The day after she arrived in Buenos Aires, the three of us were sitting on the bus to Mendoza drinking wine. It`s a 12 hours long drive from Buenos Aires to the wine district Mendoza so we bought VIP-chairs so were able to sleep the night through – and the next morning we woke up in Mendoza.
In Mendoza we booked in to the nice Hostel Wanca. The same day, we went to the beautiful wine district around Mendoza. You simply can`t visit Mendoza without going on a wine tour! We borrowed a bike which had a motor on it. The thought was to make it easier for us to go from the one bodega the other. But it all became much more inconvenient for us instead. Everything was wrong with these bikes, but it was worth it somehow – we had a lot of fun and good laughs….
We got wonderful wine at the Rutini Bodega! Frøy seemed to be satisfied….
We also got the chance to meet the production Director of the Rutini Bodega. He kindly gave us an short interview.
The day after the plan was to get a rent-a-car in Mendoza and pass the border to Chile. In the morning we packed our belongings and headed for the car rental office. When we came to Alamo, we were doing a lot of paperwork, and we apparently lost focus for a few seconds. We had all our bags around us, we thought. But meanwhile, as we were focused on the paperwork, someone came behind us and grabbed our rucksack with all our camera equipment. It was gone, and it all happened during a few seconds. We lost our cameras and a lot of pictures. It was a big crisis for us, the world seemed so unreasonable and cruel. But it was important not to get paralyzed by it and move forward – Frøy and I went to the police station and reported the crime, Bjørn Christian went around looking for new cameras. We had to have new equipment – FAST! We had some tough days following and the mood wasn’t exactly on top to put it that way. But we managed to cross the border to Chile the same day – a beautiful drive!
In the evening we came to Santiago, and headed for our final destination – the apartment resort San Antonio del Mar, one hour drive from Santiago. www.sanantoniodelmar.com
Our mission was writing an article about this place. We met the manager who took us around the area with a sightseeing boat.
The mood was raising and we just enjoyed this beautiful place! Bjørn Christian and I also swam across the swimming pool. They had also very tasty chocolate fondue. The first night in the resort Frøy and I were sitting in the apartment when suddenly the ground started to “boogie”! We were terrified! There were no doubts in our minds – it was an earthquake! We ran out of the apartment, trying to get down. We stayed on the 11th floor, so it was very frightening. I ran around in panic without shoes, trying to find the stairs. I was concerned about Bjørn Christian and hoped he wasn’t in the elevator - that could be very dangerous. Suddenly we heard a “pling”, and out of the elevator Bjørn Christian came – having no idea on what was going on. We ran in a hurry down the stairs and finally got our feet on the ground. Thank God - we were safer! We went to talk to the guards – but he just smiled to us and told us not to worry. This was common for them. But the next day we found out that the earthquake had actually reached 5,3 on the Richters Scala.
In spite of our experience with the earthquake, we enjoyed spending time at San Alfonso.
We managed to buy a new camera in Santiago the day after we came to San Antonio. Although we didn’t get a new canon camera the one we bought was better than nothing. The world kind of got back together again.
It was nice to be in Chile, which is the financially best developed country in South America. They have a high standard of living, and even fjords. No wonder we felt familiar with this country, although the people in Chile like to consider themselves as South Americas “Great Britain”.
After a couple of days we were on the road again. Our next stop was La Serena, approximately 5 hours drive north.
We arrived in the evening in a charming Hostel in the center of the city. And the owner of the Hostel reminded us very much of Santa Claus. We remembered suddenly that Christmas was right around the corner.
From Buenos Aires we crossed the continent from the Atlantic ocean to the Pacific. Of course we had to go bathing in the Pacific! In La Serena we had a nice lunch at a restaurant on the beach, and after having lovely seafood we ran into the sea.
The people in La Serena, and the rest of Chile, must every day cope with the fear of Tsunami and Earthquakes. Nobody knows when the next Tsunami will appear. But they have prepared for the day, at least to some extent.
Soon we were back on the road, which we really found nice. What a sight! Amazing nature surrounded us on both sides of the road.
Our next stop was Vicuna, where we planned to stay the night over. And we were happy we came to this place. This little town was just something special! Hard to explain by words - it was mysterious, peaceful and nice! The evening sun dressed the hills in light red and this lovely bridge welcomed us.
The Hostel we came to was almost like taken out from a Zorro-movie. And it turned out that the Zorro production team had been in the Hostel to check the possibilities to use it in one of the Zorro movies! Frøy was sitting outside on the balcony and was waiting for Zorro to come.
The day after we left Vicuna with heavy hearts, promising ourselves to return one day. We fell deeply in love with this place. Today our mission was to climb the mountains with our little Volkswagen Gol and cross the pass on approximately 5000 m.o.h. This was the road back to the border of Argentina. With our fingers crossed we started climbing the Andes.
On the border – about 5000 m.o.h the air became very thin. I fell asleep in the back seat and Frøy felt a little dizzy. We actually felt drunk all of us! We were happy we had managed to cross the border!
We were back in Argentina, and not far from the border we came to Pismanta. We stayed the night on a Spahotel here (http://www.pismantaspa.com.ar/), and celebrated “Lillejulaften” .
The day after, we left Pismanta in the morning. It was Christmas, but outside it was 28 C so it was unbelievable that we were soon having a Christmas dinner! We arrived in San Juan and checked in. We also booked a nice restaurant where we could enjoy our Christmas dinner later that evening.
We had read about “Difunta Correa”. And wanted to go there and check out the place.
And I was really something to remember, very emotional to be there.
The Deceased Deolinda Correa (in Spanish La Difunta Correa) is a semi-pagan mythical figure in folk-religion, for which a number of people in Argentina, especially among the popular classes, feel a great devotion. It has spread, in a limited way, to neighbouring countries such as Uruguay and Chile.
According to popular legend, Deolinda Correa was a woman whose husband was forcibly recruited around the year 1840, during the Argentine civil wars. Becoming sick, he was then abandoned by the Montoneras. In an attempt to reach her sick husband, Deolinda took her baby child and followed the tracks of the Montoneras through the desert of San Juan Province. When her supplies ran out, she died. Her body was found days later by gauchos that were driving cattle through, and to their astonishment found the baby still alive, feeding from the deceased woman's "miraculously" ever-full breast. The men buried the body in present-day Vallecito, and took the baby with them.
Once the folk tale became known, the inhabitants of the nearby areas started visiting Deolinda Correa's grave, building after time an oratory that slowly became a sanctuary.
The cultus to the Difunta Correa is that of an unofficial popular saint, not really recognised by the Catholic Church. Her devout followers believe her to perform miracles and intercede for the living. The survival of her child would have been her first miracle.
On our way back we listened to Bjørn Christians Christmas cd, and we all sang along with the music. “ Do they know it`s Christmas time at all?” of Paul McCartney was the ultimate favorite and it went over and over again. We sure could identify with the text – we hardly knew it was Christmas…!
The Christmas dinner was not how we were used to have it home. Instead of “Lutefisk” and “Ribbe” we got Pineapple and ham – but it tasted good and we had a nice and different Christmas evening!
On Christmas day, the day after – Frøy took the bus back to Buenos Aires to explore the city. She was very interested to spend more time there. We stayed in San Juan one more night, and celebrated “Første juledag”. We had planned to eat at a nice restaurant, but it turned out that everything was closed, so we ended up in a pizza bar, eating pizza Tropicana with brown, melted sugar on the top. (We got pretty amazed by this local speciality) Wuuuhhæææææsj……! Anyway, the wine was exceptional(as always here) and the dinner ended up veeeeery cheap.
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