It s finally arrived.
Our time to leave this fine continent is finally upon us. We have just stepped of a bus in Santiago having been on it for 22 hours from Buenos Aires. A full cross continent journey. And now we have a few hours to kill before we board our flight for Auckland. Im feeling very sad as I have loved my time in South America and I really dont want to leave. In fact I could very happily start all over again. I could go back to the Miramau reserve and see how Jorge and the crew are doing now that the rainy season is starting, I could go back to Mancora for the start of their surfing season and visit that great little Mexican restraunt on the beach, I could visit Quito in Ecuador and seek out a resteraunt that would curry me a guinea pig, I could lose another weekend at Rio Carnival, I could spend weeks in Argentina testing a doorstep steak in each town I visited and wondering at their fantastic red wines and dancing in their great clubs, I could go and watch penguins in Ushuia or marvel at the elephant seals at the Valdez Peninsula, I could do it all again and I would love it just as much, if not more than the first time. Laura and I have already toyed with the idea of settling in Buenos Aires when our Spanish is up to it. We talked about little else in the last 3 days we have been there, other than how good the steaks were, how cheap it was and how tasty the wine is.

So I think we will definatley be back. For me, I still want to see the Galapogas Islands and climb to the summit of cotopaxi as well as visiting some highland rainforrest in Brasil. But I also want to spend some time in Colombia which we only managed to have lunch in on this trip. There is still a great deal to do and see which will have to be left for other holidays and other trips.

Apart from the organised overland trip we took from Santiago to Rio it has been far easier to travel independantly in South America than the guidebooks and scare stories would have you believe. We have never felt threatened or felt we were in any danger at any time. Whenever we have found ourselves stuck due to poor transport links or infrastructure we have always found a local who would help us, often they have gone out of their way to help us, and sometimes have come up to help and just to have a chat. We have been lucky to meet some great people this way. I so wish I had done a language course before i came so that I could have got more involved with people, and I will certainly remedy this when I get back to the UK. I will miss not being here.

Next stop Auckland.

Chris