Córdoba, Argentina (24th September - 10th October)

Well we arrived in Argentina´s second biggest city after one of the most spectacular airline flights of our lives (scenery-wise) - over the Cordillera of the Andes mountain range - simply an amazing representation of the sublime. (will post photos soon!)

Córdoba is a sweet city with a long history. In parts it reminds us of Melbourne, especially the grouping of barrios known as Nuevo Córdoba, where our hostel is. It has a thriving cafe and restaurant scene and a fairly happening nightlife. However, being an inland city the climate and landscape reminds me a lot of the land surrounding Canberra - out here it is a very Australian-type of dryness to the soil and fauna.

Córdoba is our springboard for visiting some historical Jesuit estancias (like large ranches or stations) in the nearby time of Jésus de Mária. We are also going horseriding in the foothills leading up to the Andes, with our first view of the pampas unfolding out below us, and of trying a traditional parilla (grill) and our first taste of máte (an infusion made from the herb yerba máte and prepared and drunk in a special way). We also see our first polo matches (a big sport in Argentina). Considering the similarities between the agricultural, cattle and horsemanship cultures of rural Argentina and Australia, it is interesting that polo never became a big sport back home.

Valparaiso, Temuco and Pucon

About an hour south of Santiago, we stayed a couple of nights in Valparaiso (Valpo) an old port town with streamers of brighted coloured houses zigzagging and crowding the hills. Very picturesque. This ramshackle town was fun to explore. Lots of alleys, small corners and out of the way little cafes and shops to stumble across. The area is also very poor and we were not given a warm welcome by everyone on the street but this was more than made up by the hospitality of our hosts, Patricia at the hostel we stayed at, and by our wine tour guide.

The wine tour was great. Our guide was hilarious and worked with a local taxi driver who drove us around the Casablanca wine region for the day. The guide was the only one who spoke english and he described their relationship as ´Starsky and Hutch´. Not sure what that meant...haven´t seen the TV show or the movie. They were obviously close buddies and we all had a lot of fun joking around. We had a great time tasting the different wine varieties and buying a couple of bottles to consume later. Chilean wine is excellent and cheap. A lunch at the nearby town centre of Casablanca was delicous - the best empanada we had in Chile. One of many delicious empanadas we have tried. There is no bean and rice diet happening in Chile.

We also met a guy named Joe, who took us out for our first big night of South American nightlife in Valpo and the nearby Vina Del Mar, a resort town. He was great in showing us around, providing historical background to the region and Valpo city. (photos to be added) In Chile we definitely stick out as gringoes (European or North American looking people) in the crowd of the darker complexions. We get a few stares. Therefore, unfortunately there is no way of avoiding being charged the ´gringo´rates for travel expenses. You know all the Chileans around you are probably paying half the price for travel, accommodation and food in a lot of cases but there´s nothing we can do to receive similar discounts short of radical plastic surgery. So we´ll leave that thought right there.

Chile Part 2 - Loving Chile

Where to begin? It is hard to describe all the new and different ways of doing things that make overseas travel interesting.

The first obvious difference encountered in our travels is the language ...Spanish (or Castellano as it is known here to differentiate it from the word describing Spanish people). We love the language and have enjoyed hearing the language and speaking it. But we have to learn more because we are not sure exactly what we are ordering every single time we´re out to dinner. On the other hand, we did understand that one of the kitchen staff at a hotel in Santiago adopted us by greeting us as her children when taking our order for breakfast.

The main highlight of Chile is that the Chilean people are very welcoming, helpful and friendly. This goes a long way toward making Chile a fantastic destination in addition to its spectacular scenery in the mountainous areas, the vineyards, the Andes, the forests.



We spent about ten days in Chile. A few days were spent exploring Santiago. A lovely old city, although crumbling in parts, it is very cosmopolitan. We learnt more about indigenous history at the excellent precolumbian museum of indigenous art, and viewed the work of local artists at the Museum of Fine Arts (Museo de Bellas Artes; which is housed in a very elegant old building currently undergoing renovatin but which isn´t very big). Not too much time was spent in the museums or galleries. We found Santiago a great city just to loose yourself in a crowd, people watch and visit parks. A lot of lovely old colonial buildings are overshadowed by the skyscrapers that tower over them (some are really ugly 70s-style cement monoliths). We enjoyed looking through the courtyards of the imposing presidential palace and watching a changing of the guard at the palace. They are big on security here. Armed Carbinieri are on every street corner and in every park. They seem to be very friendly. Mostly, they seem to help the people of Santiago with street directions. We just asked to a take a photo with one of them.



Santiago, given its cosmopolitan nature, hasn´t yet discovered a cafe culture as we have done in Australia. There are a lot of small eateries, patisseries, small bars, and loads of restaurants but none are dedicated to serving excellent, expresso style coffee. Unbelievably, Nescafe dried instant coffee has a tight grip on the market here and Chileans love it. It is often the default coffee served when out and about. Only a couple of expresso-style bars called ´Haiti´ have recently been opened in Santiago but these are a novelty and have a Pacific theme underlying the use of fresh coffee beans. Attractive women in short black maid-style dresses bring you the coffee straight from the barrista and to you at a bar where you stand to drink the coffee. The cafes are popular with men but Santiago women are slowly turning up in increasing numbers. There are a few things we think they need to change about this set up to market good, fresh coffee to the general public. The coffee, at least, was good in Haiti.