Buenos dias, ¿Como estas?

I have made it to South America safe and sound, and so far I have to say I´m loving it! I´ve always wanted to come to South America, it was the reason I came travelling in the first place so to be finally here is like I´ve succeeded, although there is still a while left here.

In my last post I was in Queenstown, coming towards the end of my time in New Zealand and also the end of my stay on the eastern side of the world. I caught a flight back to Auckland before flying to Santiago the next day. I was in the airport for ages, but I did get to see the New Zealand football team I think.... I had a great time in New Zealand, and thanks to Louise and Kristy for putting up with me for so long, but also driving me up the wall sometimes! Rachel and Beth clearly had enough early on lol!

My flight left around 6pm from Auckland and I arrived at 1pm the same day in Chile. It sounds cool, and it is but it doesn´t half mess with your head. It took me 3 days to actually work out the real time in Chile and a week to get over the jet lag. At the airport, 2 guys were trying to get money out of me for showing me where the ATM was, which I could have found on my own, and also for showing me to my taxi. I´m pretty sure they were takng me to a different taxi. Luckily having become the savvy traveller I am now, I said I´m not giving you any money and walked away and got in my actual shuttle bus.

I spent the first few days in Santiago just exploring the city. There isn´t a massive amount of things to see or do so I was planning on leaving after 3 days. I ended up enrolling into a Spanish school for a week so my stay in Santiago lasted for nearly 2 weeks. The Spanish lessons were really good, and I improved a lot, I can almost deal with most everyday situations, although people here talk so fast that I still look blankly at them at times, and then panic and either say si or no!

The hostel I stayed in, in Santiago, which was called Santiago Backpackers, was really, really good too. It was a really new hostel but the owner and the staff made me feel really welcome and like one of the family. I had been there for almost two weeks, I think they were sick of me in the end!

During my time in Santiago I went to Valparaiso, a cool port town just north of Santiago, and I also experienced an actual live football game. It was amazing, and crazy at the same time! I went to see Colo-Colo play against Huachipato (no idea who they are!). I got there early, and I was surprised to see that an hour before kick off, all the hardcore fans went to the back of the stand behind one goal and sang non-stop, it got louder and louder, it was amazing. They decorate their end with loads of banners and it´s quite intimidating but it seemed perfectly safe. They didn´t stop singing all through the game, even when the other team scored. The game was really entertaining, although Colo-Colo lost 2-1, and I have now adopted them as my 4th team! I have some cool videos that I´ll upload of the fans, I just wish Derby fans could be more like them.

I also did a salsa class while in Santiago. It wasn´t my finest moment, and the fact that the teacher knew my name after 5 minutes probably showed I wasn´t doing the best. In the end I thought I did fairly well, although all the twists and turns were a bit too much for a first lesson. I think in the end he started picking on me as I was actually better than him!!

Last Saturday, my time in Chile came to an end and I boarded a bus to Mendoza in Argentina. I managed to sleep through my alarm, maybe because I partied a bit too much the night before! Finally I did get the bus, and the buses over here are really comfortable. The journey took around 7.5 hours, and the border crossing was really fast. I was ecstatic when they put Inception on the bus, it turned out to be in Spanish, and with my new Spanish skills I could just about work out what was going on, but I heard in English it´s a hard film to follow. They did follow it up with Terminator 2 which was in English.

I arrived in Mendoza at night and just went to sleep. The next day I just explored the city and just relaxed. It was cool, although I was gutted to see a party bus full of footy fans going to the football. If I had known I probably would have gone to watch it. Yesterday I went to some wineries, as Mendoza produces lots of wine. One was a modern place and the other was an old school organic winery. We also visited an olive oil place and a chocolate and liquor shop.

Today I used a laundrette for the first time in my life. I´ve washed my own clothes before, but this was at a proper laundrette where I put my clothes in and watched them go round and round. It´s really theraputic! Tonight I´m travelling south to Bariloche in Patagonia, and from there I may go further south to the end of the world, but I´m not sure, need to check the old bank balance.... The bus I have is an executive one, so I get a seat that converts to a bed, and I get 2 meals, and hopefully some champagne. Welcome to the good life!!

After the south I´m planning on heading to Buenos Aires, and then on to Brazil.

Before I go, I just want to say congratulations to the Indian cricket team on winning the world cup. After all the near misses, all those defeats that were grabbed from jaws of victory, and all the collapses as soon as Tendulkar was out, they´ve proved they are mentally tough and deservedly are champions. It makes all those late nights or really early mornings worth getting up for now! I was just upset I didn´t get to see it. Well done boys!

Hasta luego