I had an open week between two of my finals so rather than taking the free time to study, my friend and I decided to beach it. I met her at her house with a backpack filled with a bathing suit, book and flipflops. We went to the bus station said, "ok, so where is somewhere cheap, close and on the beach??". We ended up taking buses from one little beach town to the next, most of which werent too exciting to be completely honest. We ended up staying in Concón and Horcon, since there really wasn't anything around there we [View Full Entry]

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You may have heard that Charles Darwin sailed on a boat called the HMS Beagle and wound up writing a somewhat controversial book called On the Origin of Species. I once tried reading it and would not recommend it unless you yourself are stuck on a very slow boat sailing across the Atlantic, through the Straits of Magellan, up the coast of South America and then across the Pacific. What is perhaps less well known is that before getting to the celebrated Galapagos, Mr Darwin did a fair amount of putzing around Chile and wondering why there were fossils of ocean [View Full Entry]

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This is a cool town, very arty and bohemian. In the early 90s the city commissioned some artists to paint murals to create an outdoor museum. Time hasn't been very kind to them, they're not in very good condition nor as interesting as the regular graffiti and murals done more recently on other walls all over town, some of which are excellent. Just a few km's down the road, or a few stops on the train we took, is Vina del Mar an upmarket beach resort with lots of high rise apartment buildings, international hotels and expensive shops. It's OK for [View Full Entry]

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We celebrated Halloween in Santiago, a big party that was a lot of fun. The next day some friends and I took a bus to Valparaiso for the night, a beachtown about an hour and a half way from Santiago. It´s a really cute place, famous for it´s hills that are covered in multicolored houses overlooking the ocean. We went for a jazz show, ate Chorialla (a mountain of french fries topped with beef, egg and onions, it´s ah-mazing!) then danced it off until 5am! [View Full Entry]

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So, Its been 3 weeks, or so since I was in Valparaíso and Viña del Mar, but I finally have time to write about it. Viña is nice and modern, with big buildings right on the coast. There's a Starbucks, one of the few outside Santiago, and the oldest casino in Chile. Viña is one of the biggest music scenes in Latin America, and most major performers in the spanish speaking world played there before hitting it big, because of this there are a lot of great concerts. I only ate lunch on the beach, before heading to Valparaíso, which is [View Full Entry]

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Vik's bit: So an uncomfortably long journey brought us to Santiago, capital of Chile and home to about one-third of the population there. Suitably sized in order to hold all that folk, it spreads itself within the confines of the mountains that surround it. The city bustles, but does not overwhelm, and we spent our days enjoying the plazas, the coffee and the seafood. The plazas provided random opera performances and other such treats, and the coffee shops a different kind of entertainment. Turns out that purchasing coffee is a risky business in Santiago. Luring you in with their very or [View Full Entry]

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So schnell vergeht die Zeit. Und schon sind wir in Chile...ok, wir sind auch sehr schnell gereist...aber es gibt noch so viel,was von uns gesehen werden will. In Mendoza haben wir eine super Zeit verbracht. Das Weindegustieren haben wir sehr genossen und deshalb fast die ganze Zeit dabei verbracht:-) Auch sind wir Paragliden gegangen und haben sonst Mendoza unsicher gemacht. Bilder die viel mehr aussagen, als meine Worte hier, findet ihr unter dem Buenos Aires Eintrag. In Santiago waren wir nur gerade 2 Tage (nicht schon wieder Grossstadt) und sind nun in Valparaiso. Hier muessen wir natuerlic [View Full Entry]

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I arrived back in Vina del Mar at 11.30am on Monday 12 October and checked into a hotel near the bus station as I was only going to be staying for 2 days. After lunch, I went to the beach to enjoy the clear blue sky and hot sun. It was so nice to relax on the beach for a few hours after being in the bustling metropolis of Santiago for the weekend. In the evening I went for dinner before returning to the hotel to watch NY Jets Vs Miami Dolphins in the NFL Monday Night Football. I woke up [View Full Entry]

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Sept 24, 2009 We made a phone call to LAN airlines and got the good news that Justin’s luggage finally arrived! Yay! That meant that we would have deodorant and Justin can finally change out of his smelly clothes. So, we got up early because A) we had to go all the way back to the airport to pick up Justin’s luggage and B) we wanted to make the most out of the day in Viña del Mar. We took a bus (much much cheaper than cabbing) to the airport and got lost trying to find the LAN airlines office. I’m [View Full Entry]

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I’ve just arrived back in Mendoza (home sweet home away from home) from some amazing spring break travels with some amazing people. Caitlin, Garrett, and I left Mendoza on the 17th of September. The Chilean “Independence” Day is the 18th of September. It was thus a whole weekend of party, party, and more party in Valparaíso, Chile where we stayed with Garrett’s extremely accommodating and all around epic friend, Justin Kunimoto. Although the only thing separating Chile and Argentina is the Andes mountain range, the two countries are very distinct. I found Valparais [View Full Entry]

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