Author Topic: Pics of Chile - an afternoon drive (dial-up un-freindly) (Read 217 times)

Sparks · « **on:** October 22, 2006, 02:14:51 PM »

I've off the board a few weeks. Been sent to Santiago Chile on an urgent job. Well we managed to get a couple of afternoons off so I rented an Explorer and we decided to check out a couple of the dirt roads up into the mountains - only 1 1/2 hrs from the hotel in central Santiago and - wow ! Pics are a bit big I'm afraid and taken with a Pentax pocket "point and shoot"

This was the second trip:-

We started up the valley and already the view was impressive

The closer we got to the snow the better it got

The drop off the edge of the track looked higher than this .....

We were haeding for a lake which looked interesting on the map but we had to stop just short ...

Continued ...

Sparks · « **Reply #1 on:** October 22, 2006, 02:21:59 PM »

So this was the end of the road ....

Notice we had to turn round or reverse back an F*****g long way. We turned but it took some time back at the hotel to get the leather of the drivers seat out of my arse .....

The lake turned out to be a resevoir - how they built it up there beats me !

On the way down we noticed this glacier wall way up on a ridge ..

Just an amazing trip and done in less than a full afternoon !! The dirt road stretch was 24km - 15 miles ?? Incredible. If this is what the Andes close to Santiago is like then Southern Chile must be breathtaking.

Sparks

Nilsen · « **Reply #2 on:** October 22, 2006, 02:40:35 PM »

beautiful!

ByeBye · « **Reply #3 on:** October 22, 2006, 03:09:16 PM »

Nice pics!

I know what you mean about drop offs and stuff not translating in the pics, but that looks pretty steep to me.

Looks like a fun trip.

eskimo2 · « **Reply #4 on:** October 22, 2006, 03:30:17 PM »

Very nice; looks like Alaska.

rogwar · « **Reply #5 on:** October 22, 2006, 03:52:03 PM »

Chile is a nice country. I go there a couple of times a year for the mining industry. The Atacama desert is impressive in the north as well. Thanks for the pics!

mora · « **Reply #6 on:** October 22, 2006, 04:07:17 PM »

Very nice!

I must rethink the passing of Chile on my itinerary.

Sparks · « **Reply #7 on:** October 22, 2006, 04:12:34 PM »

Rogwar - you might know what it is they were mining up in this valley ? It was pretty small scale - a white almost chaky mineral but quite heavy and fairly easily shattered. (Not chalk though). We saw them hauling trucks of it away to what looked like a small crushing plant at the bottom of the valley.

Thanks for all the nice comments guys. This place seems like a bit of forgotten jewel.

One thing we weren't so sure about - part way up was this abandoned compound. Our initial thought was an abandoned mining settlement but it looked more "labour camp" - did Pinochet have this kind of thing

SFRT - Frenchy · « **Reply #8 on:** October 22, 2006, 04:15:09 PM »

Sweet, thx you for the pics.