We found curry and watched movies. How´s that for culture?

Wow..... it´s been another week since we blogged. Well we haven´t been extremely active to be honest! As you know, after dropping off our passports at the Indian Embassy, we had a week to hang around Santiago.... it went like this:

After our Saturday at the fish and veg markets of Santiago we cooked ourselves a great little dinner, drank some wine and embraced our home for the next 5/6 days. Sunday allowed us a lie-in and then we took advantage of the free museums in downtown Santiago, so we wandered between them in the sweltering heat and managed to clock up 3 museums in one afternoon!

We decided to head out relatively early on Monday and see one of Santiagos most famous sights, the Virgin of Immaculate Conception, a 36m high statue that looks over the Chilean capital. We arrived only to find our early start thwarted as it didnt open until 1pm ! So after a nice lunch in the nearby Barrio de Bellavista, we headed up the hill..... by the finicular railway of course. Once at the top, the view over Santiago was amazing and a short (but v. hot) hike brought us to the base of the virgin. She´s really big! So now I really can´t wait for Cristo in Rio!

After seeing the Virgin we went to explore the rest of the park via the teleferico - cable cars! They were a little rickity looking and Jen was a little apprehensive to say the least! It was also hot as Hades inside the little glass bubbles! We rode thm around and decided to head back to the mall that we had been to before and see another movie - It was just too hot to do anything else! We hopped on the underground and headed out there.

When we arrived we got our tickets to "Si Señor" - "Yes Man" - with Jim Carey (based in L.A. which was cool to see again and actually pretty funny!) and went into the grocery store to get some snacks, only to find an awesome International section and both Indian and Thai Curry!! So happy! After the movie we went back to the store and stocked up. Curry for dinner tonight! (and the following night, and the one after that! And of course the leftovers for lunch the following day too!!) However, we didn´t end up having curry that night as we got back too late.

We spent Tuesday hanging out and we were even able to move to a private room with a double bed. We did in fact have curry too! It was delicious! On Wednesday we decided to head west to Valparaiso, a town built into the hills in the coast. There are finiculars all over the place to take you up the steep hills. It was a nice place to hang out for a couple days, eat LOTS of curry and enjoy our hostel - we had a nice private room with a TV, a great kitchen and...... A TRAPEZE!! It really had a trapeze! Lots of fun!

Here are the photos from Santiago and Valparaiso:



We returned to Santiago proper on Friday and picked up our Indian visa in the late afternoon so we decided, as we were halfway there, why not head to the mall (I misplaced my sunnies so needed some new cheapy ones) and see another movie.... it´s just too cheap and air-conditioned not to! This time we saw "Valkerie" - very enjoyable! Friday night we hungout and prepared for our Valentine´s day treat.... a hotel.

As we went to leave, we thought we should double check the location of the hotel again. Thank God we did. It turns out that the Radisson has 2 hits on the google map of Santiago, one right by where we were, as we thought, and one way out of town in a business park. Turns out that the later was correct. So after a lengthy subway and taxi ride we made it there. Great room, air conditioning, towels, a bath, TV and real privacy. Happy Valentine´s Day Jen! Unfortunately we were in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully we did find the sushi place across the street and were able to get take out. The sushi and sashimi were great, unfortunately they didn´t give us enough soy sauce to truly appreciate it though! We headed to the bar to have a drink and thought that we would enjoy a pisco sour, the local drink of choice (Thanks Jim, Lori and family!) Despite the few mishaps, we were able to have a great Valentine´s Day. It also should be mentioned that Jen noticed many bites on her arms.. then legs.. then feet... and spent the whole night itching! It must have been bedbugs from the hostel. She was miserable, poor thing, and some of the bites were bigger than grapes!

Yesterday we left Santiago and took a bus to arrive here in Mendoza, Argentina, late last night. Here we met Duncan, my 2nd cousin, who is from New Zealand but lives here with his Uruguayan wife, Rasuara, and their 2 boys. Duncan works in the wine industry here and all over South America and is having us to stay with him, walking distance from town. It is so nice to be in a great home and have the ammenities that one takes for granted but misses dearly when backpacking!

We are exploring the town today and, with any luck, tomorrow we will be able to go on a winery tour that Rosaura is organising for some of their clients.... fingers crossed! We leave hear on Wednesday night on a 36hr bus to Iguazu Falls, and then we are a mere hop, skip and a reaaaaaaally big jump away from being in England!

We will try and update again within the week!

Miss you all xx