More border crossings
Since our last posts from Bariloche we have been traveling a lot. From Bariloche we took a 17 hour overnight bus ride to Mendoza, the heart of the Argentinean wine region. In Mendoza we rented bikes for the day and visited a few of the wineries, indulging in some tastings. At the local restaurants you can get an excellent bottle of red wine for 3 or 4 dollars. Very nice.
From Mendoza we took a 6 hour minibus ride through the Andes and over the border to Santiago, Chile. The drive through the Andes was amazing and included seeing Mount Aconcagua, which is a trivia buff´s dream. Why? Because it´s the highest mountain in the southern hemisphere, the highest in the western hemisphere and the highest outside the Himalayan mountain range. The border crossing was the usual waste of time and they didn´t even find 2 carrots this time on the bus. Two hours wasted just getting a few more stamps and them opening up my suitcase and backpack.
Santiago is a very modern city but is very crowded as 40% (6 million people) of Chile´s population lives here. The big story here is the transportation system which went through a re-organization over a month ago and is still causing chaos. The national government is in charge of the transportation and is getting into big trouble. The president (a woman, by the way) had to fire four of her ministers over the fiasco. It is even making the international headlines on CNN and BBC.
In Santiago we have met up with a friend from London, Lorena. She has been an excellent host and has shown us around the city. We even went to her family´s weekly barbecue out in the suburbs for some excellent food. It´s always great to have a local to show you around.
We spent the past two days in Valparaíso and Viña del Mar on the coast. Valpo is a lovely city built up on the hills along the ocean. The houses are painted vivid colors as well to liven things up.
On Thursday we´ll be heading back over to the east coast to Buenos Aires as we didn´t have time to see that area properly in our rush to get from Carnaval in Rio down to Antarctica.
One final thing about Chile is the national motto which features on their national seal as well as on the sides of their coins. The motto is "Por la razón o la fuerza" which translates as either "By right or might" or "By reason or by force". Now if that doesn´t sound like a motto that good ol´ Dubya would love to adopt for the US of A I don´t know what does.
If you´re wondering what the two animals on the seal are, they are the huemul, which is a very rare Chilean deer, and a condor, an impressive bird found in the Andes.
Speaking of Dubya and his "right or might" policies, do you think it´s just a massive coincidence that the flag of Chile
and the flag of Texas
bear more than a passing resemblance to each other? Let the conspiracy theories begin to flow...
From Mendoza we took a 6 hour minibus ride through the Andes and over the border to Santiago, Chile. The drive through the Andes was amazing and included seeing Mount Aconcagua, which is a trivia buff´s dream. Why? Because it´s the highest mountain in the southern hemisphere, the highest in the western hemisphere and the highest outside the Himalayan mountain range. The border crossing was the usual waste of time and they didn´t even find 2 carrots this time on the bus. Two hours wasted just getting a few more stamps and them opening up my suitcase and backpack.
Santiago is a very modern city but is very crowded as 40% (6 million people) of Chile´s population lives here. The big story here is the transportation system which went through a re-organization over a month ago and is still causing chaos. The national government is in charge of the transportation and is getting into big trouble. The president (a woman, by the way) had to fire four of her ministers over the fiasco. It is even making the international headlines on CNN and BBC.
In Santiago we have met up with a friend from London, Lorena. She has been an excellent host and has shown us around the city. We even went to her family´s weekly barbecue out in the suburbs for some excellent food. It´s always great to have a local to show you around.
We spent the past two days in Valparaíso and Viña del Mar on the coast. Valpo is a lovely city built up on the hills along the ocean. The houses are painted vivid colors as well to liven things up.
On Thursday we´ll be heading back over to the east coast to Buenos Aires as we didn´t have time to see that area properly in our rush to get from Carnaval in Rio down to Antarctica.
One final thing about Chile is the national motto which features on their national seal as well as on the sides of their coins. The motto is "Por la razón o la fuerza" which translates as either "By right or might" or "By reason or by force". Now if that doesn´t sound like a motto that good ol´ Dubya would love to adopt for the US of A I don´t know what does.
If you´re wondering what the two animals on the seal are, they are the huemul, which is a very rare Chilean deer, and a condor, an impressive bird found in the Andes.
Speaking of Dubya and his "right or might" policies, do you think it´s just a massive coincidence that the flag of Chile
and the flag of Texas
bear more than a passing resemblance to each other? Let the conspiracy theories begin to flow...
posted by Kevin at 3/28/2007 04:59:00 AM
1 Comments:
Kevin,
Really enjoy your commentary on chile seal,it is humorous and insightful.
Karen,
what kind of empanada do they serve?
ORT resident
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