mountains and buses

so i know everyone has been waiting with baited breath for this new installment.  and i have heard rumors that i was in the hospital (not true).  so here's the whole story of last week.

monday i left la consulta, failed to heed adriana's warning to get a direct bus to mendoza, and had to get off after 1.5 hours so i didn't pee in my pants, wait an hour and get on the next bus.  such is life.  i arrived in mendoza, managed to arrange my buses to aconcagua and santiago, and went to the hostel.  monday night i met back up with Filip and Henrique, my two friends from the Hostel in Buenos Aires, and had coffee with them and then back to their amazing hostel (with a pool, courtyard, etc) for a big asado (bbq).  but i wasn't feeling great so i left early (midnight).  Tuesday, I decided i was tired of being sick so i stayed at the hostel pretty much all day reading "atlas shrugged".  went out for coffee and then Filip and Henrique came to my hostel for a big party.  Wednesday morning i took a bus to Penitentes, a tiny town in the mountains, checked into the hostel and went for a walk.  it has got to be the most desolate place i've ever been.  it's a big ski resort in the winter but now it's virtually empty, super dry, and incredibly windy.  i had a pretty terrible pizza at the hotel across the street (apart from food on the bus, this was the first crappy food i've had, so that's not too bad), and hiked around a bit (saw a hare run away from me and a bunch of birds).  Then Filip and Henrique came (totally surprised me, they were trying to come but i didn't think the timing was going to work for them).  

Thursday we went hiking in Parque Aconcagua.  It was great - pretty warm most of the morning with mostly clear skies and great views of lakes, waterfalls, mules and mountains.  we collectively took about 1000 pictures.  On the walk up, I met Luke Martin, who knows some of my Princeton friends, and is moving to Chile to do WorldTeach next.  We got to Confluencia (3300 m), at 3:30, just in time to have lunch, play volleyball with some of the guardaparques before the wind picked up and it started to snow like crazy (Henrique's first time seeing snow!  we made him eat some).  so we headed down the mountain in a hurry, a huge pack of mulesw ran by us super fast.  going down was definitely much faster than going up.  we had rain for some of it, but then it held off and it was pretty nice all the way back down to Puente de Inca, although the guys got caught in the rain again on the walk back from there.  We ate dinner in the hostel with Stefan, who was leaving the next day for 20 days to climb Aconcagua.  his headlamp was out so i sold him mine with the promise that he'd send pictures of the trek.

Friday, I went to Puente de Inca and waited for the bus.  and waited.  and eventually Luke showed up, he was going to take the bus the other way to a bigger town to get a bus to santiago (they only pick you up if you already have a ticket).  so he waited with me until the bus came and we talked the driver into letting him come.  after a LONG time at customs (which was probably the most impressive border crossing ever - so striking to be up in the pass in the midst of these incredible mountains), we went on down into Chile.  We arrived in Santiago in a HUGE downpour (apparently the first rain in 4 months).  I met up with Ana at her apartment and we went out to Tiramisu, a little Italian place in her neighborhood for Pizza Margherita and Carmenere (famous type of wine from here).  So great to catch up - I hadn't seen Ana since graduation in 1999!  Her friend Carmen joined us for dessert and coffee.

Today I was off to see the sights of Santiago.  Started with coffee and croissant and fresh-squeezed orange juice at emporio la rosa, on the side of parque Lincoln in Polanco, Mexico City.  Then to Bellas Artes, the art museum, to see chilean photography from 1930-2000 and recent Norwegian architecture, along with more traditional Chilean paintings.  Walked up the Jardin Japones, which has a huge hill and castle in the middle of the city so you can climb up for amazing views.  and then to Museo de Arte Precolombiano before coming back for my 2nd hot shower since Buenos Aires!

Hope everyone's doing well, i'm going to work on planning the next stage of my trip and hopefully uploading some pictures.