Quickie

We're now in the coastal town of Valpairoso in Chile on our way down to the Lake District and fjord-land. Have spent 2 days in Santiago which was excellent - saw Pablo Neruda's gorgeous house and stressed about the dizzying array of travel possiblities - or impossibilities as it seemed at the time. All sorted now tho'. Ate way too much sushi last night after living on steak for 10 days and now have stomach ache. Oh, and pisco sours are LOVELY. I don't care if they're Peruvian or Chilean.

Gauchos 'R' us

Or not as the case may be. In my case, it's more wishful thinking than fact. But it was idyllic - 3000 metres above sea level in the Andean foothills, and the most glorious blue sky. THe clouds are amazing too - they form and dissipate with such rapidity. We started from a farm run by a super nice bloke who gave up city life to live in the hills and look after goats. The goats were comic and liked eating gringo shoe laces. I think Marv may have some photos (altho he is busy putting up pix of him jumping off cliffs attached to a kite aka paragliding or damn stupidity depending on your point of view.)

THe horse trek lasted about 3 hours through the mountains. I was pretty sure they would give us nice tame tourist horses. Not on your life. More of the Paraguyan-Argentinian tough grumpy skittish variety. My horse looked gorgeous - a small female. With a tough temper. She actually bucked at one point when provoked by another horse that really ought to have known better in my opinion. They all had their friends - mine was fine when following this enormous horse called Tranquillo but couldn't quite figure out what to do - apart from eat and wander off in the opposite direction to everyone else - when she couldn't follow. Marv had a horse that clearly thought the gringo he was carrying should bugger off back to England rather than tell him which direction he should be going in. Hilarity and a little bit of scariness followed. But all in all fantastic. Partly also because of the lovely group of people with us. Mix of AMerican, Argentinian, German and us Brits bien sur.

When we go back to the farm, the guy who runs the place had made us the most fantastic parilla (barbie) and we ate a LOT of meat. and some grilled vegetables. and just bantered in teh sunshine for 3 hours. one of the loveliest Mondays i have had in a long time.

Tuesday was pretty fun too

Went wine-tasting with our American friends - Jim, Chris and Michelle. Then went for a 5 hour lunch in the sunshine. The climate here is the best of the Californian climate - dry, balmy heat. Perfect in the shade with a meal of Chilean salmon, squid, and lemon tart. Oh, and some fine wine. Then the hombres went off to prove their masculinity by jumping off cliffs and MIchelle and I continued the lunch into early evening. MUCH more sensible I'm thinking. Marv insists he's buying a paragliding kite on our return to the UK. Riiiiight. Jim is a pilot for American Airlines and he was SCARED so why this sport seems like a good one to take up is beyond me. If someone who flys jets for a living doesn't get the science behind it, then I sure as hell don't. Bring on the long lunches I say.

Off to Chile tomorrow...more bus action. More comfortable than riding a horse tho.

Day of Rest

Arrived in Mendoza after another 22 hours on a bus. Doing nothing today except our laundry. It's not really very thrilling this travel lark. Honest.

Horse-riding tomorrow on the Chilean border.