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Mar. 28, 2007 I caught my Cata Internacional bus without any problems at the Terminal de Omnibus in Buenos Aires Monday afternoon at 5:30. I was on the upper deck of a double-decker with a good view. We arrived in Mendoza, Argentina around 7 Tuesday morning. This is the most important city in western Argentina. After that, we passed through villages like Uspallata and Penitentes, which I mentioned in the article I wrote about my visit to Mount Aconcagua in December. In fact, near the Chilean border, I saw the very same mountain lodge where we ate lunch on the excursion I took back then. You would almost have had to be there to appreciate the desolation and eeriness of the Andes at this point. Years ago there were mining operations in the region, which brought about the rise of several towns. A trans-Andean railroad was built too. Today the railroad has been abandoned, because of the exhaustion or failure of the mining operation, and some of the towns are ghost towns. Even in the towns that have some people, you can see many houses fallen in ruins. In addition to this, the Andes are utterly barren in these parts: not a blade of grass, not a weed. There are just massive stony cliffs, with inclines from 60° to 85° from the horizontal. The fog was so thick, you couldn't see the apices of these mountains at all, and in some places the visibility even at ground level was very poor. Argentine-Chilean customs is located at a pass where the altitude is 11,000 feet, but many of the peaks in the vicinity approach and exceed 20,000 feet, with Aconcagua over 23,000. Alongside the road ran at first a sizable river, the Rio Grande, but that was eventually replaced by a stony brook with rapids. You could see the tributaries of the brook, spilling down with mini-cataracts from the heights, staircase-wise. It was cold on the ground, but not enough for snow just yet, maybe 40° F (5° C), but some mountains were snowy. We passed customs in an hour, without a hitch, and I was glad to see the Chilean visa, entitling me to 90 days, stamped in my passport. Noonish, we were in Chile, and though the rugged, forbidding, God-forsaken Andean landscape continued for another hour or so, eventually we were on a palpable downgrade. It was still a montane scene, but we began to see poplars and other trees, as well as 'pasacana', a saguaro-like cactus of this terrain. There were farms and villages. The icy rushing creek continued in a deepened gorge, and I saw many plank and rope footbridges from the highways to the granges and hamlets beyond, Around 2:15 PM, we made Santiago. Coming for the first time into a vast modern city is always frightening to me. Everything overwhelms and intimidates, puzzles and befuddles. I was lucky to meet an amiable lady on the bus, with whom I'd had a good long conversation as we rode. She led me right to a very cheap hotel in the immediate neighborhood of the Terminal. It's only 7000 Chilean pesos a day (US $13) and I don't much care for it. If I can find a better one for not too much more, I'll take it. Otherwise, I may just have to make do. I'm downtown now on Avenida Libertador General Bernardo O'Higgins, named after the Chilean George Washington. I was amazed to find that Santiago has a much better subway than Buenos Aires. Its expensive enough, at a dollar, compared to 25 cents in BA. But I bought a senior ticket for 25 cents; I guess I'm eligible. Nobody said anything, though ordinarily, people are skeptical when I say I'm 69. Otherwise, I haven't seen much. Perhaps in the coming days, I'll be able to decide whether to stay my three months, or just go on to Peru instead. ------------ About the author Thomas Keyes: I have written two books: A SOJOURN IN ASIA (non-fiction) and A TALE OF UNG (fiction), neither published so far. I have studied languages for years and traveled extensively on five continents. Email: udikeyes@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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