South America 2010!

Concepcion & Lizett´s country house

rachadoll — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:11:00 GMT

Took the bus to Concepcion with the guys at 730am. Julz went out last night to his mates place, i stayed in and watched ´Rescue me´with Alvaro so i wouldnt be hungover for the trip.... Needless to say, Julian got home at 7am, drunk from a whole bottle of tequila and shit loads of beer. Stinky! So he had the horror´s all day sucked in to him...and the photo´sshow it haha. Concepcion is niceee, went to A´s uni and saw a massive skelaton of a baby whale, found out about a gardener who decided to cut down a tree that seemed to him óvergrown´ but it turns out it was a 700 year old tree that could have lived to be nearly 2000 years old. Fabulous job, it does sound like something i would possibly do...hrmmm.. Next we went to the mall!!!! SHOPPING!!! Actually there wasn´t much to buy there, but on the way out i saw HAPPY LAND! its a mini theme park/games arcade in a mall! i made the guys get on the dodgem cars with me.......4 times..... :D We went to see the wassa....i believe that spelling is completely incorrect, however, it is a Peruvian ship that was captured by the chillian´s

Photos: Concepcion

rachadoll — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 21:30:00 GMT

Trip with Julz & Alvaro!

Photos: Trip to Cobquecura I

rachadoll — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:00:00 GMT

Trip to Cobquecura

rachadoll — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:17:00 GMT

First trip outside of the two it took me to get here!

I asked if i needed to bring my swimmers and was told no way! When we got there i realized why! Absolutely freezing!

The trip to Cobquecura was beautiful, going from Chillan further into the country but closer to the beach. I was told that every town we pass was built in the 1700´s, & when they were built, the workers traveled horse & cart to the next place they would build. They way they decided where that would be was by traveling 24 hours, soooo basically, every 24 hour trip, a new town was born. Pretty cool.

The view of the coast against the mountains with pine trees on them was beautiful, contrasting spectacularly. I took loads of photo´s.

The sand was GREY and the seaweed was soo nothing like what we have in Australia! Here it´s like a hard rubber tube..annnddd you can buy it in shops to eat! But the main reason people buy it is to give to their children when they are teething, instead of dummies, very resourceful. Actually, that is one thing Ive noticed about Chillan, every natural resource available is used as much as possible, which is fabulous. Life is simple and living is easy with the natural necessities of the earth. (is that a song??)

I hear a huge roar and see what i have been waiting for! Right smack bang in the middle of the coast is a huge rock where Sea Lions live, binoculars out straight away and i can´t get enough, they are huge but so beautiful, on top of the rock there are scavenger vultures circling, and small sea lions playing on the waves in the sea. So beautiful!

Ive taken loads of pictures already, and then i see it, a baby sea lion washed up on shore, very alive, and not wanting, despite one ladies efforts to pick it up and move it into deeper water, to go back into the water!

I find out that the female sea lion will produce more then one pup, but because of the limited room on the rock where hundreds of sea lions live, it is not uncommon for the mother to push one off in banishment! So i figured that this little sea pup either didn't want to, or could not go back to his home, and the distance from the rock to the shore would have exhausted it :( SO sad.

It´s pretty dangerous though for a sea lion pup to be on land as there are so many wild dogs, its death would be brutal, so we all agree (and by we, i mean the people who speak Spanish with Julian´s dad lol) to call the police and see if they can help out at all.

SO! that was the epic adventure of the sea pup, very sad :(

Walking up towards the car, i see all these little art stall´s, that have some beautiful things, most artwork is made from things of the sea, which is very cool. I decide to buy one when we have our next trip though.

Julian promises me that when we come back in a few weeks after we have been to the north, that we can go horseback riding on the beach!! There is a little stable with 6 or so horses waiting (aka sleeping!) with their owners for people to hire for an hour or so, which only costs 3 mil pesos! I can´t wait!!!!

Off to the next thing, a huge..well..rock, that used to be under water (no surprise there)that is now a CHURCH! But, not like Jenolan caves type church with pews and marriage ceremonies (though maybe one day this did happen) this is more of a spectacle now a days, but it still has the statue of Mother Mary and different religious items scattered around. In saying that, there are also short notes, mostly of love, written by people who have committed suicide there, either at the sacrifice of the sea when the tide is high, or by their own hand. Very sad.

This place is HUGE and very cold :/ the texture of the sand is very different to the coarseness of the sand on the beach, obviously the sun has a part in this as no sun can get into the cave so it can not break down the particles. We walk around for ages, freezing mind you with no jacket! and down the the mouth of the cave where the sea comes in. We attempt to take a photo before the water comes through with the next wave!!! Don´t think it worked at all haha.

The water here is sooo cold the obvious explanation for this is where the water comes from: the south pacific ocean, which can bring currents from the south antarctic. aka... freezing. Needless to say there are no sharks here!!!

We hit the road for the hour trip back to Chillan, and i sleep for most of it.

Until the next trip!

Hopefully it will involve lots of wine tasting and pisco! mmmmmm....wineee.

Photos: Trip to Cobquecura II

rachadoll — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:31:00 GMT

CHILLAN!

rachadoll — Sat, 9 Jan 2010 04:00:00 GMT

WE ARE HERE!

Got off the bus in sunny Chillan! Fantastic for us, Julian´s parents neighbourhood is just across the road. Score.

Paid 4 pesos to use the toilet at the bus station, no idea why, there isn´t even toilet paper in the toilet, you have to get it from near the basins before you use the toilet... :/ Make a mental note never to pay for a toilet again when something nicer is so close.

Chillan is very different to anything i had seen on the bus ride, its very pretty in the neighbourhood, and very safe! It is similar to an estate yes? But much better! There is a big gate with security at the front, so no losers can get in, and then its this cute little neighbourhood, little houses everywhere, a nice green park with stone park benches, very beautiful.

Arrive to the house and Dily´s, Julian´s mum is home, but no one else, so Julian is really annoyed, Dily´s decides to take us on a road trip around Chillan!

All the streets are easy to remember and join together in some way or another they say to me, but we´ve been driving around for 15 mins already and im completely lost! Its beautiful, there is a huge volcano (inactive i was happy to hear!) on the horizon every way you look, its beautiful! There is a HUGE cathedral, and a big park on the corner of each main street, i havent taken any photo´s yet though...

Back to the house, and everyone else is there, i got a very warm welcome!

Julian decided´s to take me out after dinner to his friends place, much to my dismay. Way too tired and in a completely different place so i need to settle in, plus, his friends don´t speak english, barrier number three.

We go anyway for "one drink" psh. HOW many times have i heard that before!

After a few drinks everything is great, we all know the names of alcohol and we all know the same music!

I get home at 5am smashed. One drink my arse!

At least i know people i can talk to at the party tomorrow night! :) Lets see how that goes!

Out <3

Santiago - Chillan

rachadoll — Fri, 8 Jan 2010 14:30:00 GMT

When we walked outside the hotel I saw the Chilean Police, and have been told to call them Paco´s (pig´s) haha. It looked like there was about to be a riot because this huge SWAT looking van was there! I was told that is what the always use to transport the police.... wow. Took loads of photo´s for Jamaal and Antoine! Definitely would not want to get on the wrong side of these police!

There were so many around, turn´s out the President of Chile was in the Building across the road, which is a historical library :) How exciting!

We had to get a bus from Santiago to Chillan, which took 5 hours! It was not boring though, i had a hilarious tour guide lol. The produce here is huge, there was always a farm to look at from the window, apples, peaches, watermelons and especially corn! Sooo much growing here. The animals here are nice and healthy, bit of a difference to the cow´s sheep etc in Australia at the moment.

We stop to pick people up from difference stops, and every time we do, people get on the bus selling things, mainly food... sweet empanadas, nuts, etc etc. Its really cool how everyone here works together to help each other out, the bus drivers let them get on and sell their produce, be it whatever, and drop them off at the next bus stop when they are finished selling.

Did i mention the mountains??? THERE ARE THOUSANDS! Obviously, as the mountains separate Chile from the surrounding countries, like Argentina and Peru. But the Andes are the most impressive, even though it isn´t winter, there is still so much snow on top of them, the view of them leaving Santiago is beautiful.

Oh! And people still use horse and carts here!!!!!!!!!!!!! so very strange!

There are houses in the countryside that we see on the bus ride that are so different to anything Ive seen before, they are mostly made from mud and brick and are very short with long roof´s (hard to explain, i´ll put in some pictures) Julian say´s that the classes are a huge part of Chilean life, whereas in America most sayings are measurements of time and money, here, they are not, its all about your standing in society, very different to anything Ive ever experienced.

We stop halfway through the ride for lunch and continue to Chillan, still about 2 hours away. Thank god for Air-conditioning, its boiling outside!

OUT <3

Buenos Aries - Santiago

rachadoll — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 21:30:00 GMT

Boarded the plane and was sitting next to these two guys CJ & Jonathan, one i had briefly seen on the way from Auckland, and i realized they belonged to the Aussie accents i heard while waiting for the plane in Argentina!

Started talking with them, pretty cool guys, much like myself haha. They live in Australia but they were both born in Chile, CJ was born in Chillan where Julian grew up! What a coincidence! Jonathan is heading to Chillan to visit his grandparents at some stage so we´ll meet up here and drink up!

The plane trip was fun, i had 3 seats to myself, it was so nice to stretch out! I had the best sleep of my life! Woke up to a view of the Andes Mountains, beautifully breathtaking! Much more exciting than the flatness of Argentina!

FINALLY IN SANTIAGO!

It took long enough!! We headed out together, had some confusion with actually getting past the check out point thingo, but we got it eventually!

Couldn't even see Julian when i got out! But we found each other eventually! Said adios to the guys, who had to wait for an unknown 2nd cousin to pick them up hahaha.

We finally fit my two big suitcases into Denis´tiny jeep and we were off!

Santiago city is a kind of dirty looking city, but it has its beauty and it is huge. There are street stalls everywhere, people selling things to you while your at traffic lights and homeless dogs roaming the streets! People are crazy drivers here!!!!!!!!

Its not illegal for people to sit in the back of a ute here i saw 6 people packed into the back of a Toyota! SO WEIRD! Luckily it wasn´t raining :/

I saw a beautiful castle, and the Government Palace... MASSIVE! Also, The train station in Santiago was designed by Gustave Eiffel, the same person who engineered the Eiffel Tower, and it does look absolutely beautiful!

We just Arrived at the hotel and Julian is not happy at all. Apparently it is completely different to how it looked in the photo´s, its a tiny little room, enough space for a double bed, a writing desk and two little bedsit tables, it has two floor to ceiling windows with tiny balcony looking things, which maybe fits one toe.. but supprisingly, i love it! Its adorable! The view leaves much to be desired, but its dark anyway!

We head out with Julian´s aunt and cousin to get something to eat, we went to a diner type place, imagine American sit com style, but it sells booze as well. The upstairs area is the smoking area, and its a whole floor, we went up there, but turns out Julian left his cigarettes in the room anyway. Oh well. The waitress/waiters are OLD! In Sydney teenagers and people in their 20´s do that kind of job, but these chicks´s were at least 32! Though, you could defiantly tell they didn't want to be there, i guess we all have to make money! Had a completos, nice and filling :)

Time to sleep. Long day tomorrow!

OUT. <3

Buenos Aries

rachadoll — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 15:45:00 GMT

Auckland to Buenos Aries!

Plane food was well...plane food. But not too bad, it did have taste!

Movie on after dinner, what movie will it be i wonder, and will it be dubbed like the one from Syd to Auck..... hrmm

UGH! SAME MOVIE! Lame! Fall asleep instead of trying to understand the Spanish and lip read the English. Finally got to sleep for the first time and it was beautiful! Until i got woken up to super turbulence which threw me up in my seat.

Mental note: NOT a good idea to listen to ipod when sleeping as one may miss important messages from the captain or crew, namely, seat belts on now please due to super turbulence that will last around 20 mins.!!!

Tried to watch the movie without headphones due to dubbing, and i can hear someone else´s headphones with English coming out from them while im trying to lip read! Pretty sure I pressed the wrong audio button last time and watched it all in Spanish. Idiot.

Lots of broken sleep was had on the plane, but mostly playing the waiting game with time.

Arrival in Buenos Aries was like landing in a national park, shrubs and bushes everywhere, hardly looks like an airport, we rolled about 10 mins before we actually got to the building!

Airport is very small, luckily im only in transit for 2.5 hours, but there is nothing to do. I debate whether or not to have a few drinks before the next plane.. decide negative, last thing i need is a headache first thing on arrival!

Went to the bathroom to get changed into shorts and realized, although my tan does actually look fabulously natural, the white fake tan cut off marks on my feet suggest otherwise! haha oups!

Trying so hard not to fall asleep while waiting to board so no one thieves my bag! Walked past some Australian accents, but was too tired to bother. Just turned my phone on, it works! But got an overflow of txt messages that were sent as far back as 3 days ago. WTF!

OUT. <3

Plane trip!

rachadoll — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 15:30:00 GMT

7th JANUARY 2010

AT the airport! Thanks sooo much Emma for the two bottles of wine and bottle of scotch that you so generously shared with me two nights ago, Im still recovering and there´s 2 hours till my flight! Ugh!!

Had a great send off with the whole family and Jess <3

Not looking forward to the Aerolineas Argentinias flight at all though, considering the reviews i read. Fingers crossed no delays and slightly comfortable seats...

Pleasantly surprised! The seats were quite comfortable, air-stewards were nice enough, and the trip to Auckland was not long at all, when i boarded again at Auckland there was a blanket and a pillow on my seat! Thank god! So far so good!

Photos: Santiago De Chile

rachadoll — Thu, 7 Jan 2010 13:01:00 GMT