FROM AUCKLAND CITY TO CAMPING IN NZ!

Queen Street, Auckland








Day 333

1.00 NZD = 0.874594 AUD

Auckland, New Zealand!

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We had VEGEMITE at breakfast (in the hostel) this morning....we are now VERY Happy Little Vegemites!
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Today we begin our camping trip...we're hoping it'll be cheaper than staying at hostels and hotels!! Where we're staying now, Base Auckland Hostel, it is NZ$90 (AUD$81) a night and that's considered relatively cheap for central Auckland! Other hostels are about the same and upwards and hotel prices we looked at range from $200 - $300 per night.

But, according to our budget, it's VERY expensive!














The hostel is gorgeous though and very well equipped, has a whole floor just for a cafe and internet facilities which is great. It's probably the best equipped hostel we've been to. It's also the most expensive!

No wonder everyone ("travellers" that is) camps here in NZ...!

Anyway, we now have our tent, our blow up double mattress and we've been lugging our sleeping bags around the world since we left home..and we want to use them!

We have pillow inserts in our sleeping bags...(where you stuff clothes in to make a pillow!) and a sleeping bag sheet insert..as well as mini chamois towels but if that's too uncomfortable we might go to KMart and buy some cheap towels, sheets and pillows! We'll see how we go...

Camp sites are about $11 for a tent site..so we'll definitely be saving by staying in these. Won't hurt us for a few weeks! And the weather here in NZ is absolutely beautiful...

We've decided to get the hire car company to put the car on the ferry at the bottom of North Island (Picton) and collect another hire car in South Island. This saves us about $400!

We're looking forward to going to all the places we've mapped out. Greg, right now, is plotting and planning and we should be able to get around in our litte car, with no worries at all!

Okies..we're off...

Hopefully we'll get an internet along the way..but i won't be blogging as regularly as when we've had internet access readily available...

Until then, BIG HUGS to you all!

And..thankyou for reading along and keeping up with our travels! The year's almost out! And we can all rest! hehe

xxxx

AUCKLAND and RANGITOTO ISLAND!

600 year old Rangitoto Island! (Taken from North Head!)




Day 332 Tuesday 29th January 2008

Auckland, New Zealand - FOUR HOURS AHEAD OF YOU PERTH GUYS NOW! Weird hey..

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my gorgeous sister in law JO~!!! Hope you have the most wonderful day today..and Andy takes you out to a great restaurant and spoils you to death! :-)All our love, jen and greg xxx
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After arriving here absolutely worn out, we checked into our hostel, which is downtown and close to the harbour and then we slept! We slept the whole day, and night and work up the next day without eating at all!

As soon as we did rise, on Tuesday morning, we headed to Subway and ordered a foot long chicken and advocado roll and then went looking for a tent for our camping days ahead!!!

We found one at a local camping shop in Queens Street and decided we'd 'think' about it after we went for a walk to the harbour. While we were there we booked a boat to Rangitoto Island.

Rangitoto island is a volcanic island (erupted 600 years ago) off Auckland harbour that takes about 25 minutes by boat. We were told if we missed the last boat home, we stay there the night and there is nothing there, no fresh water or food. So we'd better rememember the boat departure times!

Auckland harbour is so gorgeous. I keep using the word 'fresh' because that's what it is. It seems so clean and fresh and beautfiul here. It really uplifts the soul and the water is so blue and crystal clear. Auckland really is a beautiful city.
















We landed on Rangitoto after firsly docking at Devonport and what a remote, volcanic island. From the jetty on the island, you can see a few 'holiday' houses dotted on the water's edge, but after some research, we found these are not occupied. No one lives on this island. And there are no shops there at all. We were glad we brought a litre of water with us because it was hot, dry and the walk was quite a way to the summit!

Some people boarded the volcanic island train, taking them up to the volcano summit but we decided to do the walk and use up some energy. It was 2km upwards.

It's a fascinating island. As you walk the trail (Kiwi's call it 'tramping'!) you can see all the volcanic rock in slides that look like a lava flow! In some areas there is extremely dense vegetation, on others there is only the once moulten rock. The volcano that created this island only erupted 600 years ago, so in volcanic terms, this is a very young island.

We ventured into the Kidney Fern Walking area and it felt like we were in the Land of the Giants. Giant tree ferns and vegetation. So beautiful!














After spending some time in there we continued our walk on the crater rim to the Summit lookout which is situated at 259m.

Once we got there we got breathtaking views of the harbour!! Gee, this place is so magical, who would ever have known?

On the summit. We reflected. And thought about our choice to come to NZ.

I have to let you in on a secret. I was not looking forward to coming here at all! I had been here before and didn't really want to come back. This is Greg's first time here, and he was really keen to come to NZ. To comply with our ticket requirements we had a choice of coming here..or going to Hawaii..and as we'd both previously also been to Hawaii we decided on New Zealand..

I am SO glad Greg convinced me we should come here..














As we were sitting at the summit, on Rangitoto Island we looked out..over the beautiful harbour of Auckland..and i thought, i'm so glad we have 3 weeks to see New Zealand!! From what i've already seen...it know we're going to enjoy ourselves!

We left the Island at 4pm and stopped once again, at Devonport (which looked a beautiful place) and here we got ushered out of the port because another ferry was wanting it's space. Our captain was half an hour late to pick us up..so his whole schedule was out of whack!














As we arrived at Auckland Harbour we saw the Pacific Star being led out of the harbour by the tugboat. We waited while it emerged (Once again, because our boat was late, we had to wait for the ship...we should have left the Island at 3.30pm!)

It certainly was a site to see this ship manouver itself out..and more awesome was to watch the Pacific Princess that was also in the harbour, completely overshadow this whole boat, with it's incredible size!

Once we walked the gangplank and walked through the harbour, we decided to DRIVE to Devonport ourselves..and cross Auckland bridge!

But first! We had to go and buy our tent. Coleman's was closing at six and we wanted to be equipped for our camping stint!

It was pretty exciting too. Equippping ourselves with our basic two man tent, and double bed mattress..all for under NZ$100 too!

Travelling on the Auckland Harbour Bridge at peak hour is not recommended. But we did it anyway..and headed to Devonport. It's such a pretty place! We mounted another volcanic mount called, "Maungauika" in Maori terms..otherwise known as North Head. Another beautiful view of the harbour and of the Sea Princess leaving Auckland!














Just a note about "Maungauika". This old volcano cone is one of the oldest in Auckland. It erupted to form the mount 50,000 years ago! The Maoris firstly inhabited it, until the Europeans kicked them out to make the summit as a pilot station for the harbour entrance.

There are tunnels, guns, searchlights and fortifications created here to fend off an invasion. It ceased to be a pilot station in the 1950's and is now managed by the Department of Conservation. We're glad we took the effort to go to Devonport. A different view of Auckland.

It's so weird being in Auckland. The ANZ bank is everywhere. There are familiar magazines in the shops and all the directions and name plaques are in English. The tv is in english. The computer language is set in English! It's clean and fresh and casual here. Kids smile at you here. There are no beggars. People speak to you in English. People look at you in the eye. I don't feel invisible here. It's just weird. It feels like home. Or very close to it.

Being here is a stepping stone to home. The culture gaps is closing every minute.

But i'm not going to think about home yet..I get too excited! We still have a few weeks here to explore.

We're off to explore New Zealand, in our little car and sleeping in our new tent!!

I'll let you know how that goes!

xxxx

FROM CHILE to AUCKLAND - NZ! AT LAST!!!!

Day 328 - 331
Day 229 - AUSTRALIA DAY :-)

Auckland, New Zealand

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CONGRATUTLATIONS to my gorgeous neice, Shameem and your wonderful Kia on your marriage!!! We wished we were there and thought of you both, as we were flying high!...Love Aunty Jen and Uncle Greg xxxx
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We left Santiago, Chile last Friday, 25th January...at 10.30pm so we had the whole day to fill in before we left for the airport. We spent the time going into the plaza de armas and also did the last blog on that day.

We then flew for 12 hours via Lima (stayed there for an hour) to Los Angeles. We had a problem with our tickets and ended up having to pay US$125 to reissue our tickets, $40 service fee and a US Airport tax of $85.30 (each) to fly to NZ via LA!

It was really annoying because when we booked our orignal round-the-world tickets in January 2007 we were not able to have flights booked for 2008 (computer system reasons!) and all the flights had to be booked for 2007. So the flights for 2008 had to be extended..and this leg, the Santiago - Auckland flight had to be reissued, adding almost $500 to our budget!

We also couldn't get a direct flight so had to fly to LA to get to NZ, adding another WHOLE DAY flying! So annoying. We also had to spend 2 hours at ticketing, while they sorted this all out for us!!! Thank god we were at the airport 3 hours before boarding!

Anyway, once we got going (and the flight was on time, thank goodness) it was a smooth flight. Cramped, but smooth. We tried to sleep, but mostly watched movies! Passengers clapped once again (always unnerving!) but it was good to arrive in Los Angeles. The airport seemed like a mini city itself. We considered catching a taxi or bus to Hollywood but seeing we'd both been to LA and to Hollywood, we decided to just hang around the "city" at the airport. There seemed lots to do to pass the time.

We put our clocks back five hours so it ended up being 7am in LA! Security was stringent upon arrival. We passed the customs delcaration form and and got clearance for not being involved in espionage, criminal activity, etcetc! We were fingerprinted and photographed and had our luggage checked. Thank goodness our wine glasses from Undurraga wine glasses and chilean biscuits cramped up inside them survived the flight and customs! (hehe)

Now all we had to do was wait 12 hours for our next flight to Auckland!!

During that time, we caught up on all our paperwork, diary, plan for NZ and met some other people who had also been delayed in LA. They were there for different reasons, their flight had been delayed a day due to weather conditions that delayed the plane flying. They were not happy.

A couple from San Francisco were desperate to see their grandchild in NZ and had only gotten 500 miles before being delayed for 24 hours! (All flights full~) and another couple from Melbourne, with 2 kids, were also waiting and NOT HAPPY! Listening to their stories made the 12 hours whizz by for us though!














We also found time to be decadent and had a starbucks coffee and cinnomon bun smothered in caramel sauce and sugar coated almonds. Ohlala..American's know how to make coffee and snacks!!!

We heard Heath Ledger's family were in the Qantas Lounge. (Realised they were talking about the NY airport later!) Still think this whole thing is So Sad. A really sad, sad thing to happen to such a brilliant man. There was still a buzz surrounding all of this, in the media.

Finally we boarded at 8.30pm and flew for another 12 hours to Auckland...the thing that really "GOT ME" was the fact that, somehow, apart from losing time already, we lost a whole day when we crossed the date line! The whole day of the 27th January just got wiped out of our lives!!! That was the day the Australian Open played...and it was really funny because the pilot, just as we were about to land, actually announced that Novak Djokovic won the men's title! (Which was great news!)

The movies were great. On Qantas flights we get our own tv so, Greg and i watched different ones. I watched a movie that was based on a book i've just finished reading which was great! Called Jane Austen's Bookclub. Also watched December Boys, Invasion (Nicole Kidman) and a documentary on the Galapagos and the US Space program called In the Shadow of the Moon which i loved, having been to both Galapagos and NASA ourselves.

We landed in Auckland, New Zealand on the 28th January at 7am..and fame came along there as well. As we were finding our way out of immigration and customs England's Cricket Team filed by in their Vodaphone covered, red, white and blue luggage blazened with the name of their team. Media was all about as well. Apprently they are in NZ for 3 months.

We were so tired we didn't take photos to add to our huge collection. But the image is in our minds..they so much luggage per person.

\

A bit fuzzy, but the Maori calvings are gorgeous aren't they?



Auckland Airport is so fresh and welcoming and gorgeous. The walk from customs to the main airport area is very inspiring! It has Maori calvings at the main exit door...and the glass is all etched in trees and leaves. So beautiful.

I still felt a bit dazzled by the accents. To hear so many people speaking English was so weird! I had to bite my tongue from saying, 'gracias' and 'si' to people! Had we been in Spanish speaking countries that long? It is weird how you begin to 'think' in the language of the country you're in!!!

And really, for the last 11 months we have been mostly in foreign speaking countries so it was strange to hear English being spoken. The Australians we heard seemed to have very broad accents!! Do we really sound that AUSSIE!!!?

The first thing we did after being free from all the security (NZ is really strict on bringing in food, even the snack package that Qantas supplies on the plane is checked and they check this very thoroughly, both with sniffer dogs and at customs) was to hire a car.

If you can imagine..we were really tired from not sleeping for 2 nights (3 with the lost day!! Still can't get over THAT!)..but we still managed to drum up some energy to organise a hire car. It was going to cost $60 by taxi to our hostel otherwise!

So..we are the proud babysitter, for the next 18 days, of a little Toyota Corolla!

Our drive to our hostel was in awe. Auckland was not as i remember it. I was here as the umpire of a under 17 state badminton team going to the Australasian Titles, with 4 other adults from the team management and nine Under 17 kids! (including Sam) 8 years ago and it really seemed a whole different place then! (Lots of badminton halls!)

I was also at a stage in my life, then, which was shadowed by divorce and my mood was pretty downcast. My memory of NZ was therefore, not as clear as it seems now.

This time, it seemed so fresh, so friendly, so coastal, so beautiful..I was feeling excited as we drove downtown!

Funny how places can be so different from what you remember!

LAST DAY IN SOUTH AMERICA! ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!!!

Santiago, Chile, South America 25th January 2008

Day 328

Hiya´s...

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Australian Open: Sunday's final will feature the frenchman, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the Serbian who beat Hewitt and FEDERER (in straight sets)!!!
So...the Australian Men´s Title could be anyone´s!!! (I hope Djokovic wins seeing he beat our Hewitt!) Looks like it´s going to be THE GORGEOUS FINAL for the Women´s Title with Serbian Ana Ivanovic (The Squeaker!) and Russia´s Maria Sharapova (The Shrieker!) going for it!

I wonder where in the WORLD we´ll be when the finals are on - midflight somewhere!!!
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Were waiting to catch our flight to New Zealand! It´s going to take THREE DAYS to get to NZ! We´re going from Santiago to Auckland, via Los Angeles! And, we´ll be waiting around in LA airport for 12 hours!

It seems such an odd way to go doesn´t it! It´s the only flight we could get, unless we go in March! That´s what happens when you extend flights in a round the world ticket..you get the next available flight.....!

We´ve had such a wonderful time here...and...will miss the place!

It´s sad..to be leaving South America. We´ve really felt close to the people and culture here. Soul mated with the country! If you can do such a thing! We´ve learned a lot more Spanish and understand what people say to us. It´s sad to be saying Goodbye...

We feel we´ve only just touched on the place! And have so much more to see! We really want to come back..and to especially see the north of South America (Venezuela and Colombia) and Middle America! (Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and the Bahamas!!) That´s our next BIG plan!!! For we´re not sure when! ha!

South America is such a large continent! Bigger than i ever dreamed! The coastline spreads over such a vast land..and to get anywhere, it takes hours, by plane and more so by car or bus.

Just to give you and idea of how big South America is...it consists of an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers and covers almost 3.5% of the Earth's surface!

It´s population is estimated at more than 380,000,000 and growing! It ranks fourth in area (after Asia, Africa, and North America) and fifth in population (after Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America)...

A BIG PLACE eh?

Which is why we couldn´t even touch on it. But we did try! We loved Peru, Argentina and Brasil...and all the other places of course..but these had the greatest effect and made the biggest impact on us..

It will be strange going to New Zealand..and actually be in a country where we don´t have any language obstacles..we´ll probably have culture shock!!!!

But! Onwards we surge. On our route homewards.......

We´ll see you in Auckland! Hopefully we´ll survive our horror trip from Santiago to Auckland..via Los Angeles!!! It´s WORSE than the midnight horror... THREE DAYS and THREE LOST NIGHTS - including time changes - to get there!

We´ll let you know if we survive....

:-)

xxx

VALPARAISO - BEAUTIFUL COASTAL CHILE!

Day 328

Santiago, Chile, South America!

Yesterday was our country jaunt! We took off at 9pm from the San Francisco hotel, which is the meeting point for all the tours seeing a bus can not fit in the cobblestone street of our hotel, in our 50 seater comfy bus to Valparaiso!

Valparaiso is Chile´s famous pictureque seaside resort town..where Chile´s most famous poet lived! His name is Pablo Neruda (born 1904 Died 1973) and he is a Noble Prize winner. The Chileans hold him in very high esteem.

Every country has someone they LOVE. And who brings the tourists in. Just like Carlos Gardel in Argentina (or Uruguay if you want go get technical..but Argentina has exploited his fame and made money out of his fame! (selling cd´s etc).

On the way to Valparaiso we stopped at a Internatinal Parque called Parque Quinta Vergaro (named after the Vergara family) and there was a huge statue of Pablo Neruda there. Apparently he went on to become an ambassador to France in 1970 & 1971 so he was also known internationally.

But i hadn´t heard of him until we saw his statue and went to his house. It was great to learn more about this famous Chilean!

There were also trees from every country at the Parque Qunita! The Aussie Eucalyptus featured as well.

Talking about the Aussie trees. On the way..we saw HEAPS of Blue Gums!! And in most countries there are a lot of Eucalyptus planted at least somewhere!! Very popular overseas!

The drive to Valparaiso took about an hour and a half and is about 120km´s from Santiago. What a beautiful drive. We went through the wineries (alwyas beautiful!) and saw a lot of little towns as we passed by. We even stopped at a little place that had a Rapu Nui museum (We tried to get to there, Easter Island, but whoohooo the cost to do so was phenomenal....accomodation prices are high there too...would like to go someday though!)

Our commentator, guide, Pedro, was great. He spoke extremely good english and when he talked he changed from English to Spanish in one breath! We learned a few more Spanish words too, which is always good!

We first glimsed the beautiul beaches just on the outskirts of Valparaiso and oh....if i had a week longer in Chile, this is where i´d stay. And more specifically, at a hotel call the Oceanic Hotel that was perched right on the edge of the cliff overlooking the beautiful beach.

Our guide told us a lot of rich Argentines come here to stay and hire aparments for a season for 300 US a night! I can see why. The place is very beautiuful.

We stopped off at the Los Pomairinos restaurant but we decided to grab a burger at Burger King and go to the beach for the 2 hours we had there. No point just sitting in a restaurant eating when we could be at the beach!!

And it was SO gorgeous. We got a bit burnt..arggh. Silly us forgot our sunscreen.

It´s a magical place. The architectural design is one of it´s own. It´s a a mix of neo classical and Victorian. And lots of Venetian designs, influenced by the Italian immigration here.

There were lots of coloured buildings, like a little italy, and it has beautiful pictureqe gardens, parks and lots of flowers. They call it the Garden State! As we drove through the town we saw all the funiculars (elevators) going up all the hills!

We were told there were forty (STEEP) hills and 50 funicular´s!! They are like hillside elevators. We have great pictures of them! There were lots of old trolley buses going up every hill!

You should have seen all the exposed trolley bus wires...everywhere! Looked like a spiderweb of wires in the town!


















After the lunch we visited Pablo Neruda´s house..a musuem they call, ´La Sebastiana´. It´s a house that goes up and up and UP! Has lots of levels and peaks at a really high height. The top room was his study. The rooms in the house all had character, so colourful and contained lots of artwork and painted and tiled walls. Such a creative house to go into. I loved it!

Oh yeah, Pablo´s bar was one of the feature´s of the house and i wrote down the SECRET recipe for his famous cocktail called the COQUETELON!

Here it is!

Mix equal parts of gognac and champagne with a few drops of cointreau and orange juice for a subtle flavour.

Sounnds good hey? Must try it when we get home!

The whole town is colourful. Can´t wait to find a computer so we can upload some of the pics we took! (no usb port on this hotel computer!)

Talking of pics....Greg was telling someone the other day that we had over 20,000 pics of our trip..and i´m pretty sure they thought he was MAD! ha! Anyone want to come over for a photo night? hehe

And that was our Day At The Sea!

We returned home about 9pm, ate at the mall then headed back to Paris Londres, ventured inside the oldest church in South America, which is in the same street as our hotel, Vegas, and collapsed into sweet dreams!

What a gorgeous way to end our stint in South America!

xxxxxx

CERRO SANTA LUCIA

Day 327

Santiago, Chile

Yesterday we had a pretty lazy day just looking around Santiago malls and shops. The news of Heath Ledger´s death made us reflect. How can something like that happen?

We strolled for hours in the Plaza de Armas..then found a local place for lunch that had a buffet. It seemed it served only local workers. They accepted us. We ate a 3 course meal of ministrone, ensaladas, bife and arroz (rice) for UAD$5 each. We´ve found we only need two meals a day..breakfast and one other meal.

We also went to the fantastic pre colombian museum and spent a bit of time looking at all the Mexican exhibitions there. Chile really does have some great museums!

Last night, we had a night of CSI, House and Law and Order shows! Having CNN has dampened our nightlife! But we´re lapping it up seeing we´ll be camping in NZ and won´t have anything but our tent and our books to keep us company. And ourselves of course!!!

We decided after a day of rest and recreation...we needed a goal! And knowing it was the last day the Central Santiago we decided to go and see the most important monument here!

So! We dragged ourselves out of bed this morning, ate our wonderfully healthy fruit breakfast and headed out to achieve our goal. To see the Cerro Santa Lucia!

And what is that you may ask!

It´s a parque (park) which we were told was absolutely beautiful, and unique and a place we had to go to while we were here in Santiago because it´s an important place to go when you´re in this city!

So..we headed off to central Santiago..and got to the park, saw a statue, and thought, well this is not very interesting!!! Until we got closer....and saw the old stone steps leading up to the peak of the hill we were standing on.

It wound it´s way up and up. There were hundreds of steps..and lots of little open buildings that had a brilliant view of the city. It stood 800m high.

Apparently, it was at the foot of this hill that the Spanish Conquistador Pedro de Valdivia is said to have founded this city of Santiago, on February 12th, 1541.

There is a huge statue of him at the bottom of the park with an inscription.

As we walked up the steps..we saw the wonderful views and after walking further and further up, we arrived at another flat area that has a statue of the mapuche Caupolican who faught the Conquistadors and the Fuente Magica. It´s in the middle of a a large and beautiful fountain.

It was here..the evangelist spanish guy started preaching. Which disrupted our peace..and sent us higher on the hill..to observe the really old church there..ahd have another look at the spectacular views.

There were lovers canoodling on the old broken down park benches, tourists asking us to take photos with their camera´s (and vice versa) and kids playing.

We then reached the peak of the mount and we could see all over the smoggy city! To as far as the massive Virgin Mary Statue that stood in the distance, looking brilliant.

We stayed a while, checked out the craft market below..and the lapislazuli, the beautiful blue chilean stone..before heading to Paseo Huerfanos Street in the mall of central Santiago square to find a restaurant. All the walking made us hungry!

We found a great little place where we could watch life go by..called, Japanco Resobar. We ordered a tapas and a camener vino tinto (Chile´s unique brew).

And some of the life...was quite startling. From where i sat, facing a bin in the street, i could see hands flying in and out of that bin...at the rate of 1 every 15 minutes. A paper was discarded, retrieved, read on the bench nearby and discared again.

The same newspaper serviced many people! People took out used plastic bags, looked inside, discarded the scraps, kept the bags..walked off. Other´s pulled the scraps of food from the bin, and ate them! The moral? Don´t have a bin next to a street bench. And: Don´t sit near a bin when eating lunch! As morbidly fascinating as it was..it reminded me of the respectful life we led. And the desperation in the lives of others.

Homeless people, beggars, street vendors, especially shoe shiners, were in abundance. Or was it because we were sitting there observing the life that it looked as if there were more on this particular day? We had kids asking for our food, old women asking for our pan (bread) and our water.

We stopped at a supermacado and bought some dried fruit and nuts and stocked up on water. We looked at the shelves of chilean wine.................and tried to resist.

That reminds me, yesterday we went to a street in central Santiago that had hundreds of optician shops!!! Greg finally got his lens fixed (they got damaged when the furry little animal in iguazu clawed and bit his glasses and then stole our lunch from the bag they were in!) The shops were all lined up..and we had to go into each shop to ask who fixes, and they kept replying in Spanish, and saying it was further up the street. The only thing was..there were hundreds of optical shops up the street!

It´s really funny when we go shopping here in South America...everyone talks to us in Spanish and we say si, gracias, adios and all is hunky dory. The scary thing is, we actually UNDERSTAND what they are saying!!!! But, we can´t reply back in more than a monosyllabic way!

At 6pm and after we got tempted by some more beautiuful lapislazuli, in the jewellery shops in the mall, we traipsed down the backstreets to Paris Londres, and home, to rest before the restaurants re opened at 9pm!

Are we getting tired??

Yep...

Especially today. Not sure why...but i think we´re both feeling a bit flat.

We didn´t end up going out for dinner. We the almonds and sultana´s instead! And drank, not wine, but minerale com gas!

Such goody two shoes.

And now..here i am, 1am, and blogging! And emailing. It´s great when my friends and family are actually online at the same time!!!

But now, time for bed. We´re going for a 200km round trip to the beautiful chilean coast tomorrow!

xxx
PS We bought ANOTHER shaving cream for Greg. The last one didn´t have a nozzle! Geepers...that´s one thing about South America..you can not trust what you buy, you MUST check! The moisturizer place the other day was the same! I bought a moisterizer as well as the snail cream hehe but..when i got home..the box that i thought was moisterizer contained a tonic!!! So now..i`m spraying tonic on my body instead of putting moisturizer on it!! Oh well......

SAD ABOUT HEATH LEDGER...

Just heard the sad news about the death of Heath Ledger, the Aussie actor (Perth, WA)who was in Brokeback Mountain..geepers..

I remember when Elise and her friend Emily met him in Perth at his premiere for Ned Kelly...

So sad..

He was found in his Manhattan Apartment by his maid...when she went to tell him about his appointment to have a massage...only about an hour and a half ago. Saw it on CNN news.

They say he´d broken up with his fiance and mother of his 2 year old child last year..and that he died of a suspected drug overdose.

So sad..

28 years of age..

He was such a talented actor...what a terrible thing.

NEWS...SHARES AND POLITICS!

Day 326

Santiago, Chile, South America

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Watched Sir Edmund Hillary´s funeral last night. New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark made a great speech! He died Jan 11th aged 88. He was the first man to reach the summit of mount everest in 1953. He was a beekeeper. (Like Greg´s Dad is!) A Very Inspirational Man.
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Gosh! The main news here on CNN is all about the stock market in the US!!! And how it´s falling..and there could be a global stock market crash!!! They´re saying it has been the worst since 9/11!

But...the scary thing is...when i went to news.com.au the headlines are all about how the Aussie stockmarket is falling as well!! US has such a world effect!!

Drats. Should have sold our managed funds months ago! Glad we got rid of Telstra and put it to good use! (traveling haha!).

The hot news on the BBC and CNN is also all about the US elections (which Greg and i have gotten into seeing that´s about all the english news we get in the countries we´ve been in!)

Looks like Hillary is in the lead, for the democrats, by a small margin (Barack Obama a close second). Apparently this could all change when they have the voting in the South Carolina region because the blacks will vote for Obama and the whites will split their votes between Hillary Clinton and the republican candidate! So..well see what will happen at the Democratic presidential primary next Saturday!

SUPER TUESDAY as they´re calling it, because 20 states will vote (Tuesday 5th Feb) will be THE day, though, they say, to find out who will basically be the next US president!!

Will it be a woman or will it be a black??

OR...will it be another republican? (Hope not!)

I´m hoping it will be Hillary (sorry KATE!)...

I think it will be cool for the US to have a woman as their president..and if there´s any woman that can do it, i reckon it has to be Hillary Clinton!

I remember hearing once, that if Bill was a garage attendant...he still would have been president, because he was married to Hillary!!! :-)

Hope we can see the broadcasts when we´re in NZ!

Are you guys following all that?

We´ve also been seeing on CNN about the floods in Queensland as well...looks terrible. The weather in Australia has been featuring a lot lately, probably due to the Australian Open being held there...

It´s great for us to hear Australia get mentioned!!!

Okies...just thought i´d share what the news is featuring over here!!!

Oh yeah, Osama Bin Laden´s son has been all over the news as well...and we´re wondering where in pecking order he comes...was he the 1st or the 100th child or did he come in between somewhere? hehe

Okies..time to read more news. Greg and i are on a computer each...!!! We´re recovering from our wine adventure from yesterday..but soon, we´re going to the Pre Columbian Museum in the Plaza de Armas which we´re heard..is excellent!!!

xxxx
PS I hope the Aussie finals will include Federer and Rafael Nadal but i think it´ll be more likely it´ll be between Tsonga and Novak Djokovic to be in the final against Federer (the one that beat Lleyton Hewitt!) if that´s the case, I want Federer to win!!! (He´s such a champion!)

WINE! WONDERFUL CHILE WINE!

Day 325

Santiago, Chile, South America

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Looks like Lleyton Hewitt got a hiding from Novak Djokovic!! Ohhh drats! I was looking foward to an aussie being in the final of the Australian Open!
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The last couple of days have been great here! Especially today! We went to see a couple of wineries to taste Chilean wine! Beautiful! The first winery we went to was called Vina Aquitania which is a very small exclusive vineyard just outside Santiago city.

It was interesting because the winery is nestled in a valley just on the outskirts of town and it is surrounded by a new housing estate. Usually winery´s are out of town a bit..in rolling hills with a beautiful surrounding so it was unusual to see it like this. It´s a boutique winery really..and the red wines we tasted were delicious.

It was while we were here that we noticed just how smoggy Santiago really is! The mountains are silhouetted against the smoggy backdrop and it reminds me of LA! It´s because there are so many emissions in such a densely populated city..but it´s not noticeable until you see it from the outskirts.

After looking over the barrels, putting our ´nose´to the wines, swivelling and tasting the vino tinto´s we headed off to lunch at a german restaurant called Kuchen Haus. What a menu. For 8000 pesos each (AUD$34 for both) we had a three course meal comprising octopus ensalada for entree, pollo cacciatore for main and apple cake for desert, plus a delectable glass of wine!

We staggered out after lunch with our new friends from Toronto and Florida and headed to our next tasting at the Undurraga Winery in the Maipo Valley. This winery was large and was named after Don Francisco Undurraga Vicuna who brought some cuttings of different varieties of grapes from France in 1882.

We tasted Chardonnay wine at this winery as well. Ohlala..that was nice..especially as it was hot and we were thirsty. Neither wineries had water..hm. Or bickies. Or cheese. We´re used to having that at our tastings in Margaret River!!!

Tasting here reminded me of Greg´s present for his 50th from Angie and David..where we went on a wine tour in the Swan Valley and tasted some EXCELLENTO wines...must remember to go back there and get some more of the wine we bought from the winery that only sold it at the winery...and the winery that i can´t think of the name at the moment!! Will have to ask Angie when they, and we, get back from our trips!!!

The best taste we had was the Sibariz Carmenere red wine. This wine is only found in Chile at this winery and is very popular. And we understood why. It was very tasty too..or OK, it had a berry flavour, with a hint of chocolate..and oh, cinnomon! haha...just kidding..i just know it TASTED good!

Looking at all the barrels in the cellar was quite an experience! Made me think i would like our cellar to look like that!!!! So earthy and the aroma..oh nice! It was interesting looking at all the winemaker´s marks - the crosses, ticks, marks and dates - on the barrels as well..and the different ways they plug up their individual barrels.

We saw the labelling going on as well..way down in the cellar. All by hand, by two women who were very quickly cleaning the bottles, putting the tops and securing them with a little hand held machine and then sticking the labels on.

This winery was certainly very natural. And all the grapes are handpicked.

They now export their wine to more than 70 countries in the world. When we left they gave us the beautiful wine glasses, inscribed with the Undurraga wine label, to take home. We took them...knowing we couldn´t carry them, bieng glass, but we thought we could at least drink some wine in the courtyard here in our hotel before we leave in a few days.

We also went to a place that sells moisturizers and teas. We ended up buying some more tea..and some moisterizer which i can never have enough of. The difference about this facial moisturizer is that is made of snail slime! We´ll see how that goes on my skin. If i look like a snail when i get home, you´ll know why!

Hmm..

We got to talking about the MATE teas because we bought some rosehip tea (having gone off coffee and now drinking all types of herbal teas) and we found out the reason why MATE is not sold in restaurants in Argentina, Paraquay and Uruguay! IT´s because the restaurant owners don´t want the customers to sit back ALL DAy drinking mate in their restaurants!! Which is how you drink Mate.

You don´t just have one cup..you use the leaves to continually pour water from your flask (at a temp of 80F) over it. One cup lasts for 10 teas! We realise that made logical sense..as to why we could never see it on a menu and why we had to buy our own pot and tea (not the flask, although the Argentine Mate flasks so have great water pouring spouts!)

We also discussed, with the guide and the other´s on the bus, the taste of Mate, or chimarrao (also called yerba mate and technically known as CIlex paraguariensis) as most of the people on the bus had been to Argentina and were as enthralled by the whole thing as we were..and we all decided it was bitter taste with a cross betwen the taste of cocoa tea (that we tasted and chewed the leaves of in Peru for altitude acclimatisation) and spinach juice!!!

Cocoa tea seems to be as addictive as coffee and Mate. Apparently some people say the properties in Mate consist of a caffeine like substance but there has not been a comprehensive scientific study into it´s properties to be able to clarify exactly what the properties are!

We also found out the straw, is called a bombilla or bomba (which allows the drinker to suck the steeping liquid without sucking up the particles in the tea.)

All very technical eh. We have some tea bags we bought in Argentina. If anyones wants to try a cup when we get home. Just ask! I´m sure we won´t have drunk it all by then!!!!

The hightlight of the day..was meeting John and Vicky. This couple have a villa in Mexico..and, as i have mentioned, Central America, including Mexico, is the place where we want to go NEXT holiday! (After trekking the ANapurna´s in Nepal!!!) After a whole day with them..and sharing stories and travel experiences over lunch..we exchanged addresses with the promise of meeting up. ANd i´m sure we will.

Some people you meet, you know it´s all just pleanantries....all the same thing...yes, we´ll catch up..e.t.c but this couple, we KNOW we will. The four of us just gelled and got along. Shame they were leaving tomorrow. John invited us back to their hotel for more wine..but at the end of the tour..we were stuffed. It lasted 12 hours!

(Greg snoozing off all the tastings now...and here i am, emailing and blogging! haha! I think the wine is a stimulant!)

There was another 2 couples we got to know as well, from Florida. They had been here for 6 weeks, in South America, and asked us when were due home. We said in February..and they said, most people say tomorrow or the next day..and you say in a MONTH??? Then the asked how long we´ve got away. A question we get asked a lot. We can either be honest, or say how long we are in the country we´re in, to prevent further questions..especially if we´re trying to listen to the Guide!!!

Well, we answered the truth. And they asked all the inevitable questions. But, with these couples it got indepth. They kept asking us more and more questions!!!

How do we do our laundry, how do we cook, how do we manage with our packs, how do we go not having friends and families, how do we plan where we will go, how do we resist buying travel memorabila, how do we manage going from place to place withoiut a break, how do we COPE being with each other all the time!

Each time we got off the bus, they fired even more questions! How do we afford it, do we have jobs to go back to, have we changed, what do our famiy think, do you have kids, what about them, what about your house, do you miss it, are you going back to it, would you do it again!

We ended up retreating to John and Vicky to get out of the firing line!! It was like the paparazzi cornering us! Very funny.

Afterwards i thought. How do we do it!!!!

We realise, upon our own reflection on the bus as we were traveling back and everyone was snoozing off from after affects of too many tastings (who can really spit the taste´s out?) we realised the longest we´d been anywhere was here, in Santiago, of all places.

Most of the time wé were in places for about 3 days..and the most was about a week. The shortest time we had anywhere waw in Puerto del Diablo! Well, probably not quite, we have popped into places for just a few hours as well!

But it was interesting to think about all the questions they asked. We´ve been asked a lot of questions before..but not with quite the same intensity as this. And they were all quite worthwhile questions to ask ourselves at a late date.

OK, i´m raving, it´s very late and all good girls should be in bed!!!

I´ll be dreaming of the wonderful, wonderful wine that chile produces.............

Nighty, nighies!!!

xxx

LOVIN¨ SANTIAGO CHILE!

Day 322 - 324

Santiago, Chile, South America

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These computers are ancient, and lack usb ports, so there are no photos for now!

But..cable is good at this hotel..We watched (Spanish commentary!) our aussie Lleyton Hewitt win against Bagdatis in his 5 set marathon thriller!! Apparently it was the latest (or earliest?) finish (4.33am EST) to a match in Open history!! Now to conquer Novak Djokovic in the fourth round! GO LLEYTON HEWITT!!!!
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We´ve been enjoying Santiago this time...the last two times we´ve been here it´s only been for a night and we stayed near the airport..this time we´re in central Santiago which is fabulous!

We arrived here in Chile on Friday night...after firstly going to the wrong airport in Buenos Aires......It took us another hour by taxi to get to the Ministro Pistarini International Airport, located in the suburb of Ezeiza after finding out the domestic/international airport we went to was the wrong one! Hmmm...anyway....

And no, we didn´t have any special treatment this time! We had to pile up with everyone else to load onto the plane, had to cram in our seats, had to wait for our snack on board, were last off the plane and had to wait half an hour for our luggage when we arrived. It looks like the Uruguayan flight to BA..will have to remain one of the special 1st class air flight experiences!

Our hotel is wonderful...it has everything you´d ever want..lovely reception ladies and maids, beautiful, beautiful breakfast, private bathroom with beautiful soaps and shampoos, aircon, cable, internet, beautiful soft beds (we get a matrimonial tonight, for the next 5 nights we´re here) and it has the character feel of a really old hotel. So beautiful. All wooden and ornamental! And it has all the touches..with old leather and lace lounge chairs...and old photographs on the wall.

Chile is a long skinny part of South America (4,300 km long!) tipping the border of Peru and Bolivia in the north and Argentina in the south...It sort of spirals up the west coast edge of SA in a long thin line, with the Andes mountain range (with over 50 active volcanic peaks) on the other side, facing the east coast.

It´s a fascinatingly skinny country! And we will not be seeing even half of it!

We´re in a historical part of town called the Barrio Paris Londres. It´s very central and the museums and plaza de armas are close. We want to go to the pre columbian museum which is close so this hotel has been a great choice! It´s in the section of the city where the wealthy used to live..but they left and now the area has been taken over by the bohemian´s..

It feels a bit like San Telmo! We love the feel of the place..our hotel is on this quaint little cobble stone street which has lots of little cafe´s and tiny supermacardo´s! Good for buying water when we can´t be bothered boiling up water in our kettle! Also good for buying empanada´s - if you like the whole olive seed inside as well!!!

It´s been hot here..but not too hot (not like Perth!). It´s been around the 31, 32C and the nights have been around 27C.

We went for a long walk yesterday..to explore. And we ended up spening the day in Plaza de Armas (which is the spanish square and the hub of the city). We went into the majestic old cathedral...so huge and very baroque - full of gold and extremely ornamental. The buildings here are very neo classical. They really look gorgeous.

It´s also very neat here in Santiago. A very well designed city. Everything ´works´! The roads, the footpath´s, the building fronts or facades and even the shop front security grille´s are ornamental and not ratty tatty. The street trees are groomed and the streets are clear of litter. The street sweepers are constantly sweeping!

Being a Saturday yesterday, everyone was setting up for a big night with all their stalls..and the place was swarming with street vendors and people selling their wares and singing, dancing, playing every wind instrument you can imagine and just generally trying to make a living!

We spent ages watching the chess games going on under the gazebo in the plaza de armas...they were on timers and we picked up some moves. We just sat watching life go by...it´s amazing what you see.

A switched on fire hydrant with fresh water pouring out and the locals, homeless and other´s running through the mist, lots of beggars in the streets with all sorts of ailments from the blind to the limbless to just the down and out alcoholics with their jars.

There were fruit vendors and shoe shiners with their little cabins in the mall, a man who was holding his crowd by just taking the mickey out of the crowd and people eating at little cafes in the mall.´We enjoyed our people watching!

We also walked through the Lastarria Quarter..which is a cultural area..with lots of historial buildings..

We could see the famous statue of the Virgin Mary, atop the San Christobel..It was a massive statue of Mary. Apparently Bartholi, who designed the Statue of Liberty in the US helped to design this...It´s certainly not as impressive as the Jesus statue in Rio de Janeiro..but it does stand out over Santiago as a reminder to people that the Christian faith, is indeed, still holding it´s power.

One thing we have observed is the lunch and dinner times. Lunch is popular with everyone out and about eating from about 11am till 3pm..and all the restaurants are crammed. Dinner is a different story. That starts after 9pm so if you´re hungry between lunch and dinner...you won´t find a restaurant open. Cafe´s are still open but they usually sell empanada´s (plain pastry meat pasty´s) and pans (bread) only.

We´re getting used to the Chilean pesos...it´s 416 Chile Pesos (CLP) to the 1 Australian dollar (AUD). I´ve been carring a calculator around..or just converting using 400 to one!

We withdraw 100,000 CLP from the cash machine (the symbol is the $ sign) and we felt rich!!! But it´s actually only AUD$240!

We bought some UNO cards yesterday, for 1000 pesos ($2.30) which seemed so cheap. It´s so strange using the big numbers after the pesos currency in Argentina (ARS 2.7) and even Uruguay (UYU 18.5)

Re the UNO cards..we want to play..but the rules were not in the pack (Hence the cheapness! They were bought at a roadside stall..so what do we expect! ha!)

We ate dinner at our little cafe near our hotel..and it was just tomatoe and queso toasted sandwiches...BUT..the Chilean wine that went with it...was the focal point.

Gee Chile has beautiful wine! Even just the house vino´s!

We have a week here..and one of our aims is to go and see some vineyards to see the wine that the spanish conquistadors introduced in the 16th century!!!

To look at the tourist brochures..you wouldn´t think there was much here in Santiago..the more beautiful parts of Chile are further north and further south. We´ve been to Patagonia..and need a month to explore the whole of Chile.

That´s one thing we´ve learned about South America...there are huge distances between all the countries here..and even within the countries, there are vast distances to travel. It´s such a massive continent!

So! We´re going to stay here in Santiago, do some day trips outwards from the cicy..enjoy the break..and the vineyards!!!!

xxxx
PS Still excited about becoming a grandma.....Oohhh! :-)) And...now you know why i was so anxious to have contact with family when we were in El Calafate and had no communication! Elise was having her second Scan while we were there..and i had no communication! Everything was down...no mobile reception, no email and the phone lines were jammed at one point! (I did finally get through on the land line!) Arrghhh...........I was ms grumpy bums for sure at that time! But it´s all OK now! :-)

I´M GONNA BE A GRANDMA!!!!

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CONGRATULATIONS ELISE AND DAVID!!!
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I am so excited to announce that my beautiful Elise and her gorgeous partner David are having a baby in August...

Greg and I are going to be GRANDPARENTS!!!!

We are SO excited! :-)

Awwwwwwwwww

What a beautiful way to bring in 2008!!!

Love from grandma jenn and grandpa greg xx
hehe

xxxxx

LAST NIGHT IN BUENOS AIRES!!!

Milenesa COMPLETO sandwich!!!








Day 321

San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Of course, the other thing San Telmo has..is FOOD!!!

FOOD! Wonderful, beautiful, Argentine FOOD!

Today we walked 15 kilometres around all the towns surrounding San Telmo. It wasn´t actually planned though! We were looking for the Post Office!

We started off walking from San Telmo to Plaza de Amas where the central Post Office is. We then found out this is not the International Post Office..so we walked 6km´s to where we were told that was!

On the way..we stopped off for lunch at Madeline´s and had Tortilla´s, ensalada´s and more agua minerale com gas....














This is the restaurant..in the new area of BA which is near the Port..(Puerto Madero) We prefer old San Telmo for the character tho!

Then continued our walk! We finally found the place..and posted our last box home (won´t you be happy Mum!! haha!) so we don´t have to pay excess baggage when we go through Airport Customs.

And then...walked back to Florida Street.watched all the activities going on there....stayed for quite a while and watched the tango..which we could never get sick of!
















Then..we had dinner at a great restaurant in San Telmo. Pity we found it on our last night! IT´s called El Federal and it has such character..and great milenesa completo´s!!! 12.50 pesos for a massive sandwich ... including queso, tomatoe, lechuga, nuevo duro, cebolla and papas Fritas!

Great little restaurant tho! It´s only 2 houses up from where the apartment is, where we stayed for Christmas and New Year!
















You`ll be glad to know..we don´t eat all the frita´s every time they appear on our plate! We´re still watching blood pressure...cholesterol and our diet etc so we TRY to leave THOSE on the side! Hard as it is! The Argentine frita´s are really the best however...! This sandwich will last us till tomorrow níght i´m sure!

Well.....I think after our foody, cultural, bohemian time here in Argentina..we´re going to miss the place!

Off to Chile tomorrow!!














PS This is at the internet place we´ve been going to in BA! More than 100 computers in the room!

xxxxx

SPECIAL SAN TELMO (updated pics)

Day 320

San Telmo, BA Argentina

Arriving in San Telmo, the antique hub of the world..with it´s cobblestone streets, houses with iron ballustrade balconies and wrought iron street lamps was just magical.

I love this place!!!

Going back to our old, once grand hotel, with it´s peeling walls and high ceilings, bathroom with bidet and open shower was bliss.

San Telmo has so much history. Since we first arrived here for Christmas we´re come to know the restaurants, the little street cafe´s, grocery shops and vegetable stores.

The history actually is quite colourful. It was once a neighbourhood that the wealthy inhabited. But...in 1871´Yellow Fever hit San Telmo and all the wealthy took off to the North of BA! It ravaged the area...

Later, it became home to foreign immigrants and artists opened their studios here. We took so many pics of the colourful art studios! There´s definitely a bohemian spirit here (which is why i love it so much) and so much going on...lots of antique shops and stalls..music, cafe´s and bars.

Just up from where we ´live´is a park called Parque Lezama which is where Greg and I spent our anniversary. It´s about 4 hectares of park and trees..and it has a Nacional Historical museum...but it´s was closed when we went there. Sculptor patio is another place in the park....

So peaceful and tranquil. For lunch we had bread rolls and agua minerale com gas! So decadent! But..we were waiting for our delicious dinner..at our FAV...Des Nivel.

More about San Telmo. The buses here are like no other in the world! They hiss...it´s weird. Greg says they´ve got some sort of hissing, squeaking release valve on their brake compresser that whistles....we notice it over and over again..since there are SO many buses hissing up Bolivar Street where we´re staying!

Dinner was sooooo yummy........chorizo for entree, bife de lomo (yes, we love it!) assortment of ensalada and abundance of vino...and Dom Pedro for dessert! This dessert is icecream..soaked in whiskey..and dosed with walnuts..ohlala.

We had a beautiful anniversary.....We re confirmed our love and commitment and decided if each of us can truly love being together for 24/7 for a year...we must be soulmates!! I could go on forever about this beautiful relationship..but i´ll keep that for the sanctity of our own lives :-) But...i will say, we said verbal poems to each other, over dinner, and we were both reduced to snivelling romantics!














Greg also gave me a very special Inca Rose heart necklace..and it´s so beautiful. Inca Rose is the stone that is only found here in Argentina..and that made it extremely special because we´ve found a true magic in this part of the earth.

We also bought each other patagonian polar fleeces. Ready for NZ! (no wonder we needed to post back our old stuff!)

But as for my gift to Greg...I gave him a big kiss...and and the promise of great things to come! :-)

OK enuff of that!

San Telmo also has Dorrego PLaza..and that is a place we frequent a lot...it´s close, it´s cultural..and therés always something going on..whether it´s flamenco, tango..music..or just kids and people milling around...

Such a great place - San Telmo!

BACK TO ARGENTINA in FIRST CLASS STYLE!

Day 319

Montevideo, Uruguay to Buenos Aires Argentina

We caught our taxi to the Aeropuerto for our 1.40pm flight for 480 pesos (got it right this time!) and once we were there we found our flight had changed to a departure time of 12.40pm! (Thank goodness we were early!)

We scratched our heads about this..and came up with one answer! The time change in Argentina was changed after we´d booked all our latest flights...it seems to us the time change is to allow Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay to all be on the same time zone.

Even when we went through customs we firstly went through the Uruguayan customs...then through the Argentine customs. They seemed to have somehow joined forces. We don´t know what´s happened politically..but at least we now know all our flights will be an hour earlier than planned!

It was interesting checking into the Montevideo Airport check in. The guy was super friendly. We said gracias, and si and all the spanish terms we could muster up...(it helps us get good seats! And together!) We noticed he had a ´priority ticket´on our luggage which we wondered about...and as we were leaving he presented us with a slip...it was a ticket to use the VIP lounge at the Montevideo lounge!!!!

We checked our tickets..and they said D and F. We thought..should we see if we can get our seats together, or should we leave it hoping he´d put us on the isle and the window with no one in the middle! We left it.

The VIP lounge, to be honest, looked a bit daunting. We were in our travel pants, had our small front backs on us, and were not dressed up like we saw some of the other´s were...and also we could not see the boarding times and as we couldn´t speak spanish we thought we´d better not go into the lounge and opted to stay out observing the board.

It was a nice gesture tho! We felt special!

THEN! When the boarding time came up..we went to line up..and showed our tickets. The man at the gate ushered us to move aside.............in Spanish.

We did as we were motioned..and wondered what was up...

Then another guy came and interpreted for us.

He told us first class passengers had to line up there (where we were) to wait for our private vehicle to pick us up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FIRST CLASS!!!

US???

(We´ve never been first class, ever!)

SO....we waited for our bus...and hopped in with the other first class couple..and watched everyone else be loaded up into a crowded bus with no seats...to be driven to the plane!

LUXURY!

We couldn´t wipe the blimen smiles off our faces as we walked up the steps to the door of the plane!!!

Our seats....did not have a middle seat. There were ony two in our isle! We were Number 2 D and 2 F!

We got served orange juice in a glass...and a lunch, that no one else was served.

The flight was only half an hour long..but for that time..we were treated like the king and queen...and it did feel rather wonderful! hehe

When we hopped off our flight and went to the baggage pick up area...our luggage came out FIRST!!! That´s what the ´Priority´ sticker attached to our backpacks was for!!!!

What on earth did we do to deserve that????

Whoa.

COMPLETO IN MONTEVIDEO (added pix)

Horse rubbish cart!








Day 318 & 319

Monday, 14th and Tuesday 15th January 2008

Montevideo, Uruguay, South America

Yesterday we explored the little cove at the end of our street, Convencion Street, where there are rocks and a river beach area. They don´t call it a beach because it´s just a little cove area next to a parque. (park) The water is a dirty colour, due to the silt from the river flowing into the area since it´s at the mouth of the river..but against the large rocks overlooking the beach it´s a peaceful and beautiful view.

The weather has been absolutely gorgeous...both days we´ve been here. Around 30-34C.














Yesterday, Monday, we caught a taxi 5 km´s to another beach, called Playa Ramirez which is one of the more popular beaches and it was weird. The place was pretty empty until about 5pm when people started flowing in with their deck chairs (and mate) and their soccer ball´s ready to have a game of beach soccer. We were laying on our sarongs (mine from Brazil, Greg´s from Salvador) for quite a while..on the white beach sand further away from the water where it was a bit warmer.

The wind came up about 6pm so we left..but it was funny to see people laying their towels near the beach, on the grey muddy silt. Ew.














We decided to walk home so we could pass the city and see what was happening...and as we walked we saw heaps of ´rubbish horse carts´..they were everywhere. The people on them come from the shanty towns on the outskirts of town and rummage through the rubbish, piling up their carts with whatever they can find. We saw different ones passing through on every intersection. They must turn up when the main shops finish work for the day.














The colourful street vendors were still out and about. We bought the traditional Uruguay mate pot and metal straw for posterity. Not sure we´ll ever acquire the taste for mate but it´ll remind us of their bizarre habit when we see it on our mantle piece!!!

The streets coming back from the beach were all named after doctors...Dr Juan D Jackson, Dr Emilio Frugoni and then the main streets were called Constituticional and Convencion Streets. Intersting names.

We went back to the local restaurant here in Convencion Street and had Milenesa Neopolatina with the fritas, ensalada, and pan (bread with oil and vinegar) this time..ohlala..very good food here..with that italian flavour and very good copa vino tinto with that incredible price of under 200 uruguayan pesos. (around AUD $10!)

About the Italians..they, and the Swiss, apparently immigrated in droves in early 1900´s, introducing the italian and swiss flavour to the area. In particularly the Little Italy they have here. The dishes are very italian in most restaurants. We found out they have very good gnocchi as well! They also have this tradition where they go beserk on the 29th of every month, selling monstrous amounts of gnocchi on that date. The Swiss introduced cheese making here due to the abundance of dairy cows. Hence the incredible cheeses they also have here!

After dinner..we had some time to kill..so we looked at the ´cine show´ sign over the road from our hotel and decided to go in...

Without going into the details of it...In short, it ended up being a latin porn show...hahahaha and it figured overloaded gross looking characters which was enough to turn anyone off! Not quite THE cultural experience we expected!!!! Geepers...

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anyway...Strolling on the beach and going to a good local restaurant was a good way to end our stay in Uruguay. We totally enjoyed it here. The people are so relaxed and the pace is slow.

Back to Argentina now!!! (BA)

xx

BACK IN MONTEVIDEO AGAIN!

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY gorgeous Jilly! Now we´re the same age! hehe Hope you had a fabulous day..and can´t wait to hear all about it! Love from Jenn & Greg xxx
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Day 317 Sunday, 13th January 2008

Montevideo, Uruguay POPULATION: 1,349,000 habitants in the city proper and 1,814,400 habitants in the greater metropolitan region!

Buenas Tardes! (Good afternoon!)

Bienvenido!!!! (Welcome !)

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Buenos dias - Good morning
Buenas tardes - Good afternoon
Buenas noches - Good evening
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We´re back in Montevideo after our wonderful beachy experience in Punta del Este and Punta del Diablo for the last two days. Places to go for sure...but maybe places to go in the offseason, not the tourist season like it is now!

It was so crowded!!!!

But we loved it. And loved hearing the sound of the beach and waves crashing and rolling in our ears....beautiful.

So...now that we´re back to the city, we can relax! It´s Sunday. And on Sunday´s the whole of South America has bare streets! And we´re going to go strolling...

And we´re going to have some dinner at the local cafe, called Barrik, in Convencion Street, that has milenesa the Uruguayan favourite which is similar to the `sticks` or `stekkers`..the italian cheese and breadcrumbed bashed meat that i make, except it also has mozzerella, ham and olives as well - SO yummy!!

They sell a plateful of this milenesa, as well as an ensalada, (salad) fritas (chips) and a copa (cup) vino tinto (red wine) for 99 pesos. (Less than AUD$5!)

We´re here for another couple of days...before we head back to Buenos Aires so we´re just going to enjoy the famous beaches that are only five minutes from here...

Hope all is well back home???

Adios! (Bye!)
Hasta manana (See you later!)
Que tengas un buen dia (Have a nice day!)

xxxx

MORE MATE BEACH MADNESS (PIX)

Punta del Este & Punta del Diablo URUGUAY

MATE MADNESS. (pronounced mar-tay)

I´ve gone as mad, as Uruguay has gone mad! I just can´t get over the way they are so addicted to drinking this green leafed glumpy gooey herbal gunnk that they do......... To me, it seems so bizzare! Now i know what it is for other nationalities to eat vegemite! Mate tea is ewww..and we can´t get used to the bitter taste of it. Yet Argentines and especially Uruguayans are totally addicted to it!

In hindsite, I´m thinking that guy in Iguazu Argentina, who i observed from my cafe table, was just having a ´mate experience´ sharing his ´mate te´ ´(and cigarette and money in the end!) with the street vendor, rather than, as i first thought, being the victim of a rip-off! It is apparently, so we´ve been told, ´the thing to do´ in Argentina, and probably here in Uruguay...to have a ´mate´ with a local! Hmm..hindsite is such a great thing!

Anyway - Here are some more pics of ´MATE´ MADNESS! In Punta del Este and Punta del Diablo!

**********************************

PUNTA del DIABLO URUGUAY

Day 316

Punta del Diablo, Uruguya, South America POPULATION: 700!

We woke up to a beautiful breakfast at Rodrigo´s. Homemade apple cake and toasted ham and cheese sandwiches, freshly squeezed orange juice and herbal tea. The last time we had coffee was in Brazil and we drank so much of it we were having heart palpatations so we´ve been drinking tea.

Rodrigo was still asleep. It was 10.30am and our bus left at 11am. The previous night he said he´d take us to the bus department. We wondered if we should take a taxi; we were happy too and didn´t want to outgrow his hospitality.

He woke, bleary eyed, said he had to go to Punta, taking us was good motivation..we arrived at the bus station at 10.55am!

Rodrigo had booked our room up when we couldnt rebook it due to our bus trip to Diablo...but he told us if we didn´t get accomodation in Diablo..we could go back and stay in his tent in the back yard.

We paid him the money for the hotel room and tried to give him extra for the tour he took us on. He wouldn´t take it. No, no he said. He couldn´t. All he wanted was a great recommendation in the hostel bookers evaluation. Above 90% he said would give him more business. In our books, this very generous, kind and surfy guy...would get 100$%. It would have to be one of the best experiences of hospitality we´ve had from a total stranger during this year away. Apart from the guy in Athens who let us stay in Nanna´s room when the whole place was booked out due to the Liverpool, Milan soccer game!

The bus was so crowded people were standing in the isles. It didn´t look good for our trip to Diablo. My ears pricked up when i heard Australian voices behind me talking to a local Uguguayan guy from Rocha saying they were also going to wing it in Diablo! Uh oh.

At 2.30pm when we arrived at Punta del Diablo we were shocked by the amount of tourists. We thought there would be a lot. But! Not this many. It looked as if the poor place was exploding out of it´s seams.

On the roadside just out of town we got our first taster. There were about 100 backpackers lined up on the road waiting for a bus.














We were hoping our Plan B wasn´t going to be in ruins. Plan A - find a cabana (a small hut we heard they had on the outskirts of town) to stay in outside of town, Plan B catch a bus back to Montevideo!

Plan A was not looking likely and even before we arrived at the little sandy roaded bus station!

I felt an instant panic. We´d travelled this far to see the town, to relax in a remote part of Uruguay, on a gorgeous beach..and everyone else had the SAME IDEA!

We disembarked and scurried straight to the little tourista store which we could see from the bus window. The line was thick already. We waited for our turn, only to be told..the town was completely booked out.

We headed straight to the little shack of a bus station ticket office. And we very luckily got a ticket to Montevideo at 7.30pm that night. There were many busses heading out. At least they catered for buses out, even if they did not cater for accomodation within the town. I wondered how the 700 locals felt. They were inundated buy multiple thousands of tourists!

We were told it´s only like that from 20th December to 10th March so i guess they have adapted and take advantage of being able to make money from the tourists for that period. Compensation for being crowded out in their own town i guess. There were a lot of street vendors selling everything. Interestingly though, we could not find postcards, something we´ve been collecting...the one light souvenir we´ve bought for all the places we´ve been to.

We had five hours to see the town. But we were loaded up with our back and front backs and a side bag. How on earth do we see a town that has no lockers, facilities or even a proper bus station?

Well, you take your packs...head for a cafe (to go to the loola as well!) and sit there and eat the local food, drink wine, take in the life passing by and just sit back and relax!

That´s one thing we have learned..Uruguayans are very laid back relaxed people..very like Australians!

And that´s exactly what we did. We loaded up our packs...found a cafe...and dumped them by the side of the wall of the cafe...ordered the local paella and the very cheap santa maria vino tinto (or 55 pesos per half litre!!!) and observed the goings on in the world of Punta del Diablo. The previous panic subsided and our mood lightened. At least we found a place to eat!

Just being in the town is special. A lot of the people there spoke Spanish which suggested to us they were Uruguayan and Argentine tourists who have also discovered this picturesqe and special spot on earth.

From where we sat, overlooking the beach, we could see the sandy street full of backpackers rolling by, in the herds, Mate drinkers adorned with their pots and flasks (I´m going to post the day´s Mate Madness pics when i can upload my pics!) and bikini and board shorted clad bodies floating by..as well as all the colours of beach.

Greg took a stroll of the town, while i backpack sitted in Neptuno´s, to ask if there was a possibility of a room anywhere for a night..but came back with the same story. The inn´s were full.














We ended up thinking..we just couldn´t sit looking at the beach. We had to go down and feel the sand and surf on our bodies. So we loaded up our packs and headed to the beach. We found a good, quiet spot on the large mound of rocks which overlooked the whole Diablo Bay. It was pretty easy just to get our bather´s out of our packs....and change...there on the rocks! We´re getting good at adjusting to any situation these days..improvising and adapting.
















And that´s where we layed...until 7.15pm when we had to catch the bus back to Montevideo.

At midnight we arrived in Montevideo..wondering where to stay. We headed, by taxi, back to the hotel where were only 2 days before..and they had a room!

What a day. We were glad we made the effort, even though it was a lot of bus travel!

We must have done about 1000km´s of travel in just the two days..and SEE a lot as well!

Now it´s time for a rest in Montevideo..just as well it´s Sunday today...a day when everything comes to a standstill..and so do we.