MORE SANTIAGO, THEN CAJON DEL MAIPO

It seems as if my travel itinerary, connected as it is this time to the itinerary of my agent and friend Andres Gabor, is offering me little time to post accounts of my travels here in Chile.  Before the weekend, Andres and I spent our time in Santiago.  And Andres was surprised that I had never been on the subways of this great city even though this is my sixth visit to Chile.

So, he suggested that we take the subway from here in Santiago Centro to Providencia, where we could find a decent place for lunch.

Here comes the subway train...photos by Andres.

In a typically crowded Santiago subway train - Andres said it was far from the most busy time of day...

In Providencia, which is a particular district in Santiago, we arrived at the Bar/Restaurant "Liguria," which had the day´s specials posted outside...

Having another pisco sour, this time with a sweet basil leaf included for flavor.  I am sampling a nice Chilean tomato and cilantro salsa on a cracker while awaiting my sandwich...

Finally - a monster sandwich with beef strips, onion and mushrooms, plus a large cerveza.  Very nice!

On Friday, Andres had his kids join us for the weekend.  They had started the first days of the new school year earlier in the week, so this would be their first weekend after classes.  With the addition of three more bodies to our group, we rented an extra single apartment which I moved into for the night, and then in the morning, we headed off for the Cajon del Maipo (Canyon of the river Maipo), where Andres had booked us into a "cabaña."

Following roads that led through the southeast part of Santiago, including the Florida district, our route followed the Rio Maipo into the foothills of the Andes.  Soon the city was far behind us as we ventured further into the pre-cordillera and beyond, to where the sheer scale of the mountains defies belief.

Since this trip into the Andes was intended to be a fossil hunting expedition, we stopped off while en route at a roadside rock hound stand.  Here Andres bought a beautiful little fossil - but just as a prelude for what was to come...

Okay, so those two pictures are meant to give you an idea of what the countryside looked like as we drove further up the canyon.  Here´s more...

We came upon a water pipe that was channeling snowmelt water onto the road - so we took the opportunity to wash off the dust...

At a certain point we came upon a massive glacier atop one of the mountains.  From looking at one of the canyon maps we had, I surmised that this was the so-named "Glaciar San Francisco."

Well, we reached our cabaña, and immediately had second thoughts as it was not a cabaña at all but rather, a single room in a larger building with one double bed and a triple decked bunk bed.  The ceiling joists showed that building codes (if there were any) had been ignored. There was no electricity (they only turned on the juice -generator powered - from nightfall until 1:30 a.m.  None of the electrical outlets worked, so Andres was forced to connect his computer in the host´s cafeteria so that he could upload his photos.

The food was okay, but the beds were not.  one had some kind of "droppings" in it - so Constanza slept in her sleeping bag.  Then there was the bathroom - terrible!  Leaky water, cold showers (advertised as "agua caliente") and dark.  In short, we were not pleased, and left after breakfast...

But everything considered, after we bailed out of the lousy cabaña (aptly named "Cabañas Chicos Malos"), we went out to do more fossil hunting - and believe it or not, little 7 year-old Cristobal found the best specimen of our whole weekend!  I guess it was beginner´s luck.

On our way down the canyon on Sunday afternoon, we stopped at a roadside restaurant where I offered to buy lunch for all as my treat.  For sure, I will not be seeing Andres´ kids again for a long time as they will be back in school now that the new week has started.  I will maybe be coming here again at Christmas.  Regardless, they all posed for me to take this very memorable picture:

Ooops!  I forgot to post a couple of other photos...This first picture is from a side trip we took on late Saturday afternoon - to the reservoir known as Embalse El Yeso, which represents the water supply for Santiago.

And finally, here is the view (views) from where we did our fossil hunting yesterday (Sunday).

Today Andres and I will change rental cars and then drive to Pichilemu, the Chilean surfing capitol, where we will relax for two or three nights.  More from there...Cheers!