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Published: February 24th 2011
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Right, no internets for the past few days so its catchup time. Im going to post the first Vino Entry up here and the second tomorrow...
I'm walking around town carrying a packet of dried dogfood. Niamh has taken it upon herself to feed every stray dog in Vina del Mar. One of the things that strikes you about South American cities that there are dozens upon dozens of stray dogs wandering around. The Latino tradition of machismo extends right down to the animals and the concept of chopping off the wandering dogs plumbing is seen as a big no no. You'll see dogs swill sunning themselves on the shopping streets, whole packs lying out in public parks and should you make eye contact with one it will potter along after you hoping to score a few morsels of food.
Niamh attracted the attention of a little grey puppy earlier and it followed us for a good half an hour braving certain death weaving trough traffic, Chileans obviously learn to drive in the same driving school as the bazillions.
The problem with Niamhs humanitarian effort, or should that be caninarian effort, is that while Blondie eager to help
all living things she is of course Niamh Power and completely obsessed with personal hygiene and cleanliness. After each dog is fed Niamh assumes she has caught some sort of sickness or ailment and insists we go to the pharmacy to pick up hand sanitizer. The following day she spots another sick puppy and we go through the process again ad infintium as the trip progresses. At present count there are no less then 4 different types of hand sanitizer bottles cluttering up the bottom of my rucksack from several different South American countries.
Vina de mar is lovely, but extremely expensive by South American standards, it’s a beach resort where the who's who in Chile goes to Chile out and a massive Flash Casino dominates the beach front. Restaurants are pretty much the same price as back home so we are obviously doing a lot of self catering, veggie stir-fry being the current favourite as its nice and light and I was rapidly on my way to becoming a whiter pastier version Jabba the hutt with all the Argentinean steak I was consuming.
Vino much safer then Valparaiso and you can wander all around it at will
Doggie follows Blondie
Across Chilean traffic, defying nearly certain death! all hours of the night without any trouble. Niamh has received an enthusiastic welcome from the male populace with young men proclaiming " I LOVE YOU I LOVE YOU" at her from across the street and yesterday on our way back from the shop a middle aged bare chested man in a van drove past at speed while leaning out the window puckering his lips to produce enthusiastic kissing noises and using his non steering hand to passionately bang the side of his car door, while bellowing what presumably were the most flattering and eloquent Chilean romantic sonnets at her from the top of his voice.
Niamhs celebrity status among Chilean males aside, we are having a lovely time In Vino, the beaches are lovely and seem to get more crowded after 5.30 when the locals start to clock off from work. Niamh loves walking about the seafront, on a suger high from consuming penny sweets and doing those hand swirming and loud excited snorting noises she liable to do when in such a mood.The only hit and miss is the weather which appears to be suffering from some sort of metrological schezopehnia, some days its as dour as
THAT THINGS OPERATIONAL!
Ne Nab Neeeb Neeb Nab...paul and dara will prob be the only ones to get the meaning of this caption a typical day in Dublin only for the sun to jump out from behind the clouds scorch all below, particularly myself and Niamh to the colour of corned beef.
We sampled some of Chile’s local dishes. Some like the seafood taste absolutely sublime while honourable mention goes to the Chorillia, a kind of wonder hangover cure off all things bad and nasty. You get bits of chopped beef and frankfurter , mix it through a clump of greasy fries and then pour melted cheese all over the top. I’ll just say that IT’S A TRAP, the fully operational death star of hangover cures and upon chomping that mixture down your throat you swear you can hear all your arteries cry out in fear as one…and then are suddenly silent.
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