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Published: September 16th 2010
Well, it took nine days in total to arrange, but we now have our Indian visa issued by the Indian Embassy in Chile. Now if that's not an interesting stamp for the passport, I'm not sure what is. We decided not to travel without our passports as a Just In Case, so we've been holding up at Casa Roja cooking great food, drinking some excellent wine and seeing the sights of Santiago.
It's been a lovely way to get to know the city. We've found just as much adventure in trying to sort visas, buy fuses for our adaptor (you would not believe how difficult that was) and visit the cinema as we would figuring out long distance buses. A city is a city most of the time, but it's the little things that make them different, like going to a bakery or an electronics shop. You tell the assistant what you want, they right it down on a piece of paper, you go to a different counter to pay for it and then you go and collect your goods. A serious amount of effort for a bread roll or fuse, but it seems to work.
There's a drink
Hostel Casa Roja
We're really enjoying our time here.that is special to only Santiago and it's called a torremoto, Spanish for earthquake. The name describes the effect the drink has on your legs, as if you're in an earthquake. A pint of sweet wine, a dollop of pineapple ice cream topped off with a generous shot of fernet (a strong dark liquor). One is too much, too would be crazy.
Santiago is set just at the foot of the Andes, sometimes you forget and then on a clear you look up and see the snow capped mountains reminding you how close they are. There is a big hill right in the centre of Santiago, Cerro San Cristobal, which has a statue of Immaculate Conception on the top and an open air church. We took a funicular (we love fun modes of transports) to the top, appreciated the amazing views over the city and walked down and along the river.
The weather has been a bit crazy; one day it's summer, the next it's winter, the next it's a bit like Manchester.. four seasons in one week for sure. Luckily we chose a good day to take a day trip to the beach, a city called Valparaiso.
Our lovely kitchen.
where we have cooked some gorgeous food. Lovely to be cooking again. Renowned as it is surrounded by over twenty hills that have funiculars to help you climb them. The houses are brightly coloured and on Cerro Concepcion (the main hill) there's a whole load of artists who have decorated the buildings with street art (or graffiti - depending on how you look at it). It was a lovely day out.
This weekend Chile is celebrating it's 200 years of independence, which is great as we'll be able to see some serious fiestas. Unfortunately it also means that our travel south has been scuppered. It's a bit of a disappointment, but we'll console ourselves with raising a glass with the locals.
Due to this we've decided to move our flights forward to Hong Kong by a couple of days.
We're off to a winery today and a fiesta in the city on Saturday, so there'll be just one last blog to come for our South American adventure. It's gone so fast, I can't quite believe it.
We hope all is well at home and that the sun is still shining.
Lots of love
S&S
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Argos
It's like Argos for bread! Love it! Hurrah for Indian visas, can't believe your Americas adventure is nearly over, it's been a hell of a ride! Thanks for the blogs, they've been so much fun to read, keep it up xx