From Santiago:

First a small warning: this blog-spot is new to me and glitches will occur. If you see something strange, it probably was not intended as a posting!

Jim asked the very question which has been bugging me since arrival: how close ARE these awesome mountains, and how high. I was prompted to get out my map and study a bit. Somehow the internet did not answer the question to my satisfaction, but my "Explore the World: South America - the Andes" map (from Market Street in SF) is pretty fantastic. Here are my findings:

Santiago is really near the center of Chile, on its east-west axis. In fact, it appears to be closer to the Argentinian border than to the coast. I had always thought this place to be on the edge of the Pacific, with its famous old port of Valparaiso. I turns out that the very highest ridges in all the Andes range are actually closer (in part) to Santiago than is any beach.

Santiago is less than 100 km. inland from the coast. The Argentinian border is perhaps more like 90 km. in distance going directly east. But it is an amusingly jagged border (I suspect some interesting history here!). Parts of Argentina appear to lie closer to the city - perhaps evn 75 km. in distance (to the northeast). A little bit of Argentina even lies west of Santiago (in the south). In determining the border, many adjustments were made to "split" the Andes down the center, but how does one find the center point of such a vast range? Sometimes water flow made the call, at other times mountains were simply divided in half (map-wise) or skirted entirely. There may still be bad feelings about parts of certain peaks which failed to make it into Chilean domain. A friend hinted at this and I hope to learn more . . .

(Any geographers out there, let me warn that I am sitting in Starbucks making "measurements" with my pen on a map which is far too large to spread out well . . . I apologize for any mistakes and am happy to hear corrections. I would very much like to find a good topographic map, but no luck so far!)

So, back to the question on what tall mountains we see, and how close.

We are up so close to the base of the Andes that I am certain I cannot currently see any of the tallest peaks; they would simply be obstructed by the front range. But, with a bit of height (like a 21st floor roof?), or even a little distance - like moving to the city center - I think our vantage point will improve dramatically. Mike believes he has seen the tallest peaks previously from his office or good view points in the city (some of which are small hills to our west). But it has been either overcast or smoggy most of the time since our arrival, so I have not tried these outings yet: I will as soon as possible. Happily, the local "front range" is so very close that it is rarely obscured; and here the peaks are in the 3000+++ meter range. So looking out on 10,000 foot snow-capped mountains on a cloudy day is not bad!!! And they cast a gorgeous rosy pink glow over the city when the sun sinks in the west.

The highest mountains in the entire Andes range lie close to Santiago. Cerro Aconcagua, the famous highest peak of the continent (at 6960 km), is in the north east and at the same distance as Valparaiso. But other closer peaks compete well for highest: Cerro Tupungato is almost due east of the city and claims a height of 6570 m. Travelling north along that Argentinian border, most high peaks on the map are well above 6000 meters for a northward distance of at least 200 km. I need to mention that these peaks are not (mostly) isolated spectacular specimens standing well above the surrounding range (as they are in the Pacific northwest). No, these peaks are just the high points of the tallest range within the Andes. It seems that "the Andes" is actually comprised of various mountian ranges: some volcanic, some not so, some undecided, even. I am glad there is still some mystery left! That makes it all the more exciting.

Enough about mountains: many will be tired of this! But here are two websites for those who would like to read more:

http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/Region.php?region=SoAndes

http://www.skimountaineer.com/ROF/Region.php?region=CenAndes

That's all for now!