Home » Chile » Smoggy Cities, Snowy Mountains and Spectacular Sunsets

So after a 16 hour flight from Sydney with a transit stop in Auckland we arrived in Santiago, Chile. A horrendously polluted city which has a constant layer of smog over it blocking any view which there might be of the Andes.

Smoggy Cities, Snowy Mountains and Spectacular Sunsets

James and Anne Walkington
2006-08-08 19:28:40

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some huge mining air vents. We had reached around 2800m when James wanted to get over 3000m. So we set off up a very steep snowy slope and rather pointlessly turned back at 3000m. The snow was starting to get hard and icy - making James nervous.

Another night was spent in the refugio
Because of all the smog you get brilliant sunsets like this one from Cerro San Cristobaleating good food. Our plan was to do a three day backpack deep into the Andes over the next few days. We set of in good weather and even saw our first condor flying high above us. After a very long walk we still hadn't reached the glacier which we were going to and as it was well above the snow line we camped at 2800m on some scree. After an exciting and windy night we awoke to perfect blue skies. We left the tent and set off up the remaining hill to the Morado glacier at around 3200m. We were the only ones for miles and after ploughing through knee deep powder snow after a further two hours we eventually reached the glacier (Anne had lasted only about 30 seconds trail breaking through the deep snow and so by the time we had got there James was knackered). The hanging glacier was huge and the lake at the base was frozen solid and was very spectacular.

After walking back to the tent we continued down with all the gear and camped on a muddy site at the join of two roads. Had fantastic sunsets and saw more condors.

Next day we walked to some hot thermal springs at Banos Colinas which were in a spectacular setting overlooking the mountains and volcanoes. After a swim for over a hour we retraced our steps back to the refugio where we spent a further night eating excellent food and drinking camenere wine (a grape which was thought to be extinct until 10 years ago).

Yesterday we got a very cramped bus back to Santiago after hitching another lift in a truck.

Today we are looking for a Chilean plug, birthday card and have to pay for the bus which we are getting tomorrow down to the Lake District. Also have put our clothes in for a wash!!
Anne is starting to smell!

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