Tango Show

Lynley videoed part of the show. Hope you enjoy it.

Final few days in South America

On Monday we got up early (6.15 am) to catch the 8.30 am Buquebus fast ferry to Colonia (Uruguay). We had to check in at 7.30 am. We got the subway from Lima station to Retiro, then walked.
The ferry took one hour to cover the 60 odd km's, so we arrived in Colonia around 9.35. The day was sunny and warm.
Colonia was established by the Portuguese as a port town and fort. For many years it competed with Buenos Aires as the important port. It was used as a smuggling base to get materials into Argentina. This resulted in the Spanish often laying siege to it over the years. Eventually it was ceded to the Spanish and its importance as a port declined. Brazil tried a few times to capture it.
The old part of the town still has remnants of the fort, plaza and houses. We spent about 5 hours looking around and through the 5 or 6 museums. It was a very quiet, laid back town. Something we enjoyed.
Had lunch at a great eatery "El Drugstore", sitting outside under the trees.
After lunch we did a little shopping. The leather work was of a very high quality.

We caught the 5 pm sailing back to Buenos Aires. Got back in time to witness peak hour traffic (foot and car/bus) incredible experience.

In the evening we went to a cafe "36 Billares" (on Ave de Mayo, just down from the restaurant "Plaza Espana") to take in a tango show (with a meal). The show went for about 1 hour and included music, tango singers and dancers. Very enjoyable. Lynley was given a rose but declined to dance with the male tango dancer.
After that we took a walk around the House of Congress before turning in for the evening (around 11.30 pm).

The next day, Tuesday was to be our last as we left for the airport around 3pm. The morning we spent shopping for gifts for the kids. It was cold and very wet. Spent time down in Calle Florida and Lavelle, before returning to Maggie's B&B to pack.
Luis ran us out to the airport, the check in was quick and easy, we got boarding passes all the way to Auckland.
The flight to Santiago took about 2 hours, we then had a 3 hour wait before leaving for NZ. The flight took 13 hours, but it seemed to go very quickly. Arrived in Auckland around 4.15 am. Customs and immigration was all over in 10 minutes (very few people got off the airplane in Auckland, the majority were travelling through to Sydney).
We had to wait around Auckland airport until our 9.30 flight to Wellington, arrived at 10.30. Karla picked us up, we dropped her off at work, then paid a quick visit to Regan to drop off a few things. Coming over the Rimutuka Hill we hit a little bit of a snow fall. The temperature was below 3 degrees. It was cold and wet the rest of the day. So it was fire time. Lit a fire, showered then slept for the rest of the day.

Our 4 week adventure was over.

Argentinian folk music

Sunday. we spent the best part of the day at the San Telmo fair, did a little buying. Watched a bit of tango dancing. Late in the afternoon we walked down to the docklands area. From there we took the subway from Retiro back to Ave de Mayo. Dropped into the cafe "36 Billards" to book a tango show for later on in the evening..but no such luck. However, they did have a folklorite typical of Argentina starting in a few moments. So we had a coffee and watched it..all 1 and a half hours of it. It was great.

In the evening we ate at Plaza de Espana (a great resturant). Yomorrow we are going to Colonia (in Uruaguay) for the day. So it is an early start (6.30).

A couple of videos

Attached are two videos. One of the Iguazu Falls and the other of a Argentinian folk singers taken this afternoon in a very old cafe (about 130 years old)

Iguazu Falls

We left from Retiro bus station at 7.40 pm. The trip was scheduled to take around 16 hours (about 1600 km's). We had decided to travel "super cama", which meant a bog soft seat (like a lazy boy), that retracted to the horizontal position, with a pillow and blanket..so one could stretch out and sleep. The ticket included an evening meal, breakfast and drinks..they offered whiskey as a night cap. Each seat had it's own TV station with access to 6 channels...so we caught up on a few old movies like the latest James Bond and Terminator 4 etc. We arrived in PTO (port) Iguazu around 11.30 the following morning...it was raining. Found our hostel Iguazu House, dropped our bags, rested, then walked back to the bus station for a meal (according to the guide books the station restaurant is one of the better ones in town..we had a great lunch (and reasonable). We started to look around the town and find out how to get to the falls. Every thing closes at 1pm until 3pm. So we headed back and checked in. Then it started raining again.
Thursday was sunny, we got a local bus the the falls and spent about 6 hours there..they are amazing, got to walk right out over them. I got mugged by a bird (I was holding a medialuna -a piece of bread -in my hand when this bird flew down and took a large piece of it..will include a photo of the type of bird. Also got to see Coati's mugging people at the food outlets in the park, will also include a photo of them.
In the evening we strolled around town, had a great Italian meal. Tomorrow we planned on taking the bus to Foz do Iguazu (Brazil) to see the falls from that side.
Friday, we woke to thunder and lightning, with torrential rain, so that said goodbye to that idea. So much rain fell it started to find its way into our room..we had quiet a little lake by the time we checked out. It finally stopped raining around 11am, so we did a little shopping before our bus left at 3.10 pm. Got a super cama back to Buenos Aries same deal, spoilt. Arrived back at Retiro bus station around 8.15 am on Saturday morning.

Retiro Bus station is huge, so many buses leaving for all parts of Argentina as well as Brazil, Chile, Bolivia Paraguay etc etc. It was like an airport. Three levels, bottom level - Departures, second level- arrivals and top level - ticket offices - hundreds of them.
We caught a subway from Retiro back to Maggies. Had a shower etc.
So, that little side adventure is over. Next one is on Monday, we are going to Colonia (Uruguay) for the day (that is across the River Plate) for the day on the fast ferry (1 hour as against the 3 hour slower ferry),

Buenos Aires

Sunday was a warm sunny day, and began our exploration of BA. Started with a walk down to Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosa (Pink House) official home of the Argentine president. Got as free tour (in Spanish) of the Casa Rosa. Very impressive. After that we hit the San Temlo Sunday market. It started just of the plaze and went for miles. Everything was for sale, also had free tango dancers performing. Spent a good 3 or 4 hours in the market. In the afternoon we went to Calle Florida- one of the main shopping malls in BA. It also went for miles and everything on sale. Evan and Karla would enjoy shopping there. Toured one of the shopping complexes (that had a ceiling mural), very American. Had a great piece of cake (well a fruit tarte to be exact). It was a 2 for 1 deal (so we both had a drink and piece of fruit tart for $23 pesos - say around US$ 7 in total or NZ$9.
In the evening we walked up de Mayo to the Congress building had ate. Once again it was very reasonable (about $30 for two meals and a 1/2 bottle of wine.

A great first day in BA.

Monday. Today we enjoyed travelling by subway. Got out to San Martin and had a look around, then we walked down to the Retiro Bus terminus (extremely large) and we brought our tickets ti Iguazu (tomorrow night). We went to Eva Peron's museum, had lunch at the restaurant. Then found the museum is closed on Mondays. Walked around Plaza Italia. Finally found a Japanese garden, so spent some time resting (had sore feet by now).
Today was a very sunny warm day. Got back to the B&B around 6pm. Rested and had dinner around 9.30 that night. Great ravioli. Great wine as well. Today, Lynley is sure someone tried to get into her back pants pocket on the crowded subway.

Tuesday. Visited another B&B being set up by Maggie, it will be nice once it is up and running. Today we went to La Boca (the mouth). Very interesting. The water was highly polluted, had a few rusting ship hulls lying around the place. Visited an excellent art museum. Arrived back around 4pm to pack our bags, as we leave at 7.40 pm (a 15 hour bus trip- but we a going first class - seats recline 180 degrees, serves supper and breakfast (with bubbles, wine or whiskey). Includes movies ,the lot. Looking forward to this experience.

Maggie's B&B is great. Excellent breakfast and we pretty well have free run of the place. The B&B is located in the heart of the textile district, so there are tailors shops and fabric shops every where.

Iquique (Chile) to Buenos Aires (Argentina)

The hotel we stayed at in Iquique (Barros Arana) was excellent, we had a very large room, with the best shower so far (the pressure was great). The room only cost $34000 due to there being no tax (foreigners don't pay tax). After a good breakfast (included in the price) we went for a walk down to the beach. Boogie boarders were having a great time with a series of reef breaks (Hamish would love it). Further around was a a very sandy beach with a good beach break as well. As we were flying to Santiago in the early afternoon we had to leave for the airport at 11am. The ride (all 40Kms) was nothing but desert on one side and Pacific ocean on the other- building boom was obvious, with lots of high rise apartments being constructed. This place is a summer retreat for both Chileans and Bolivians, after all it was part of Bolivia until they lost it to the Chileans during the 1834 Pacific war.
The flight done to Santiago went well, that was after the young boy was removed from our seats. He refused to move for his parents so a air hostess had to be involved. He ran riot the whole 2 hours to Santiago (never seen such a spoilt child).
We had a few problems checking in at Iquique as our booking number had been changed. Once that was overcome it was plain sailing through to BA.
I missed a dunking doughnuts outlet at the Santiago airport (bugger!!!).
The flight to BA took 2 hours, it went very well. The documentation for Argentina was enormous, we had to fill in a health questionnaire over H1N1 as well as the usual tourist visa and customs documents (we had to declare the cell phone right down to make and serial number).
After all filing all the documents in, they didn't bother to collect some, customs guys just sat there and waved everybody through.
Maggie (an English woman who runs a B&B here in BA) had arranged for a driver to pick us up which was great. The trip in to the airport took around an hour. We finally arrived at Maggie's B&B around 12.30 am. Didn't get to bed until 2 am. In our drive in all the cafes etc were doing a great trade as people don't eat until around 10-11 pm.
So tomorrow we will begin exploring BA.

San Pedro de Atacama

We had two nights in this great little town...somewhat overrun by foreign tourists. Great selection of tour agencies as well as eating houses. Our accommodation (Hostel Lickna) was very good, we had a big room with 3 beds plus en suite for $35000 pesos per night (exchange rate US$1 = $545 Chilean pesos). We arrived from Calama around 1.30pm, we couldn't meet the time requirements of 2pm for the Cactus tour of Valle del luna and valle del muerte, so has to settle for a later tour with another company. There were 12 of us on the tour and we were the only two oldies on it. Got to meet a nice Brazilian guy and a Spanish girl, both spoke English pretty well. The tour took us to some great places, however the wind was at gale force (hard to stand at times) which meant you were sand blasted every time you ventured out of the van. We were taken to a vantage point where we could see the Atacama salt plain, with volcanoes in the background (we were in the Andes). After that we were taken to the Valle de muerte (Death Valley) where we walked down the canyon. The name came about because of language, the first priests in the area were from France and they mixed up Valley of Mars to Death when converting to Spanish (well that's what the guide told us). The last part of the trip was to the Valle del Luna (Valley of the moon). The landscape was just as you would imagine the moon. We climbed up beside some large sand dunes (not allowed on these, we were in a national park) to sit on a ridge and watch the sun set, getting the different colours of the the rocks. Altitude got to me (around 2500metres above sea level), struggled a little going up the incline. Once up it was worth it, mind you every time you exposed yourself above the ridge line you got sand blasted. AS soon as the sun set, the temperature dropped. This part of the Atacama gets seasonal rain (in summer i.e December/Jan. They call it the Bolivian winter).
We had a very nice meal that evening, great wine as well.
On Thursday we left at 6am to the Salar and Andean lagoons. The hostel had given us a small breakfast the night before which was much appreciated. Our first stop was at laguna Chaxa (salt lakes) where we got to see three different flamingo species feeding (they live on the brine shrimp that feed off the algae). It was very cold (but no wind). Had breakfast (excellent) then we went on to a small town (Toconao) and onto an Even smaller village (Socaire) which had an adobe church (we later had lunch here). Then it was on to two Altiplano lakes - Miscanti andMiniques. Surrounded by volcanoes. We walked between the two lakes and were lucky enough to see a couple of small herds of Vicunas. Any walking was difficult because of the altitude (around 4500metres). This group were all around our age and very interesting. We discussed drug running in Bolivia (that is where our driver grew up) and this lead onto the politics of Chile and Argentina in the 1970's and 1980's- where they had military dictators and where a significant number of people just disappeared. One of the group was part of a European investigation team that visited Chile during that time, he said he felt most unsafe. Anyway we had a great time talking about the current unrest (the local Indians in southern Chile want some recognition from the government. They are undertaking some violent protests at the moment, which is troubling a few middle class Chileans as they feel that the military is just watching and may in the future have another coupe.
The tour was great. Can't recommend Cactus tours enough. The tour guide was great also, very knowledgeable. He is planning to travel and work in NZ very soon (Chileans up to 30 can get a 1 year work visa for NZ).
Friday, we had a great breakfast sitting in the sun. Our bus to Calama left at 1pm, so we had time to have another look around the town and for Lynley to do a little shopping.
The bus trip to Calama was very good. Had a two hour break at Calama before our 6 hour bus trip to Iquique. Lynley fell for a little street dog with big brown eyes (she wanted to adopt it and take it back to NZ).
The trip went well, bus not to the standard as the first, but they showed a great movie (Transporter 3- in English), which helped past the time. Arrived in Iquique around 10.30, got a taxi to the hotel (Lynley had turned down a ride with a lady who was on the bus and concerned about us - just a language problem). The hotel room was very big. The night porter directed us to a local take away for a late meal. The guy behind the counter was friendly and couldn't do enough for us. Had a great sleep.
The tours: The Valle del luna was around $8000 pesos each plus $2000 park entrance each. The full day one was $35000 each plus $6000 park entrance fees each (but did include English speaking guide and b/fast and 3 course lunch.

Updating our travels

Monday Sept 6. Mariela went to university (her class was from 7am to 11am). She is doing two degress at two different private universities. She took us to one when she paid her fees. They pay by the month. Todays temp was hot 37 degrees with at time gale force winds. Every time you went outside it was like walking into an oven. Spent the morning around the house. In the afternoon we dropped of Gloria at kindergarden and went into town. Did a little shopping, then had coffee and cheesecake (very nice indeed, plus an interesting Bolivian coffee, their version of a latte.

Tuesday Sept 8. We flew out of Santa Cruz at 11.30am. Cost us US$24 each in departure tax. Customs and immigration was an effort. Initially we got turned back because we were early for the boarding. Duty free was a joke as was the cafe. Any way LAN left on time and we arrived in Iquique around 1.15 pm. Immigration and customs was quick and easy. The weather was overcast with a cold wind blowing. After a questionable hamburger for lunch we decisied to try and get an earlier flight to Antofagusta. We were flying by Sky airlines. So we go, Lynley used her spanish and got our bags checked in all the way to Calama. But, when we checked our tickets we were not on the earlier flight but our orginal one which was at 6.50 pm. So we spent 5 cold hours sitting in the airport (hard seats, poor cafe etc.) The two flights to get to Calama were quick, both around 35 minutes flying time. We arrived in Calama around 10.15 pm. Very cold. Two flights had arrived so there was a big crowded around one small baggage conveyor. Got the bags, but couldn´t find a taxi. Finally a Chilean invited us to share his taxi to the hotel, which we were greatful for. Our hotel El Mirador was excellent.
Wenesday. Had a small breakfast at the hotel (South Americans are not big on breakfast and dinner, but have a very large lunch). We then wnet looking for a money exchange house (Casa de Cambio). Got a poor rate. Then found a bus station and booked our bus to San Pedro de Atacama for 12 noon. Walked around Calama square etc for a while. Then caught the bus. Arrived at San Pedro around 1.15pm. Checked into our Hostal. The booked a few tours. One tomorrow at 6am for the flamingos and lakes (mountain)for Thursday. In the afternoon we took a tour to their equivalent to death vallry and moon valley to see the sun set. It was cold and very windy, but well worth it.
San Pedro is a very tourist orientated town, full of travellers of all nationalities and ages. Great selection of eating places as well as tourist agencies. Had a great meal with wine, then got some well earned sleep. Time to go.

Up country

Have a few days to catch up on. Well....last Thursday was a rest day, the morning it rained, this relieved the temperature some. We went to a very large market to purchase some vegetables etc. You can get anything there, they even had a whole section dedicated to tailors (you can get a suit hand made). Mariela exchanged some US $ to Bolivinos (about $7.00 Bobs to a US$). While at the market we were shown the old family home (over the road from the market), the family still own the building but now rent it to a Bank (they pay rental in US$). The reason the family moved out to the outskirts was noise and crime. They now live in the 9th circle. Santa Cruz is laid out in circles, with the first being a ring road around the old part of the city. As the city expanded the town planners appear to have laid the city out in circles, with ring roads around the suburbs, The current 9th has a whole lot of new subdivisions. Marilea and her family own one of these.
The traffic is something you have to see and experience to appreciate the chaos that reigns. I would be reduced to a nervous wreck in a matter of minutes. Approx 90% of the people drive second hand imported cars (mainly from Japan, which they convert to left hand drive locally, and the USA). The predominant brand is Toyota. They also use CNG and petrol as fuel).
Thursday was a rest day, which is just what we needed.

Friday.. we left Santa Cruz and headed up country to the towns that have the Jesuit missions (they are about 250km's away. The road was paved, two lane, but full of potholes, some so big you would break and axle if you hit it at speed. The first village we stopped at was San Ramon, the church was small but had the characteristics of Jesuits (these missions were established in the early 1700's, later on the Jesuits were expelled by the Spanish. The second village was San Javier, this was a church and convent. Currently it is being repaired. Got to look inside, the wood beams etc was amazing, the church was very big (and cool inside). We then travelled on (by now we were in hill country- with large farms (Hacienda's) grazing Brahma cattle and water buffalo. We stopped and bought buffalo cheese then continued onto the town of Concepcion. Mariela had booked us into a lovely traditional hotel called Oasis Chiquitano (cost $180 Bob's per night). We got an en suite with hot water and air conditioner. In the evening we visited the church. This was amazing. The church was established by Father Martin Schmidt between 1753 and 1756. This Jesuit introduced Barroc music. This still played today. They also make violins, harps etc all based on what was introduced by Schmidt (he also wrote music, which is still performed on special occasions).
On Saturday after breakfast we toured the museums which included where they build /repair the wooden statutes etc. We also visited the house where Hugo Banzer (a popular army dictator) was born. It also had a museum dedicated to Hans Roth (Swiss) who spent 40 years designing and building Church's for the indigenous Indians around the district which is called Chiquitanos.
After lunch we visited a lake (created by a dam). We then returned to the hotel and spent the rest of the day swimming in the Hotel pool. The woman who owns the hotel is a life long friend of Mariela's parents. So in the evening we shared a meal.

Sunday, had saltenas for breakfast, then returned to Santa Cruz (5 hours drive).
Getting to the mission district we had to drive across a very large plain. It seemed very productive. Saw large fields of sunflowers, soy and maize. The sunflowers and maize is converted into oil to be sold overseas. Saw some sheep, and lots of cattle. Santa Cruz and the surrounding hinterland appears to be the economic heart of Bolivia.
Every little village we passed through was holding market day, they were very busy, and you could buy any type of fruit (tropical) and vegetables you want. The only group missing were the Mennonites. Being Sunday they were at church.
There are a number of Mennonite communities around Santa Cruz (they stand out by the European look and by driving horse and carts, plus the way they dress. Apparently they came from Germany. Talking about Germany, one of three villages we visited was the home to Hitlers personal photographer (he is now dead, but thought highly of still).

We arrived back around 2.30 pm. Angela (Mariela's sister) had organised lunch (another big one) which included Duck, green banana (which is cooked in its skin), fried manioc and roast potatoes.

With that big lunch we retreated to have a little siesta.

I has been a great weekend, got to see some amazing sights including Tors (called Las Petra's - the stones). The soil was very red and apparently gets redder as you get closer to the Amazon.

Now we have only tomorrow before we fly to Iquique in Chile.

Biocentro Guembe

The morning dawned warm (30 degrees) and sunny, with a warm wind blowing very briskly. Mariela's mum and dad took us into town for a breakfast saltenas (a traditional breakfast - a type of pie) which are only sold until midday. They were excellent. I had pollo (chicken). After this we drove out of town to spend the day at Biocentro guembe (and Mariposario resort). It is infact a resort cum butterfly park. It covers 24 hectares, has a big butterfly enclosure as well as an aviary. We were about 4 weeks too early to see all the different tropical butterflies, but did see a number of very colourful ones. In the bird enclosure we saw McCaws and Toulcans plus numerous other colourful parrots etc.

After that we went to the resort section, there they had numerous swimming pools, a fishing lake as well as a kayaking lake. Not too many people were ther, so we had a good time swimming (refreshing after the hot humid weather. Mariela and her daughter (Gloria - 13 months) joined us as did her mother. It was a great way to spend the day. The resort was being used to film a few episodes of the Bolivial version of "The Bachelor" (spelling might be a little off here). Saw two of the female contestants.. very attractive. Apparently the bachelor is a Bolivian who was born and continues to live the US. Apparently very wealthy.

We got back around 4.30 pm to have a late lunch. In the evening Mariela had arranged to take us to a resturant in town that had traditional folk music. Mariela's mother and her husband Jose Carlos also joined us. The meal was great, we had fish from Lake Titicaca, local Reisling wine and free champange (the resturant was celebrating 20 years. The music turned out to be 1960 -1980 western music (Police, Mama's and Papa's etc. Then we had a set of Argentinian/ Boliving music.. the two signers voice range was amazing, the locals and Argentinian visitors really got into it. The day finished around 1 am, when we finaly got to bed, shared with our spider (see the picture.

I have also included a few photo's of Mariela and Gloria plus one or two of the park.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia

Believe it or not, but it has been 33 years since I was last in Santa Cruz, and 29 years since Lynley and I was last in Bolivia, so our visit was greatly anticipated.

The journey started at 3am with Pablo driving us to the Santiago airport, he stayed with us and guided us through the electronic checkin system.

The LAN flight left at 6am. It took 2 1/4 hours to fly Iquique, then another 1 hour 40 minutes to Santa Cruz. The trip was good. Cant praise LAN enough. The airplanes a clean and modern and they run to time.

Immigration and customs in Bolivia was all over in 5 minutes. Mariela, her baby daughter (Gloria) and mother was waiting for us. It was great to meet up with her again.

The trip to her house took 10 minutes. The family now live a secure complex in the 9th ring (1st ring is the original Santa Cruz), so they now live in the outskirts of the city. Their family complex is in a gated community. The family live in a newly built complex. Marila's parents have a house, Mariela has a house/apartrment and Mariela's sister Angela has a house/apartment. There is a swimming pool, kids play area, maids cooks etc. We have been placed in our own little apartment, with air conditioning, ensuite etc. Really very nice. The family has made us very welcome. We had a big 3 course lunch then had a rest.
Late in the afternoon Mariela drove us into the main plaza to change money. Driving on the road would leave me a quaking mess, but Mariela handled with ease in her sisters big Jeep. While in town we stopped for drinks as the temperature was 30 degrees with high humidity and very warm wind blowing. Cant recall the Spanish names for what we ate and drank, but I had a traditional dish made up of banana and a beef jerky and to drink I had a drink made out of dried peaches.
In the evening we had a family barbeque. Mariela's mother's sister and cousins attended, Mariela's husband did the cooking. An excellent night, which was a little cooler.
So our first day in Santa Cruz was excellent. It is a busy bustling city of over 1 million people. The majority are driving Japanese imports (they change the steering over to left hand drive here in Santa Cruz). The roads and roading system are not for the faint hearted. How they don't crash I will never know. There is plenty of honking of horns and flashing of lights. You just see a gap and go for it, hoping your car is bigger than the others. Most cars run on a mixture of CNG and petrol. It is very cheap, Petrol is NZ$0.75 per litre (approx) and the CNG is cheaper. See very Little BMW's and Merc's, seeing the state of their roads I understand why.
Today has Bean fun. Tomorrow we are having saltena's (a national breakfast pie) then we are going to an environmental park for butterflies and birds. Sounds like another great day is being planned.
As we were going to bed we noticed this large but fantastic looking spider, now Lynley has informed me there is a little frog sharing the shower with us....great.

The photo (top right is from Monday night -at the Chilean Good Boys floor show.

Last day in Santiago

The day was overcast and drab. We met Hamish around 2 pm and travelled by subway to the Moneda (Presidential palace - which was bombed by the military in 1973 to remove the first democratically elected communist/socialist president). Tried to get a tour, but unfortunately all the public museums etc are closed on Mondays. Walked over to the plaza de Armas and then went to Santa Lucia. Went to the top, good views. It is the sight where Valdiveria set up camp/fort in the 1500's.

Stopped for 'onces' ie cafe and postures and watched the mass of humanity on the move.

Got back to the apartment around 5pm. In the evening Pablo and Camelia took us to a resturant that included a floor show of typical Chilean dance and music - the English translation is "The Good Boys". It was a great eperience, great entertainment and food. Got back round midnight, finally got to bed at 1am, with a 3am start to get checked in at the airport by 4am. Sorry to be leaving Pablo, but it is time to move onto Bolivia, Santa Cruz to be exact and to visit Mariela (who stayed with us in 2003) and her daughter.

Random thoughts/ reflections on this part of Chile

After 3 days here, I offer these thoughts;

a large chunk of the population are under employed. Everything is labour intensive. Take for example parking cars. There are no parking meters. On every street there are parking wardens (both official and unofficial). The official ones collected the parking fee. They dont cover both sides of the street, but rather have one person for eah side of the street. They don't cover the whole street, but rather have a person for each block (about 50 metres long), so a lot of people are employed (low wage I presume). The unofficial wardens work the free parking areas (which is anywhere really other than official parking zones. They guide in parking, offer to wash your car (at a price), ensure it is secure while you are away, and stop traffic so you can leave again. All for a donation.
Even local fast food joints have large numbers of workes, who takes your order, finds you a table etc.

The second reflection, this is still a nation of instant coffee drinkers, no filter coffee (well I found one place yesterday at Vina del Mar). But that aside, all the coffee houses offer instant coffee.

Third reflection: This si a country for stray dogs, they are everywhere, they wander everywhere, they foul everywhere, but people tolerate them, feed them etc. They all looked pretty healthy, but sleep everywhere (you have to watch where you walk.

Fourth: They don't believe in using indicators when driving, they see a small gap and go for it. I'm glad I am not driving.

Sunday another town

After breakfast - very European (ham and cheese with little pieces of bread) we drove to Valpraiso, the main port of Chile. What a busy palce..very long local market full of evrything you ould imagine (from what I could see out the car window). Found a car park then went up a funcular (cable car) to explore the old part of town. I should mention that Valpariso is built on hills, so the houses appear to cling to steep hillsides. Up amongst the house the roads are very narow and windy. All the houses are painted in bright colours, very spectular sight. After a time we caught another funcular back down. This mode of transport is under threat of disappearing and are under some kind of international environmental protection. Pablo assures me the local government is doing something about protecting them. Anyway we arrived at the port section, saw the Chilean Navy headquaters and a great monument celebrating Chile's defeat of Bolivia and Peru in the battle of the Pacific (in the 1870's I think). Bolivia lost its Pacific coastline as a result of losing this war. Anway saw parts of the Chilean navy (all british brought).
We then headed back to the car and drove to Vina del Mar for lunch (seafood empanada's). Which were great and very filling. Had real coffee and churros on the beach, had a good walk around Vina. The town is very american, all the chains are there - burgerking, dominios pizza,mackers, starbucks etc. around 7pm we left, had just under a 2 hour freeway (well tollway) drive back to Santiago.

Saturday, the beach

After breakfast we left Racagua. Tried to get a park near the Plaza de Armas in Racagua, but there must have been something on...cars and people everywhere. So we drove back to Santiago to pick up Camelia (Pablos girlfriend) then hit another set of toll roads and headed towards the coast. The day was sunny and warm, well after the fog had burnt off. Very large vineyards everywhere. Which reminds me, had a great Chilean Sav Blanc last night with tea.

Arrived at Pablos dad's aprtment around 2 pm. The apartment is right on the beach, no road in front, just a sandy walkway. The water was blue and inviting, but Pablo assured us the water was very cold...this was supported when we watched two girls run down to the water, as soon as they hit the water they did an immedisate stop and retreated back up the beach.

Had a great lunch, hamburgers with lots of mashed avocardo and tomato. We then walked around the beach..lots and lots of high rise apartments. And lots and lots of stray dogs, really thought one or two of them had a death wish as they wandered across the road, which was very busy.

In the evening we went out for a fish meal..it was very good. Salmon, swordfish and some local species called congario (spelling could be a bit off). Had loco (abalone) and scallops for entree.

Day 1 in Santiago

After a slow start, we meet up with Hamish (a NZ student friend of Karla's who is on exchange), we walked over to catch a cable car up San Cristobal. It was closed for repairs. Hamish suggested we walk around and catch the funicular up to the statute of virgin Maria. Well we walked half way round this hill in very sunny warm weather (took about 1 to 1 and a half hours), but we achieved the exercise. While the atmosphere above the city was polluted we did see the Andes (covered in snow) plus aview over a very large city (population 5 million or more). We then caught the subway back to Providencia. Stopped at Dominio's (as suggested by Pablo) for an Italian hotdog and fresh fruit drink. Very good, would recommend the place.
We then packed our bags as we were off for the weekend. We drove down to Rancagua (about 100 km's south of Santiago. The road was a toll road all the way. An example of private public partnership, where you had to pay every 15km's either electronically or at booths. According to Pablo the roads were built by Spanish companies so they have to get their return on investment ($6000 pesos approximately NZ$18). Rancagua is where Pablos mother lives, so we had dinner with her and Pablos younger brother. Their house is a large mansion in a gated community, very, very large by NZ standards. The meal was excellent, fish and shell fish.
With it being Lynley's birthday she was showered with gifts. Pablo and Hamish gave her flowers and Pablos mother gave her a birthday cake and perfume. Extremely nice of them.
While driving down we detoured to see Pablos mothers gym, a very big business and she is planning to build another on.
Racagua has a population of 300,00 it is a mixture of old and young buildings and narrow streets. The whole trip (once we left Santiago was through horticulture - vines, kiwi fruit and orchards. Avocardo's were $400 a kilo (that is NZ$1.25 ).

Tomorrow we are off to the coast to stay the night at Pablos fathers apartment. the name of the town is Algarrobo, it is south of Valparaiso and Vina del Mar. Looking forward to that.

Until tomorrw...ka kite ano.

Finally here in South Ameica

Well, Chile to be correct.
The flight over went well. LAN Chile was surprisingly a good airline. While the flight (11 and half hours) began to drag out the entertainment selection was very good. The flight, which arrived 10 minutes early, took a very southern route. The on board flight plotter showed we flew close to Antartica before turning north to Santiago.

Pablo picked us up from the airport and gave us a brief tour of the city before taking us to his apartment, for a brief (3 hour sleep) rest. In the late afternoon we took the subway downtown for a typical Chilean meal. We ate at the Catina El Hoyo (apparently has an international reputation). The meals were rural in basis being pork and beef with potatoes. Very typical. It was a very pleasant experience (somewhat marred by smokers- in Chile they allow smoking in sections of the resturant). After that we walked around the central part of downtown Santiago. Visited the Moneda (where Allende Goosens) was deposed in 1973. Visited the Plaza de Armas (vrey busy) anda display about Pacific culture (Easter Island and other pacific island nations - NZ included). To do this sightseeing we had to use the subway, very glad to have Pablo and his girlfriend - Camelia acting as guides. The subway is very modern and effeicient, all so very packed as it was peak hour travel.
The weather was very sunny and warm, the evening very mild, like a NZ summer night. Most enjoyable.
Getting accoustomed to the rapdid spanish and currency and prices will be a somewhat drawn out affair I am affraid to say.
The other noticeable feature of Santiago is just how modern it is, also how americanised it is, all the fast food outlets you associate with both NZ and US are everywhere. I did see a few shantytowns on the river bank while driving in from the airport.

Now it is time for sleep. Tomorrow we are driving south to visit Pablo's mother and his home town.
All in all it was a great day 1 in Chile and South America (and of course Hawkes Bay won their game against Tasman- who were in Wellington airport as we were flying out).
Ka kite ano

Our 2009 adventure

After a few months of planning we are due to leave for South America. This trip will see us visit parts of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. After some 29 years we are returning to South America, with both excitement and trepidation. Our first port of call is Santiago, Chile where we are visiting Pablo (our AFS student from 2002), then we fly to Santa Cruz (Bolivia) to visit Marielia (AFS student from 2003), then it is back to Chile to spend time in the Atacama desert before flying on to Buenos Aires.

We hope to keep daily blogs.