Zoe in Chile

Antafogasta

2008-09-25T13:55:00.001-07:00

Iquique

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San Pedro de Atacama

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Arica and Parque Nacional Lauca

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Cueca dance, View from the cerro, Vizcacha, Lllma trying to break into the van, Lagu Chugara (4,500 m you know!)

...and back to Chile

2008-09-03T14:46:00.000-07:00

After a nine hour journey from Arequipa I arrived in Arica, the most northern town in Chile (which incidentally used to belong to Perú)which is a 'beach town' but has a port and there are lots of surfing opportunities. Also a few hours drive away (all uphill) is the Lauca National Park which is beautiful and there are loads of different species of birds and lots of vicuñas, llamas, alpacas and another type of llama thing. They are all from the camel family apparently.

On the journey over I met three teachers (and one of them's husband) and we all shared a taxi from Tacna (the southern most town in Perú) over the border to Arica which was fun. We all piled into an old Cadillac and drove over what seemed to be a noman's land.

I met the German girl the next day for lunch and whilst I was waiting I watched the school children performing in the main plaza, they were dancing the national dance of Chile but for some reason I can't remember what it's called. Well, it's with white handkerchiefs and it's quite cute. The mums were selling alfajores and empanadas whilst it was going on. We went up to the top of the headland which juts out suddenly and there's a statue at the top that they call El Morro. I'm sure it's just another statue of Jesus though. There was a great view of the bay and I saw where I wanted to spend the afternoon (at the beach.). We went to the beach near Anja's (the German girl) hostel and took sandwiches. I braved the sea but couldn't get warm afterwards because there was quite a strong wind.

Yesterday I went to the Parque Nacional Lauca which was a fun experience. I was pretty scared of going from 0 metres to 4,500 metres above sea-level because I'd previously had problems going from 2,400 (or whatever Arequipa was at) to 4,900 but not this time. I went on a tour with two couples. One woman had a few problems with the altitude and nearly fainted but I knew what to do this time and whilst the guide was getting oxygen we elevated her feet and made her sniff alchohol, I massaged her head which is supposed to help the oxygen reach it too. It must have looked very funny. I saw all of the previously mentioned animals and a new one to add, a vizcacha, which is like a rabbit with a long tail or like a chinchilla with long ears, whichever way you want to look at it! The lake was amazing and I had no probs with altitude sickness. I think they call it Puna here.

We had lunch in Putre a bit further down which is a small village where the only industry is agriculture. I think there is an army base nearby because we heard them singing from the mirador above and I met a group of soldiers who were on a fun day out at the lake who insisted I have my photo taken with them. We stopped at a town called Parinacota which is named after the volcano which is behind it and it stands near to its twin which belongs to Bolivia. We actually picked up an Aymara woman who needed a lift because she was tired from walking from Bolivia to Parinacota.

On the way there and back we passed through a magnetic area where it does something to your brain and instead of going downhill, you think you're going up and vice versa. Our guide demonstrated by putting the van in neutral and watching our surprised faces as we rolled (what we though was) uphill. It was pretty fun. In the hills in the valley leading to Arica there are some geoglyphs and one of the oldest churches built by the Spaniards.

Today I hoped would be a day at the beach but the sun didn't come out so I went to the archeological museum in Zapara (I think that's the name), a nearby town where they have lots of exhibits from the Inca times and lots of good information in English too put together by the university students. Tonight I take the bus to San Pedro de Atacama and I should hopefully get there in the morning.

Unfortunately I lost the cable to my camera so now I can't add any photos to the blog or anywhere else which is really irritating. I went on a search today for a cable but to no avail, the shop (or dodgy store) that sold them shut before I got there. Grrr.

Arequipa and Cañon de Colca

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Puno

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Cuzco and Machupicchu

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Lima

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Medellín

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Photos from Cartagena

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Having problems with uploading photos at the moment but I will try again when I'm in Lima.

Medellín

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The hostel was lovely. It had a small terrace and a huge kitchen where we cooked a lot as it is very expensive to eat out in Medellín as it was in Cartagena. Our room was clean and airy with a big window and the hostel,Casa Kiwi (except for Friday and Saturday nights) was quiet.

We went up in the Metrocable on our first day which is a cable car that was built to connect the shanty type towns on the hill with the centre and the metro (Medellín is the only town in Colombia with a metro system.). The council built a library where children from the poorer surrounding barrios could go and read, play and learn. Everyone was very interested to meet people from a different part of the world and the kids stopped and stared and asked lots of questions which was good Spanish practise.

We visited the Museo de Antioquia (the area that Medellín is in) and ate in a typical restaurant for the area. We went to the botanical gardens and saw the orchid collection and the modern art museum.

It was the festival of flowers whilst we were here so we managed to catch a glimsp (over the heads of lots of onlookers) of the flower parade and of the old car show.

The people who live here are all very attractive and smiley and extremely helpful and eager to practise their English. It's one of the first places in south america where the women have actually smiled at me as I think a lot of the time they see young foreign women as a threat. Well, the women here are so beautiful that I don't think I'm a threat to them!

Medellín seems like a pleasant town to live in but it's no way as vibrant, exciting and bohemian as Bogotá. Just a shame about the weather in Bogotá.

Cartagena

2008-08-11T14:09:00.000-07:00

We arrived in the middle of the day in the baking heat in a taxi which had no air-conditioning but the heat was welcome after the miserable weather in Bogotá. The hotel was comfortable and we had aircon in our room and a TV so lots of films to watch.

We scoped out the town which is surrounded by old walls and is very beautiful with the sea on the other side. It was built like that to prevent attacks from pirates, etc.

We took a trip to Islas Rosario on a speed boat on one day which was fun. Well, the boat ride was the most fun part. One of the islands it was raining all the time and there wasn't much to do but we went to Playa Blanca which had a lovely tropical beach and we had our lunch cooked there which was a whole fried fish with coconut rice and plantain.

Another day we took a trip to the mud volcano. It sounds like it is very big but it in fact isn't. It's ten metres hight and only a few wide. Nonetheless we had a good dip in the mud which was a very strange but also pleasant experience. At the end of the bath we walked down the steps to a lake where the women of the village washed us in a lagoon and they stripped me of my bikini which was a bit of a surprise but it was just to wash the mud off. We ate at another beautiful beach and had a similar lunch as our other trip and took a dip in the sea which was very welcome after the baking heat.

The beach near the walled city where we were staying was called Boca Grande (big mouth) and we went there a few days. You rent a tent on the beach with a couple of deckchairs or a sunbed and hang out usually. There are a lot of vendors trying to sell things. The most persuasive are the massage ladies and they insisted on giving us a ´demonstration´ which turned into a real massage and then we had to pay them anyway.

We went to a castle called San Felipe de Barajas where there were lots of underground tunnels. We were in quite deep when we realised that we shouldn't go further without a guide as it was pretty dark and easy to get lost not to mention claustraphobic and difficult to breathe. I got out of there pretty sharpish. On the same day we visited a monastery on a hill which had great views of the town and where we sat in the courtyard in rocking chairs to cool down from the heat.

We gave in to the typical tourist stereotype when we went to the Hard Rock Café and sat in the Rod Stewart corner (because he's British, not because we're fans) but I DO have to say that they make excellent burgers. Even if we did have to drink half a litre of water afterwards.

After ten days we were ready to escape the heat and head somewhere a bit cooler, namely Medellín an hour's flight south in the mountains, a little lower altitude than Bogotá (2000 and something.). Our plane must have had only about 30 seats and we were at the front near the propellers. Because it was so small we felt every bump of the turbulence and my knuckles were white by the end of the journey! The taxi ride from the airport to the hostel was lovely with the windows open in the evening sun and a beautiful view of the green, green mountains.

Museums

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The peace march, Parque Simón Bolíviar, a wierd restuarant

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A new neighbourhood

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The old town in Bogotá

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Photos of the Cerro and the old town-1 in Bogotá

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Bogotá

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I got my flight very early in the morning with a stop in La Paz and then in Lima and finally arrived in Bogotá in the afternoon.

I got a taxi to my hostel where I was supposed to be meeting Ben but he wasn't there, he was in another part. Finally I decided to go and look for him as the people in the hostel had not come to find me as they had promised and I met Ben walking out of the hostel.

We have spent the last few days enjoying the food and excellent restaurants here and have been up the hill on the teleférico / furnicular, been to some museums, watched a peace march, been to an interactive science centre and visited the botanical gardens where, like every day, it rained. We also went to the Botéro museum (a famous Colombian painter who paints people in a way that makes them look chubby and comical) which I really enjoyed.

Tomorrow we plan to go to the salt cathedral (a cathedral carved out of an old salt mine) which is an hour or so away and then Thursday is going out night. Friday we will take it easy because our flight to Cartagena (hot, hot, hot on the Carribean coast) is on Saturday and we want to be ship shape to travel.

Cochabamba

2008-07-22T18:08:00.000-07:00

Jenny and I arrived very early on the night bus. We found a hostel and the owner lied for us so that we got a nice double room with a private bathroom.

We spent the day wondering around and went up the cerro where there was a huge statue of Christ which you could climb up inside which was fun and look out at the view. We found somewhere nice to eat and had some hot wine in a restaurant which wasn't really necessary as it was pretty hot anyway.

They say that in Cochabamba it is eternal spring, not only because of the climate but because of the nature of the people too. We certainly noticed that they were happy and friendly and why wouldn't you be with wonderful weather all year round.

We tried to go to some Inca remains the next day and got on a crazy bus for Sipe Sipe. We walked about half an hour from the main plaza and asked some locals where we had to go. The lady we asked smiled and chuckled and said that we had three hours worth of walking uphill. I think she looked at both of us pretty exhausted from the heat and thought: you won't make it. We began the climb up but it soon became clear that we weren't going to make it not only because we were tired but because the water supply was running out so we took the bus back to Cochabamba and had and early tea.

The next day we caught the bus to Santa Cruz. The journey was incredibly slow but to be honest I'd rather go slowly than at the hair-raising speed most of the Bolivians drive at. We arrived in the evening to a hot humid temperature which we'd been waiting for for ages and went to our hostel.

Unfortunately the hostel was horrendous. It wasn't very clean and the smell coming from the toilet tank was appauling. We were too tired to find anywhere else so agreed to go and find somewhere else first thing in the morning.

We moved to a nice hotel called Copacabana in the morning and breathed a sigh of relief when we walked into our room with the crisp white sheets and sparkling clean private bathroom. Phew!

It was raining on the first day so we just wondered around town and looked at the church. A very pretty plaza.

We took a taxi (we hired our own private driver as it was so cheap for the day)to the waterfalls nearby which were beautiful, a little empty and not deep enough to swim in but relaxing. We then drove up a very scary winding road to some pre-inca ruins which we couldn't see very well because it was so misty and cloudy. In fact it was quite nice because there was hardly anyone else there appart from us and it was quite mysterious and eerie.

The next day was a day of problems with my bank as they wouldn't let me take money out so the whole day was wasted sorting out that.

On our fourth full day we decided we needed a bit of sun and headed to Bioparque where there was a swimming pool, a lake to canoe on, horse riding, a butterfly enclosure, a bird enclosure and a beautiful mirador with a view of the surrounding forest.

Jenny went the next day because she was going back to meet a Dutch boy in Cochabamba and I moved to a different hostel called Residencial Boliviar which had two pet Tucans (with clipped wings) living in the courtyard. In the hostel I met a German girl called Simone who also wanted to go to Bio Parque again so we shared a cab and spent most of the day together speaking Spanish. In the evening we went to a typical Santa Cruz cuisine restaurant and then on to a couple of clubs (as we were told that Santa Cruz has a lively nightlife.). I think we went a bit early but it soon got going and we had a good dance but had to head home about three because Simone had an early start in the morning.

I spent the following day recovering from the night before and relaxing.

I went to Bio Parque AGAIN to have some more sun (Bogotá was my next stop so I wanted to make the most of the sun.). I had a hair cut from a Iranian woman and did a bit of shopping and the rest of the time just relaxed and read and enjoyed doing nothing.

Santa Cruz, centre

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Bio Parque

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Santa Cruz: Samaipata and the Pre-Inca ceremonial site

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Cochabamba

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Camino de la Muerte

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Titicaca Lake

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Photos of La Paz and around

2008-07-12T14:38:00.000-07:00

The Second Leg of My Travels-La Paz, Bolivia

2008-07-12T10:13:00.000-07:00

I set of early in the morning (3 am to be precise.). My taxi driver was late and then drove VERY slowly whilst talking about the time when he shook the queen's hand when she was young. Eventually I got to my friend Jenny's house who was also running late and her friend Max drove us to the airport.

The flight was smooth. We stopped in Iquique (north of Chile) before flying on to La Paz. There were not many clouds so we had a beautiful view although I was out for the count after take-off as I'd stayed at Marja's house talking until one.

The airport was really small but the first thing I noticed was that the locals were much friendlier than the chilenos (sorry guys) and we got in a micro to the centre. It was cramed full of locals and it seems that instead of putting a clear sign on the bus telling you where it's going there's a man who sticks his head out the window and shouts where it's going.

Our hostel was clean and safe but up the top of a very steep hill. Well, everything is actually in La Paz. We were both very out of breath by the time we got there. Not only because we had heavy backpacks and were walking up hill but also because the air is thinner there as it is so high up. I can't remember the exact altitude but I think something like 3700 above sea level. We spent the day walking around the town and found a nice healthy-ish chain restaurant called Dumbo where we were to return many times.

On our second day we took the bus to Titicaca Lake. The bus ride was long and there were too many people on the bus. The woman who was standing in the aisle who had no seat decided that I was her seat and spent most of the journey trying to sit on my arm. The lake was beautiful and so was the town called Copacabana. We ate kingfish from the lake in a restaurant and then trekked up the top of a hill where there was an amazing view of the lake. The journey back was a bit cold and the part where we had to get off the bus and into a speed boat to cross the lake (whilst the bus was loaded on to a raft type thing and carried over to the other side was especially chilly. Amazing views though and the stars were beautiful.

The next day we went on a bike tour to Coroico along the Camino de la Muerte (the death road in English.). Apparently there are 100 deaths each year on the camino because it's so dangerous with a huge drop of thousands of metres off the edge. The beginning was fun because it's all downhill so you go racing along but Jenny and I got a bit left behind by the guide as we didn't have quite the same kamikaze attitude as the rest of the group. We came to a tunnel which we entered with sunglasses. Stupid, I know but we were travelling too fast to think. Jenny went to take her sunglasses off, couldn't see anything and then lost control and went flying at high speed into the wall of the tunnel. I braked really hard and as a result also fell off my bike onto my chin and my arm but was up like a shot because I was convinced Jenny was dead. It seems as though this girl has nine lives though too. She didn't have a scratch on her. Just hurt her arm from the impact of falling like me. I got back on my bike for a bit but my arm was hurting too much and to be honest I was petrified off falling off the edge so did the rest of the road in the minibus like Jenny.

We had lunch in a lovely town with a gorgeous view of the Yungas where the temperature was about ten degrees more than La Paz. Shorts weather. The good thing is though that Jenny met a Dutch guy and they struck up quite a friendship let's say.

The next day was shopping and recovering from our accident before taking the bus to Cochabamba (the city of eternal spring) in the night. I also bumped into an Israeli friend that I met on the bus between Bariloche and Pucón in the summer which was funny.

The journey wasn't too bad. Lots of slow driving and loud TV with programmes (terrible programmes) dubbed over in Spanish. We reached Cochabamba in the morning and headed to a lovely hostel with a really helpful receptionist who lied for us to a Bolivian man so that we could have the nice room with the private bathroom. He really looked after us so I recommend to you all, if you ever find yourselves in Cochabamba, Bolivia, the hostel Florida.

Photos will follow later today.

2008-06-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

2008-06-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

The concert, waiting, Zoe finds a practical way to hold three drinks and a bucket of popcorn, La Mala Rodriguez singing.

Photos of an action packed weekend

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More companions at Los Canallas, Mercado Central, a very clear Cerro, Marja, Mattias and Renee eating lunch at Mercado Central, The chiquillas waiting for the doors of the concert to open.

Photos of an action packed weekend

2008-06-11T19:09:00.001-07:00

More companions at Los Canallas, Mercado Central, A very clear Cerro, Marja Mattias and Renee eating lunch, The girlies waiting for the doors to open at the concert.

An action packed weekend

2008-06-11T18:44:00.001-07:00

It was a weekend packed full of activities. On Friday evening I met Aranka, Marja and lots of other people to eat dinner at a restaurant called los Canallas which used to be the sort of left-wing resistance place during the years of the regime in Chile. It was pretty interesting with lots of notes and pictures on the walls from famous people. We ordered a plate of meat for four and could barely make a dent in it. It was kind of strange looking too and we weren't sure what some of it was. There were a couple of men playing the guitar and songs that all the Chileans knew and were singing along to and then they played a few that we outsiders knew so we could have a sing-along. Great fun and certainly didn't intend getting home at 2 a.m.!

On Saturday I met Marja, Renee and Mattias and we went to Patronato with the intention of going shopping for cheap clothes but in fact we ended up in Mercado Central having lunch. It all started with poor guidmanship or maybe we just couldn't decide who was the guide so we ended up on the wrong side of the road in the wrong place but finally got to Patronato. We walked through Patronato and decided that we were hungry so we took an extremely long detour to Mercado Central where fish and vegetables and stuff is sold. What is best for is its really cheap restaurants with good food. We finally settled on one restaurant and all hat Reinata (I think that's what it's called) which is a really delicious fish. We had to hurry on from there though because us girls had to go to the Sean Paul concert. Oh yes!

We got there at 5.30 ish which ended up far too early as the doors didn't open until 6. After a few spilled drinks and general clumsiness the doors opened and we went in...and straight to the toilets after all that water! Everyone else ran in to get a good place (we were in the standing part but not the front standing part.). We sauntered in and got the last good place without too much effort and proceeded to eat our very large tub of popcorn-yummy!-whilst we waited for the first act to come on. It was a good while before the first act came on but it was fun waiting anyway. We saw the Mala Rogriguez and Sean Paul who were both great. Sean Paul's dancers were the best though, he had some woman doing Jamaican style dance and we were all in awe. The concert finished about midnight and I said bye to Aranka as she was leaving for the North for two weeks and headed to bed.

I had to get up REALLY EARLY on Sunday to meet Marja and Renee to go to the ski hire place. We arrived just as they were opening their doors and just as the sun was showing signs of coming up. We spent a good while getting our skis fitted and trying on ski clothes to hire for the day and then all hopped in the bus for Colorado. We arrived at about nine-thirty and went to get our lift passes for the day. Unfortunately the incompetent ski company had fitted my skis wrong so I had to get them adjusted which was a pain but only a small hindrance.

The snow was great! There were no icy bits and the view was sensational. You couldn't really see Santiago as it was in a cloud of smog as always but I knew it was there. We stopped for hot chocolate (they call it Milo here) a few times because it was simply too cold to stay outside for long and the lifts were slow so we froze until we got to the top. One of my students told me that quite often a lot of people don't go skiing in June because it's too cold which explains why there weren't so many people around.

We decided at 4 that that was enough and we headed down to the bottom for more hot drinks. The bus collected us at 5 and we drove down the mountain in the sunset. Beautiful!

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Is this flan?, the road back over the mountains to Chile, Zoe crosses the border back into Chile from Argentina.

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The ski resort, doggies, Marja and Renee very excited about the snow, My food at lunch time.

2008-06-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Snow, Puente del Inca (Inca bridge), Marja throwing a snowball-Oi!

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The signs for the toilets -feos (uglies) for the men's and lindas (lovelies) for the ladies, Our snow boots, Zoe doing and Argentinian women's pose next to the river of 'miracle water' and Marja and Renee on a bridge which they recon San Marin (who was part of the liberating of Argentina and Chile) crossed over on his was to Mendoza.

2008-06-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Mountains, Marja and Renee.

Mendoza

2008-06-05T07:58:00.000-07:00

I decided at the last minute to pop over the mountains to Mendoza. Sometimes in the winter people get stuck at the border because of too much snow but good weather was predicted for the weekend so I thought I'd take a risk.

The journey was amazing. We went right over the Andes and they were all covered in snow and everything. It took about seven hours and I arrived in Mendoza on Saturday evening.

The hostel was basic but really nice with its own bar, a big kitchen, breakfast included (with fruit! Very rare for hostel food) and a nice atmosphere. I think that only two of the dormitories were actually being used so it was relatively empty.

Marja and her friend Renee were also there and I managed to get put in the same dorm as them and we decided to take a trip on Sunday up to the mountains. We went to Puente del Inca and enjoyed the fact that it was snowing. We had a snowball fight although the snow was quite hard so it was a half speed snow fight but still fun.

We went to a ski resort which hadn't quite opened for lunch. There were people walking up the slopes in their ski boots and skiing down even though the lifts hadn't started working.

On Monday I headed back to Chile through the beautiful mountains which never fail to take my breath away and got a new tourist visa stamp in my passport so that I can be here for a bit longer.

I met a father and daughter from Toronto who were great fun to talk to and we compared Argentina and Chile and the different words and grammar that they have. Very geeky I know but enjoyable.

2008-05-27T12:56:00.000-07:00

Zoe and Michelle cutting the lemon pie and Marja being wierd.

More of Cerro San Cristobal

2008-05-27T11:56:00.001-07:00

Messages to the virgin, views of the sky and cerro, Zoe and Aranka, Zoe

Cerro San Cristobal

2008-05-27T11:46:00.001-07:00

View from the furnicular, view of Santiago from Cerro, Aranka under palm tree, view from the virgin.

Photos of Cerro San Cristobal in May

2008-05-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

Dogs in the river, Cerro, Bellavista, Aranka on the furnicular

Photos of Estacion Mapocho area and Cerro San Cristobal in May

2008-05-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

Las montanas despues de la lluvia, una foto en la estacion mapocho, al lado del rio

Estacion Mapocho, Cerro and Ben's Last Santiago Weekend

2008-05-26T16:55:00.000-07:00

I met Aranka and her Ecuadorian friend Raul on Pedro del Valdivia and we set off on our day out. It was the first nice day after it had been raining for a week so we were determined to make the most of it. We went to Estacion Mapocho where there was an exhibition of press photos. Whilst I was waiting for Aranka to finish looking at the photos I sat outside on the steps of the station and these women with electric blue trousers and stilletoe heels turned up with lots of cheese crackers. It was a promotion obviously but was very funny to watch the people walking by (who are usually never very English of course) form orderly queues in order to receive their free packet of crakers.

We walked along the river taking photos (inspired by the press photos but which were obviously not as good) and finally arrived in Bellavista where we ate in an Italian restaurant. My choice because I had woken up in the middle of the night before and was sure I could smell Gnocchi and pesto and my mouth started watering so to satisfy my hallucination I ordered gnocchi. Mmmmmm.

After that we went up the Cerro San Cristobal (I think that must be my fourth time now) on the Furnicular and had a walk around. We left Raul at the bottom because he didn't want to go on the teleferico (cable car) because he was afraid of heights. Aranka and I walked up to the virgin and had a look at some of the messages people had pinned up for her.

We walked down to the second teleferico station and enjoyed the view (the rain had cleared a lot of the smog and so we could just about see the mountains.). We passed lots of very enthusiastic joggers and cyclists who had come all the way from the bottom I think-very brave and finally arrived at the station. It was a very amusing journey for me on the way down because Aranka screamed when we launched off on the teleferico (well I supposed it is a bit like a roller coaster to start with.). Once we were on solid ground we headed back down Pedro del Valdivia and got prepared for the lemon pie feast.

I arrived at Pedro del Valdivia house an hour later along with lemon pie from the bakery on the corner of my road called Laura and we ate and made merry and of course according to the house rules; danced.

On Sunday we went for our last family meal with Ben at Pizza Nostra to take advantage of the two for one pizza offer and to celebrate our last day with Ben. So now there are only three of us :(

The Eating of the Tavelli Chocolate Brownie Cake

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More guests and dancing

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More guests, Ben crumping, Marja and Mattias (Marja is standing on a bollard by the way-she isn't that tall)

House Party Number 2

2008-05-20T10:56:00.000-07:00

House Rules, Sunset over Cerro San Cristobal, Marja and Johanna, Ben teaching Zoe some much needed dance moves, Aranka, Raul and guests.

Day 2-more party

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Cake, cutting cake, balloons, Pedro del Valdivia family.

Tidying up after day one

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Aranka and bottles, Look how helpful Marja is being!

More, more photos

2008-05-20T10:29:00.001-07:00

Marja and Ben, Aranka, Zoe and some other people in Subterraneo, Aranka getting chatted up by the DJ-Marja is thinking 'seriously!', Aranka and Marja

More Photos of Aranka's Cupleanos

2008-05-20T10:15:00.000-07:00

Marja and Gabi, Aranka and Marja dancing, Aranka, Ben, Marja and Franzi dancing, Aranka shaking her thang, Ben dancing so fast the camera can't focus.

Photos of Aranka's Cumpleanos

2008-05-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

Aranka and her guests, wine, Zoe about to do her pumpkin impression, Ben pretending to be a courgette.

Aranka's Birthday

2008-05-20T09:59:00.000-07:00

Aranka's birthday was on Friday 16th May but we thought we'd get started a bit earlier so on Thursday night lots of people headed over to Aranka's for drinks and finally good music (our friend Alex bought a cable so that we could connect the stereo to a computer and finally didn't have to listen to radio Carolina and it's eight songs. At midnight we sang happy birthday and then headed out to Subterraneo for a dance.

On Friday it was a repeat performance. We all met in a restaurant and then headed back to Pedro del Valdivia house for drinks and music. This time we all went to a club right up at the end of Las Condes which is a long road running almost up to the mountains. We had to take three buses and were freezing by time we got there. The music was OK but instead of hip-hop which it was supposed to be playing, it was regaton for two hours which can get a bit tedious. Still, we had good fun. The journey home was freezing too. We had to wait in the cold for half and hour and Aranka and I had to hug together for body warmth so as not to die from hypothermia.

We finally got home to our repective houses at six thirty and warm beds.

Dog in La Serena

2008-05-13T20:09:00.000-07:00

2008-05-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Marja's friend Mattias & co, Marja's neighbours, Marja and Zoe making faces...again!

A Typical Night Out with The Pedro Del Valdivia Family

2008-05-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

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2008-05-09T11:47:00.000-07:00

2008-05-09T11:41:00.000-07:00

SOME Photos of La Serena

2008-05-09T11:39:00.000-07:00

As promised here are some photos of La Serena, Vicuna and Pisco Elqui. Unfortunatly there are not all of them but these are the ones I salvaged from Marja's collection.

2008-05-09T11:25:00.000-07:00

Cowboy Garden, Marja and Alex, Marja trying to ride a bicycle.

2008-05-09T11:17:00.000-07:00

The Cowboy Museum.

2008-05-09T11:03:00.001-07:00

Calle Parque in Lo Barnechea neighbourhood where I teach the kids every Wednesday, Parque O'Higgins-the dome is where Aranka, Marja and I are going to see Sean Paul in June. The concrete part in front of the dome is where people drive their cars really fast up and down and I nearly got run over even though it isn't a road. Still, it looked like they were having a whale of a time!

2008-05-09T10:50:00.000-07:00

2008-05-09T10:32:00.000-07:00

Ben telling a funny story in front of a nice building in Bellas Artes, the street where we got cake and embarassed Ben, Plaza Itali and the mountain.

2008-05-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

Our walk in Parque Forestal, Dogs under a tree.

2008-05-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

Eyyyyyy!, Bellavista, an interesting tree-look at the roots, Aranka and kitty.

2008-05-09T10:00:00.000-07:00

Marja, Ben, The mountains, The Rio Mapocho, Marja and Ben and mountains...nice.

A Terrible Day of Bad Luck with Transantiago

2008-05-09T09:43:00.000-07:00

I had a class in Lo Barnechea with the kids. It takes an hour and a half to get there, a metro and two buses. I finished my lesson late with them but assumed I had plenty of time to get to Huechuraba (close but you have to go all the way BACK to Escuela Militar to get there which undoes some of the journey that I already did.). However I was wrong. I had to wait over half an hour for the 426 and when it came it was packed with people and I had to stand with a woman giving me death stares because I kept bumping into her handbag.

Eventually after heavy traffic and very bad bus driving I arrived in Escuela Militar. The bus driver had dropped me off earlier than my usual stop so I had to run to the next bus stop. By this time it was over an hour later and I had ten minutes to get to my next class.

I got to Francisco's lesson half an hour late and when I arrived he wasn't there. He had gone back to his office. So I decided to go home. Luckily just as I was nearing the busstop and contemplating another hour and a half journey, Francisco phoned me and we went ahead with the lesson.

Unfortunatly Francisco could not drop me off at Vitacura so I had to spend 4,000 pesos of my hard-earned money on a taxi as it's a dodgy area to be waiting for the bus in. I got on a bus to Vitacura and went to the dinner that Franzi (another of Aranka's German friends) had invited me to at a Chilean friend's house. When I got there it was worth it and I forgot about my bad day because I was in good company. They are a really great bunch of people.

I'm getting better a listening to a group of people talking Spanish now too although there is always a two second delay like the difference between sky and terrestrial when what they are saying sinks in.

More more more

2008-05-06T18:23:00.000-07:00

More more

2008-05-06T18:14:00.001-07:00

More photos of Curico

2008-05-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

Curico

2008-05-06T17:53:00.000-07:00

2008-05-06T17:27:00.000-07:00

Curico

2008-05-06T17:11:00.000-07:00

I took the train from Estacion Central with Aranka and Marja at one-thirty and had a very enjoyable two hour journey to Curico in which we discovered Super 8's (a really long chocolate bar made of waifer)and saw the mountains with snow on them.

Our hostel was called Hotel Prat which I thought was quite amusing and we went there and dumped our bags before heading out to see what Curico had to offer us.

Unfortunately there were no buses to the national park or the nearby town we wanted to visit at a convenient time so we decided to book a wine tour. We sat in the plaza and ate Sahne Nuss (a Nestle chocolate which I don't think you can get in Europe) which Aranka had been obsessing about on the train.

In the evening we walked around the town and went to a cocktail bar where it was 50% off all cocktails but were very restrained and only had one. We went to eat pizza in a restaurant across the road and then headed back to the hostel. We had cable in our TV so we watched a film before falling asleep.

In the morning we were presented with cheese sandwiches (except for Marja who is scared of cheese) and coffee for breakfast and then went to catch the bus to the vineyard.

The driver dropped us off somewhere along the highway and we walked down a bank to get to the vineyard which was called Torres. We had a quick tour where they showed us how the wine was made and then tasted two small glasses.

Afterward we had lunch in the expensive vineyard restaurant which was delicious and I had a glass of Carmenere which is a grape that can only be grown in Chile as a virus destroys it everywhere else in the world.

We got a lift back to Curico from a Chilean couple from Santiago who had gone to some hot springs nearby and had popped by the restaurant for lunch on the way home. We went to a shopping mall which we were very surprised to see as Curico seemed such a small town.

In the evening we went for more cocktails and were entertained by regaton videos all evening on a big screen. They were pretty horrendous but that's the joy of reggaton. It's a bit cringe-worthy but you secretly quite like it and can't help tapping your foot along in time to it.

On Sunday we were given the variation of eggs for breakfast and then took the bus back (there were no train tickets left as it was a holiday weekend) to Santiago. Aranka and I danced to some of her socca music in our chairs for some of the way back much to the entertainment of the nearby passengers. A good time was had by all.

More of Yungay

2008-04-29T18:05:00.000-07:00

More Yungay photos

2008-04-29T17:45:00.001-07:00

Photos of Barrio Yungay, a more South American neighbourhood

2008-04-29T13:53:00.000-07:00

I went to Barrio Yungay which is near the Quinta Normal park and where there are lots of old colonial houses as it used to be a very rich area of Santiago. Unfortunately, now the people living in the neighbourhood don't have enough money to restore the houses to their full glory and a lot are being knocked down because they cost too much to heat and maintain.

Here are some photos of the houses.

More photos on the Quinta Un-Normal

2008-04-22T20:59:00.000-07:00

These short stories are part of a competition in Santiago and they were displaying some of them in the Metro of Quinta Normal. I translated two of them roughly:

Vacaciones en la luna - Holidays to the Moon
This year my family are planning to go to the moon. My mum told me that I could invite a friend if I wanted, so I don't get bored, she thinks of course. The truth is that I'm not that enthusiastic, I don't know, I've never really much liked leaving the plannet, I prefer eating noodles with sauce and cheese. In the end my friend said that she'd really like to go but she told me that I would need a new bikini, they say that on the moon women are very beautiful, but I don't think so. We are going to stay in The Armstrong Hotel and we're going to travel by Pullmanmoon (I hope they have toilets!) I will bring back a melon.

Mi increible papa-My incredible dad
I live with my dad in a small appartment where the streets Portugal and Avenida Matta cross. He works all day and gets home late. He's always got bags under his eyes but he smiles everytime that he sees me. He puts me to bed and stays with me telling me stories until I go to sleep. One night I pretended to be asleep and got up to see what he was doing. I discovered him putting on his special suit. A wig and make-up protect his secret identity and he carries all his equipment and appliances in a briefcase. He goes out like this every night. My dad is a super hero.

More Quinta not Normal Photos

2008-04-22T20:47:00.001-07:00

Nadie te pregunto - Nobody asked you
'Did you know that polar bears aren't white? They're black. Didn't you know? Are you sure? Of course you didn't know', a little boy tells me at the zoo, mocking, irritating, the contemptuous badge of the school that his father had always dreamed of sending him to shining. I followed him to the lion's pit. 'Did you know that lions eat little boys?'. 'You old ignorant liar' he replied, whilst I lifted this little person onto my shoulders and threw him into the jaws of the animal and tried to explain the dilema. 'This is an exceptional case' cried the little boy, still being pedantic, just before the animal reached his fragile little neck.

More photos of Quinta Normal which wasn't normal

2008-04-22T20:35:00.001-07:00

Quinta Normal and Shopping in Patronato

2008-04-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

I spent the morning preparing classes and then headed out as the maestros (as they call them here) were fitting a new kitchen and were making a racket to put it midly.

I went to the area and the park called Quinta Normal which had a nice atmosphere and was really quirky although I didn't feel very safe. I went to the Museo Nacional de Historia Natural (Natural History Museum) which was a bit dilapidated to be honest and out of date but it had its charm and some interesting information about Chile and its regions.

I went to buy a cheese empanada at a kiosk by the boating lake which was playing regaton and was owned by a very fat man who I think ate all the pies as some new ones were just arriving in a van. He was very funny although I didn't really understand what he was saying, his laugh alone made me laugh. I walked around the park and as is usual with my luck some wierd guy started following me so I trotted back to the main entrance and got the tube to Patronato.

At the bottom of the escalators in the metro station there were a few poems displayed with funny pictures including one about a someone who gets fed up with a know-it-all at the zoo and feeds him to the lions.

As I had an hour to kill, I went to Patronato (which is a really cheap shopping street like Camden Town but even cheaper where lots of Koreans and Arabs live) to walk around the shops and see if I couldn't find some leggings to do sport in. There were a few shops as I walked past which were full of women rifling through heaps of clothes and there was a man or a woman on a microphone saying something and all the women were saying 'Siiiiii!' or 'Nooooo!' I wish I knew what was going on but I felt a bit scared to go in in case there was a fight for a pair of shoes or something.

They are willing to barter there so I managed to get two pairs of leggings on a deal at some stall (£5 although probably still conned.).

There were lots of funny names like 'Mina' which means babe which I thought was funny and lots of interesting graffiti. I was a bit scared to take my camera out and take photos though in case it got stolen. I plan to return with a thief spotter another time so I can take some pictures.

After a while the fun was over and I went for my lesson with Francisca in Las Condes and back to the less Latin American part of Santiago.

Zoo Animals-10, that's it!

2008-04-21T09:34:00.001-07:00

Climbing in Cajon de Maipo

2008-04-21T09:16:00.001-07:00

I went to Cajon de Maipo with a guide called Jesus to do some climbing this Saturday. It's where the Andes begin and is a really breathtaking place. There was a campsite nearby and a river so you could almost make a weekend of it but I didn't have a tent. It was my first time and I suspected I may like it and I was right. It took a while to get used to trusting the person on the other end of the rope (I had a harness and all the safety equipment) and to being vertical and just hanging on to a rock high off the ground but after the fist climb I got a little less nervous.

I did two more similar climbs looking for places to put my hands and feet which there always were and then did a much harder climb. There were very few footholds and places to grip with my hands and at some point, I was hanging on by a couple of fingers and a foot. Each time I got to the top and touched the top of the rope I abseiled down the rock and couldn't quite believe I'd just climbed up there.

We finished at about six-thirty and it started to get dark before we reached the road. We couldn't find the path we'd come on so decided to stick to the main road and hope that the guard at the exit didn't charge us (we had come in another way where we didn't pay as much.). After getting barked at by a few dogs along the way we reached the main road and the guard let us by without paying. We hopped on a bus and I caught a couple of metros home.

My arms were aching by the time I got home although my legs were fine. I went to a wine tasting festival in Vitacura with a friend of one of my LITE students called Monica and my arms were so weak I could barely lift my glass (OK that's a bit of an exaggeration but almost) but managed to enjoy myself nonetheless. Unfortunately I got there so late after climbing that I only had one taste of wine before it finished at midnight more or less. I fell asleep as soon as I got into bed and didn't even manage to turn the light out!

Ben's Cake

2008-04-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

I was out walking in Providencia this evening and out of the blue I got a call from Marja inviting me round for dinner on that very same evening in true Chilean last-minute style. Ben (her American flatmate) had bought a big chocolate cake and they were all cooking dinner to celebrate. So with the mention of chocolate I went round and had a histerical evening and of course chocolate cake and here is a picture although it doesn't do it justice, it was DIVINE!

Zoo Animals-9

2008-04-20T17:28:00.001-07:00

Zoo Animals-8

2008-04-20T17:20:00.000-07:00

Zoo Animals-7

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Zoo Animals-6

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Zoo Animals-5

2008-04-18T20:00:00.001-07:00

Zoo Animals-4

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Zoo Animals-3

2008-04-18T19:25:00.001-07:00

Zoo Animals 2

2008-04-18T18:09:00.001-07:00

Zoo animals 1

2008-04-18T18:02:00.000-07:00

Pablo Neruda's House

2008-04-18T17:43:00.000-07:00

Santiago Zoo and Pablo Neruda's House

2008-04-18T17:32:00.000-07:00

I went to the zoo armed with my camera this time. There were all sorts of animals that I never even knew existed or that I had never seen in real life so it was quite exciting. Unfortunately there were lots of little kids running around and not looking where they were going and hence running in to me so it was a bit of an obstacle course. This time the hippo and polar bear were inside their respective houses but I am determined to get a photo next time. You don't imagine that hippos are so big. They're as big as elephants without the long legs, really!

I wondered down from the zoo to Bellavista neighbourhood and decided to try my luck with a tour of Pablo Neruda's house (I'd tried several times before but would have had to wait for an hour just to go round. They don't allow you to go round on your own.). I was in luck. There was a tour in English leaving just as I got there. Our guide was really good, even if he did have his flies undone (I didn't have the heart to tell him), and he knew lots of extra information and all the answers to the annoying German lady's questions which was good. She was a real fanatic of Pablo Neruda too so he really did his homework.

The house was pretty and had lots of unusual collections but I preferred his house in Valparaiso. Apparently though, his third house on Isla Negra is the best. Maybe I'll go if I'm passing.

I got a call from Jesus (one of the people who works in the Casa Roja-my old hostel) to say that he was going climbing tomorrow and I decided to go along as I've never done it before and I used to quite like climbing when I was little.

I went for a slice of Pie de Limon on the way back and a cup of orange tea which had a handle which would only allow you to hold it like the queen with one of your fingers sticking up. I don't think anyone thought it was funny except for me. I expect that's how they thing English people drink tea anyway.

I am now armed with Pan de Miel (honey bread) and suncream for tomorrow and although it is a Friday, will be getting an early night.

La Serena and Around

2008-04-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

Marja and I hopped on the night bus from Santiago to La Serena. The journey was only seven hours so we got on at midnight and had a very short and slightly intereupted night's sleep.

We arrived at our hostel at seven o'clock on the dot. It was supposed to open then but we had to wait outside in the cold for a good ten minutes whilst the owner got up I suppose. It was called El Punto and was run by some German people and of course was run very efficiently.

As our room wasn't ready we spent an hour in the TV room trying to snooze until breakfast was served. We ate breakfast with a jolly middle-aged German woman who we spoke Spanish with. We then headed out into the town to see what it had to offer.

La Serena has a HUGE number of churches. Something like 27 I think. We took some photos in our jet-lagged state and walked around the Plaza de Armas (the main square.). After checking our e-mails we decided to head into the Elqui Valley. It was pretty cold in La Serena (about nineteen degrees) so we knew it wasn't beach weather. We got a colectivo (a shared taxi) to Vicuna which didn't have much to offer but then headed on to Pisco Elqui in a bus.

The journey in the VERY SLOW bus was worth it in the end and we arrived in Pisco(with the temperature about ten degrees warmer than Serena so it was about thirty at least apparently it's constant summer there.). We met a guy from Seville, Spain on the bus and were very amused my his different accent. We went and had a jugo natural in a quaint little place with little wooden chairs carved out of tree stumps and then went to the Pisco distillery.

Pisco Sour is the national drink of Chile (and also Peru) and apparently, years ago, the then president of Chile renamed the place where we were as Pisco so that the Chileans could claim Pisco to be their national drink. There are lots of disagreements about Pisco. It's a damn good drink though but as I said gives you a bad hangover.

The brewery tour was interesting. We got a free drink of Pisco Sour and were taught how to drink and taste Pisco (we went to Mistral distillery which is supposed to be one of the better Piscos.).

It was then back on the bus for a well deserved sleep at our hostel.

The next day we got up for breakfast and decided to go to the beach. We were abling down the road and discussing whether to get a bus and suddenly this hyperactive American guy popped up from nowhere and asked where we were going and then started offering us all this information and advice and within five minutes he'd given us his phone number and invited us to join him that evening in a nearby town where he'd been living for the past four years. We thanked him and went on our way, exchanging raised-eyebrow glances.

We walked to the Faro (lighthouse) and sat on the beach and ate our lunch (sandwiches made at breakfast time) and then took a wonder back to the main road to catch the bus to the REAL beach we wanted to go to. Unfortunately we got distracted by Casa Ideas (a bit like Habitat) and ended up going in and buying bathrobes.

We finally got to the beach near Cuatro Esquinas (four corners) at about four and as there was no sun just sat about. There were lots of pelicans which was exciting for me and a huge number of seagulls but no people which was great. A Chilean family did turn up just before we left and in true Chilean style, of all the places that there were to sit on the beach, sat on top of us.

We went to the observatory about two hours away from La Serena called Mamalluca in the evening. We got to look at Saturn through a telescope and mars and a few other constellations. We had a lesson about our galaxy and realised how small and insignificant our plannet is. Our guide then took us outside and showed us with his laser pen some easy to see contellations. We were very lucky that night because the sky was clear and it was a new moon so there was no moon in the sky and only a little light pollution from Vicuna.

On our last day we went to another beach called Tongoy. The bus driver said it would only take an hour to get there but ended up being two so we actually had to get back on a return bus about half an hour after we arrived but it gave us time to get the feel of the place and we walked around and looked at all the little houses and had a coca-cola (cola-cola as they call it here-not to be confused with Colo Colo which is a very popular football team in Santiago.).

Finally it was time to go home so we got our bags from the hostel and hopped on the bus. It was a giggly journey for the first part and then when the sun went down and there was no scenery to look at we settled into watching a film. They put three on and they were all quite bearable.

We arrived in Santiago at eleven and missed the last tube unfortunately. They have a crazy metro system where the metro only runs until eleven thirty on weekdays and then EARLIER on weekends so it closes at eleven. That wouldn't seem so ridiculous if the Chilean people didn't go out at midnight, but they do. Nevermind. Can't be helped. At least the metro is cleaner that the one that we have in London and never as packed even though they are nationalising the transport system here (Transantiago) and the buses and their schedules are up in the air. All part of the joy of living here though.

Finding My Feet in Santiago

2008-04-12T17:05:00.000-07:00

I have finally got myself a place to stay and found some work. I'm living in Providencia which is a nice neighbourhood and a bit safer than where I was living before. I've got four students, one of them being my landlady who I am teaching in return for food. I have Mondays and Fridays free from classes so far which gives me time to travel if I want. I went to la Serena last weekend with my Dutch friend Marja. We did pretty much everything there is to do around there and I definitely want to go back.

I went to Vina del Mar yesterday to visit Rachel who I met in Pucon the second time I was there and to go to the beach. We had a couple of hours of sun before it clouded over. We went to meet her other room mates in a bar called Cafe Journal and I drank lot of Pisco which, for your information, gives you a TERRIBLE hangover. I had to go back to bed today when I got back as I was feeling atrocious.

It was the first cloudy day today and it looked as if it was going to rain but not a drop. Aparently it rains alot in April. They have a saying like ours (April showers) which is mil lluvias (thousand rains.).

I am still laking a camera and so will add photos when I get round to buying one. In the meantime I'm relying on other people's photos. Marja is going to burn me a copy of our La Serena journey onto a CD so hopefully that will be getting added soon.