Filed under: chile, environment, mountains, nature, south america, travel, video, water
On our first weekend in South America we departed Santiago to head into the foothills (footmountains?) of the Andes. It was a stunningly clear blue-sky day, as if the continent had washed its natural wonders in preparation for our visit.
This might horrify some readers who enjoy building a romantic picture of my travels in mind, but rather than give you a detailed account of the day in writing I’m going to share a couple of videos.
I ate some fresh ginger before we departed upwards; my remedy of choice for motion sickness. Why pay money for a dried, powdered form of something you can get fresher and more potent from the market?
I find it easier going upwards than downwards for some reason, but for me the killer is going side to side.
Thankfully perhaps, my friend Emma who preserved some of my ABC broadcasts in Port Lincoln didn’t preserve the one in which I did a live cross from a tuna boat. It was all I could manage not to throw up on the microphone.
Either thanks to the ginger or the lack of sideways motion, or both, I was fine on the bus ride into the Andes. So fine in fact that I filmed some of it. Thanks to Sony’s image stabilisation technology it doesn’t actually look as horrific as it was, so if you’re game you can watch here:
Once we arrived Tim and I departed the group for a bit of a hike in the fresh morning air. It was such a relief to get some fresh air after a week in smoggy Santiago. Pine-scented air accompanied by the sound of cascading water was even better.
We had a fantastic lunch with some Chilean red wine organised by Expats in Chile, who even managed to cater for the vegan despite no prior notice. Then we ventured off again, the two of us, up a different trail.
The trails were divided by a river, so you needed to choose early on which side of the river you wanted to spend your trekking time. We tried both sides, but after starting our afternoon trek on the opposite side to the morning we realised the trail was now entirely in shadows.
The Andes looming over us meant that although it was 3 in the afternoon our walk of choice would have no more sunshine. So we decided to turn back and return to the river crossing, where we could opt instead to trek on a higher path that caught the afternoon sun.
On our way back we came across a smaller point in the river were a group of Chileans were crossing with children:
It was an impressive operation, but one I wasn’t game to try.
I think at least once a week one of us says “you would never see than in Australia!” Whether it’s wet mops carelessly left on supermarket floors, or giant potholes in the footpath with no warning. But in this case I’d say you wouldn’t see this on an Australian school excursion. If you were hanging with the Irwin family it might be another matter.
South Americans give brazen Aussies a run for their money.
European beaches are so unlike Australia’s rugged, vacant coastline. The sand is grey or nonexistent. If you lay on your towel or the beach itself you seem like a pauper, because of the array of deck chairs and umbrellas on offer.
In Australia, children are put through Nippers so they can survive the angry surf. In Europe, children are thrust into the sea with floaties, pool noodles or on giant pedalling slide contraptions, and many never learn to swim properly, despite the annual beach holiday. Hence on the day there was actually a bit of swell in Salobreña we suddenly found ourselves alone in the water.
I love beaches, and although, of course, European beaches don’t live up to Australian expectations, they have their moments. I was charmed by the beach huts that have developed along the Salobreña foreshore, which appear to take advantage of the sugarcane fields that flank the coast.
