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Published: November 6th 2006
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So we finally left Oz and travelled over to South America for the last phase of our trip (florida doesn´t count). The flight was a pain in the ass but the jet lag was even worse...however we did pass the international date line so we arrived 3 hours after we left (13 hours magically disappeared somewhere across the dateline). Things did not get off to a great start when we arrived. Our airport pickup was nowhere to be seen and dozens of touts were greedily eyeing us up and constantly saying "they no come, you want taxi". After fighting off these advances we finally got a taxi and reached our hostel and into Santiago.
Santiago itself is a strange city. In some ways its European and relatively normal and it others its quiet alien. What I would say is that it wasn´t as bad as we had been led to believe although the stories of there not being many things to see is true. Anyway for the most part we were happy to visit a museum or two and to go to a "cafe with legs". For those who are uninitiated in this type of coffee house its basically a
Ralph and his trusty friend
"Speak Spanish woman, we´re blending in with the locals" says Ralph. He´s deluding himself. place where businessmen (and all other men) come to get their coffee. Now before we go any further with this image I think you need to clear all thoughts of Starbucks out of your head and then think about a room with no seats but a long snaking counter with several large coffee machines dotted behind the counter. Then think of women wearing very tight lycra dresses that stop just below their bum. Then picture this women behing the counter (which is a higher level to the standing level of the customers) literally serving coffee. We have heard that some other establishments have a few added extra´s but the ones on the high street which are part of everyday life stick to coffee as their main trade. Anyway you can all stop imagining now.
From Santiago we caught a bus to go across the boarder to Mendoza in Argentina (where we are now). It´s more than noteworthy to mention that the crossing between Chile and Argentina at this point on the border involves a climb to some 4000 meters through impressive peaks, perpetual glaciers and polychromic rock faces (Jo´s just accused me of putting in "big words" so enough
Fine wine!
Its smells like grapefruit, vanilla, earth, boot polish, Ralphs sandals, my sandals......maybe I shouldn´t drink this one? of poetic descriptions). Suffice to say that it was impressive to be in the Andes for the first time.
"Why visit Mendoza?" I hear you cry.......I have one word to answer this....wine!. Mendoza produces about 80% of all Argentinas wine and as we are on a trip where we are trying to learn more about other cultures what better way than to try the local produce! Another major reason for coming here is that it is very cheap - you can have a fine bottle of red and an amzing steak dinner all for the price of about 16 pounds (for 2 people). As it turns out, it also happens to be a pleasant and green city as all avenues are tree-lined to protect against the beating sun. Speaking of the weather, Mendoza is almost as dry as a desert (apparently the annual average is just 20mm per year). The last rainfall was about 6 months ago - that is until yesterday. It was as if God knew that an Irish woman had arrived in the town and wanted her to feel at home and so for bascially the whole day it p*ssed on us (and the entire town)
from a great height. The rain was so bad that the streets flooded and the 5 star hotel across the road from us had some water leaking through its celling into their (very swanky) bar area. I am pleased to report (smuggly) that our moderate 3 star had no such problems.
Back to a summary on our wine experience. A half day tour was largely a predictable affair of winemaking and relatively modest tastings until they offered us something akin to a banquet for lunch. The food exemplified the great meals we´ve been enjoying amongst which the steak stands out as exceptional. A lack of tasting on the tour meant we had to find an alternative route to trying the local tipple, duly undertaken last night in a tasting room. As a consequence we´ve now purchased a crate of the good stuff, heading back home before us.
Our Spanish is improving daily and we have now got the basic of reading menus, ordering drinks, asking for bills etc down to a tee. We can now recall at least 5 words when sober and a good many more when drunk. This place is becoming very attractive as a town
Would you marry this man?
Ralph with a ginger tache....this is not what I agreed to!! Thankfully sense prevailed and the offending item has been removed. in which to hang around given the flowing booze, great food and pleasant atmosphere. But we will shortly be retracing our steps to Santiago in order to move onto Peru and the big adventures.
One final word before we go and that is "moustache". I mentioned last time that Ralph as going to grow one and grow one he did. The only problem was it was ginger (Ralph prefers the terms "auburn" but you can dress it up how you like and it´s still ginger)!!! Given that fact alone, it´s been removed - Ralph was receiving odd looks from strangers and hotel staff and I´m sure that on more than one occassion some Westerners must have thought that he was Dutch....or someone equally shifty.
Now its time for us to go and have some more lovely wine and food. Before we sign off we just wanted to say well done to Mo & Richard (friend and Jo´s brother) who just finished the New York marathon in a great time of 4hrs 30mins. It makes us feel pretty unfit given that we haven´t been near a gym in over 2 months!
Keep the emails coming and our next update will be from Peru where we will have Rach with us.
love
Jo & Ralph
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Ros
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'tache
Thank GOODNESS you got Ralph to ditch the moustache...