Hasta La Vista Suda America !!

Gosh, Doesnt time fly when a girls having fun? S'been three months dontcha know and today I am in Santiago, Chile, and it's my last day in South America! Tonight I fly to New Zealand and oooh im all excited all over again!!

I left Bariloche a week ago and crossed over to Chile- and though im not given over to going on about the scenery too much- i cant help but just gush abit about the mountains, lakes and pastures I past on the way to Osorno. Everything just looked vivid, as though it were touched up with computer technology to look vibrant. The snow on the mountain tops was virgin pure, the green so.. oh i cant do it justice. However when i got to Osorno it was a complete dump and booked another bus ticket to go to the next town -Valdivia. Its funny how here you dont think too much about the journey times. Travel wise this was like going 'oh I dont like Barnsley, il go to Southport.' Anyway got there very late and booked into a B&B. Bite to eat in nice cafe and thats about it. Spent the next day eating nice seafood, and reading on the river bank. It was quite pretty but thats about it. Another bus (overnight) to Valparaiso.

Valparaiso is 2 hours from Santiago. Everyone who has been to Santiago on this trip has advised me to not go there until the last minute and that I should chill in a seaside place as long as poss. So I go to Valparaiso. Anyway get there at 9.30am a bit tired and with a knackered shoulder from not great bus and go to chosen Hostel. Its full. The owner, a weirdy beardy camp German guy, took me in and let me have a free breakfast with the multi cultural gathering at the breakfast table. Spent the morning talking with Swiss, Swedish, French and Portuguese backpackers, all of which had about 5 languages each and I, the typical English person, with one and a quarter ;) Oh well. The only language they chose to use was English anyway....

Went off to another hostel at CampGermans recommendation and on the way aquire Christophe, a multi lingual photographer who was a bit like Pepe Le Phew. Mid 30's, 5'4 tall and with pigeon chest sticking out, he accompanied me around the bay, exclaiming every so often 'A CANT BELIEF EEET! DER ARR NO BEAUTIFUL WOMENS IN CHILE!!!' and shaking his head. Then he'd skip onto the odd bench or wall and whip out a small digital camera and snap away. Suffice to say the pictures where all a bit crap. When some of the locals eyed me up due to the old Blue Eyes and Freckles combo that clearly marks me out to be a Gringa, he then goes 'Do you see that?! Amazing! De men look atchoo because you arr different!!' I felt like telling him it might possibly be to do with the fact that Im a 'hot ride' but i think he would have look horrified so I just smirked.

Lovely night with the European crowd but the next day a visit to Vina Del Mar proved a bit of a waste of time. So wont bore you with it (nasty, not very pretty resort).

Parted with Christophe, who was a good sort really (talked alot about good and bad 'energy' and people being beautiful on the inside) and got me on the bus to final stop - Santiago. And do you know what? It aint so bad at all. This might have something to do with the swanky pad im staying in though. Its a rooftop apartment style hostel, brand new so not many backpackers, and cheap. Modern trendy everything-and the weather is the hottest Ive had since Brazil so bliss bliss bliss.

Met some nice peeps, bit of a party in here on Friday with the owners and bit of a sore head yesterday. Went down the Bellavista area for all day beers (also nipped into one of the many musemus because there was an Andy Warhol ex on) and today, well Im attending to you aint I before I fly off to a new continent! Wooo hoooo!

So to round up South America let me try to mention a few things that have been lost on the way.
*There was the 80 year old Argentinian lady in Bariloche who heard the English accent and told myself and Phil all about how she had swam the English channel, and whipped out black & white 50's pictures to prove it.
* The Brazillian gay couple I met in Recoleta Cemetary. I asked for directions to Evitas grave, I left with email addresses, hugs and kisses and promises of places to stay in Sao Paulo or Sydney. After 10 minutes. One of them emails me.
*Nicolaus, the Brazilian from Rio who delivered me safley to Santa Theresa tram.
* The Bolivian security guard who fixed my ankle when I fell down the stairs pissed in La Paz.
* A swedish couple in Chile, Valparaiso, whom I wish I could have got to know better
* Free email when drunk is bad bad bad. (RE: B.Aires) Sorry Lisa and Jenny, didnt mean to scare you.
* The best 'I have never' answer to the drinking game in question. Drinking in the middle of the Pantanal wilderness the woman (who shall remain nameless) said 'I have never had sex with a woman, who wasnt pregnant.' I mean I dont think anyone had to drink on that round.....

So many highs, and a few lows but as it's said in Vanilla Sky 'The sweet is never as sweet, without the sour baby'.

South America I wont say Adios, but rather, Hasta la vista, as I'm sure I will see you again.....

Les & Phils Excellent Patagonia Adventure

So then, last time I caught up with you, I was fulfilling the role of 'par-tay animal' and losing, well, all kinds of things. The Pacha incident saw me swaying down a Buenos Aires street at 8am Saturday morning with a load of Milhouse Hostel rejects. It was a bit like Shaun of the Dead. I had befriended Disco Bunny Phil from Manchester and slipped a convincing firm arm through his and told him that we were off to 'Do Patagonia' togther. We were both pretty wrung out with BA by this point antd lots of other people were heading off- so after 4 hours feeling rough but with a cuppa and a twix we had our route sorted. This was going to be our version of booking into The Priory.

Flew off to El Calafate via Ushuaia (the most southern city in the world) and got ourselves to the expensive little village that is host to the Moreno Glacier - one of the only ones to still (until recently) be still advancing. The point of going to see this is because the thing is pretty stationary and whilst it advances from behind, at the front- every day- massive chunks of it just break off and crash into the lake. It's so dazzeling, ice blue white against fantastic clear blue skies and beautiful mountains surrounding it. You can hear it creak within- it's like an animal- and then, before you know it, it just goes 'crrreawwuuuump-SPLASH!'.
Hmmm. Not entirely convinced the splashed bit really captures the moment but still. We strapped on some crampons, Phil did a little mincey dance in his and struck various (unconvincing) butch poses, and we went glacier walking! It was ace. Rewarded with whiskies and chocolate after.

Spent 2 days there, holed up in a little cabin hilariously titled 'Los Dos Pinos'- we only went there because we wanted to snigger the name to a cabbie- and rather than attend 'The Music Conference' that had many a worldwide DJ attending in BA, we danced around our little kitchen and played house music and wished our friends were with us. We didnt even get drunk! You have these moments... We also did abit of mountain biking and agreed that neither of our friends would recognise the outdoorsy-type people we appeared ;)

After this we headed up to Puerto Madryn, a Welsh settlement town on the Eastcoast of Argentina. Got ourselves on a little boat and went Whale watching. I thought we might see a blow hole or two, or even maybe a tail in the distance, but what we got was HUUUUUUGE whales swimming right up to the little boat and playing with us. Ace again! And the odd cheeky Sea Lion, but alas no Penguins :(
After 2 hours of this we were stranded in the village of Piramdes for 3 hours until a bus could take us back to Madryn. We went inside a little fishing cafe and it was empty except for 4 circus acrobats who had tied a massive drape to a beam on the ceiling and were all hanging in various arty ways from it to really hard dance music.
Which was nice.

Had the bus journey from hell to Bariloche. An overnight one that started well but for some reason at about 5am a speedometer alarm on the coach broke and from then til 8am it just went 'BLARRRRRBLAAAAAAAARRRRRRRR' like every 30 seconds or so. Phil wimpered under his face mask. I got heartburn. Caught a delayed bus at 1030 for the remaining leg of the trip and expected full sleeps til one but then, with it being day time, they started showing really loud spanish films, one of which was like a spanish musical version of The Goons. Awful. Phil turned into Victor Meldrew with about 10 'I dont believe this's'. And the staff lobbing cheese & ham butties at us didnt help.

To round up anyway, we got to Bariloche, and while it was stunning, it was also a bit nippy and we were more than a bit tetchy from the rubbish journey. We did go canoyping in the mountains though - swinging through treetops like a pair of Ewoks - and ate chocolate, and cake etc. But obviously not while canopying. I mean I was good at it but that would just be showing off.

The time to part finally came Phil up to Peru and me to Chile. It's amazing what you can plan on the way home from a club, and we both had to agree that it had been a most excellent adventure....

Muy Bien B.A!!!!!!

Oh helloooooo

now although its only been a week or two since I last wrote, well a fair bit has happened and I dunno how to condense it all without boring the arse off you. Theres been a country change, a week of boozing and steak eating and a lot of clubbing....

So I gets me to Lima, Peru, to catch a flight to Buenos Aires. Tried to think of ways of spending 12 hours in Lima before said flight and frankly if I could get the 12 hours back I would. Its a shoreside weirdy beardy place of fog, pollution and little to see. Got back the airport and watched all of the Argentines fight to be at the front of the boarding queue. Sit quietly and sensibly at the gate thinking
'Tsk, we all have our boarding passes, no need to fight'
and was last on the plane only to find people swarming up the aisle because as I looked at my ticket seat number 32H I noticed that the seat rows all only went to ... 26. Great. Lan airlines had 'swapped' the plane and hadnt thought to notify the crew. Anyway dunno who got off but all sorted in the end and just over a week ago I landed in Buenos Aires and dyou know what? Its effing great here!!!

Rinsing my money like you wouldnt know but I dont care!!! Tango in the streets, fantastic markets, great clothes, BIG FAT JUICY STEAKS FOR 3 QUID!!!! And oh! the clubbing clubbing clubbing. I have only seen BA in the day a couple of times but it looks lovely ;)

Tell a wee lie there, I have actually attended spanish lessons all last week and God, theres a lot of lauguage there isnt there? My mum was like

'oh but Spanish is easy isnt it? Like pharmacy is 'pharmacia'......'

hmmm sorry Ma, just adding 'O's' and 'A's' on the end of everything didnt work very well so thought Id better get a bit in. Staying in another terrible-on-the-kidneys hostel called Milhouse and have many a new amigo. For those who love the old dance music Im proud to brag that I went to Club 69 on Thursday, Ministry of Sound @ Pacha on Friday and Opera Bay last night... lost me camera (stolen) me switch card (misplaced) and me marbles (urrrm, maybe sometime ago).

Aside from the night life ive been to a tango show (cheesy but verrry impressive) had a tango lesson and eaten the best steak as big as my head in a place call Des Nivel two nights in a row cos im a greedy cow- luuuurvley!

Should mention all the lovely people (Jean, Ana, Jacinda, Phil, Joe, Ross, Ben) who are all as dismayed as me at the sleeps in and lack of sightseeing.....

Oh well, manyana....