Subject: My DFW-SFO flight had wifi access so I typed this email on my iPhone, but couldn't send it to a "group" -- so I sent it to myself and now forwarding it to you:
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11:26:10 AM
Howdy,
I'm writing this email from somewhere between Amarillo
and Lubbock, TX and 33000 feet up on my return flight from Dallas back
home... The trip isn't over yet!
When I woke up yesterday it was still raining in Santiago. The forecast said it would clear up by noon
but I didn't feel like waiting that long to go to the "local"
mountaintops -- of which there are several! So I started driving
aimlessly again...
Email interruption to note that the song "I
want to get away, I want to fly away" just started playing on my
roadtrips playlist!!
Email continued: I ended up driving north
on Ruta 5 again,thinking I might go to the town of Los Andes, and you can
guess where it is. Google "terrain" maps showed the possibility of
excellent scenery all around.
Roadtrips don't always turn out like you hoped :)
Sometimes they're even better :)
The
rain was really picking up with no signs of letting up -- the clouds
ahead were even darker! So I decided to turn around -- took an exit in
a town called "Rungue" and got so hopelessly lost trying to get back on
the freeway southbound that I decided to have lunch. 3 bites of
whatever that was and 1 can of sprite later, I was outta there and
found my way back to the freeway thanks to this iPhone :)
When I
reached Santiago it was still raining hard, and I decided to try my
luck south of the city, but took the wrong exit and ended up going west
-- the best thing to happen all day :)
Email interruption again for breakfast and to enjoy the NM and UT scenery!
Email
continuation: I was headed back to Valparaiso again, and I could see
BLUE SKIES ahead! (skydivers love blue skies but so do roadtrippers!)
About halfway through I went on a quest: a 30 km roundtrip detour to a
vineyard with wine tasting.
The wine tasting shop was "cerrado"
(closed) but the scenery on that road was just terrific!! And on the
way back I even saw a sign that at first I thought said "Almaden"
(the major street that I live off of) -- actually it was "Almacen"...
Anyway,
over to Valparaiso under bright sunshine -- this town reminded me a LOT
of Naples, Italy (complete with the 10-feet tall garbage mounds). The
city looks SPECTACULAR from a few miles away (passing just north of
Bryce Canyon National Park just now and our pilot is very knowledgeable
about it's history, even though he called Capitol Reef Natl Park a
state park!) ok sorry back to Chile... Valparaiso (and the mountains
behind it) looks exactly like the view of Naples, Italy (with Mt.
Vesuvius in the background) from the road to Sorrento on the Amalfi
coast...
Aarrrggghhh I WISH I WAS SITTING IN ONE OF THE "A"
seats in this plane....I'm in "F" and the captain keeps making
announcements that we're passing Bryce and now Zion on that side of the
plane!!
There is a circular road around the coastline just south
of Valparaiso and again this reminded me of the Amalfi coast in Italy
-- cliff homes overlooking the ocean below and road in between --
beautiful drive!!
After this it was time to get back to the airport to catch my overnight flight home...
I'm already looking forward to the Thanksgiving weekend trip to Peru :)
Until then,
Adios,
-yo.
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| September 6 | Contents | September 8 |