We are here !!!!  Incredible ªªªªª  Still have to keep pinching myself.  Was a long boring flight = no scenery at all just sea until the Andes and Atlas Mts loomed up = just wonderful to see as they had snao on the top = almost magical.  Nice group we are with = all about our ages and John >Pitts a very good guide (have gi...

Hi friends! As we are nearing Thursday, which marks my being here two weeks, I thought it a good time to begin my obnoxious mass email updating. This one will probably be particularly long because I want to catch up on two whole weeks, for you all and to help me get my mind in order. Or, I might get bored in one paragraph and leave you with noth...

Being a shift worker I must be accustomed to jet lag. Ummm maybe not. I only had 4 hour sleep prior to leaving Melbourne, hoping the lack of sleep may assist me to sleep on route to Santiago. I even took a couple of phenergan but that didn't really worked. I just can't get comfortable in the ecconomy class seat. I am not looking forward to the o...

Juste aprés avoir écrit mon dernier post, nous sommes partis avec Nadia vers la mer, direction: Niebla. Ce village, maintenant balnéaire, était à l'époque un fort majestueusement dressé à l'entrée du canal qui conduisait a Valdivia. Le puissant complexe de 4 forteresses remplies de canons permittait de croiser les tirs pour défendre au mieux Val...

So after two months of trekking through beautiful countryside, strolling through vibrant cities and meeting (and partying with) fantastic people from all around the globe, tomorrow we fly to New Zealand. Over the past weeks we have constantly quizzed each other on what our personal highlights have been so far and they have changed every time; we...

Hi everyone, Anxious at work you await another exciting travelouge. Yesterday and today were equally eventful. Yesterday i took the cable car and funicular up to the top of a mountain where a 14 ft virgin Mary statue sits. I figure its what keeps the birthrate down as this thing was bigger than the David in Florence. I hung o...

There are 4 ski hills just outside Santiago - two of them being world-famous Valle Nevado and Colorado, and they are all located on the same mountain. The mountain is only about 15 minutes outside the city limits, but the problem is that it takes about another half hour to drive up because there are about 50 curves to Colorado and another 20 to ...

10 and a half hours later, I´ve made it to Chile. Arrived without a hitch.  Had to pay $132 USD 'reciprocity fee' to get in.  Luggage was waiting, transvip bus was waiting and dropped me at my door.  Hostal Forestal.  Nice place.  Hablen mucho de ingles.  Spent the day walking around the area. Empandas, arrolla...

Scott and Monica and I finally found an apartment!!  Santiago is in kind of a boom, and there are apartment buildings going up everywhere, so we found one by walking around. It's interesting because a lot of them look the same, with a designer lobby with a huge brown wood door, almost like a bank vault door. The apartment has a small kitche...

After a flight of 10.5 hours we crossed the coast and entered the valley flying parallel to the city we turned and lined up to land but nearing the ground we climbed and were later told a plane was still on the runway, talking to others later this seems to happen quite often here!! One thing that is very striking flying over the city is the thic...