Chao South America

The last few days I spent in the Vina del Mar area were somewhat uneventful, as my trip was winding down, and I was mentally preparing for the journey home. I visited the neighboring town of Valparaiso, which was quite the contrast to the somewhat modern Vina del Mar. Valparaiso is an old port town with colorful old Spanish buildings scattered throughout the city and hillsides. It seemed to be a little rough around the edges, but had a lot of character. I found a little bar there that offered 161 beers from around the world that drew my attention. I didn't have time to try all 161 of them sadly, but settled for a German beer on tap and a pizza. I was given a tour of the really old downtown fire station in Valparaiso by one of their firefighters that didn't speak any English. Not sure I understood everything that was explained to me, but I got the gist of it. Later that day there was a bunch of commotion along the road to the beach as some lady was screaming from the top of her lungs while running down the street chasing a man. Turned out he had snatched her purse back by the beach and was on the sprint with her in chase, but not exactly closing in. A few people caught on to what was going on and started in on the chase. He was headed towards a really busy street with a lot of pedestrian traffic as well, so although I'm not exactly sure how the chase turned out (although curious), I would imagine he'd end up being caught. My last day in Vina I just relaxed and enjoyed my time being in the sunshine and warm weather. Now I'm not much of a complainer, but I can say by the time my time was up in Chile, I was definitely tired of a few things: 1.) Car alarms.....everybody has them and they were always going off. 2.) Horns honking....as in impatient drivers stuck in any kind of traffic, not giving a warning honk, but laying on the horn in anger. 3.) Beggars....they were all over the place, and didn't even have anything creative to show. I mean common people, at least give me some kind of comical sign as to why you are so unfortunate, or show me a card trick, sell me a pack of chicklets, or give me some kind of reason that I should just hand over my money to you. 4.) Second hand smoke....everybody here smokes, which I don't have a problem with, but there was no getting away from it. You go to the beach, you're surrounded in smoke, a restaurant, internet cafes, hotels, sidewalks, you name it, it's smokey.

When I left Chile, I had to go back to Mendoza to get my luggage from my climbing expedition. It seemed almost like a waste because I had to take a bus from Chile to Mendoza, then get right back on a plane and fly from Mendoza back to Chile to go home. I took the night bus from Vina to Mendoza, which ended up taking about 8 1/2 hours, putting me in Mendoza at 6 am. Customs went much quicker leaving Chile than coming in. Just like that I was packing my stuff up at the hotel in Mendoza, taking a quick nap, and enjoying one last Argentine Steak dinner before I was again sitting at the airport. I had to sacrifice 3 of my MSR gas containers at the airport when they wouldn't let me check them as they were, because they had the smell of gas, and I couldn't fit them under the sinks in the bathroom to wash them out. All my flights went well. The view over Aconcagua (pic below) coming from Mendoza to Santiago was amazing, as we were flying just about level to the summit, and just to the south. I could identify all the landmarks that I'd recognized from the climb from the aerial view. The rest of the flight was, well as good as 26 hours worth of flying can be I guess. The final leg home was clear, and I could see all the cascade volcanoes (in picture below) really well. Throughout the trip I managed to successfully solo and summit Aconcagua, the first of the seven summits for me and tallest mountain in South America, visit 3 different countries on my 5th continent, leaving Africa and Antarctica yet to see, become familiar many more cultures and ways of life, and even make a few lifelong friends along the way. I'd have to chalk all that up to another exciting and complete travel adventure. I am now home and will be talking to many of you soon. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for many more.....Keith.