Feliz Año Nuevo! Arriving in Chile

We arrived in the airport pretty much on time. It was weird being back, trying to recall if construction was there on our arrival earlier this year...or whether this was a remnant from the big shake that messed up our last trip.

Queue Número Uno
Upon arriving in Chile, visitors from US, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Albania have to pay a reciprocity fee. While paying a fee sucks, it is better than having to go through the hassle of getting a visa. But standing in line, we couldn't help play the old Sesame Street game of "One of these things is not like the other...". Curious to know the explanation behind adding Albania to the list.

Queue Número Dos
So we finally get through the first queue, go down the stairs and find an even bigger queue. Suddenly we flashback to our Patagonia boarder crossing with multiple confusing queues. Only with the traffic at the airport it was multiplied. So we begrudgingly entered the immigration control queue and wound through the lengthy snake of a queue.

Queue Número Tres Plus Plus
This was the lamest of all queues. In the world. We arrived at Alamo to pick up our rental. At this point I should note that we had already booked everything online. It shouldn't be that hard, right?

To start, there were only two other people ahead of us in the queue. Oddly enough, all the other car rental desks were pretty much empty. I guess everyone found the same better price we did.

A half hour passed - still no movement in the queue. Really?

Finally we get up to the desk. Our processing time? It had to have been 30 minutes. They requested the very same information we provided upon booking, coupled with long stares into some space we assume where a screen was hidden. Then they had to call out to the lot to determine what car exactly we were getting. (Note that when we got to the parking lot there were less than a dozen cars out there...and maybe a couple in our class...) Had this been in North America, Alamo would be no more.

Finally leaving the aeroporto
Well after two and a half hours after our plane landed, we finally left the parking lot. We promptly passed our first toll both of many, but at least we were on our way. Or so we thought. In hindsight I recall Valparaiso being THE place to be on New Years Eve...and thankfully we weren't going there. However, a good chunk of the road we were planning on taking was the same.

It felt like we were in some weird version of LA, with bumper-to-bumper highway traffic. Surrounding us were rolling barren hills, covered with the odd plant and cacti. And it was hot. (So hot, in fact, that Mike burned his non-driving arm.)

The most insane part was when we came to a toll station that had over a dozen lanes (Disclaimer - photo does not do the insanity justice, as I needed a wider lens). Now this would be great in most situations, except that this eventually filters back to a whole two lanes. I swear this should be found in the dictionary under "bottleneck". I gather under normal conditions it wouldn't be as bad, but in engineering school it should still get a big fat F.

The road less traveled
There was point on the journey where we were able to ditch and take a longer, but potentially more quick, route. After battling for an hour and covering maybe a fifth of our route, we were willing to take the gamble. So off the main route we head, and what a nice surprise it was. Well-signed, scenic and relatively fast-moving, it made the trip a lot nicer.

The Pacific ocean!
Finally, after over two hours of driving we made it to Algarrobo. A smaller town on the ocean, with a room overlooking said ocean, it was perfect. Not too touristy or traveled, it was a good place to relax and wind-down before subjecting ourselves to a slightly more intense pace.

We set out to find some food, as at this point we were starving. Walking up and down the main street we settled upon a smaller cafe place to eat some monster-calzone-sized deep-fried cheese-bursting-at-the-seams empanadas, and a small pizza. The empanadas were heavy on the cheese, but tasty. They paired awesome with the beer.

First up, an old favorite: Austral. The traditional lager, it was light and refreshing. It hit the spot.

Next we decided to try what the locals were having: Kunstmann, from northern Patagonia. We tried both the "lager" and "torobayo ale". The first was light and nutty; a great touch of complexity from a normally simple beer. The second was reddish, and drinking alone it was fuller and bitter. But with the pizza it tasted a distinct hazelnut - yum!

Celebrating the arrival of the New Year
Feeling the effects of travel we decided to pick up some bevvies for the room and just relax to the sound of the ocean. I was delighted to find the Austral Calafate and picked it up with the monster-bottle of lager (the only decent one they had). The New Year's festivities was just getting started by the time we got back, so along the crashing waves we were also serenaded by some Spanish acoustic guitar.

So Feliz Año Nuevo to everyone! 2010 has been an amazing year, and I only hope that 2011 can come close.

The Next Adventure : Chile - Shaken, but not broken

At least that is what we hope!

While our last trip got cut short and we weren't able to see the central Chile, we are going back again for our next adventure. Stay posted for adventures of wine, food, ocean, mountains, volcanoes, valleys and driving fun!