Wednesday, 24. January 2018
Mendoza, well, yes... After a late start Tobi and Diana went and visited wineries. I went into the city because my toothbrush is falling apart and also to buy a prepaid card for my cell phone. You get almost all Philips products except electric tooth brushes, sucks. I'll just have to look in Chile then. It still works but I'm happy that I'm not deaf yet because of the noise it makes.
The thing with the phone card is sooo easy and cheap! Only downside in Argentina and Chile ist as a foreigner you have to buy the card at a phone company store. Only there they can register your passport number. At a kiosk you need a local ID and I don't have one... Then you can recharge the card at the kiosk or super market. The card costs about €1-2, yes, that's no typo und therefore you get 100 minutes for calls, 50 SMS and 100 MB LTE!
That was all I did that day...
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Thursday, 25. January 2018
First we went up the Cerro de la Gloria. Theoretically with a great view of the city... Not. There was only a huge statue up there. Instead we ate ice cream.
Afterwards we went into the city to visit a tiny aquarium and the archeological museum. At that time we were quite strung out...
For dinner we went to the Bistro Anna. It's run by a French guy who also owns a bakery next door. I don't get it. You notice immediately if a business is run by a European! The interior isn't run down, the loo is clean and the food excellent... Why can't the Chilenos do that? Tobi told me the same thing about the businesses down in Villarica where he worked. Most successful businesses down there are run by Europeans...
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Friday, 26. January 2018
Friday we left Mendoza for San Juan taking Ruta 149. The landscape is awesome and the road is only partly dirt :)
On the way we passed Parque National El Leoncito where we spontaniously spent the night. A great little park in the middle of the desert and camping is free! Right that night we went to an star observatory to have a look at the night sky. It's really interesting. You don't look through a huge telescope but for the tours they use ordinary hobby telescopes! Doesn't matter, was great none the less...
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Saturday, 27. January 2018
The night to Saturday was crap. I can't take the hight. El Leoncito is up around 2300m or so and I have to get used to it. I was completely exhausted and so there are no pictures :(
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Sunday, 28. January 2018
Sunday we drove from El Leoncito to San Juan to visit a pilgrimage where on Sundays they bless cars. Unfortunately we were way too late.
On the way there we passed another shrine for patron of the travellers, Nicolas Caputo...
Here everything is sacrificed, especially used car parts... Steering wheels, spark plugs, transmissions, air filters, whole body parts and, and, and... In short, a holy dump...
Then we came to the pilgrimage of Difunta Correa, simply google the story. That's a real shrine! And everywhere in the desert you find small shrines as well where people deposit water bottles. At one of these shrines there were about 2 qubic meters of water bottles!
Here in front of the chapel candles and car parts are burnt. That's why the rock is so black :)
License plates and other things are brought for good luck, health, a new car, luck for the new home and so on.
And if everything goes well a plaque with a thank you is attached to a wall and more sacrifices are made! Left of the wall you can see empty water bottles. What you can't see is the fountain where they empty the bottles!
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Monday, 29. January 2018
After a night a the local camp ground in San Juan we went on towards Chile. On the way there we came past the ruins of Hualilan. A grouping of old gold mines where already the Inkas looked for gold. Some of the mine shafts you can walk into.
Right before the border in Las Flores we spent the night on a small camp ground.
=======Tuesday, 30. January 2018
Tuesday we went across the border at Las Flores on to Vicuña in the Valle de Elqui in Chile. The pass is only open in summer and is more than 4700m high!
Here at this site they plan a tunnel to shorten the trip and avoid the pass. However, they've not started yet and it'll be at least 10 years or so until you don't have to cross the pass any more.
On the Chilenian side the road was very narrow in parts. There was only room for one car and you have to use designated spots to let other vehicles pass.
The Argentinians use the pass to go to La Serena because consumer electronics are much cheaper in Chile, arount 20% or so. Mostly the goods don't fit into the trunk any more so they pack em onto the roof of the car. The craziest thing we saw was a guy who had two brand new flat screen TVs strung directly to the roof of his car using lashing straps! We're talking more than 100km of gravel roads and they are extremely bumpy on the Chilean side...
We spent the night on a small camp ground outside of Vicuña with hot showers!!! What a luxury!!!
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Wednesday, 31. January 2018
Day off :)
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Thursday, 01. February 2018
Today we drove to La Serena to obtain a RUT for me. That's a Chilean tax number which I need to buy a car. Unfortunately the laws have changed and as a foreigner you now need a co-signer! Ok, so we asked the owner of the hostel where I've spent some nights 2 weeks ago but that didn't work out... Looks like I won't be owning a car anytime soon...
Tomorrow it's back across the pass into Argentina. There we drive north through the mountains, that's gona be exciting :)
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