Thge view across Plaza San martin in Buenos Aires.
This need no introduction, except to say us after 4 days of treking.
Heading into the rainforest. As you can see the wellies are particularly fetching!
The view from the Jungle Lodge, in Peru. Just as the sun was setting, lovely.
Thursday 12th February 2009 - Santiago
Hello from Chile, Thomas writing again as Anna is still not feeling 100% We arrived after only a 2 hour flight although Anna was not amused at all. We went from heavy rain on our final day in Argentina back to nice hot sunshine again around 32C. Sorry i keep mentioning the heat but, firstly we´re not used to it and secondly that what english people do.
We arrived at our hotel in the taxi when something fairly strange happened. The turned around, at first we thought to tell us we were here, but no. He said that we should not stay here as it is horrible accomodation. Just what you need to be told when you arrive somewhere. In fact this hostel is one of the best we´ve stayed in and everyone is very friendly. We having a BBQ tonight, although Anna is giving it a miss.
So the bext day we just headed to the park to sit in the sun, read, snooze and play cards. Anna´s getting pretty annoyed because i´m winning again and has now decided that scoring is not fun and we should play "for the fun of playing". Thats looser talk in my book.
I´ve just remembered something that we didnt mention about S.America countries. You dont put any loo roll, paper,m e.t.c down the toilet instead you place it in a bin next to you. We´ll we were told this is an "experience" but to be honest you kind of get used to it. However we´re looking forward to New Zealand.
Anyway we went out for dinner to a really classy fish restaurant. It was classy in the sense that it was nicly layed out and expensive and really good food. But it was in the shape and design of a submarine. We got fairly lost getting to our table through lots of small hidy holes. Then at the table all around are torpedos (not live i hope), sub equipment and parafanalia. Very strange but a lovely dinner. See the photo.
Today we went into the centre of Santiago, not really much going on anywhere so we headed back to the park and lounged around again. Santiago doesn´t really have much to offer apart from good weather and a train station designed by Mr Eiffle so it´s a good job we´re only spend 3 day here.
Oh nearly forgot to mention, Anna got shat on by a bird yesterday and also now has a cold so things really aren´t going her way. That could be the reason for her poor showing in cards. Thanks for reading i expcect we´ll have much more interesting things to talk about when we hit NZ and meet up with the others (who are flying asw we speak). Our flight is at 11 tomorrow night so i don´t expect us to blog for a few days except to say we´ve landed. Take care and keep the messages coming.
Helen i´m sorry your fav keeper left and unfortunatly i think newcastle will start to conceed many more goals. Jane i´m sure you could have pointed me in the way of Che on a horse i just need your expert guidance. Thanks
Love Thomas and Anna
Monday 9th February 2009 - Buenos Aires
Hi Thomas writing today as Anna has been in bed for most of the day with a stomach bug. She´s getting better though and should be up and about tomoroow. She actually cracked a joke earlier and then got annoyed cause her stoch ached due to the laughing. Onw more thing before i start this keyboard i s crap and the space bar jams so there may be long space between words or in the middle. Forgive me. So we arrived safely in Argentina at around 8am local time after a 4 hours flight and little to no sleep. But we breathed a sigh of relie f that we were free of the humidity and headed to the hostel in the 30C heat. Buenos Aires is much nicer than Lima and although there are no WOW places to visit in the city you can cetrtainly just walk around and soak up the culture and relaxed lifestyle.
We headed straigh for the Plaza de Mayo and after encounting our deadly enemy (the pigeon) found a free space to soak up the sun, sleep and read. This was basically our first day apart from some wondering to the local market, where everything is dirt cheap. Yesterday we rose from our slumber late and headed for the San Telmo market which runs on sunday and meanders aloong the streets in every imnaginable direction. On the way ANna turned and said to me I know those people ahead and ran after them. Well i thought she had finally snapped and i´d have to find another travelling partner (and parner in general) but she was right and we met two girls from our tour around Peru. One had already been to Buenos Aires and so lead us to the market. After spending what seemed to me like hours, although not to the girls, we found a cafe and sat having lunch. Our wallets a little lighter from the numerous stalls we visited.
After our lunch inturlude we parted with the girls, who were off to catch a River Plate game, (unfortunatly it was too late for us to get tickets, i bet Anna didnýt think that) and we headed to the plaza congresio. Here you can imagine was the national congress and a few monument to scholars. We sat, in the shade this time and just relaxed. Unfortunatly not long after this is where Annda feels a little ill and spent the rest of the eve to and from the toilet.
So today Anna has been in the room whilst i went to investigate the city further. I took in Maria Eva Durate de Peron, or as we know her Evita´s grave in the Cementerio de la Recoleta. An amazing place, so quite even thought the road is metres away and hundreds of, not graves really but, tombs. Each a monument to the family it holds. Her tomb was impressive, also in the cementray we the tombs of many other famous argentinians each seem to have a road nam,ed after them in and around Buenos. I walked to the national museum and then to the San MArtin plaza where i took in the sun and view to the sea.
Hopefully tonight i´ll find a steak somewhere although i don´t think Anna will joiun me. I realised today that travelling alone is not great fun and takinbg photos of yourself is impossible. A few notes to pass on. Jane, i´ve walked all around this city seen many pictures, postcards, paintings and shrines to Che and nowhere is he on the back of a horse! For all those Derby fans we appear to be doing alot better since i went away so i might stay away. Steve, Chelsea finally did something right and now might purchase a winger and try to get the special one back. (Don´t forget the double deckers i need a good fix of english chocolate). Tony, Villa aparently didn´t read the pre-season memo stating no team is allowed to break the status quo, long may it continue. Congradulations to Nai and Chris who got engaged a few days ago have a wonderful time.
Thankyou all for reading and i expect we´ll blog from Chile where we are due tomorrow eve. take care
Lots of Love
Thomas & Anna
