Elder y Hermana Lawson are from Meridian, Idaho. They are office missionaries in the North Mission. He takes care of the finances like Elder Hughes and she does a bunch of reports that our assistants to the President do here in our mission.
We were amazed at the area that they live in. We are definitely in the best area of Santiago. The area around their mission office is very humble and even a little scary. I don't think we would be walking if we were in that mission.
The Portillo Ski Resort is about 100 miles north/east of Santiago. Santiago is at 1765 feet above sea level and we are heading to the resort which is 9450 feet above sea level. We will be doing some climbing this morning.
These three wheelers are all over the city.
And we are out of the city!
This area reminds us of southern California/Arizona
But first we had to go through the airport tunnel and then through the mountain. This was only a two lane road!
At least the airport tunnel is a 4 lane road going the same way!
The light at the end of the tunnel
This is a casino. We even saw slot machines in several of the small towns in this area. These are the first that we have seen here.
We drove through farmlands. Mainly grapes and orchards
So fun to be out of the city!
There has been and is lots of mining in this area also.
This is an opening for a mine
It was fun to see the clouds. Here in the city we don't see them
There are statues all over this country like this. It commemorates the victory through Chacabuca where San Martin crossed the mountain from Argentina to defend the Chileans in the final battle for independence in the north and center of Chile
More of the countryside
Workers in the orchard
Copper is one of the main mining ores here. We stopped to look at the pots and pans ect. that were on sale at this little roadside tienda
the train heading to town
We think it was from one of the many mines in the area
the orange rows are fruit laid out on tables to dry, looked like apricots from a distance
We followed the river all the way to the mountain. We have been climbing steadily all morning.
Fun to see the water clear also
some of the houses along the way
the bus stop
The river has cut a crevice through the rock
and the train track goes through the mountain
Los Lawson's y Los Hughes
And I joined the group
hydro plants along the way
on both sides of the road
We are definitely getting into the Andes Mountains
Lots of worship places along the way
We are driving through an open tunnel where they have built a roof over the road so the rocks and snow won't damage the road
As we came to the second one, everyone in the car decided to get a foto, even the driver!
We didn't know that we would go through many of these before the day was over.
Another mining entrance
When we saw our GPS, we got a little nervous!
I tried to take a few fotos, but I was so nervous that I pretty much just looked straight ahead. We are at about switchback #8. The switchbacks are numbered all the way to the top.
The mountains around us are huge
This is our view from #16
There are 29 switchbacks to get to the top. I got these next fotos off the internet to show some winter shots of this impressive road. This is one of the 4 major highways that pass from Chile to Argentina
The trucks go up and down this road to and from Mendoza, Argentina as long as it is open
But sometimes it is closed! They average 27 feet of snow! On days like this, the skiers are flown in on helicopters.
4 more of the open tunnels that we get to pass through. Each one is on a different curve
The water flowing from the snow that is still on the tops of the mountains.
And we made it to the Portillo Ski Resort and it is cold up here
9450 feet above sea level and we think we climbed at least 5000 in the last 30 minutes!
They are busy painting in preparation for the ski season
The foto turned out so dark because of the sunshine streaming in the windows but we had a wonderful lunch at the resort
The lobby with the St. Bernard
fotos of some of the outbuildings and rental cottages
The Inca Lake. We are about 9 miles from the Argentina Border.
The pool and hot tub
As you can see, the wind is blowing and it is cold here.
It was to warm up to about 55 this afternoon but with the wind I don't think it made it.
more housing, rental and personal
We drove on over to the Argentina border and saw this other resort on our way
We are at the border
We drove through and turned around to re-enter Chile before the checking station
There are 35 named runs and 14 lifts at Portillo. The highest lift is at 10860 feet above sea level. The World Ski Championships are held here and the national ski teams from the USA, Austria and Italy train here during the northern hemisphere summers.
This lift is above the switchbacks. They have a place for you to park about half way up and you can ride the chair lift on up the mountain.
On the way up the mountain, Elder Hughes saw this painted on the side of the road so we had to stop on our way down to get a foto of it.
Hermana Hughes' first name is Karen!
I have to admit that a few times I had to close my eyes on the way down. That has to be the steepest road I have ever been on. What an adventure!
As we drove down the road to visit the little town of San Felipe, Elder Hughes thought he saw a sign for a museum so he pulled into the entrance - -
But the guard was not pleased to see us. It was a military base and we were not invited in. Elder Hughes told the guard that we were tourists and wondered if we could see the base. Needless to say, we turned around and went on down the road.
The Lawson's wanted us to go to San Felipe to see the unique church that was there, only it must have been in another town as it was not here. Sightseeing with old people can be interesting - oh - I am one of these old people, when did that happen?
San Felipe was a cute town. We had ice cream before we started our way home. At the town square, we found the 10 commandments
The ride home seemed to go very fast. We dropped off the Lawson's and arrived home about 7:30. What a drive. We had a wonderful time with these 4 Senior Missionaries. I think we will plan other adventures in the future with them.
I wish that the fotos could show the majesty of these Andes Mountains. They are so rugged! It is so fun to be able to see some of the amazing sights in this country. What a great day. We send our love.
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