Santiago, Continued...

Having a VERY frustrating experience with technology here in the internet cafe, as I seem to no longer be able to post photos to this blog!!! which I've just spent about an hour trying to resolve, with no joy at all... what a bummer. I think that the setting on this computer is not allowing the photos to upload, and trying to reconfigure the browser settings in Spanish is more than I can get my head around... What a pain. Anyway, I think I will feel better after having a bit of lunch, as those who know me well are aware of my tendency to become a bit hyperglycemic when I haven't eaten all morning...

We are getting very excited about heading to Argentina tomorrow, and just running around Santiago today getting prepared, picking up last minute items (like candy bars for Nicolo)... The wonderful little market where we spotted the $10US Alpaca sweaters has now completely vanished, leading us believe that when we see something that we really want, don't hesitate, but just buy it... It may not be there a week later!

A true highlight of the trip so far was meeting Daniella and her kids, Matias and Valentina... Daniella is the sister of Paul's (ex) brother-in-law Tristan, who grew up here in Santiago... Two nights ago, we joined them for dinner and ended up really hitting it off, drinking a couple bottles of wine, and talking until after midnight... so much fun, and such lovely people! Daneilla is super interesting, and has so many similar interests to my Mom (native spirituality, astrology, herbal remedies, etc...) that I couldn't help but think how well they would get along... we talked for a while about Bach flower remedies and how much they really help me with my anxiety when flying... The next day, there was a phone call from the front desk of the hotel letting me know that Daniella was in the lobby! She had come downtown with Valentina just to bring me a little bottle of Bach flower remedy... such a lovely thing to do. I hope that we keep in touch with their family in the future, and that we get to reciprocate in England sometime.

More soon from B.A... much more to say about Chile (of course), but getting tired of staring at this screen! Photos are worth a thousand words, so at the moment, I am speechless. xxx Jason

A second impression of Santiago...

Constantly giggling at all the crazy things here in Chile's capital city, which feels to me like it's just awakened from a long, long slumber... The people are absolutely great, super friendly and far from aggressive, the salt of the earth, but for a world capital, DIO MIO it is more than just a wee bit behind the times! Chile's largest metropolis is understated, to say the least: the cultural offerings seem very restrained and formal, women of all ages wear high-necked collars and sensible shoes, primarily clad in black and grey... On second impression, a religious and conservative culture... Everything is comparatively slow and such a drastic change from colourful, crazy Brazil! Valparaiso has much more of an artistic, bohemian flair... There was of course a military dictatorship here in Chile (see: Pinochet) until the early 1990's, so I think that this fact has had a major effect on the nation as a whole: maybe a lack of exposure to the outside world, trends in cuisine, fashion, and what is currently "in vogue." The cinemas are all showing the same films and 30 year old women are dressed like grandmothers.

Still, that being said, we are really enjoying our time here... The Hotel Fundador is seriously like a relic from the past: we are staying in an absolutely gorgeous suite (with thread-bare sheets and worn carpets) and the hotel has a beautiful hardwood lobby, but the facilities are like something out of 1970's Moscow: old trimline telephones, creeky lifts, dusty dying plants, and the breakfast tastes like un-salted, school cafeteria food: plastic croissants and tasteless cheese. Paul and I keep joking that we feel like we are staying in a very posh old-folks home! Most of the other guests are business men in poly-blend suits and middle-class families visiting the capital on holiday... very strange indeed. Despite everything, Santiago has many positive things going for it: the fabulous location at the foot of the Andes, which loom overhead as a permanent backdrop; the fantastic people, who smile without hesitation; and the amazing selection of great wines in every supermarket... can´t beat that.

Tonight, we are going on a desperate search for something EXCITING in Santiago, to the neighborhood of Bellavista, where the majority of the restaurants, bars, and nightclubs are located... I really hope that "exciting" doesn't translate into "dangerous." It is Tuesday, however, so I feel as though we are setting ourselves up for a bit of a disappointment. I'll let you know how it goes. xxx Jason

A sleepy day in Valparaiso...

Sunday afternoon, and we are both enjoying a relaxing day of not doing much... the sun is shining on Valparaiso bay, and Paul has taken a walk to La Sebastiania, one of the many homes of Chilean poet Pablo Naruda, which is now a museum dedicated to his works... I have decided to stay behind and help the staff here at the Ultramar switch our room from number 7 to number 18: there was a mix-up with the bookings, and they have moved us to a much nicer suite on the top floor of the hotel, in order to accommodate a guest who is checking into number 7 this evening... no worries, as we are getting a bigger room for a greatly reduced price! So we like this.... We have decided to spend our savings on getting remedial massage: an Australian massage therapist is coming to the hotel this afternoon to work on us both for an hour each: Paul has been suffering with a sore shoulder since we arrived, and I decided to go ahead and splurge for a massage as well... it has been over a year since my last one! Yesterday was really enjoyable, despite the fact that I was once again feeling pretty nauseous: the past few days, my stomach has decided to become irritable, which I think comes from accidentally brushing my teeth with the tap water back in Santiago... a major concern. We caught the bus yesterday to the near-by town of Viña del Mar, directly north of Valparaiso about 6 miles... It is actually more of an upscale beach suburb, complete with a dilapidated Brighton-style pier and seaside alfresco restaurants. We wandered around, bought a few postcards, laughed over a horrible Mexican lunch (if one could call that luke-warm mess Mexican food), and then headed back to Valpo... We spent the evening at Cafe Ocho y Medio (8 and a half), which has become our favorite little evening haunt: they show art films every evening in the tiny downstairs cinema (last night we watched The Cook, the Thief, his Wife, and her Lover, and the cute cafe upstairs serves tapas and drinks until 2am... We have befriended the manager Marco, who recommends the best food choices, with one notable exception: the "8 Leaves" cake, which tasted something like a combination of bland custard and salty white fish... That one plate aside, we have really enjoyed hanging out there and soaking up the artsy, "film student" vibe, which seems to predominate the town's social scene... The night before last, we were told by Marco about a showing of one of my favorite films, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, which was taking place downtown at the Cinema Insomnia... We searched the ultra-busy Avenida Correll to located the address, only to realize that the venue was actually a porno cinema, which during normal operating hours, shows only skin flicks... The owners seem to have decided to ride the wave of Valpo's indepedent cinema scene, and have started showing foreign art films every Friday night... The place itself was straight out of a David Lynch film: located in a cavernous basement, with dim red lights and an old-fashioned bar and popcorn machine from the 1950's... The bizarre, deadpan, elderly couple running the place were dressed in vintage formalwear and never once cracked a smile; they both stood there robotically serving glass bottles of orange Fanta and cheap beer to the packed house of goth kids and nerdy student types... What a freak show! Needless to say, we really enjoyed the weirdness of it all. Valpo continues to impress and we are getting used to schleping ourselves up the steep hills and avoiding the packs of stray dogs that roam the streets at night... something we won't miss to much. Going back to Santiago on Wednesday, and have booked into a different, nicer hotel: www.hotelfundador.cl We'll be there for 3 nights, then off to BA on Monday! So looking forward to arriving in Argentina... More soon! xxx Jason

Welcome to Chile!

Wow! What a crazy couple of days... We are really glad to be settled for a week or so, and especialy in such a cool place...

We left Brazil on Monday and arrived in Santiago that evening... Upon landing, we were informed that it was Chilean Independence Day and everything in the city would be closed for the next two days!!! So funny that we managed to hit both Brazil and Chile during a major national holiday when all banks, museums, post offices, and major attractions were closed... We headed directly from the airport to our super-strange lodgings: the east Indian-themed Majestic Hotel, home to Santiago´s only Hindu restaurant... Despite good Expedia reviews, the hotel itself is really run down and is located in the strangest area: right on the very edge of downtown next to a busy highway, amoungst burned-out office buildings and boarded-up warehouses... Thankfully (and bizarrely enough) the Hindu restaurant was both open and absolutely spectacular!!! and we both agreed that it gave our favorite Indian restaurant back in Hove (the Ashoka) a real run for it´s money. We acutally ended up eating there twice! We spent the entire day Tuesday just wandering around Santiago´s empty center, checking out the beautiful plazas (Plaza las Armas and Bella Artes were the standouts) and ended up discovering a really fun open-air market, where we spotted gorgeous Alpaca wool sweaters for about $10 US each... what a steal! (I think we´ll have to buy a few when we head back through town in a week or so...) Most of the businesses in the city were shut down for the holiday, but we did end up scoring movie tickets and went to see The Lady in the Water, which we both liked. We left Santiago on Wednesday morning by bus for Valparaiso, about 60 miles north-west of the capitol on the Pacific coast. It hasn´t taken us long to realize that this is a magical and paradoxical place, stuck in the past and yet simultaneously far, far ahead of the game. There is a distinct feeling here that things haven´t changed in 100 years: the strange, slanted houses, steep cobbled streets, and creaky iron elevators that connect the upper and lower parts of town... and yet the people seem to be incredibly hip and progessive: trendy cafes playing scratchy Billie Holiday LP´s on antique phonographs, art-house cinemas showing Japanese films, and cute boutique hotels like the one where we are staying: Hotel Ultramar, a refurbished warehouse decked out in chrome fixtures, ultra-modern furnishings, and a service staff dressed in classic black and white French maid uniforms! Plus, our room has the most fabulous view of Valpariso bay. www.hotelultramar.cl Today, we had lunch in this little restaurant that was sort-of a combination junk shop-record store-cafe, serving a fixed lunch menu of chai-tea seared salmon on a bed of wild mushroom risotto... Unbelievable! Our cute waitress was speaking the worst-sounding Spanish ever, until she broke down and asked in a thick Australian twang "Do ya mind if I just speak English?" We´ve firmly decided to stay in Valparaiso for at least a week, which I have a very strong feeling will not be nearly long enough. xxx Jason

Petropolis: HELL on earth!

The past few days back in Rio have been fantastic, after our first nasty experience in Brazil... After leaving the beachside paradise that is Paraty, we headed to the north of Rio de Janeiro state to the little college town of Petropolis, which Lonely Planet describes as having the feel of a "European mountain resort" with pristine colonial architecture and tiny bridges spanning a network of little canals... Well, in reality, Petropolis was a complete shit hole, and felt nothing like Europe, nor anything resembling a mountain retreat! The town's only nice architecture is limited to a very small part of the city, and is surrounded by non-stop traffic... The grandest buildings are largely chained-off to pedestrians and set far back from the road... Petropolis' main street that runs through town turned out to be a congested nightmare of rusting old city buses belching fumes, seedy one-star flop houses with names like "Hotel Haiti" that post rates not by the night, but by the hour, and filthy taxi cabs beeping their horns... and the "canals" actually seem to be open sewers, clogged with rubbish and smelling like a squat toilet... After taking an eye-opening grand tour of town, we immediately set about finding a way to leave... We booked a hotel for the following night back in Rio, slept off the day's events, and caught the first bus out of town the next morning... So glad to be back in Copacabana! We have had 4 more wonderful days here in the city, and now taking off tomorrow for Chile... Not sure what to expect, but have been doing a bit of research, and think that it should be a wonderful contrast to tropical, beachy Brazil... We shall see! Just glad to have made it out of Petropolis, which Paul has since dubbed "Barfopolis." xxx Jason

Trindade: Paradise!

More from the world´s most beautiful places... well, at least the most beautiful places we´ve seen in a long, long time... Spent the day yesterday about 20 miles south of Paraty in the tiny beach town of Trindade (which I´ve been mispronouncing and misspelling as `Trinidade´) which is virually untouched by human hands... The scenery is absolutely breathtaking: rainforest spilling down towards white sand beaches; fresh water streams running through the sand towards the ocean; massive, crashing waves and natural pools filled with tropical fish... we hiked through the jungle (on marked paths, of course) to some of the most gorgeous, secluded beaches either of us have even seen... Spent the entire day swimming, lazing around, and drinking beer under an umbrella... pure satisfaction! We are really enjoying our new digs at the Pousada, and having fun getting to know the owners and their families. Tomorrow, we head off to Petropolis on an early morning bus... should be a delightful change, but we´ll certainly miss our time in Paraty! Have had an amazing time here and would love to come back in the future. More soon! xx Jason

Paraty, Brazil

First, a bit of history on Paraty: when the Portuguese first occupied Brazil, they discovered masses of gold buried in the hills of Minas Gerias, the state neighboring the state of Rio de Janeiro... they decided to move this gold back to Lisbon via the port of Paraty, just 4 hours south of Rio on what is called Brazil´s ¨costa verde¨(or ¨green coast¨) due to the fact that the bay of Paraty is naturally protected from the rough Atlantic seas by over 200 little islands... A hugely wealthy colonial settlement developed, and by the mid-1600´s, was one of the largest population centers in Brazil... the historical center of Paraty is so well preserved that most of the original buildings still remain, but today house cute boutiques, coffee shops, internet cafes, and amazing seafood restaurants... Paraty is, miraculously, still somewhat off the radar with most American and European backpackers, but according to me and Paul, is set to become the next big thing. The amazing beaches, colonial architecture, art galleries galore, and super-friendly locals make this a perfect destination to chill out under a palm tree and listen to live bossa nova flowing out of dozens of music venues... We planned on staying for 3 days, and now a week seems like far too short of a time... Paraty is one of those places that immediately inspires one to dream of staying for a few years, not just a few days... We arrived in the middle of a huge local festival, honoring Nossa Senora dos Remidios (our Lady of the Cure, roughly), which has provided a lively street scene, booths of vendors selling everything from handmade crafts to chocolate cookies, and tons of day trippers from Sao Paulo... We are staying a lovely hotel on the hillside overlooking the ocean, complete with eccentric, helpful owners and a garden containing 320 species of orchids (according to Paulo, our host)... Having an amazing time, but must move on soon... Leaving on Wednesday for Petropolis, just 65 km north of Rio, high in the mountains... should be a total different experience, in contrast with Paraty´s chilled-out, beach town vibe... More soon! xx Jason

Welcome to Rio De Janeiro!

Wow! So the trip has finally begun, and is off to a roaring start... The trans-Atlantic flight was absolutely no problems, with the exception of Iberia's dismissive service and attempts to ignore us into a state of dehydration... Overall, not enough to really complain about, I mean really: the Spanish have never been known for great customer service anyway, so we should have know what we were getting into. Arriving in Rio was a breeze: straight to the hotel, which has proved to be lovely: the Martinique Copacabana, located just 1/2 a block from the beach, and thanks to the nice guy at check-in, we have an ocean view... It's been raining constantly up until today, and finally a bit of sunshine... but the rain hasn't stopped us from exploring quite a bit, in between 12 hour naps and loads of long involved conversations over dinner... Yesterday, we took the last remaining tram in the city to the district of Santa Tereza, a run down colonial relic from another time: felt like what I imagine Havana to be like, complete with crumbling pastel coloured mansions and overgrown tropical gardens... we stopped and had a drink in the most beautiful antique bar that has been in operation for 200 years... Today, with the clear skies and sunshine, we spent the day on Copacabana beach, and then off to the top of Sugarloaf mountain (Pao de Acuzar) for fantastic views of the city and lots of fresh air... I am struggling with the pollution from the traffic at street level and have had a bit of a sore throat due to the extreme exhaust fumes... The city itself seems to have undergone a bit of a transformation since the last time I was here: visibly cleaned up and a distinct police presence on the streets... I feel much safer walking around Rio now on my second visit, and I'm not sure how much of this is due to my travel "experience" and how much is due to a real effort to make the city safer for tourists... The Cariocas (citizens of Rio) are some of the friendliest people either of us have ever encountered during our world travels: constantly smiling, friendly, easy going, and fun... they seem to love their city and enjoy meeting people from other places... We are both admiring the open, gracious and relaxed attitude of the Brazilians.... and the food has been absolutely amazing so far: we are really enjoying the exotic fruit, delicious cakes, fantastic fresh juices (today I had a huge glass of fresh cherry juice), and the famous Brazilian barbeque... we've really taken to Lopé's lunch counter, a flash back from the '50's that serves huge plates of Brazilian comfort food for about 3-4 quid... Tomorrow we leave for the southern coastal town of Paraty (pronounced Para-chi) for a break from the madness of the city... more from there! xxx Jason