Chillin´ in Santiago, Chile

Right, someone get the word out to Bruce Mcavaney cos I´m redefining the word 'special'. I´ve decided that the definition of¨'special' for me now is- standing in the confined toilet area of a moving bus, sleep deprived, while trying to balance and aim at the same time and then looking up out of the window (who needs a window in a toilet anyway!!!) and seeing the magnificent Andes mountain range scrolling past. Gold!

Oh wow, a taxi driver just rammed into a bus right outside this internet cafe! It was slow speed at an intersection, they rammed, stopped and then kept going like it never happened! Crazy!

Of course, one could also use the word 'special' to define the efforts of the pies in defeating the dons on anzac day. Go Didak!

So now we´re in Santiago, Chile. We arrived yesterday after an overnight bus ride from Buenos Aires to Mendoza (still in Argentina) and then a bus ride during the day from Mendoza, through the Andes and into Santiago. Neither of us slept much at all on the overnight bus ride so we were like zombies by last night. The Andes were awesome. Snow capped peaks, massive mountains, an occasional great lake, quite cold and at the top, a little hard to breathe due to the thin air. The customs people at the chilean border were cheeky. They had all the people on the bus lined up with our bags ready for scanning and who knew what else and yet they had the nerve to pass the hat around asking for tips! I reckon I gave them about 20 cents but in coinage so it sounded like more.

Today we are taking things pretty easy. I´ve got a very annoying cold i'm trying to get rid of and sleepless nights on buses and getting over jetlag is not helping it so hopefully a day of kicking back, arranging the next part of our trip and perhaps even finding a park to hang out in and get the diary up to date will do the trick.

Santiago is pretty cool. While Buenos Aires was packed with people and seemed to be 'go, go, go', santiago seems more laid back. In both places the common thing we've noticed is how nice everyone is. A friendly dude helped us work out how to catch the train yesterday and people have been great at helping us when our spanish has let us down. I did notice a smile yesterday at the chemist when i was asking for cold and flu medication of the night and day variety and i tried to say i have a cold. Somehow i combined the word for 'cold' with the word for 'sick' so just made up a word and the woman only let out a small smile before she grabbed the packet from the shelf that I was after. We do seem to get the odd look here and there from people as they walk by though. Craig likes to think that every glance his way is because they are admiring the tatts on his arms (or 'guns' as he likes to call them, often) but i'm thinking it's probably because we stand out as the gringos we are. :)

One last thing. You would think it would be easy to get a good dose of local food. I'm talking beans and rice and some vegies wrapped in a taco or tortilla. That's what i'd like however it's eluded us so far. Pizza places are everywhere plus a maccas on every corner but trying to get local food in a restaurant is tough. We are heading to a restaurant area tonight where we should do better though. I never thought I could get sick of pizza but it's happening! As for the vegetarianism, it's tough. Concessions are being made on occasion just because getting protein from non-animal sources is proving too tricky at times. So the odd portion of beef has been consumed and it's gone down alright just quietly. :)

Still in Buenos Aires

The hotel we are staying at has a free internet connection! Good stuff. Since I last wrote, we´ve managed to find a new hotel to stay at that is cheaper than the first one without too much trouble. We´ve then spent time exploring the city. Yesterday we walked basically all day. Very tiring stuff but well worth it to get an idea of the city. It´s massive. Goes on forever. Today we visited La Boca which is a poorer area where Maradona (the soccer dude)grew up. At some point they decided that painting their town really bright and contrasting colours would be a good thing to do. It looks fantastic. All the restaurants seem to have a guy and girl dancing the tango out the front and the one we went to also had an old man playing the accordion. I had a dance with a very nice tango dancing woman who basically just pushed me around into doing what was a horrible mangling of dance moves that looks very nice when it´s done correctly and like a new born giraffe finding it´s feet for the first time when i do it. Still, it was fun. I´ve got a photo but this pc is nowhere near ready to accept photos being uploaded.
Tomorrow we are heading west to Mendoza which is still part of Argentina. It´s something like 15 hours on a bus. Comfy semi-reclining seats but still, i suspect it´ll be tough going. We are still getting over the jetlag really but hopefully we both sleep very well tonight in preparation for it. From there we head into Chile to spend some time there.
Ok, it´s almost dinner time so time to go.

In Buenos Aires

Hola amigos, we are now in buenos aires and the shift key is already giving me trouble on this pc. after waking up at 6.45am on sunday to get to the airport, i think we finally arrived and got a proper sleep about 27-28 hours later. We were like zombies by then. instead of a shuttle bus to the city from the airport like all the "tourists" we caught a local bus that was less than a dollar and took us just about everywhere before we found the city centre. Interesting things to note: i saw a bloke who looks just like carlos (a mate) working at santiago airport. i think its his twin. Also had a flight attendant dude who looks like clark kent from superman and of course, have seen many lovely women. Really we´ve just arrived, slept and eaten so far so that´s all to tell. It´s now morning and we are going to explore the city. Weather is like Melbourne´s - wet and cool so now bragging to be done there.

Photo Request

I know I should be heading out for some last minute shopping and just generally panicking over all the things I haven't remembered to buy/pack but I gotta put up this list. Imogen emailed me with the following list of photos that she wants taken by myself or Craig:

1. A toucan
2. A paranha (preferably with teeth bared)
3. A sloth (are these found in South America? Not sure - try to get one anyway!!!)
4. Damien after a heavy night out on the town (this one gets extra points!)
5. A tantrum (this would be a rare occurrence from either of you!)
6. Che

We'll try to rise to the challenge. A couple of them may require acting. The Che photo is apparently not allowed to be one of a dude in a t-shirt so a look-alike will have to suffice. I'll start growing my hair long and see how it goes...

First Post

Ok, the deal here is that I will make the occasional post about my adventures in South America, London, China and wherever else I end up and your job will be to check this website every now and again and have a bit of a read. The way I see it, if I can get on the plane on April 22nd 2007 and arrive back home about 5 or so months later basically intact and without too many new foreign forms of bacteria inhabiting my lower bowel then that's MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!