We left Puerto Varas early in the morning to drive to the airport in Puerto Montt, which was a good thing because the main road was closed due to a wild fire and we had to take a stop and go alternative route. Apparently there have been a lot of fires lately due to an unusually dry summer.
We said goodbye to our wonderful guide at the airport, then had a leisurely cup of tea as our flight to Santiago was delayed for an hour due to bad weather in the previous stop.
After leaving, we had a stop in Concepcion, so we ended up getting fed twice on two short hops. The first time was tasty butter cookies with orange juice, and the second time was 3 tiny bite-sized sandwiches with toppings, with a truffle for dessert. Airline food is not particularly noteworthy, except that I'm always amused by the contrasts with the $5 box of stale cheese and crackers that you have the option of buying in the States if you aren't on a flight that serves a meal.
We were flying up the coast with the Andes Cordillera on the right and the ocean on the left. The mountains seem to go on forever. Most are "typical" mountains, but there are quite a few distinctive volcano cones scattered about.
It occurred to me as we landed in Concepcion (banking tightly in over the airport and stopping very quickly on what must have been a short runway) that it's probably more "interesting" to be a pilot in this area than in the States.
After landing in Santiago, we headed to our hotels. After settling in, I wandered to a park that had a number of very interesting sculptures and was also used by people of different ages and backgrounds for different purposes. The younger set was there with their mothers and having a grand time climbing trees and playing in sand areas and such. The adolescent set was seriously making out. The older couples were walking and talking. The tourists were taking pictures. Something for everyone.
Santiago has a Mediterranean climate (hot dry summers, cool wet winters) and is tucked in between the mountains and the sea. It's one of the smoggiest cities in the world because the smog gets trapped in front of the mountains. There is enough money to generate a lot of pollution but apparently not enough to do much with catalytic converters and such.
The areas we have visited have gotten progressively more prosperous and "modern" as we have headed north, perhaps partly because of the increasing level of natural resources available. I picked up an interesting book on Patagonian history and read that it took 300 years for successful settlements to start taking root because the land and climate were so harsh. The book also had an interesting comment on Spain and how it used the gold from the new world: "The affluence of gold could also be appreciated in commercial exchanges between countries: for example, Spain purchasing manufactured goods from Holland, France, England and Italy. These countries furnished Spain with all sorts of merchandise, and strengthened their manufacturing industries in exchange for the gold which Spain thought would last forever. Thus, Spain chose good living and luxury while the other countries emphasized their working abilities and production." Wonder how the history of the U.S. and the world will be told a hundred years from now...
Was people watching as I was having dinner. In a land that is supposedly very macho, there are probably more women drivers than men (at least on one street at one hour in Santiago) Very few American cars, and those pretty much all trucks. Mostly small cars.
We've had 2 women guides and 1 male guides, and all were non-Chileans - one from Peru, one from Turkey, one from Canada. Cynthia (our main guide) said that there weren't that many young people from this area who could guide and speak English well.
Tomorrow (Thursday), Becky, Janet and I head to Valparaiso on the bus.
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