[mrnyc]

yep - i read the climate in valpo is similar to california between sf and santa barbara. seemed about right to me. santi of course is nestled in a flat bowl surrounded by mountains, so it holds city smog in. they have days where you can't drive based on your license plate when it gets bad.

we had no traffic problems on route 68 in late july. i would imagine it being winter keeps traffic down a bit, although it was a school holiday while we were there and families were taking the kids to touristic sites. chile has an impressive bus system. all the inter-city busses we saw and made use of were new and comfortable.