Chi, chi, chi, lay, lay, lay...

So, cruising through the Andes mountains, by bus, was pretty cool, however, traveling through the Eisenhower Pass outside of Denver, and entering a different world in the Rockies is something that still takes the cake in terms of breathtaking vistas - everytime I make that trip in Colorado, I am awestruck by the beauty... Alas, I digress, back to the Andes...

After a few days of wine-binging, gastro-gorging, and horseback-riding (se dice 'para hacer cabalgatas), Chile was on the agenda for a few days, with the idea of checking out Santiago and a town or two along the Pacific - either Viña del Mar and/or Valparaíso. However, after the hostel-ing experience in Mendoza, which was fantastic, the girls weren't all that interested in 'winging' it any longer, despite having received a few pointers with respect to where we should head when we got to Santiago. We were relatively unprepared with respect to the adventure that was forthcoming, as noone had really done any research (aside from a call/email to a few friends) on what to do, where to go, and how to get there, etc... We assumed (maybe, I assumed more than the girls) it'd be relatively easy, not too busy, and a good time. We weren't wrong, but each showed varying levels of ease, congestion, and fun-ness. So, pulling in to the bus station in Santiago after a 6-ish hour, National Geographic-inspired cruise through the Andes mountains - did I mention that it is gorgeous?! - we had the names/locations of a few hostels in different parts of town. As luck would have had it, the lady seated across the aisle from me had a Lonely Planet book with Chilean stuff, so we were able to score a few pictures of the maps, some recommendations, and a few phone numbers of places of interest. Unfortunately, none of them really mattered, as we couldn't figure out how to dial the numbers from either a US-based mobile, nor the Argentine mobiles... In addition to the in ability to dial, the girls were growing more frustrated (with me, for not having had 'planned' anything in particular), and I of them (for not being more open minded to not spending a ton of money on accommodations, and being 'girls'), so by a 3-1 vote, we decided to head to the Grand Hyatt Santiago, in Las Condes, one of, if not, the most expensive hotels in the nicest part of town... To provide some background on this decision, there was an outside chance of us receiving some special treatment from the GM, as he was a colleague of a colleague back in the day - unfortunately, he had resigned just 4 days earlier and was no longer at the hotel (we were aware of his leaving the post of GM, but not of the specific timing), so we got the special treatment alright, RACK RATE! So, after a bit of haggling and heavy breathing, we opted to take it easy for the nite, so my sister and I went with the flow and treated ourselves to a great Thai dinner in one of the 3 fine-dining restaurants within the hotel - seriously, the place is fantastic!

Other than that, Santiago wasn't really on our list of cities to explore, so we basically went to two places the following day - a tourist trap 'hill' that has been created as the all-in-one shopping destination for all things Chilean. It was certainly interesting, and pretty relaxing, but kind of far from the rest of town, which precluded us from walking the downtown area, as we needed to get to the funicular to ride to the top of Cerro San Cristóbal - the highest point in town, with a giant 'Rio-esque' statue of the Virgin Mary (we think)... After running around Santiago, which seems a lot smaller on a map, we bounced back to our luxury digs and packed the bags to head to Viña del Mar. In the 'argumentative' phase of this 'traveling with women vacation' (it was bound to happen at some point) the nite before, I opted to put my misery, and the girls' disinterest in hosteling, to bed, and made arrangements to stay at Starwood properties while speniding the week in Chile... This ended up being the saving grace of the trip, as we could all relax (albeit, spending a few quid more), and just enjoy the time together. So, with that, backpacks afull, we headed to the bus station to head to the Pacific.

Arriving in Viña was a bit interesting, as we weren't exactly sure what the process would have been because we weren't exactly sure where we were... We had been under the impression that the trip would be about 2 hours, so after about 90 minutes, we (e.g. "I") asked the bus driver how close we were to the Sheraton, and he immediately pulled over and suggested it was about 8 blocks behind where we were - apparently, we had made it, early... So, we hopped off, and yours truly, in a rush, left the bottle of vineyard produced olive oil from Achaval Ferrer, doh! We made our wandering way to the hotel, which was located 'in' the water, over the Pacific Ocean - it appeared, to my untrained eye, to be a relatively new-build property, and everything about it was pretty spot on. I'll spare you all the 'hotel branding abroad' conversation, but realize that a Sheraton down in these parts is a MUCh nicer hotel than we are accustomed to seeing in the US... When we got in, we got all situated, and wanted to go get some food, so the concierge arranged for a car service to take us to a seafood joint - we had all been crazing the 'frutas del mar' and I was particularly keen on finding some good, Chilean pisco to accompany a delectable creature from the ocean. At the place, Carey even managed to hold a pair of VERY old lobsters - apparently, the length of the tail is directly related to the age (naturally, but there was some metric that I cannot recall that made it easy), and these puppies were pushing 15 years old... At least, this was all according to the server, so, who knows!

The highlight of the Víña experience, and maybe that of Chile, was spent the next day, back on horses... We had had such a great time in Mendoza, that we wanted to do it all again, and the second go around on horses was INCREDIBLE!! We totally lucked out... Our hired driver for the weekend, a great guy, took us out of town, about 35 minutes north to what looked more like an outdoor adventure due ranch kind of place, and from the street, the property extended several miles to the ocean - truly breathtaking topography. At the front of the property was the main house, which included a huge sitting/eating/socializing room off of the kitchen, a nice little courtyward in the center, and what appeared to be a handful of bedrooms (maybe a B&B?), the stables, and the dog shed (they had a couple of wolves there, yo lo juro). As the property extended toward the ocean, there was what looked like an obstacle-type/ropes-esque course, a few ponds, and just a generally beautiful landscape (trees, water, hiking/riding paths, etc), which included mountainous sand dunes... This was clearly the highlight, as we didn't really know what was in store for the day - how long it would last, where we'd go, what type of riding we'd be doing, etc... So, after a few minutes of hanging out with the nice old lady who was cleaning some giant tarp with a hose, and playing with the dogs, a big, burly, caballero sauntered from the depths (this guy couldn't have been more of a caballero - worn leather gorro, beat up boots, with the spikey thing, long flowing pony-tail under the hat, a thick, flannel-like button down shirt, and some chapped up pants - and it was awesome... Melanie really liked him...

What came next, over the course of the day, was one of the coolest days I have ever had... We waltzed up to stables to get all horsed-up, and were greeted by a pack of dogs, including a few puppies (wow were they cute), some toothless wonders of hired stable-hands, and the horses, which ranged in size, color, coat, etc... We all got fitted to the corersponding horses that suited our sizes, and we were granted access to the array of gorros available in the 'office'... Then, once all situated, we were off, walking toward the 'ropes' course and toward the dunes... The next few hours, we climbed/descended in the dunes, making our way through the gorgeous landscape that we were lucky enough to be a part of, as we made our way toward the ocean. As we approached, the duines turned to a more fertile, less 'hilly' topography, with more plants, trees, vegetation, etc, until we crossed some defunct train tracks, and saw the opening that put us square on a totally uninhabited stretch of beach/ocean... After being at a walking/slow gallop pace for the previous few hours, we were 'instructed' to really let the horses out and take them for a run on the beach - I mean, seriuosly? This was only my second time on a horse, and I'm now galloping on the beach, along the Pacific Ocean, after coming out of the hectares of sand dunes that we had just traversed... Amazing!

The return from the ocean was pretty special, as we popped back in to the vegetated area, and noticed some smoke coming from a iittle 'oasis' of trees - lunch! The setting was pretty sweet, in a canopied, albeit loosely, spot, with the hired hands getting the asado all squared away, setting up the 'salad bar' and uncorking the bottles of wine that awaited... Over the fire pit was a roasting baby-goat (chivito), a few chorizos, and some baby-beef - Lau, following the feast, declared that she'd only be eating 'babies' and I couldn't have agreed with her more! We opened up a premade pisco sour bottle and started putting that down, on top of the wine and feasted for about an hour and a half before mounting up for the long haul back to 'base camp' - this time, we were a bit more tipsy, had all gotten to know eachother, and were in no rush to see what was ahead. What was cool about the trip back was seeing a different topography - the amount of land on this property was incredible and seemed to go for ever... The last '100' meters of la vuelta took us thru a pasture with cows and other horses, some water (at least belly-deep for the horses, and it wasn't warm water by any stretch of the imagination), and finally the ropes course, again.. The day couldn't have been cooler, and the experience was certainly unreplicable (we thought about doing it again, and decided against it, for fear it would not be nearly as impressionable as the first time).

The other day we had in Viña was spent hanging out, as the weather wasn't exactly 'gorgeous'... Carey and I made a quick run to Valparaiso (a UNICEF World Heritage Site (or something official like that), and home to many of the most influential Chileans, including the poet/author Pablo Neruda, and some dude named Pinochet... It used to be a very influential port town, but has fallen in to some disarray over the years, and now feels a bit run down. Because it sits along the ocean, and is effectively built in to the mountains, the town has a very interesting transportation system, which highlights the 'elevators' that carry people up the side of the mountains - think, funiculars peppered about. As it was approaching sun down, and feeling less safe, Carey and I took a quick trip up an elevator - the thing was seriously 1000 years old - took a few snapshots overlooking the port/city, and fired back to Viña for our last dinner at the casino... We went all out, and had the pleasure of meeting the foreign exchange student who stayed with Lau's parents in Dallas (she's from Valpo) and her boyfriend for dinner. Unfortunately it had been a long trip, and Lau wasn't feeling great, so she didn't enjoy the grandiose-ness of how delicious the dinner was - mmm! After dinner, Melanie and I wanted to a little gambling, Chilean style, so we stuck around and had a blast - drinking, playing blackjack, and of course, winning! We got ourselves back to the hotel, happy and go lucky, only to receive from gut-wrenching news... Melanie's grandmother, who had been relatively ill for some time, has passed away, so we spent the next several hours figuring out the logistics of a return flight to NYC to attend the funeral (36 hours later). It was a tough call to have received, but Melanie was a trooper and we got all of her things together for an early departure to Santiago, around the time we'd be getting on a bus for the long haul back to BA - across the continent in a day...

The next morning couldn't have been prettier - the sun was out, there was not a cloud in the sky, and we had front row seats for a great ride back to Mendoza, where we'd hit the bus station, hop a cab to the Park Hyatt for a bathroom run, and bounce back to the bus station to take the overnite trip back to Baires... Unfortunately, we were short one person for the weekend in BA...