Hotel Diego de Almagro Concepcion

... sours for the hostel. The hostel was amazing, overlooking plaza de armas. with stunning views and a great lot of staff... AS much as it was lovely to see Mike it was really bizarre for me to travel with someone, i realised just want a little hobo i was as i craved a bit of space to go and do my own thing. I think we both felt like this, compound by Mike wanting to see valpariso and me wanting the waves, we went our ...

We verlaten het merengebied en gaan verder met onze tocht naar het noorden, via de rio Bio Bio naar Concepcion, de tweede grootste stad van Chile waar we een afspraak hebben met Dania, een weerzien voor Constanza 18 jaar later. Een kort bezoek aan de stad, enorm druk. Daarna samen met Dania haar familie een gezellige avond met lekker (en veel) eten - BBQ met heel lekker vlees.

... coal mines, and they made a famous film about the mine here a few years ago. Now the mine is closed, but is opened for tourists to visit the mine, which extends about 3km out under the sea. The trip down the mine was really impressive, again the miner who was taking us could only speak Spanish, so it was good for improving our language skills, we headed down a lift for about 40metres, then we walked about for 1 hour under the ground. Mining must have ...

With just a little trepidation I looked out over the waiting crowd for Ricardo. Would he be very different after 20 years? No. Just the same. My short hair caused a moment of hesitation from the other side of the glass but no more than that. Where do you start after being out of contact with one of the most important people of your university years for so long. Well, 'You look just the same' is probably not original but it was what I said.

... anhupen wenn man auf der Strasse laeuft... als waere ich nicht in der Lage ein Taxi zu rufen oder wuerde meine Meinung aendern wenn ich eins sehe... und ich bins Leid so angestarrt zu werden. Es ist nicht so ein verwundertes Starren sondern so ein richtig langes freches. Und ich werde zum Vegetarier hier das Fleisch sieht einfach eklig aus. Und ich will jetzt an den Strand!

I can't believe that several people have actually emailed me saying that I need to do an update to the blog- I didn't know that people were actually reading this! With that being said, sorry for the lack of updates, but unfortunately, there haven't been a lot of new things going on. I think that's because the last month has been less of a vacation, and more just living in another country. Don't get me ...

... do a little shopping. As always, I needed more time! On Sunday, I packed my bags and caught my flight to Concepcion. So this past week in Concepcion has been.... interesting. The city itself is nice, although there are no real tourist attractions. Because it is at the point where the Bio-Bio River emptys into the Pacific Ocean, it has become a very important economic center for Chile, second only to Santiago. It also is the home to 4 or 5 ...

... what if they liked freshly stewed South Africans for dinner? But they seemed friendly enough and the next morning we decided to join them. It was one the best decisions we have ever made. They were so great, for a few days we travelled with Fifi and Patty and then they took us to their home in Concepcion, where they really made us feel part of the ...

We heard that Conception was the place to go out on a Sat night so we made sure we got there for the weekend. The cheapest accomodation we could find was about$17-18 a night which prob doesn't sound that bad but is a complete rip off in my mind. Didn't even have breakfast included. Tight Asses. Anyway, we go out and grab some beers for a pre drink at the hostal go back there for a quick nap cause we'd had a few beers the night before and we ...

... out of the mine. A keeled over canary was a result of deadly gas, and preceded an explosion. As we reached the bottom of the mine, some 40 metres below the sea bed, we all switched off the lights on our helmets, and held hands, as everyone was dead scared, and the minute of darkness seemed eternal. Reaching the ancient phone to call for the life back up was a huge relief.