La Casa Roja Santiago

We took a day time bus from Mendoza to Santiago as weīd been advised that the scenery was spectacular and it was beautiful, although Katie was amazed at Neil who buried his head in his book most of the way! The journey was supposed to be 6 hours but took a little longer as we had to stop for ages at the Chilean border, unload all our bags and get them x-rayed for any apples we may be trying to smuggle! We saw a Chilean couple who had been apprehended, the girl was crying her eyes out so we th...

So, next day we were up at 7am to get the bus to Santiago. A 24hour one, might I add. Not a patch on the 4 day bus I got across Canada but still. It was long. We entertained ourslves though even though they showed the movie 27 Dresses 4 times with Spanish subtitles and also dubbed in Spanish, the Scorpion King twice and some **** Steven Segal movie. Same deal. All en espaņol. Feckers. Listened to my iPod. Annoyed Fiona for my own entertainment and ate a ridiculous amount of Doritos. Seriously...

Myself and Mark arrived around 7am pretty tired so we took the metro train and checked into a hostel - La Casa Roja, which was fairly expensive as we got a twin room as Mark was flying out that night and just wanted somewhere safe to leave his stuff (although guess 12.50 dollars each for a twin in a city is pretty cheap!). It was a nice place, huge and had a pool. We had a nap for a couple of hours then went out for lunch at La Vacas (fat cow I think that means) and had great steak and a fant...

So with heavy hearts we spent our last few days in Mendoza, wine tasting and drowning our sorrows after Ireland's dismal performance in the world cup. It was quite strange to know that we were leaving the spanish speaking world. We left Eamonn in Bariloche, which was quite weird after two months of travelling with him. But sometimes you just have to set them free and Eamonn had certainly earned his South America wings by the time we left him. Think he might still be in Bariloche, exactly wher...

Santiago de Chile In Chile's capital, we stayed in a peaceful university area, with gothic streets that felt a little like Batman's Lair. But we also discovered a place that was far, far from Batman's Lair just one and a half hours away from the capital up into the Andes. Valle de Nevado Ski Resort filled with chairlifts, quad lifts, windy runs, and no tree line. We couldn't believe it was so easy to go skiing in Chile! Yes, it was expensive, and no, it wasn't as good as the ski resorts in Ca...

Our bus from San Pedro to Santiago was to be our longest yet - nearly 23 hours. For that reason we decided to splash out and take a delux cama bus. It was like being on an aeroplane - wide comfy chairs, movies, food, drinks. Pure luxury. We had heard that Santiago wasn't worth spending a huge amount of time on so we decided just to stay one night. We booked into Casa Roja in the suburb of Brasil and headed straight into town to do some serious shopping - we hadn't been near a mall for weeks! ...

After a 5 hour layover in Miami we finally arrived in Lima, Peru late Tuesday night. We fell into bed exhausted. After getting some sleep after a mostly sleepless night in La Guardia we awoke to a beautiful day. It was about 80 and sunny and a slight breeze. We were on a 24 hour stopover in Lima before heading on to Santiago early Thusday morning. We spent the day wandering the streets of the historic district of Lima. For dinner I did try a Pisco Sour which is a big drink in both Peru and Ch...

I arrived in Santiago last night after flying up from Punta Arenas (with a short stopover back in Puerto Montt). I have to say that itīs grand to be back in summer again, temperature is in the mid to high 20s and sunny. Iīm probably staying in the finest building along my route - La Casa Roja is a converted mansion with enormous rooms, high ceilings, and a very good yard with pool. It seems to take up practically a whole block! It is a bit like Milhouse in BA though, in that itīs another "par...

Monday - Took the 9.15am bus from Pucon to Santiago with Amanda - still feeling quite tired from the volcano so slept quite a lot of the way. We arrived at around 8pm and jumped into a taxi to Casa Roja hostel, we hadn't booked and on arrival we discovered that they were full, so we got back into the cab and went to the Hostel International place around the corner and luckerly they had some room. The hostel is painted really crazy colours - the room we were in was painted deep red and lime gr...

Another one on its way but it is coming as I finally have been reunited with the ol' tinternet!