Santiago Day 2: avenuturas para las montanas

Cars waiting to be allowed back down at 3pm
Ad for Banff film festival in the background

Santiago doesn't get snow, but its residents love the stuff. We set off to go up into the Andes to see the ski resorts, Faradelle, La Parva, and Valla Lavado. There is only one road to get there and while it was constructed as a 2 lane road, the police make it a one way road. Each day, drivers are allowed up until 3pm, then down after 3pm. The road has 40 switchbacks to get up to the first resort village and having travelled them, I see the value in only allowing traffic one way. I can't imagine trying to get 2 vehicles around those corners at the same time. 

The road up is pretty. A few shacks. Some green. Lots of cacti. Then comes the snow. Just enough to cover the ground. Fortunately, the pavement is dry. I can't imagine trying to do that road

the road up

in snow. Hence the reason for the mandatory (sort of) tire chain rental. Before you get to the switchbacks, 

there's a piece of road lined on one side by a cliff face, and lined on the other by a wall of I'm not sure what. It's a metal wall and it hides little spaces for the people who eke out a living by corralling drivers into renting their tire chains. One can try to just drive past, but when PP and a friend tried to do that on a recent hiking trip, the police turned them around and they had to go back to get the chains. Today, when we approached the police checkpoint, we were waved through. Oh well, better to have been prepared I suppose. 

They're tobogganing with garbage bags.

The traffic up was fine. Once we got up to Faradelle, the road got stupid. People had parked everywhere and anywhere, not leaving much room for the rest of us to get through. We carried on through toward La Parva, and were doing pretty well until the tires caught on some slush and we slid. Should have put on those chains! Short version of long story, we backed partway into a parking spot, but our nose hung out into the road enough to block all the traffic travelling both ways on this tiny road. First PP drove while I tried to push. Then I "drove" (note: car is standard, and I haven't touched a stick shift since 1989) while PP pushed. No luck either time. Finally, a couple of local men decided to solve things and actually lifted the car back onto the road. Once we were safely stuck in traffic going the other way, PP realized the parking brake had been on the whole time (loops) and without that, either one of us could probably have pushed the car out on our own.

Time to go to Valle Lavado. Or not. Remember my telling you about those families who liked to come up into the mountains to play in the snow? They park on either side of the road. Not a lot of room left for tour busses or regular cars after that. At one point, we inched our way around a family in a blue car who had set up a hibachi on the road so they could have lunch.

We never made it to Valla Lavado. The police turned us around promptly at 3pm, whereby we sat in line until the parade started moving back down. This may all sound like a wasted day, but I don't feel it was. I spent the day up in the Andes. I saw snow in July. I witnessed lots of happy people enjoying winter in beautiful scenery. There are worse ways to spend a day.