Back on the road again! After 10 or so days at home sorting out our lives, tidying up Nessie for sale and packing our board bags we´re off for South America! It was great to be home for a bit and catch up with mates and just spend a bit of time in Sydney. After all the travel around Australia, I appreciate Sydney even more. It really is a great city and I´m lucky to have grown up there.
Got a few surfs in although couldn´t deal too well with the city crowds! Definitely different to surfing in rural areas. Not sure I can handle it actually. Might have to buy a van when I´m back and get out of town on the weekends to head up/down the coast.
It was sad to say farewell to Nessie (anyone want to buy a used Troopy?) but she served us well and won´t be forgotten. Thanks Dad for taking custody of her. Exciting though to be packing for foreign shores (and hurridly studying Spanish!). Even more exciting is that in a few days time we´ll be meeting the rest of my family in Ushuaia, Argentina for an expedition to Antarctica over Christmas! It´s been years (like more than 20) since the whole family has been together overseas and almost as long, it feels, since we spent a huge chunk of time together. Jack, as pretty much part of the family, is coming too which is great (and unmissable for him as the biggest David Attenborough fan I know).
Jack and I flew into Santiago, leaving a day earlier than Mum, Dad and Evan so we could spend a couple of days there and check it out before flying down to the end of the continent! Pretty warm but not unexpected given it´s about the same latitude as Sydney. It´s a cruisy place in an amazing setting, huge mountains tower over the city providing a stunning backdrop (if you can see it through the smog). We were struggling with jetlag so went for a big walk and then settled down on the main drag near our hostel for a few beers. And when I say a few I mean several 1 Litre beers!
We were staying in the Bellavista district which is pretty much the buzzing party/alternative area with lots of students around. Luckily the hostel was down a quiet side street and we had our own room. The locals here seem to get stuck into the huge beers from about 1pm and it just builds as day turns into night. We downed a few and watched the world go by. By 6pm the footpaths were rammed with drinkers chatting over their Escudos (the local cerveza). We were shattered and a bit tipsy by about 9pm and stumbled home for some sleep. Jack hadn´t slept at all on the plane so had been up for something like 36 hours!
Next day we continued the "winefari" sub-theme of our trip and went to a local winery (Concho y Toro) for a tasting. We ended up having quite a nice lunch and the wine was great. It was good to get out of the main part of town too and use the local public transport. We spent another evening over a few large bottles of beer then retired for an early start tomorrow!
