We left
the Termas de Chillan hotel and headed back down the canyon to
the central valley of Chile. We had a significant drive to
our destination. The place that Kathleen chose was in
Santa Cruz in the Colchagua Valley which is the Chilean
equivalent of the Napa Valley in the U.S.
The photos below are what we saw.
We were
reasonably high in the mountains when we came upon a traffic
restriction. The local utility company was doing power
line maintenance and trimming trees that were in danger of
falling into the power lines. The fellow in this bucket
was both high up and way extended from the truck. He just
completed cutting the trunk of an offending tree but look at the
angle of the bucket! This would be very scary.
The view
out of our room to the pool and restaurant/bar.
View
from pool looking back at the rooms.
Kathleen
migrated the towel swans to our personal hot tub. We ate
lunch at the hotel and it was excellent. We also ate
dinner there as well and met the owner by happenstance. We
had a very nice, extended conversation that lasted several
hours. Basically, we were there so late that the staff
closed the bar and kitchen around us and went home. He was
a very nice fellow and he was with his girlfriend, so overall it
was a great evening.
Next day
we headed north again from Santa Cruz. We elected to not
take Ruta 5, instead cutting through the hills on the "backroad"
to Santiago. En-route we passed a large reservoir that was
part of the water supply system for the area. The farmers
and grape growers need substantial water for their products.
A bit
further north we encountered this satellite ground station for
the local telco.
Our
destination was the international airport in Santiago to return
our rental car. We got an Uber that took us to our hotel
for the night which was the W in the new portion of
Santiago. Kathleen reserved a room with a balcony and this
is the view from the room. The W overlooks Parque
Peru, visible in the foreground of the photo above.
Looking
generally to the southwest from the balcony we got a clear view
of Santiago's tallest building. At 60+ floors, it is a
wonder of seismic engineering. All of Chile is subjected
to huge earthquakes and the infrastructure must be resilient.
The
afternoon that we arrived, the air was rather "thick" with urban
pollution. Santiago has over 6 million residents and the
anti-pollution laws here are nowhere near as stringent as they
are in the U.S. in general or California in particular.
That said, the air is much better than it was in 2005 which was
the last time we were in the area.
The
rugged front range of the Andes is only a few miles from the
center of Santiago.
A number
of the nearby buildings had large satellite downlink dishes.
Mild
weather was brewing in the distance. Santiago does not get
much rain, if any, during their summer.
The W
Hotel has a roof pool on the 21st floor, so we went to
investigate. The view was great, but the sun was
intense. We had a couple of cocktails and were forced to
retreat due to the heat.
A good-sized freeway runs just to the west of the W, visible in the photo above. The ridge in the upper left of the photo above is part of a large city park.
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Photos and Text Copyright Bill Caid 2024, all rights
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