Don't Cry For Me...
Loyal Readers,
By hokey Santiago, there's a lot to catch up on... I write today from Santiago Chile, where we've spent a great few days looking around in preparation for our rapid ascent to nearly 4000m flying to La Paz on Wednesday. We last left you awaiting word of Cordoba, which held us in thrall for 5 days, while we were still bang smack in the middle of Argentina.
We were staying at a Hostelling International place there, very large and for the first time in part populated by some English speakers. Cordoba is a university town, through and through. Of the population of 1m, almost a third are students. The big claim to fame is that the Jesuits (those crafty busy folk you heard about earlier) founded the first university in Argentina there in the 17th century, and it's still considered very prestigious to study there today. It's very liberally dotted with churches (over 40 within the central city alone), laid out in a grid (surprise surprise), and chock full of bookshops to service the huge student population. There's a lot of good modern architecture there too, from the redevelopment of the Capuchino Chapel, to the rocking art museum, which are both worth a visit.
You won't be surprised to know that we usually slept too late to catch breakfast in the hostel, but quickly found Cafe Quixote, and enjoyed their Super Lomo four days in a row. Fuelled by these mighty carb and salt batteries we had a good wander around the centre of town. The Jesuit Block, the modern name for the original Jesuit university, is one of the attractions in town, and we took a 
little tour around there with the highly recommended Ignacio as a guide. As it's low season for us westerners here, we were the only two people he took round, and there was much yakking and asking of questions as we had a look through the complex. They had a huge collection of ancient manuscripts, including a very rare complete volume of the Polyglot Bible. Now, we loves ourselves some good books, and some of them were almost 500 years old. What we saw however was only about 1/5th of the total the Jesuits possessed, the rest being destroyed when they were unceremoniously booted out of the country in the late 18th century. The tour was crowned with a trip to the church, which despite some looting early in its history still has an amazing wooden vaulted ceiling, hand build by a Flemish boat builder. Muy fantastico!
We also took a little trip out to Alta Gracia, to take in (more) Jesuit 
ruins, and see the house Che Guevara lived in until his teenage years. The ruins were, as always, lovely and ancient, but Che's house was fascinating. I struck my best pose next to his bust, but it's harder than you think to capture that whole revolutionary spirit in just a look. I need more practice... Loads to learn about him tho, which I didn't have any idea about. Good to see lots of cool memoriabilia, his letters, and his passport from when he snuck into Bolivia disguised as a bald bespectacled civil servant. A great start to his mission, but we all know how that one ended...
We caught the local bus back to Cordoba and boarded our overnight bus (another mighty semi-cama) for Mendoza, arriving pretty fresh and ready. We wandered 10 minutes to Hostel Lao, and enjoyed a super relaxing wait in their garden while our room was cleaned up for us to check in. A good vibe abounded from the moment we arrived, they had a couple of very eccentric dogs, great staff, a big yard, and the kicker for us - hammocks - check out Ana kicking back on one of the numerous afternoons spent in them. The dogs were Astor and Bambina, the former has a dangerous and tiring addiction to fetch, and the latter has a similar affinity for plastic bottles. Strange animals, but really nice to hang with some dogs that are guaranteed free of rabies!
First too, was us mateying up with a couple of English blokes, with whom we basically went on a 48 hour 'date' with, hanging out for lunch and dinner, then going on the infamous wine/bikes tours. We had a scorching day, and managed to get through a couple of wineries, an olive oil factory, and a liqueur and chocolate factory. Visits to each of these entail a quick walk around, and the compulsory 'tasting'. Mendoza is the heart of the Argentinian wine 
industry, and we scratched only the surface of the surface. So weary were we that we had to stop for 3 hours at one of them just to make sure the wine was good enough to accompany my lunch (slow roasted strips of beef in a red wine broth, I'm working hard for you sinners out there...) At the end of the day we had to catch the bus back to Mendoza town, and while we've struck several systems for the ticketing over here, common to all of them is the reluctance of anyone to break your notes for change, which is needed for the bus driver. While no-one will break a note, you miraculously find that change appears if you buys something. In the end we rustled up fares for four of us, but we brought home a miniature tub of ice cream, some tomato puree, and quite a few bottles of miscellaneous soft drinks.
Anyway, we ended up spending 5 nights in Mendoza, so happy were we with the hostel, and when there wasn't an activity for us, we would happily spend a few hours reading until the free (!!) wine came out at 8pm. We met a lot of good folks in Mendoza, and collected some good 
travel tips for down the line. Hard to beat was the Florida retiree who has visited 131 countries. Interesting tales, but proof that no amount of travel can necessarily make you interesting. Our last outing from Mendoza was some horse riding in the Andes, a couple of hours out of town. We were a pretty small group, only 6 of us in the morning, and just Ana and I in the afternoon (oh, the joys of the off season), and the experience was only outweighed by the concentrated bruising in undesireable places the next day. We saw our first condors, grey foxes, jackrabbits (much bigger than you think), and a lot of local dogs, who followed us the whole way. We were wined and dined in the garden with endless pieces of steak, took far too many photos (I could start a periodical on cactii alone now...) and came back to the hostel for another evening yarning and enjoying the free wine. It went pretty well with the first presidential debate, not nearly as bitter as I was hoping. Obama wiped the floor with that automaton McCain, but what would I know...
Rather reluctantly we left Hostel Lao, farewelled Argentina, and made a day crossing over the Andes to Santiago. We were considering taking the night bus, for obvious reasons, but are really 
glad we didn't as there's some scenery through there that truly knocks your socks off. I've seen the odd mountain range in my day, but the scale of these puppies is really just enormous. To see them covered in snow, with the decrepit and decaying old rail line running through was a surprise highlight before our arrival in Santiago. After a couple of hours going through the border we made a rapid descent down the Chilean side through endless switchbacks with an uncomfortably small amount of clearance between the side of the tires and a sheer cliff. Pulled in to the bus station rather happy with ourselves, jumped in a cab, and checked ourselves in at EcoHostel, which has been a welcome and relaxing home for the last 2 nights.
Santiago's a really lovely city, from what I've seen. This has been helped by once again meeting some great folk (thanks to Jan and Nadine from Germany, pleasantly crazy and great fans of NZ), a large barbeque on our first night, and the Andes just sitting there in the background, looming over the city. We took a wander around, climbing Santa Lucia to look over the city, and on our last day here today we took a little turn over the hills to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. Valparaiso is awesome, covered in murals 
and impressive graffiti. As it's built on a series of steep hills, it's covered in funicular cablecars all around 120 years old creaking up and down the hills. Vina Del Mar is pretty scenic too, competing with Valparaiso in that it has the lovely beaches that Santiagans flock to on their holidays. One bay is filled with apartments that step up the hills, giving everyone a great view over the sea and back to Valparaiso, while the next takes a more conventional approach, with tall buildings incrementally blocking out the people behind, leading to even taller buildings in the next wave and so on. Shame to see such a good idea beaten out by nasty architects with their grandiose ideas of building tall (I jest, I surely jest...). The beach was however amazing, and we got a particularly large dose of penguins and sea lions, as well as a few more succulents and cactii to add to my odd collection.
So, it's 9:30pm here, and we have to leave the hostel at 3am to get our flight up to La Paz. It's gonna be quite a big day, and altitude will undoubtedly take its toll. Thanks heaps for the comments you've posted, and I've updated the Iguacu post with some pics for your perusal. Take care out there, and next time I post we'll be somewhere higher than Mount Cook. Time to test the beard in the field...
A
Beardwatch - Day 25
Getting good coverage now, slight curling, and improved facial warmth. Just what's needed as we head to La Paz, at 3,800m above sea level.
Yours in bristly lovin'
A
This is Where Mannequins Come to Retire...
Dear Reader(s?),
Hello today from sunny Cordoba, where we arrived last night on our second attempt at catching the bus. An unspecified alarm failure meant 100 pesos down the drain as we slept through our first of the day. Fairly undaunted, we trekked down to the bus station and booked the next one out, only a few hours later.
I'm writing today from an antiquated old machine, so sadly no photos on this post - a particular challenge as the first thing I have to talk about is our visit to the almighty Iguacu Falls.
For the first time arriving anywhere we were set apon with offers of accomodation. There just aren't that many western tourists around that we can see, so consequently it's pretty quiet when you pull in to the station. After swerving the more expensive Hostelling International branded vendors, friendly Luis found us and drove us round to have a look at his hospedaje. It was nothing fancy, but had a nice little verandah, a kitchen, and an airconditioner (sustainability susschmainability, it was 36 frikkin degrees...) so we parked up and made for the supermarket for some dinner. Twas a nice quiet night and we got plenty of sleep before the early start and trip to the falls.
You can get a bus from the main station, but Luis informed us we could catch a bus to the falls very close by the hostel, and we managed to get ourselves underway. Even such simple tasks like catching the bus can be quite a challenge when your Spanish is as bad as mine, but you'd be amazed how far you can get just by shrugging and flashing a smile.
Once off at the park itself, we bought our tickets and wandered in. It's a truly huge place, and while you can get a little toy train ride up to the Garganta del Diablo (the famous money shot at the mouth of the falls) you can also meander your way through a series of nature trails at the wider, less dramatic end of the falls. Now, when I say 'less dramatic' remember this is a purely relative term. 
There are around 300 individual falls to see. The first vista you see is about a mile's worth of perfect cascades, all of which slide off the sharp top of the falls, crash again onto the next shelf about a 1/3 of the way down, then fall once again into the river below. If I can edit this post later I'll add some pics but I'm sure I'm not the first to say the you really struggle to describe the place with words alone. The first thing we saw on the walks were lizards, LOTS of them. They're pretty tame due to the large numbers of people, but are strewn everywhere the sun is, and practically pose for your photo while they bob their heads up and down. The next thing you see (and this was nature highlight #1 so far) are these little fellas, who you might have seen zipping through the curtains of water to safer nesting places under the falls. There are great clouds of these birds amongst the mist by the falls themselves, with larger carrion birds circling above. The whole place has a truly National Geographic cover photo feel, and the only thing missing is the reassuring sound of David Attenborough telling you all about what you're seeing.
The next nature highlight, number 2, was a huge line of leafcutter ants, which we traced coming down from a tree, across the path, along the rope fence for about 60m, and off down a bank to build a giant effigy of a human made of little bits of leaves or something. They all carried uniformly sized bits of leaf, except about one in a hundred had picked up something completely different, like a flower or a piece twig. You could tell the other ants were really embarrassed for them.
After doing what they call the upper and lower circuits round the falls, we caught a little boat over to Isla San Martin, which sits right in the middle of the river delta with the falls spread right around it. There are some amazing views from here, and while your first views are quite close up and you seeWe trekked back up the hill after coming back from the island, and made our way up to the Sheraton hotel, which sits slightly up the hill and overlooks the falls. We'd heard a tip that they do a buffet lunch, but if they did then it wasn't they day we went, and we settled for a sublimely cool and calm beer on their terrace, right in the hottest part of the day. I recommend making the walk up there, it beats the little kiosks that are spread through the park proper, and they still treat you like a king at the Sheraton even if you're only getting one beer.
Refreshed and revived we wandered back down to the little toy train station, stopping to watch some birds repeatedly swooping to attack a 2 foot long iguana who was a little too close to a clutch 
of eggs for their liking, and caught a ride out to the mouth of the falls, the Garganta del Diablo. This is the real highlight of the place and is in a word, breathtaking. From the station you walk out about 1km on a catwalk over the high, slow flowing plateau above the falls. Below you are big white herons, turtles, basking crocodiles (or maybe caimans, my reptozoology is a little rusty), and the remains of the last walkway, washed away in 1999. The first thing you see in the distance is the mist, rising up well above the falls 
themselves. Next is the noise, which becomes literally thunderous as you get to the end of the walkway and the whole thing reveals itself to you. The sheer amount and ferocity of the water is tremendous and we spent ages just staring at it, a couple of hundred metres of water boiling over into the u-shaped mouth of the falls below. At the very end of the walkway you can see back towards the rest of the falls fanning out away from you, it's a real goosebumps moment and the most impressive natural wonder I've ever seen.
We'd saved the best till last, and I'm glad, cos everything else is just a little, well, unimpressive after seeing that, and we made our way slowly home with every intention of returning the next day to view it from the Brasilian side. Turns out rain put paid to the plan and we had a very quiet rest day, catching up on card games and postcards before catching the bus down to our next stop, Posadas.
This little town lies at the pinch point where the little peninsula that is North East Argentina extends from the main part of the country. It's a really awesome little town, laid out in a grid, like all the cities here it would seem. They really love a good solid grid layout here, in alternating one-way roads, sprinkled with the odd plaza here and there (usually named Plaza de 25 Mayo/Indepencia/San Martin), and have a fairly standard set of street names which seem to come up everywhere (Junin, Alvear, San Martin, 25 de Mayo, Rivadavia). So yeah, none of this meandering curving streets nonsense, it's grid grid grid, and the only things that stubbornly interrupt it are pesky intrusions like rivers and the coastline.
We made a little excursion from Posadas out to the Jesuit ruins of San Ignacio Mini. Those Jesuits sure got around, and had a good line in managing to convince local populations to build entire communities in very remote spots, where they'd live collectively and produce superb works of art and architecture on in their free time. These particular ruins are good and ruiny, all made of deep red stone like Banteay Srei in Ankor.
After a couple of hours poking around there we got the bus back into town and prepped for the night bus down to Santa Fe, choosing to spend our hard earned pesos with Expresso Singer. Turns out we might have been a little lucky in our first overnight bus journey, as Singer didn't really come through with the goods this time. We set off on time, but as the aircon gradually took hold it got colder and colder and we spent a good 8 hours shivering away without a blanket (I want my BLANKET!!) while the blank bluescreen of the roof-mounted TVs only added to the whole 'night out in an ice bar' ambience.
We arrived in Santa Fe at the ungodly hour of 5:30am, stocked/warmed up on coffee (reliably delicious, everywhere!) and took up residence at the Hostel Santa Fe, waking the poor senorita in reception who deserves a medal for letting us check in so early.
Santa Fe is a pretty cool spot too, student town so lots of young 'uns about and plenty of bars and street seating outside the bars. I read in the history of the town that it was relocated and rebuilt, to be based on the plan of Old Santa Fe. Old Santa Fe was, of course, based on a grid, and Santa Fe is about 6km of regular grid streets, awesome...
On the advice of the hostel, we took a local bus out of town to San Jose De Rincon, where we ate ice cream in the baking heat and watched the dogs and local population make rare trips down the sandy roads that circle the main plaza. It's a pretty sleepy little village but we had a great journey out there, putting Ana's spanish to the test and enjoying some cultural exchange. Pay attention to those languages that have masc/fem nouns, that's my advice. It's all too easy to tell a crowded bus that you're a female tourist, 'nuff said.
You don't have to walk past many shops to notice that the mannequins throughout Argentina look like they've had a hard life. There are a lot of chipped lips, moulded hairstyles and faded paint jobs. That snazzy mannequin in the window of M&S today might just live out its autumn years in the window of "Dandy Smoking Mens Boutique" 30 years later.
We're now down in Cordoba after a daytime bus from Santa Fe and it's shaping up well. I've caught quite a run of movies on the buses here, including Cinderella Man, The Shepherd, and The Last Legion. If I were to bake a cake made of the movies I've seen it would taste mostly of Russell Crowe. Garnish with Jean Claude Van-Damme only very sparingly.
We're on day 14 of Beardwatch, and it's coming along nicely. I'm not sure how much longer Ana can put up with it, but it makes me look slightly less of a gringo for the time being.
Righto then, I best be off now. I'll try to update this post with some photos when I next see a computer from this century, but otherwise we're off to explore little Cordoba at our leisure. Hope you're all doing well out there, and you haven't got all your money with Lehman Brothers...
A
All Hail the Semi-Cama...
Dear Readers,
We're coming atcha today from the very tip of north-east Argentina, in the town of Puerto Iguacu. This is the jumping off point for the mighty Iguacu Falls, but more about that later. I thought I'd split this into two posts, so for now we're going to cover our travels from NZ up to here.
For our last few days in Auckland, we were graciously hosted by the lovely Tom and Kerryn, and their butler Cricket. Better hospitality could not be bought for gold, and promise to repay the favour with everything I learn about cooking meat on this trip. After drawing out our farewells (a skill those of you in London will attest I got down to a fine art) we made our way out to the airport to fly with Argentina's national carrier, Aerolineas Argentinas. Not the newest plane I've ever been on, but it was, ahem, 'fit for purpose' and safely delivered us to Buenos Aires where we cashed up and made our way to the hostel. BA greeted us with some pretty chilly and wet weather, and we spent a couple of days taking the place in.
After a little walking tour to see what we could learn about the history, we had a wet wander around Recoletta Cemetary. Not a cemetary in the sense we're used to, but a mini-city of personal mausoleums in endless styles, sizes, and states of disrepair. This was a mad place, the only full time occupants being huge families of the deceased, and large numbers of cats. We followed the crowds to Eva Peron's digs, which is a modest little black marble number tucked down a side street. There's a steady crowd of people there, and it's well decorated with flowers and tributes. They seem to add another plaque every few years, so the whole thing is covered with them.
It'd be remiss of me not to also pay tribute to Ana's espanol, which is the only reason we are fed and housed for now. I'm trying desperately to pick up what I can, but keep segueing into Japanese as soon as my concentration lapses, leading to confusing looks when I bring forth such weird sentences as "si, la cuenta onegaishimasu". She's doing a bang-up job and I'm doing my best to keep up.
Being Argentina, it was only a short while before we decided to attack some serious meat. I just have to show a pic of this steak that Ana ordered. Seriously, I've slept on smaller surfaces than this. Note particularly the lack of vegetables or garnish. In part due to a lack of the lingo, a newbie's fear of uncooked veges, and in part the steak and chips nature of the particular places we've been dining, we might be getting a little short of vitamins. If anyone can advise of the first signs of scurvy then please do. Needless to say there is a LOT of ham and cheese being eaten for now. I no complain... After a few nights in Buenos Aires it was quickly decided that cities aren't really for us and we made the recommended trip over the Rio Plata to Colonia de Sacramento in Uruguay (no, you're a Guay).
This little town is outrageously cute; cobbled streets littled with quietly rusting Model A Fords, whitewashed little houses, old cannons outside the museum, and a lovely little lighthouse on the point. We spent a great day wandering around, eating cheese, and avoiding the numerous dogs - all extremely enthusiastic about chasing cars, but too skillful for this to pastime to reduce their numbers. We took in the local museums, my favourite being the Museo de Nationale which seems to have a bit of an identity crisis, as it was crammed with old pistols, stuffed birds, insects and butterflies, paintings, a giant ships rudder, and an enormous fully assembled fossilised dinosaur.
We hopped town the next day and made for Montevideo. I don't know who recommended this town (Mr Wanderlust, step up please?) but can't say it ranks on my top five. Don't be confused by the enticing similarity with Monte Carlo, they are very estranged twins. Obsessed with Cambios (Bureaus de Change), and with an Old Town still more Old than Town, the highlight was the tomb of General Artegas, who's the local go-to guy if you need your country liberated.
The next step was our first really long overland quest, 6 hours from Montevideo to Salto. We were lucky enough to keep our momentum and get a bus over the natural river border with Argentina to reenter at Concordia, where with a stamp to get us back in we booked our onward passage - 13 hours to Puerto Iguacu. We killed a couple of hours with the guitarist from this band, and boarded the midnight bus after flagging it down on the highway thanks to our friendly coin-collecting cab driver. Now, I had heard good things about the buses here, but don't think I'd really paid full attention. I was ushered down to the back of the bus (we had separate seats due to a late booking), quietly making my way past an entire top floor of snoring folk, and laid myself into my semi-cama (one step down from a full 180 degree reclining bus seat). I thought I might get myself sorted then pop down to wish Ana goodnight, but after just, ahhhh, leaning back, ooo a little blanket might be nice, mmmm there's a footrest, hmmmm might close my eyes for just a second, and next thing I knew it was 7am! Really, these buses are nonsensically comfortable. When making the trip between NZ and UK (24hrs at least) I'm pretty happy to get an hour's sleep on each of the two legs - me no do sleeping on planes - but to rack up 7 solid hours on a bus is a personal best.
The next few hours were a doddle, we were served breakfast in our seats (coffee=very sweet) and rolled into Puerto Iguacu just before lunchtime. This is my kind of place, it's got a nice feel, lots of little restaurants, a really good bus station for the onward journey, and we're all set for the trip to the falls.
One week down, innumberable jamon y queso toasted sandwiches consumed, no bites (as yet), and only one spanish language cover of a popular song (Somebody to Love, it's teh awesome). I'll work on increasing the latter. Cheers for the comments on the last post, and next stop is the monster falls...
A
Dust it off, the blog rises again like Suzanne Paul's career!
Avid readers,
You've been neglected too long, and I don't blame you for the harshly worded comments that have accrued in the years since the last post. Rakish Richard's Rants had served its purpose. I escaped the bad job, found a brilliant one, and got on with making a little life for myself in the UK. Now that there's a bit of a trip on the horizon I'm going to resurrect this very Web 1.0 method of staying in touch and document what we're up to during our great South American sojourn.
I don't know exactly how often I'll be able to post but will make an effort to continue the output from my last trip. Drop by, read a while, and leave a comment if you're so inclined.
Those of you in the UK, it was a true pleasure and please try to find an excuse to get out and see us in Aotearoa. To those in NZ who we didn't quite get round to visiting, rest assured we'll be resident again full-time from Xmas, so dust off your jandals and we'll raise an ale in the NZ summer.
First stop, Buenos Aires, Argentina. We fly tonight and have a few days booked to find our feet and get used to the idea of being away. We're vaccinated, insured, and travelling light. I have nervous butterflies in my belly and am looking forward to the experience. Hope to see you back here...
A
We were staying at a Hostelling International place there, very large and for the first time in part populated by some English speakers. Cordoba is a university town, through and through. Of the population of 1m, almost a third are students. The big claim to fame is that the Jesuits (those crafty busy folk you heard about earlier) founded the first university in Argentina there in the 17th century, and it's still considered very prestigious to study there today. It's very liberally dotted with churches (over 40 within the central city alone), laid out in a grid (surprise surprise), and chock full of bookshops to service the huge student population. There's a lot of good modern architecture there too, from the redevelopment of the Capuchino Chapel, to the rocking art museum, which are both worth a visit.
little tour around there with the highly recommended Ignacio as a guide. As it's low season for us westerners here, we were the only two people he took round, and there was much yakking and asking of questions as we had a look through the complex. They had a huge collection of ancient manuscripts, including a very rare complete volume of the Polyglot Bible. Now, we loves ourselves some good books, and some of them were almost 500 years old. What we saw however was only about 1/5th of the total the Jesuits possessed, the rest being destroyed when they were unceremoniously booted out of the country in the late 18th century. The tour was crowned with a trip to the church, which despite some looting early in its history still has an amazing wooden vaulted ceiling, hand build by a Flemish boat builder. Muy fantastico!
ruins, and see the house Che Guevara lived in until his teenage years. The ruins were, as always, lovely and ancient, but Che's house was fascinating. I struck my best pose next to his bust, but it's harder than you think to capture that whole revolutionary spirit in just a look. I need more practice... Loads to learn about him tho, which I didn't have any idea about. Good to see lots of cool memoriabilia, his letters, and his passport from when he snuck into Bolivia disguised as a bald bespectacled civil servant. A great start to his mission, but we all know how that one ended...
We caught the local bus back to Cordoba and boarded our overnight bus (another mighty semi-cama) for Mendoza, arriving pretty fresh and ready. We wandered 10 minutes to Hostel Lao, and enjoyed a super relaxing wait in their garden while our room was cleaned up for us to check in. A good vibe abounded from the moment we arrived, they had a couple of very eccentric dogs, great staff, a big yard, and the kicker for us - hammocks - check out Ana kicking back on one of the numerous afternoons spent in them. The dogs were Astor and Bambina, the former has a dangerous and tiring addiction to fetch, and the latter has a similar affinity for plastic bottles. Strange animals, but really nice to hang with some dogs that are guaranteed free of rabies!
industry, and we scratched only the surface of the surface. So weary were we that we had to stop for 3 hours at one of them just to make sure the wine was good enough to accompany my lunch (slow roasted strips of beef in a red wine broth, I'm working hard for you sinners out there...) At the end of the day we had to catch the bus back to Mendoza town, and while we've struck several systems for the ticketing over here, common to all of them is the reluctance of anyone to break your notes for change, which is needed for the bus driver. While no-one will break a note, you miraculously find that change appears if you buys something. In the end we rustled up fares for four of us, but we brought home a miniature tub of ice cream, some tomato puree, and quite a few bottles of miscellaneous soft drinks.
travel tips for down the line. Hard to beat was the Florida retiree who has visited 131 countries. Interesting tales, but proof that no amount of travel can necessarily make you interesting. Our last outing from Mendoza was some horse riding in the Andes, a couple of hours out of town. We were a pretty small group, only 6 of us in the morning, and just Ana and I in the afternoon (oh, the joys of the off season), and the experience was only outweighed by the concentrated bruising in undesireable places the next day. We saw our first condors, grey foxes, jackrabbits (much bigger than you think), and a lot of local dogs, who followed us the whole way. We were wined and dined in the garden with endless pieces of steak, took far too many photos (I could start a periodical on cactii alone now...) and came back to the hostel for another evening yarning and enjoying the free wine. It went pretty well with the first presidential debate, not nearly as bitter as I was hoping. Obama wiped the floor with that automaton McCain, but what would I know...
glad we didn't as there's some scenery through there that truly knocks your socks off. I've seen the odd mountain range in my day, but the scale of these puppies is really just enormous. To see them covered in snow, with the decrepit and decaying old rail line running through was a surprise highlight before our arrival in Santiago. After a couple of hours going through the border we made a rapid descent down the Chilean side through endless switchbacks with an uncomfortably small amount of clearance between the side of the tires and a sheer cliff. Pulled in to the bus station rather happy with ourselves, jumped in a cab, and checked ourselves in at EcoHostel, which has been a welcome and relaxing home for the last 2 nights.
Santiago's a really lovely city, from what I've seen. This has been helped by once again meeting some great folk (thanks to Jan and Nadine from Germany, pleasantly crazy and great fans of NZ), a large barbeque on our first night, and the Andes just sitting there in the background, looming over the city. We took a wander around, climbing Santa Lucia to look over the city, and on our last day here today we took a little turn over the hills to Valparaiso and Vina Del Mar. Valparaiso is awesome, covered in murals 
and impressive graffiti. As it's built on a series of steep hills, it's covered in funicular cablecars all around 120 years old creaking up and down the hills. Vina Del Mar is pretty scenic too, competing with Valparaiso in that it has the lovely beaches that Santiagans flock to on their holidays. One bay is filled with apartments that step up the hills, giving everyone a great view over the sea and back to Valparaiso, while the next takes a more conventional approach, with tall buildings incrementally blocking out the people behind, leading to even taller buildings in the next wave and so on. Shame to see such a good idea beaten out by nasty architects with their grandiose ideas of building tall (I jest, I surely jest...). The beach was however amazing, and we got a particularly large dose of penguins and sea lions, as well as a few more succulents and cactii to add to my odd collection.
