The Finer Things

Paved Roads. Fine Wine. A metro system. And even a Starbucks. These are just a sampling of some of the amazing things that I found and saw on the recent leg of my trip through Chile and Argentina. In short, I got to experience something that I had not seen in quite some time, a little thing called modernity.

After our time in Bolivia, Elizabeth and I crossed the Bolivian border and entered the next country on our journey, Chile. I think the best way to describe Chile is to compare it to a family. If the rest of Latin American Countries are the youngest sibling who is a little crazy, a lot of fun, and tends to have money problems on a regular basis; then Chile would be the smart, confident older sister who has her act together and knows it. Simply put, Chile is one of the most modern countries in South America and was a welcomed place to brush off the dust from Bolivia and enjoy some of the finer things in life.

Click Here to see where we are on the trip!

 Welcome to Chile!

To see all of my pictures from Chile and Mendoza Click Here!

The change between Bolivia and Chile was noticed immediately upon crossing the border. Whereas Bolivia has primarily dirt roads and traffic warnings that consist of the crosses lining the road, Chile has paved roads that makes one feel as though they are floating on air and even has guardrails on the highways (whaat?!?!).  After getting over the shock that such amenities existed in South America, we boarded a 24 hour bus ride to the capital of Chile, Santiago. After some restless sleep, playing the alphabet game about 50 times, and watching the Sorcerer’s Apprentice (yes, it’s even worse than the name sounds) not once, but two times we finally made it to Santiago.

Bird's eye view of Santiago

To give a brief intro to Santiago, it is probably one of the most up and coming cities in South America. It’s very wealth by South America standards and could even teach NYC something about effective public transportation. In fact, in recognition of Santiago’s (and on a broader scale, Chile’s) success in its transition from a third to a first world country, it was recently visited by Barack Obama on his tour of South America. Add to that capturing the world’s attention when 33 miners where saved here and you have a pretty good recipe for success.

While I was excited to see the city of Santiago, I was much more excited to visit my cousin Becca who is currently studying abroad here. Becca is a junior at Fordham University in New York and made the (obviously) smart decision to study abroad in South America. I’m definitely glad she made that decision as it was an incredible feeling to meet up with her. Apart from the obvious joy of seeing a family member, she was the first familiar face that Elizabeth and I had seen in over two months, a very welcome change of pace! Becca became our tour guide of sorts, showing the sites of the city and even introducing us to her host-family and friends (who of course immediately proceeded to tell in me detail why Chile is better than any other country I had visited in South America). It was great to get an insider perspective of the city and get to know her friends. We even watched one of her friends complete the Santiago marathon which was run when I was there.

Becca and I in Santiago!

The other very exciting thing that awaited us in Santiago was the arrival of our two remaining travel companions, Jessie and Phil! Jessie is my cousin (Becca’s sister) and Phil her boyfriend and my good friend. After a 24 hour trip which included losing their luggage and an unexpected layover in the jungle of Brazil, Jessie and Phil arrived safe and sound, if not a little bedraggled.

 From left: Jessie, Elizabeth, me, and Phil!

After a few days spent decompressing in Santiago, we all bid adieu to Becca and headed for our next destination, Argentina. Like Chile, Argentina is one of the wealthiest countries in South America, and due to early European immigration, has a very European feel to it. I’ve never been to Europe (a little too rich for my blood), but I’ve been told that Argentina is as if you took Europe and transplanted it in South America. Perhaps in part due to this influence, Argentina is world famous for its steak and wines. Two things I was absolutely going to have to liberally try before leaving.

Welcome to Argentina!

After crossing the Argentina – Chile border, our first stop was Mendoza. Now if that name seems familiar it’s probably not because you’re exceptionally good at South American geography, but more likely due the fact that Mendoza is the wine capital of Argentina (think Napa Valley in South America). Specifically for all you future sommeliers out there, Mendoza specializes in Malbec and Torrentes, both phenomenal grape varietals.

After getting ourselves oriented in Mendoza we decided to change things up a bit and do some horseback riding to get a better view of the nature surrounding nature. Seeing as how I had already traveled by plane, bus, train, and boat, thus the only mode of transport I was missing was horse. The horseback riding was a blast, and apart from the beautiful views we ended the day with a traditional Argentine barbeque accompanied with some guitar paying!

 Phil finding his inner cowboy

Sun Setting over the mountains near Mendoza

Unfortunately for me though, upon arriving in Mendoza I came down with a rather nasty stomach bug. The type of bug that feels like someone sucker punched you in the gut and then proceeded to put a cork-screw in your stomach. This made me keep things pretty low key for a couple of days, and eventually I let Elizabeth convince stubborn me to take an antibiotic which miraculously helped out quite a bit (who would’ve thought). After recuperating from that bit of unpleasantness we of course had to celebrate, and what better way to do that than a wine tour around the wine country of Mendoza!

 One of the many beautiful wineries we visited

Rather than being wimps and hopping in a car to do this (which probably wouldn’t have been the best decision on a wine tour), we decided to rent bikes and visit the Mendozan wineries in that fashion. It was an absolute blast, and Phil and I even decided to get a little crazy and rent a tandem bike, which did tend to elicit some odd stares from the locals. The combination of phenomenal wine, beautiful views, and good friends made for an absolutely great day. Although, riding the bikes did seem to get progressively more difficult as the day went on..

 Phil and I looking good on the tandem bike

 Sun setting over the vineyards

The next day after working off the effects from a successful wine tour, we headed off to the final destination for my trip, Buenos Aires, where we are going to rent an apartment for a month together. Hard to believe the trip in come into its final stages! More to come from Buenos Aires soon!