Being physically crammed onto the early morning rush hour tube train for half an hour is not how you might imagine the start to a glorious days skiing, but in Santiago, Chile, that seems to be quite normal. Once at the edge of the city it was a quick bus ride up to the 3000m high base village of Valle Nevado, the largest ski area in the southern hemisphere. Spectacular vistas of the high Andes and long, well groomed runs made the skiing experience super pleaseant - and even the black runs felt easy, which is not like me at all! Sarah whiled away the day enjoying the sun terraces and cafes as not feeling able to justify the rather spectacular lift and ski hire costs!
Santiago altogether exceeded our expectations. It is very well organised and livable with several rugged mini mountains sticking out amongst the tower blocks with the snow capped Andes formimg a splendid backdrop, and some very lovley old buildings, monuments and squares.....and the most wonderful shopping mall ever!
Prior to Santiago we had worked north from Valparaiso up the cloudy and foggy coast, until we learnt that sunny skies lay inland. For the first time we hired a car and sure enough, some 15 minutes inland sparkling blue skies and dry mountain ranges appeared from nowhere. We explored fantastic valleys enclosing wonderful cactai and harsh dry vineyards, visited a Pisco distillery and had a meal cooked on solar cookers. Here are some of the clearest skies on earth and it is a favoured spot for astronomical observatories. We visted an older one, but huge projets are underway with the European funded VLT (Very Large Telescope) nearing completion. The ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) will be starting construction soon!
From what we have seen Chile has a modern and sophisticated society that seems to be going places, but laterly learned of Chile's dark political and social problems which it makes a good job of hiding from visitors and investors! However they certainly have a huge variety of stunning and beautiful landscapes that have amazed us...rather like New Zealand on steroids!
Certainly not an anti climax to the end of our South Ameican experience.
