Argentina brrrr

It is cold with thunder and lightening tonight in Buenos Aires. It has been a travelling day and Craig slept in until 9.30 his time clock is still out yay! So it was breakfast shower pack and off to the airport. We had a lovely lunch which was cheap compared to what we have been paying. Steak and potatoes sliced and baked in onions and cheese with a red wine and coffee. See no Vegetables again not even as a garnish. I guess potatoes and onions are veges but no leafy or brassicas. Then we were persuaded to share a caramel pastry dessert. When we arrived in Argentina there was no pick up organised by Intrepid again so after an hour we got a taxi in the rain to the hotel which smells a bit damp and tomorrow everything we are doing is booked for the same time but Auntie Terri is on to it again! 

Top ten in Santiago

No priority of order 

1.  People very friendly

2.  Very disability friendly - Craig offered wheelchairs and lifts everywhere we went and we didn't have to queue as given priority.

3.  Street Art is amazing 

4.  Loretto Hotel excellent- good breakfast , clean, helpful and well located

5.  The wine is very good - enjoyed carmenere and cab sav. Sav Blanc not as good as Marlborough. 

6.  Bella Vista Mall and the architecture is amazing

7.  Patricia our tour guide on Monday was informative and interesting.

8.  The food was yum and seafood was their specialty. Veges are a garnish. 

9.  Craig's time disorientation which meant we had sleep ins. 

10. Getting the Blog started

A little history of Chile (dry but interesting)

It is very political here in Santiago too which I have only just touched on.

The effects of people living under a curfew is lingering. Under the curfew 

people had to be home from 10pm until 7am for from 1976 until 1984 and the first 4 years prohibition was enforced

President Pinochet tried to impose socialism on the people by taking land from the rich to give to the poor. People here still protest and not so peacefully

so lots of tagging and street art for freedom of speech. 

Today we fly to Buenos aires so thought it was good to share some political facts before I forget them. Link to more info if you are curious http://www.chocklydigital.com/portfolio/Chile/history.html

Free day in Santiago (joke we are exhausted)

This morning we woke at 9.10 am. You might think what is so amazing about that but Craig wakes every day between 6.30 and 7am even at the weekend so this is bliss a sleep in and we didn't have to be anywhere today and had no plans except we had to be at breakfast by 10am. So we enjoyed a delicious breakfast in the dining room and planned the day. The first thing we needed was coffee and would you believe the hotel was out of espresso coffee but they told us where to find it in town. We made a plan to go to the supermarket because I need plasters from my flash new bargains shoes from Kathmandu and we thought we would go to some museums and go to the restaurant for our free complimentary drinks. It is always interesting to go to the supermarket in another country it gives you insight into the cost of things and how people live. As I had Craig with me I only bought plasters and one chocolate bar a Super8 which is being sold by poor people to car drivers as they drive through the streets of Santiago. Next we went in search of coffee and a lady on the street directed us to good coffee around the corner. I think she stopped us because we looked lost or indecisive. She didn't speak English but everyone understands cafe and she pointed around the corner and I had my first unco moment for the day. We ordered a double espresso and a large latte and a bottle of water between us. Instead of the espresso being double the size it was double the strength which nearly killed poor Craig as he had to add sugar to make it palatable and some of his cold water. On the other hand my latte was ok but the milk was a little burnt and it was stronger than I like but I could live without sugar. Anyway that is all quite dull and I was trying to engage Craig in the fine art of conversation and I said we could read the Newspaper like we do in cafes and he was rather scornful until I pointed out that mostly I do the Sudoku while he reads the paper. So I got up to get the papers to see if there were any sudokus and forgot I had my infamous purple bag around my neck and unended my coffee. This certainly drew attention to us so I apologised profusely and the workers were very generous so I paid and left. We then went walking and saw some beautiful street art.

We ended up in the Armoury Square where the Cathedral of the Virgins and the sculpture from yesterday were and talked to a man on a standup bike thingy stopped to practise his English and gave us some maps and told us the most interesting museum was the pre Columban Museum so we wandered off down there and had an hour looking at artefacts that looked like they came from archaeological dig. I did learn though that the Incas were in the Santiago region. We then walked for miles the wrong way and eventually had lunch at the Vienna Cafe where the owner spoke English. The reason we chose it was because we sat down opposite a church with very sore feet and Craig said he was very hungry so we had coffee water and a sandwich outside looking at this church.

My feet were quite sore and we debated what we were going to do next all day walking is hard work. Anyway on our list was the Belles Artes Gallery and another one with a Maori Arts display which we thought we might check out however we thought we could do that at home in NZ and headed for Jose Gil de Castro and here is a link to some of his art work http://www.artistasplasticoschilenos.cl/658/w3-article-39925.html Craig did offer to sit outside and wait for me as they seem to all charge - to go into the pre Columban museum it cost us $NZ15 anyway the Art Gallery was free and here is Craig in the entrance way

. The building itself is quite magnificent

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in at the El Toro Restaurant for our free complimentary drink and had a red wine each and back to the hotel for a rest and writing blogs over a coffee. Luckily the hotel has coffee again as that is dinner! Terri has got Intrepid into action and we are being picked up at 11.40am to go to Argentina tomorrow! Go Terri and Patricia also rang because she has been trying to help us too. Anyone doing tours in Santiago need to go with Patricia she is the best!

Day 2 in Santiago

Mr I don't need an alarm clock because he always wakes up early and we had gone to bed at 9pm, slept in until 8.30am. You might think oh well it is a holiday so breakfast is until 10am so what is the worry? Well we were booked on a 9 hour tour of Santiago and Concha y Toro winery. That is still enough time for me but Craig always allows one hour to shower get dressed and eat breakfast. Not today! We showered grabbed our things went down to breakfast and packed our breakfast to go from the kitchen and met the lovely Patricia our tour guide. She gave me a hell of a fright at about 10pm last night as she phoned me as I was starting to doze off and Craig was well gone. No way was I expecting a phone call from anyone at our hotel in Santiago. Never mind it is good Intrepid had at least got our tour booked as they had not organised our transfer from the airport yesterday.

We set off in a taxi with Francisco driving and an Englishman called Mr Webster. Patricia announced that it is Monday today so the museums are all closed. Craig was most pleased. I thought a scientist like him might like them but I must say there is only so many museums you can look at it. So we went to govt square my name for the Square where all the Ministries and the Presidents Residence all were. I took photos of Craig and some building and my first selfie which I thought was pretty ugly. We then went for coffee in a Legs Cafe. This is a pretty disgusting practice! Chile had a curfew in the 70s and 80s when Mr Pinochet (which sounds like penis head) was in power. This meant no one could be out on the street from 10pm until 7am and prohibition of alcohol was enforced in the first 4 years too. The men had no where to congregate and nowhere to meet women and were not allowed to drink alcohol thus the coffee shops were developed during the day and the waitresses were to wear incredibly short skirts to satisfy men's need for meeting women. The men used to get in trouble with their women for going there so they started serving aerated mineral water to help cover up the smell of coffee on their breath. The coffee bars are still in action and everyone stands at the bar and the girls still have very short skirts with their gstrings showing through their tight clingy skirts. After such an experience we headed off to the city square which used to be the armoury square prior to Chilean Independence. This housed the Cathedral of the virgin Mary. There were three virgins on it one was from France and one from Italy on the roof looking over the square and one inside the Santa Maria of Chile. This was our first church experience which I said to Craig can be like his shopping expedition down one side and back up the other without stopping. In some ways it brought back memories of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament that is now in ruins. It alcoves off to the side and it had big dome ceilings and pulpits that you have to walk up the stairs to get to the pulpit. It was beautiful and it was lovely for a quick look.

We also looked at the politically incorrect monument to the indigenous people that showed the heads being chopped off. Apparently the Spanish used to pay people to bring a decapitated native!

Lapislazuli is a semi precious stone that is a beautiful blue that is mined in Chile but it has nearly been exhausted in Chile so soon it will only be mined from Afghanistan. We went to a lapislazuli factory and saw how the stones were cut using lots of water. Then the silver being crafted. They use only 945 silver with the lapislazuli rather than the 425 that turns black over time. Craig bought me some cute Chile art silver earrings with little pieces of Chile stones in them. Our Chile souvenir and I have them on and I tried to take a selfie but it was too bad to post. It is very hard to take a picture of your own ear! I took the earring off and took a photo of it.

There is hill in Santiago with a lookout but it was hard to see Santiago for the volcanic ashes.

The next journey was to Concha y Toro and that was interesting but was more for a tourist who hasn't been to a winery and not so interested in wine making. We tried sauvignon blanc which we think the Marlborough Savy is better and ten we tried the Sauvignon Cabernet Shiraz which was most delicious and the Camenere which we had mistaken yesterday for the Shiraz.

There is a myth that the devil lives in the cellar at Castilero del Diablo and this is the entrance to the cellar. They have a surround sound and movie seen to scare the tourists. Ho Hum!

Santiago the longest Sunday 26th April

As New Zealand is 16 hours ahead of Santiago we really have had 2 Sundays

today. The plane was very hard to sleep on as they are so crammed pack full and we had a screaming baby in front of us and another not so screaming baby behind us. There were loads of great movies to be watched too. I think I watched four of them the Stephen Fry movie was the most memorable but I won't bore you with the details. After 12 hours flying we were not met by Intrepid for our pre organised transfer but easily found our own way to the airport at a cost in a transfer vehicle which after sitting in the back and scrambling out of the back I left my purple handbag sitting on the back seat with our passports in it and my kindle. The first thing the hotel wanted was our passports and I said that omg I have left them in the back seat. Luckily no dramas it was f

ound and returned but how dumb is that! Before the passports were found Craig and I retired for an afternoon kip as we were feeling too tired to do anything but we had the staff on the job and they brought the taxi driver and the passports to our room. Luckily the taxi driver was very honest! Early evening we went for a stroll in the neighbourhood and checked out the Patio Bellavista which was worth the effort. The photos are on facebook with every other photo I have ever taken. I don't know how to not do that. I even created a folder so I would just send the Santiago photos. I guess I will learn. Any ideas would be gratefully received?