Los Andes

This weekend Karen and I took a much needed R&R retreat out in the mountains. Los Andes is the first city to have a mountain crossing through the Andes to Argentina. It’s also the home of the recently sainted Teresa and known for el Corazón, a hot spring spa. Our intention was to visit the latter. Los Andes is about 2 hours from Viña del Mar, a decent drive through the agricultural part of Chile. We saw vineyards, orange orchards, flower fields and some goats. We checked into the spa around noon and were fortunate to actually get a spot! Karen had called earlier and they said they were full since it’s a holiday weekend. (More to come on that I’m sure.) A day’s stay allows you full access to the pools, and three meals in their dining area.

The first thing we did was hike around the hills behind the buildings. You can see part of the snow topped Andes Mountains and a full view of the valley. These pictures to not do it justice. I hiked a little further up, while Karen sat in semi-peace (someone was listening and singing to Michael Jackson on a bench nearby—obviously celebrating his life in his own way).
The next thing on the agenda was lunch (remember, the biggest meal). We had two courses: smoked salmon (with cream cheese and caviar!) then cheese stuffed veal with potato stuffed zucchini and cheese. Soup, and dessert with coffee in addition. It felt like we were living the food network.
Naps, then swimming. Very relaxing. Then dinner (again, amazing.) A lesson in golf (the card game), catching up on the news and Wimbledon, then sleep.

In the morning we went and ate breakfast, then rushed to our scheduled massages (!), laid around some more and headed back into town. Who can recover from a weekend like this?