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Published: December 21st 2007
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Happy at last
Not surprisingly, when we got back to Chile the first place Bill headed was the Casino. Hello all,
As the title tells we had a bit of a hiccup in Buenos Aires that meant that we had to stay there for a few extra days and meant that we didnt get on our bus to Iguazu falls and we didnt get to Rio either. This sucked as Nic really wanted to see Iguazu and I really wanted to see Christ the Redeemer in Rio. It all should have worked out as we had from Saturday 15 December until Saturday 22 December to get ourselves from Buenos Aires through to Rio for our flight to Lima. Instead we ended up having to stay in Buenos Aires until Wednesday 19 and this left too little time to get to those places overland which has put a real shit%er on things. So what happened?
Well I got my bag stolen from the fu%king bus station is what happened. I wont go into the details as Nic will probably explain it far better than me and with half the swearing. My bag had all our plane tickets in it and also the Washington Wizards tickets (I can also hear the boys laughing from here!!!), oh and my cellphone (no
Feeling safe
Unlikely to be robbed here, but according to this sign there is danger from large waves. need to txt me anymore J-Rod) plus a few books (our South America Lonely planet being one of them) and a few other little things. We were bloody lucky in a sense because the b*stards didnt get any of our money or passports or anything so sucked to them. So because of the plane tickets and plus we needed to get a police report it meant that we had to stay in Buenos Aires at least until Tuesday so that we could get our tickets reissued and stuff. Yeah so we decided that instead of paying about 1200 USD to get a flight to Rio we would spend 600 USD on a flight bck to Santiago where we pick up our flight to Peru on Sunday 23. So its a bit of a bummer but at least we are safe and not too much out of pocket.
So were back in Chile and thought we would go down to Vina Del Mar for a couple of days of chilling out on the beach and doing nothing. Plus it gets us out of the city and we wont have to negotiate the thousands that walk the streets. We are currently in Vina Del Mar and its pretty bloody nice and quiet. I really like it! Oh and its raining. Not heavy like in Tahiti but drizzling like at home just without the wind. Were here for another night and then we catch our bus back to Santiago tomorrow afternoon but for today with the temperature a little more like what Im used to its going to be a nice relaxing day. And who knows if Im nice to Nic she might even let me go to the Casino.
Bye for now, if we dont write again before Christmas, I hope everyone has a bloody good Christmas, you all eat and drink too much and have a good time.
Peace out peeps.
Billy
Hi all,
I was nice to Billy yesterday and let him go to the Casino and there is no chance at all, no matter how nice he is, of him going again today.
Our little event at the bus station certainly put a dampener on things for a couple of days but we are over it now. I am just grateful that Billy did not manage to catch up with and confront the thief when he chased him, as I doubt they would have hesitated in hurting him and then the whole thing would have been really bad.
It was a pretty well practiced routine I think - a woman came and sat beside me and started waving her hands around and talking very aggressively and Billy was distracted enough making sure I was ok to take one hand off one bag for about one second.
Police, of which there are a lot, in BA are all heavily armed and wear a lot of bullet proof clothing which actually is not particularly comforting. Getting a police report was pretty interesting. We initially spoke (um, well said a few words and mimed) to the police at the bus station. The guy seemed more interested in trying to tell me how drunk the other tourist in the office was, which I did not find that funny at the time although he thought it was hilarious. I eventually managed to figure out that we needed to speak to a tourist police person and he said that one was on the way. I asked how long we had to wait and he said he would go and find out. After about half an hour I peeked around to see where he was, and found him having a glass of wine and a cigarette and reading the newspaper! Well, it was Saturday night so I guess anyone in their right mind would want to have a glass of wine and a cigarette and rather than deal with some slightly shocked gringo.
The next morning we found the tourist police station only to be told that they could not give us a report either as all they do is help with translation, and that we still had to make the report to the bus station police. However, there was no English speaking officer there at the time, so we had to go back later when there might be someone who could go back to the bus station with us to make a statement. We did so and weirdly enough the rules had changed and they were able to take a statement. They told us that it was very good we had not been stabbed as this happens often. I thought it was good too.
So we are now back in lovely Vina del Mar and just relaxing. Chile is quite different to BA - the people in the parks in the city are generally there because they are enjoying the park rather than because they live in it. Beer here is about $1.50 so we will be having a few of those....
Off to Peru next, where we spend Christmas in Cusco and New Year in Aguas Calintes (nearest town to Machu Picchu).
Hope you all have a fabulous Christmas.
Love
Nic
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Megan
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Guys, I'm really sorry that such a horrible thing happened to you and I'm very glad that you're OK. Gut reaction to chase the thieves, but definitely not a good idea as a mate of mine was confronted with a knive when the same thing happened in Victoria Falls. Glad though that you are back in Chile and having a nice relaxing time and are not too out of pocket. Huge shame about the Wizards tickets, but hopefully they are replaceable, unlike you two :-) Have a wonderful Xmas in Cusco. Am jealous about Machu Picchu. Love M