those in Argentina, putting up fantastically with my broken Spanish, which often turns to Spanglish, occasionally Spatalian, and once or twice even Cropanish. So far (I think) I've kept the French words to a minimum, which is almost miraculous since my Spanish phrasebook is written for French speakers, an attempt to brush up on both at the same time which actually might be working. But sometimes words just pop into my head and I say them before I have any idea what they mean. Like today I tried to ask if the bathroom was free, and realized a few minutes later I had actually asked if it was a book. Thanks in part to my Croatian studies, I've also become one of those foreigners who leaves out a copious amount of articles and other words that make a language pleasant. Oh well, we can't be perfect all the time (or any of it), so I'll leave the shudders at my horrible grammar up to the native speakers who actually notice!
There are some amazing old buildings in town and century-old elevators up the hills, but after a walk around yesterday and a ride on the oldest ascensor, the magic I was looking for hadn't yet shown its face. Today I went for another wander, almost forgetting that I'd wanted to see the open-air museum, not a museum at all but a collection of murals on the sides of houses and walls. Uncharacteristic of my normal weakness for inertia, when I remembered I stopped and checked the map and then backtracked to get to the area, and it turned out to be the best thing I could have done. The murals themselves weren't too exciting (#20 is the only one I liked) but the neigborhoods up on the hill were amazing!! Old houses with walls made of plaster or corrugated metal or brick, most covered in thick peeling paint, all crammed together in equal and opposing bright colors, I think this place is even more beautiful for the fact that it's falling apart at the seams! Talk about character, steep streets with sea views, colors everywhere, and then there are all the other paintings on walls, steps and railings that people just did on their own independent of the museum, much of it accented with graffiti. I just knew there was a magic here that I couldn't see, I could feel it - and an afternoon up on the hillside showed me the place I was looking for.
As I walked down the hill I heard a pipe and drum band somewhere, but they must have just rounded a corner as I got there and were nowhere in sight. Later I walked down to the rinky-dinky little beach, past all the port stuff and the navy base (sorry, armada - when they have a word that cool you've gotta use it). The ocean views were worth the overly industrial walk, and then there was the surprising sight of a gigantic 4-masted ship, the 4 cross-beams on its front mast lined with about 50 sailors. They looked like seagulls perched up there. It was so bizarre, the only thing I can think is that they were taking an annual photo or something?
Lest we forget it's a whirlwind, tomorrow it's time once again to move on. I was planning to head to San Pedro de Atacama - known for the Atacama Desert of course. Yesterday I almost succeeded in roping G (aforementioned Welsh) into joining me for a few days up into Peru, which would have been lots of fun. I was going to scrap the San Pedro idea in effort to save a day or two on the way, and you know how it is - once you decide to change your plans, it just seems anti-climactic to go back to the original (does anyone else think that way?). So when in the end we couldn't get the timing to work out and G decided to stick to his original plan and head east, I still had this inkling to do something different. Today when I went to the bus station I asked about a ticket to Caldera, about 15 hours up on the coast, and before I realized what I was doing I bought a ticket. I walked away thinking, 'Oh yeah, guess I just decided to go to Caldera!' It sounds like a nice little beach town, & I'm really looking forward to it!
Do you see this thing ´ ? I think it does something over a letter, but it's on the key where our apostrophe normally is, and it looks exactly like an apostrophe, just a little fainter and maybe a little more angled. The real apostrophe key is up by the zero, and it's totally not natural. So if you see a bunch of these ´´´ ´ that's what's happening! A random bit of useless info to leave you thinking, 'Hmm, I almost liked that entry, but then at the end it went down hill...'
posted by mitch at 5:22 PM
1 Comments:
HA! LAUGH OUT LOUD! (and i don't mean LOL... i mean freaking LAUGH OUT LOUD!)! damn them all to... Irvine!... where do you come up with that stuff!!?? it is hi-larious!
try not to think about OMD while you're out and about... especially thatOnly In My Dreams song... (gotchya'!)
funny you should mention the funny characters... there weren't any in this post... but there have been a lot in posts past... they show up here as " A' " with a little angels halo on top... there were like 5 of them in the last paragraph though!
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