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Published: November 1st 2006
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You will need to zoom in on this...
Would you believe it but we found a bottle of wine called..."Salisbury" (Lima, Peru) Hi guys,
Well two months somehow have gone by already and it seems bloody unfair! Really to do South America properly you need a lot longer, maybe a year would do....any donations from anyone to allow us to stay here a bit longer would be welcome...the Rich and Rach fund....
Having just checked our last entry I have to report that unfortunately we did not see any nuns or get to hear Ave Maria as we choose to go to the restaurant on a sunday....yes it seems obvious now that they wouldn´t be open on the holy day of rest! Nevermind, central lima was a dump in any event. We didn´t stay there long and quickly hot footed it back to Miraflores...a much nicer part of town!
We did however go for a really good meal in a restaurant called La Trattoria (home made pasta, which you actually got to see being made). It has now become Rich´s best meal of the holiday so far. Which may have been partly due to the fact that he sneakily bought a ridiculously nice bottle of wine to wash the grub down with. I´m glad I didn´t know how much it
cost until after I had had a glass or two. But the food truly was fantastic. It also had the best description for Creme Brulee that I have ever seen and just so you can all appreciate it to, here it is,
"Rich custard covered with a hard caramel glaze that shatters delightfully under the pressure of a purposeful spoon" !!! Doesn´t it just make your mouth water!
Anyway, from Lima we then (due to not being able to afford to fly) got a bus which took 18 hours to get us to the boarder town Tacna (Peru). Where we had intended to stay a night, however, on arrival we were informed that in order to make our connecting bus the next day we had to cross the boarder straight away (something the tourist office had failed to mention). So we hopped in a car with a couple of other boarder hoppers. One of which very nearly got us detained at the boarder, may have had something to do with the outfit she choose to wear (something similar to a lady of the night shall we say), accompanied by the fact she had no passport...!
But
all was well and we got across into Chile a day earlier than expected to a town called Arica, which was in fact really pleasant. Right next to the pacific ocean which was an awesome sight with massive waves crashing against the shore.
In need of refreshment after our bus journey we headed to a beach bar and sank a few cocktails. Where I discovered the wonders of Mojitos. We then decided we were in need of another fancy meal and went to a renowned seafood restaurant whcih Rich had spotted. Things unfortunately took a turn for the worse after we drank a half bottle of champagne (not sure why we were pissed already!) Rich then announced that he was gonig to put his head in his starter and was far to drunk to eat anything more except the vegtables on my plate which I had to feed him! Needless to say that halfway through the main course I had to requst the bill, leave the entire bottle of wine undrunk and ask them to order us a taxi!
The next day, heads a little bit worse for wear, we boarded another bus to Santiago, which took a
Who are these cool dudes
Just before we got completely slaughtered in Arica! mere 32 hours - and having been jipped by the tourist office who sold us a ticket discoved it was not the bed bus we were expecting. But the view was outstanding as it was mostly extreme desert...slightly unnerving and then just beautiful coastline all the way to Santiago.
Santiago has been pretty cool. We are staying in Bellavista which is of course the hippest part of town. And despite everything in Chile being hugely expensive compared to the rest of South America we´ve had a good few days, mainly spent milling around the markets and shops. Then a day and night at the beach in Vina del Mar (which was not as nice as advertised). Mainly due to the raw sewage outlet half way up the beach which didn´t seem to deter the thousands of chilean "bathers"!
We also did a full day vineyard tour yesterday which was pretty cool, we went to Undurraga, fantastic vineyard in the Maipo Valley, where we did in fact learn heaps of stuff about wine. In particulary how to introduce ones nose to the glass in order to appreciate the full bouqet. As well as lots more useful things like how
to tell a vine by the shape of its leaf and much more besides. We also went to Concha y Torro, also in the Maipo Valley where they make that famous chilean export Castillero del Diablo, where we did indeed see the devil in the famous wine cellars and got to taste a pretty tasty 1998 vintage cab sav!
We have also been up the funicular in Santiago to Cerro San Cristobal where a massive statue of the virgin mary looks over the city and is a popular place for teenage chileans to hone their snogging and groping skills as we discovered! Very appropriate...!
And that is unfortunately about it. And so now we are waiting for our plane at 11.05pm this evening to New Zealand. Unfortunately we were unaware that today is "Death Day" in Chile a public holiday. After Hallowean last night which is much more of a big deal over here than at home and they celebrate it in serious style - plenty drinking and partying which was still continuing when we took out our earplugs this morning at 7am! (Except of course for Paulo and Luca, Happy Birthday by the way). So alas everything
Statue
Plaza de Armas, Santiago is shut and we can´t post any of the stuff we have bought so fingers crossed we can take it into NZ with us.
Please forgive the massive rambling we are a bit bored. But here are some more photos.
Asta la vista, until NZ.
love to all Rach and Rich xxxxxx
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James
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Bon Voyage
Thanks for the update you guys. I'm very jealously reading through your blog, sitting in a grey office block in London Bridge, while avoiding any obvious gags about the large pot! Have a great flight - look forward to your next update. J x