Argentina and Fiestas Patrias Festivities in Chile

VERY traditional Chilean dish

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Cazuela--delish!

Near death!!! Funny story...

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So--we came out of the border crossing leaving Argentina to find out drivers fire extinguishing the rear of our bus. Wow. I would have taken a photo of this, but you don't have to go through security to leave the country, so we left everything on board--including the camera. Once the fire was out, they told us we were going to have to wait for 4 or 5 hours until another bus came (mind you, we are literally in the middle of nowhere, so we were not excited about this!). But, we made the best of it and pulled out the trusty playing cards. After an hour or 2, they told us that the Antofagasta people would remain on this bus, and the other city people would be taking a new bus that had just arrived. We were concerned, but were sure that the drivers wouldn't risk their own lives just to get us the next 7 or 8 hours home, so we climbed back on. Meanwhile, they took off the rear wheels on one side, and tied it up with a rope. Not exactly comforting knowing we had 7 or 8 hours ahead of us, but oh well. After about an hour on the road, there was a very loud noise, and one of the passengers from the upstairs of the bus came running down to alert the drivers. The drivers response (in Spanish, of course) was that it was a normal explosion. At this point, we were starting to get more freaked out--but there was nothing we could do but stay calm on a bus that had been on fire that had no rear passenger wheel, a rope holing parts on, and was now having 'normal' explosions. We obviously made it alive and decided that we needed to get a photo at our next stop to fondly remember the experience! The drivers were not happy because they accused us of being from the newspaper, but we managed to get this one in before they stood in front of it and made us get back on the bus. Good times...only in South America! :)

My 1st terremoto!!!

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TERREMOTO - Pipeño (a type of sweet fermented wine) with pineapple ice-cream. Terremoto literally translates as 'Earthquake' since you are left with the ground (and legs) feeling very shaky. I was feeling great after one!