Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

Well today we were supposed to be going to Argentina, but as we have come to learn, travel in South America can never be taken for granted! We got up early this morning, packed all our stuff up, missed breakfast and made our way on the Metro in rush hour traffic to the Bus Terminal to catch the bus to Mendoza. We were at the platform waiting for the bus to show up.. but it didn´t!! Matt went off to make a few enquiries in his best pigeon Spanish and came back about 5 minutes later to tell me the bus was cancelled due to bad weather conditions. So we bickered at each other for another 5 minutes about what we could do (nothing!) before agreeing that we would have to stay in Santiago, it was either that or walk to Mendoza?!
Anyway to cut a very long story short, we have now booked flights to fly to Buenos Aires tomorrow, which is better for us really as it saves lots of long weary hours on the bus. We were also advised that Mendoza is particularly tricky to get to at this time of year by bus (Sth American winter time)

Yesterday we decided to take the afternoon off, so we got ourselves plonked in a good Italian Restaurant and got pleasantly pi$$ed on dirt cheap Chilean wine (2.50GBP a bottle) we must have been in there 4/5 hours, a perfect way to spend the day in chilly Santiago.
In the restaurant you could see into the kitchen as the chefs were working behind a massive glass window. Well in there there was a "big lad" who looked to be the head chef, now I don´t know what Gordon Ramsey would have made of him, but this lad did like his grub! For every dish he must have prepared he was taking a dish for himself, he was constantly, spooning sauces from the large pans, cutting bread, dipping it in various bowls and dishes. They would need to make a lot of money in that restaurant to cover his massive appetite, maybe they pay him in food not wages? It did look really unprofessional to be honest, he wasn´t just sampling the sauces for taste, he was literally wading in and filling his face. I thought he was going to put arm bands on at one point and dive into the pan!!

The food in Chile is pretty poor to say they are more European(ly)influenced than South American, I don´t think we have had anything really nice to eat since we arrived, does Dunkin Donuts count?!

When we get to Argentina we are thinking of hopping on the ferry at Buenos Aires and going across to Uruguay for a couple of days, we were hoping to maybe get to Brazil for a few days but it is extremely expensive to get there and probably a bit too far now with only 3 weeks left here.

It is really cold here in Santiago, I´ve got hat, scarf and gloves on today and Buenos is going to be no warmer, we are both looking forward to 2 weeks beach in Fiji in October ;-)
Everywhere we go here there is piped in music playing in the streets, and it´s all dodgy 80´s stuff in panpipes, it get´s a bit noisy sometimes, especially as you turn a street corner and then pick up on a new tune as the last one is fading out, a bit like a stars on 45 mega mix (for those of you that aren´t too young to remember!!)
There are also hundreds of stray dogs here and we have spent more time dog watching here than sight seeing. There is a really busy main road here and cars and buses just bomb along at speeds of about 70mph. Along this road is where all the dogs are, literally laid out right on the road edge, or on a busy intersection in the middle of the road (imagine the Champs Elysee in Paris) every now and again one of the dogs will jump up and start bounding towards an oncoming bus or car, barking and going berserk. If the bus got the dog it would be history (the dog not the bus!), but how can you tell this to a dog? Everytime we see one at the road side we try to cajole it along with us to a safer place. We do our best :-)

We have started making enquiries about campervans in NZ, were really looking forward to having some independence again when it comes to travel, as we are fed up of public transport and all the problems it throws at us. It is easy to travel overland through Sth America, but timetables cannot be taken at face value and the weather and various road blocks have also caused us a fair few set backs along the way.
We hope to hire mountain bikes in NZ too so we can get out and about without having to drag the camper everywhere.
I think I might try and cook us a Sunday Lunch when we do pick it up, we both crave one, do you reckon it would be possible on a 2 ring gas stove? I reckon beans and toast will be easier ;-)