Argentina Part 3: Buenos Aires

This will be a monster post as it was just over 2 weeks that I spent there. That kind of gives away the end. This will also be the last part of the blog from the current trip, although it will be regularly update when I step abroad again.

I arrived in BA and walked to the hostel. I could not draw any money. Problems with my credit cards. Well nationwide would have to fuck me one last time or it would not be my trip. Only this time it was my fault. I rang the bank. Nobody had told me that you can only draw half of the value of your credit card in cash. Shit. I had 37 quid left. Nevermind they could extend my limit by 700 quid on the spot, giving me 350 quid more cash. Fucking unbelievable. One month ago they want to take away my overdraft and now they want to give me 700 quid more. Good to see the Janus heads of nationwide are in harmony. No wonder they had a banking crisis. I sorted that out and then found out I had to pay the hostel in cash. Crap. I needed to find somewhere I could stay on my card if I was to find work. This was becoming squeaky bum time. Could I even operate in this environment. I was going to need to live off of my card and use cash only for the essentials. I even wrote 'can I make this work?' in my book. On the plus side there were two Brazilians and a Colombian in my dorm. Excellent. Cheapest dorm in BA and you get cable tv in your room lol. Excellent. Winter olympics were on, not that I ended up watching much of it. I wrote 'Go home or work it? Maybe enough cash to live 1-2 months, 1 month to find it.' Hmm should have guessed where this was going to end. I walked the streets to an English language meeting and the radio in BA is really good. Was a fun little meet up with three English guys and three Argentine girls. One guy had even managed to live in South America for 5 years without really working. Thats impressive. His hoboness far outstrips mine. We grabbed a free drink, though the barman took a while to agree to giving me a coke. Sebastian was the other guy and we would end up hanging out a fair bit in BA.

I walked back around 6am and this would become the norm in BA. In 16 days there I went to sleep before 2am once and that was this day, a saturday of all days. I had no sleep and a bread roll breakfast because I was going to need to start to work. I applied for jobs all day and one company would require a legal visa for me to work. Shit. In summary others offered me irregular hours and crap salaries to work on the black market, others said they had to promise the Argentine government not to assist foreigners who wanted visas. I decided I should apply to Colombia as well, but I left in my cv that said I was applying in BA (my attention to detail is shocking lol) and they got pissy with me. Oh well I killed that route stone dead at birth. I abandoned the days search and went off to meet a ballerina and her friends for a tour of BA. We went to Recoleta cemetary and then to the touristy end of La Boca. Its been scrubbed up and painted for the tourists and did not look too rough. Of course at this point I did not know I had been taken to the sanitised end of the barrio. It smelt of dead fish though. The Belgian girl brought up the topic of the Falklands. Cheers for that. Neither me nor the Argentine really wanted to talk about it much and in the end I was too tired to join this Colombian girl in the evening.

The next day was sunday so I took some rest and went to join another Colombian girl for Chinese new year. She was a really cool girl. I had missed the Colombian relaxedness that the Argentines often replace with histerica. Me and her friend went and saw the dragons dance. I think its a little less big there than in London's Chinatown. We had parilla in San Telmo and I was slowly getting used to BA's barrios. The places where the tourists stay are a little too gimmicky or clean for me, which is becoming a trend. I am really drifting towards the more real and edgy barrios of cities. Not that BA has any barrios that are edgy. San Telmo is a cool Boho neighbourhood to wander around in though and we saw some tango in the streets. I found Corrientes which is the Broadway of BA. Then I returned to San Telmo to meet Karina and a big group of random people. There was an Estonian guy who said I should join him for tango but we never managed to meet up. They were drinking in the streets and eventually we found a Brazilian samba band and shuffled samba behind them into a larger street where everyone was shooting each other with foam for carnival. Was quite the gun fight while I tried in vain to protect my choripan from foam. I was getting lots of offers of help finding work and everyone was failing to deliver lol. Its like those sliding, half meant promises. Damn they annoy me. If I say I will do something, I do it regardless of if I want to, if I am ill or if I am almost dead. Its imperative you keep your word. I was spending too fast and really should be moving hostels but I decided to stay there a couple more nights.

I spent another 6 hours looking for work. By this point I think I had applied to every school there and was becoming increasingly disillusioned. Some companies would employ me if I had a Temporary Residents Permit but I don't think that was going to be easy to get (Will make sure I get one when I go back though). At this point I was concluding it may be easier to regroup at home. Or even take a bus north and visit a few places before flying back from Colombia or Venezuela etc. Or even see Paraguay, Iguazu and Uruguay. Shit system. Helen told me I should just enjoy BA and come home if I have to, because I was not enjoying it while I was stressing over work all the time. I went to La Bomba that evening. Its a really cool drumming show though I am sure the hostel people ripped us off on tickets. There is no space to dance, which is a shame as the music has a really good tribal rhythm and makes you want to move. While we were in there the heavens opened up. Monster rain in 2 hours. The water was above my knee height and you almost had to swim across the streets, littered with rivers of garbage due to the bottom of the bins being punched out. I asked for a little plastic bag to put my passport and bank cards in and then set off wading through the streets. I have never seen anything like it in any major city ever. Laly cancelled on me due to the rain and it was the second time we had failed to meet up. Oh the ironies of fate. I wonder if I would have booked my ticket on the tuesday if I had met her on the monday night. Well the best of things you have to work for and don't always get to follow the easiest route.

I got up on the tuesday and gave up on job hunting. I went back down to Recoleta cemetery to look around. Did not find Evita's grave but did not really care. Found Sarmientos. Was interesting. I once wrote an essay on him, but can't remember what about or even anything about him. He did not have the same lasting influence on me that Jose Marti did. The museum was open late so I took a wander through the grass of the sculture garden. Hmm lots of cobwebs. Ah dammit its fucking grass mosquitoes like in Paramaraibo. I hate those bastards. They don't leave you alone. The MALBA was shut. Dammit. So I went to the Japanese gardens which were nice and the rose gardens which was also a nice place and free. I came back and went round the Museo Bellas Artes. Was cool, though the modern stuff was better than the historical stuff (not usual for me to say that). I was really beginning to enjoy BA and the pressure had come off. I decided to book a flight home via Rome and was sorted. Now I had 12 days to enjoy the city. I had figured I would come back the next year and stay in BA for 3 months, Rio or Sao Paolo 3 months, Caracas 3 months, Cali 3 months and travel in between them for 6 months. Sounded like a great plan and one that was sustainable financially. That may now have changed as I am thinking strongly that I may end up in BA for at least 10 months-1 year and then travel with Laly in Brazil. Anyway I am jumping ahead of myself. Patience is not my virtue. Man City drew which was good for us. I went to Sebastian's flat for dinner in the evening and it was total open plan with a drop pool swimming pool in the hall. Words don't do that place justice. Its superb. I would love to rent it but thats only realistic if the pound starts taking steroids and recovers against the dollar. Stayed for a bit and then went to meet Laly. We were due to meet at Plaza Serrano and I got accosted at first by a tramp. He wanted me to give him money and afterwards to drink a beer. He was shocked that I spoke Spanish and did not drink beer. Must be odd for an Englishman. Anyway he dropped his money on the floor and lost a peso. I was helping him look when Laly arrived and as I always look like a hobo, she probably assumed I was just an other tramp. We headed out to a bar and stayed there, eating pizza until around 4am. Seems funny writing about something when you know where it goes. Its odd how the most innocuous things at the time take on great significance due to the events that follow from them. Every small trickle of fate helps to steer us on a course into unknown territories. One small event or night can change a lifetime or destiny and the smallest things are often cruelly overlooked at times. Now imagine if we had met the night before. Some rain changes the night, but would I have booked my flight? I could well be in London and not Buenos Aires purely due to rain. At least its a typically English thing that played the fateful role. Also it does not seem fitting to discuss my relationship with Laly in the ontext of a timeline and I am also not sure I can do it justice with words. I think I will just describe the night and then I will give it a go in a short an sweet paragraph. I can't sum up all the conversation. Would need the same time back to describe it. We ended up going down to the rose gardens, where we were eaten by mosquitoes, joined by some random hobo dog, observed some strange old men running and walking around in circles, sometimes alone, sometimes in pairs. We talked about stealing heads, the relationship of the sun and moon and many other non topics, where saying stupid things illuminates clever minds. I love mind games and I love creating random worlds and private universes. Firstly it is good mental exercise, secondly it if funny and thirdly it bonds you to that person faster. We kissed though Argentines are still terrible at reading symbols and responding. They assume lack of movement signifies interest, whereas us Europeans need some positive and proactive response. We also got stalked by some random museum worker. What was he doing working at 5am.

Hmm ok the paragraph that tests my writing skills. Often with people you can have a connection that is mental, emotional or physical. It is rare that you have all three, rare that it is so good to start with and rarer still that it gets better and better everytime you are with them. With Laly it is that good and it just gets better and better every moment of time we spend together. So it is shit that it is on pause right now. I hate the Atlantic. With her its just very effortless. Everything is easy. We click so well and harmonise on everything. The body chemistry is superb, but so is the mental chemistry as we can talk for hours and time melts away, which would be good in the long term, but sucks short term when you don't have many hours to spend together. Its that obliviousness to external factors that means we got bollocked in Tigre everywhere we went. A lack of willpower to depart, a general killing of time doing nothing. Together we never do anything and yet that time is everything. One of life's ironies. I prefer to write stream of consciousness as its more honest and there is less time for censorship. We decided we wanted to move in together after less than 24 hours. As so often with us what sounds insane just feels right. I think I could go nuts back in London and possibly for the first time in my life I am not that concerned about protecting my freedom. I always said there would be things worth sacrificing freedom for, but you don't come across them often. Right now I miss the intensity, I miss the conversation and I really miss the time doing nothing. I really want her to come to London and hope that she can. Ack it sucks. For now I have nothing more to say. My words are not good enough for it.

The next day I slept all day long as I was dead. I went to play 5 a side football in the evening and we got cained and I played shit. Mind you our team was total crap and I felt like I was Iker Casillas again.

I was now going home in 10 days. I found a hotel to stay in for that night but I needed to find somewhere that accepted credit card as a matter of urgency and eventually I found a shitty hostel for 8 nights. It was fucking horrible with no sheets and 800 insects in the bathroom. I would not recommend it to anyone. I was beginning to really love the city. I know knew I could live there for some time. I tried to find some plays for the saturday night out with Sebastian. Then I went for a walk around La Boca. Dangerous my arse. There are way too many middle class people travelling. La Boca was about as dangerous as Brixton and less so than Hackney or even Turnpike Lane where I have lived and never had any problems. There need to be more travellers from less cookie cutter backgrounds to have some perspective. Hmm they have themed sex hotels in Buenos Aires that look fun to try though we never really got round to it. I spent all say trying to find a blues bar so I could show the music to Laly. Ah I should send her some blues songs to see the style now. At least there are two in London for when she comes in July. They played 'rat in my kitchen' on the radio. Fucking awesome. That is now officially the best radio station ever and it was going out of business the day after I left BA. Timing. Laly was late (not unusual lol) and we ended up in a shitty jazz bar in San Telmo. Afterwards she came and stayed with me and we failed to sleep for the second night. We will probably kill each other from lack of sleep when she comes here. It was our second night together and we were planning London, Edinburgh, Devon, getting Polish passports, living in Argentina and a whole raft of things. I have a feeling this could be a whirlwind in the end.

We had breakfast in a bakery and then she had to go to study. She had an exam the day after I left and I think its partially my fault she did not pass the Spanish bit, although she was thinking of staying in the public university now. Yet another person failed to meet me at the obelisk. It was becoming a symbol of failure. Then I slept through the afternoon for a few hours. Then I grabbed dinner in burger king and the guy working there is possibly the most incompetent person I have ever seen. He fucked up every order and I mean every one. I just accepted my wrong burger as by that point I felt really sorry for him. Then I took the subte. Its shit. Its the shittest subway system I have seen in South America, but its better than Bogota's transmilenio which sucks. An internet place could not break my 100 and a bar would not break it so I got a free coke. Excellent. You should just travel around BA with a 100 peso note if you don't want to pay for anything as noone can ever break the thing. I met Aussie Ben and Monica from Manizales for drinks. Hadn't seen either of them for 11 months. Laly could not make it. I stayed for a while and then left. Monica wanted me to go clubbing with her and decided I was lame when I declined.

I moved hostels and then met Sebastian. Taxis are expensive. I hate them. We decided to watch Agosto, which was a recommendation of a histerica Argentine girl from the night before. I had a Mexican lunch with Sebastian and then met a girl briefly for a coffee. We had kept missing each other and this time only had half an hour as I had to meet Sebastian for dinner and then head to the theatre. Play was really good though I did not understand all of it. Afterwards we headed to Palermo where I had said to Sebastian we could go and 'Pass la pirata' but as I was now de facto attached I told him I would come to the bars but I was not interested in meeting anyone. Palermo has attractive people, but its a little zona rosa style plastic fantastic. Wehung out there until around 3am and then I walked home.

I was knackered the next day as the hostel bed was total shite. I met Laly while half dead and we had some media lunas on the way to Tigre. We spent another classically quality afternoon doing nothing lol. We carried on planning july and january and then got bollocked by everyone in the town. We got heckled for sitting on a wall inappropriately, for kissing in an internet cafe, by a pharmacist woman for asking for protection (Laly did not want to ask and I don't have smooth enough Spanish, so it was quite direct) and a policeman and ice cream woman tried to send us to a sex hotel. We ended up getting eaten by a few mosquitoes on the river bank and then a dog climbed all over us, seemingly trying to hump one or both of us. Spurs won, Villa won and Man City and Liverpool drew. We spent time wandering around the town and eventually found a nice hotel but we never got to use the swimming pool. This was the first time together we actually slept at all as well for about 4/5hours. I can't honestly say after 2 days and a night up in Tigre that I really know what the town looks like at all.

We left the hotel around midday and decided we would maybe visit Paris lol. Then we eventually took the catamaran tour. It absolutely opened fire from the heavens like the day we had failed to meet. Everyone on the boat was hiding. We got drenched but I sat wind side to take most of it on my back. Still we got drenched and saw parts of the canal. The photo on my wall is just before it battered down. We should have had a before and after. Laly is very fashionista and I am a tramp, so muddy arses and wet clothes are more normal for me. Seriously though, it does not matter how many times we are drenched, scolded or bitten the time is still good. BA flooded again. We eventually made it back to the town and fed a blind dog some lasagna. Have to find crazy dogs in London as they seem to follow us everywhere. There wasa French beardy man as well. Laly had to go back for classes and I just went to watch Invictus in the evening. Was a good film, but nothing special. It has got me to start reading Mandela's biography though, which is good so far.

I slept a long time into the afternoon and then finally met Agus to go for dinner. Was quite amusing. We have been friends online for 4 years and when I get to BA she is not there but on holiday and eventually we finally get to meet. We went out for dinner and it was a nice night, although we had the famous parilla and I can see why offal was banned in 1986. Its fucking horrible. I prefer the choripan to the beef we often got. Very chewy stuff in some places.

I spent all of this day applying for jobs in the UK. Change of tack. Ended up with lots of offers and have too many interviews. I am starting work with St Giles on monday and then can start to slowly add more hours and more jobs as I feel comfortable doing so. I met Sebastian and the Aussie girl at his flat and they cooked dinner. Laly was a little late coming over, but that's standard in BA lol. We had a veggie dinner and then went out to get some ice cream. After a few bars, Laly and I went to the ghost playground which is kind of freaky and near the Japanese gardens. We got bitten loads again. I got attacked so much in that week, but we had fun down in the park and then got breakfast before she needed some more time to study.

I got up at 5pm. My sleep pattern was really all over the place at this point and it was thursday of my last week. I met Agus again and we ate before seeing 1001 Nights which was a decent enough musical. We had dinner afterwards and then I went home to drop dead as I had had my third night with Laly without sleeping. It was almost as if neither of us wanted to lose any of the time we could spend together, as well as it never being dull, never an awkward pause or with my talking any pause lol.

The next day I woke up and went to see Peter. He had made it all the way here and this was the last time I would see him on this trip and the first time since Cuenca, so naturally I apologised first. We met at the obelisk and walked around all night before Laly joined us an hour late lol. We went to a square in San Telmo, got accosted by a drunken Colombian and then Laly stayed with me. I had gone to the MALBA as well, but they had the Andy Warhol exhibition on and would not take card payment. Fuckers.

My last day I got up and met Peter having not slept at all on friday night. I was struggling a bit. We fixed all the logistic stuff and then took the suburban train out to the Jesus theme park. I figured it was a fitting end to the trip. Its not actually that great, but it was cool to travel on trains again. They have a giant jesus who pops out of the rock and moves a bit, a nativity where only one wise man and a sheep moves and a last supper with a freaky jesus moving like he wants to create a Chun Li fireball. The creation is quite cool though, with the green laser shows and the Arabic dancing was probably the highlight of the place. Peter even made us move for a better view lol. Afterwards we headed back past a memorial to the lost people of the dictatorship and with a view of the River Plate at last. I met Laly, a Romanian girl and Sebastian and we went to San Telmo for dinner and drinks. I said goodbye to everyone and will no doubt see them again, while Laly came and stayed with me. It and somewhat sad last night and we did not have our usual sleep deprivation as we were both knackered (me especially being an old man). In the morning we got up and took the bus to the aiport and we annoyed some more people in Mcdonalds before I had to take a plane back to the UK. The end of an odyssey. Trip of a lifetime people say. Hmm. Nope. The first of many Ilike to say and now I have 10 months to save to get back down there. I did manage to see District 9 on the way back.

Now I just need to enjoy my city, get cracking on working, save money, pay back the banks, save more money to cross the Atlantic and head back to BA. Meanwhile we need to think of a way to get Gatita over here and past Gordon Browns crap rules.

Top 10: Peru, Bolivia and Chile

Like Colombia dominated the north, Chile will dominate the west.

1. Valdivia (Chile): Absolutely picturesque little town. Botanic gardens, parks, every house with flowers, university town, multicoloured buildings and sea lions in the river. How can you not like the place.

2. Santiago (Chile): Will be a weird one for most people. Even the people who live there don't like it. Not sure why. Funky multicoloured barrios, great food, looks like London in parts and the only city in these three countries with a top class cultural scene.

3. Pucon (Chile): Picture perfect adventure town. Lifted straight out of the Rockies and build from Swiss Alp instruction manuals, this town is fun and pretty.

4: Iquique (Chile): Beach resort in the north. You know its a good resort if it can make my list. Buzzing in the summer, paraglide off the cliffs or wile away a day in the superb UNESCO ghost town of Humberstone

5. Arequipa (Peru): Best town in Peru comfortably. Very nice architecture, most intelligent and best looking Peruvians.

6. Sucre (Bolivia): I really like this colonial town. Very pretty and coolly laid out colonial town.

7. Lima (Peru): Another big city that gets battered a lot, but its got a pretty centre, a cool area overlooking the Pacific and a good clubbing scene.

8. Santa Cruz (Bolivia): Like a wild west town and so different to the rest of Bolivia

9. San Pedro de Atacama (Chile): Awesome desert oasis. Yeah its touristy but its still cool

10. Iquitos (Peru): Its a bit shit but I had the best breakfast I have ever had there in the Yellow Rose of Texas

And no space for Valparaiso (too close to Santiago but nice enough), La Paz (Was not that impressed with this ramshackle mess, but maybe because I don't use cocaine) and Cuzco (What a shitheap full of gringos and passport hunting bitches. Pretty though). Of course the best place in these countries is Torres del Paine but Puerto Natales is a bit crap.

Argentina Part 2: Ushaia and Puerto Madryn

18 MONTHS ON THE FUCKING ROAD BABY. NOT BAD GOING.



The bus to Ushaia was really long. Really long and we had to wait 3 hours at the border to cross. In the Chilean bus we had been there for 20 minutes. I think they have the advantage at that border crossing as I was completing yet another one of my circular routes. We played a lot of Hackey Sack, at which I am very shit I have to say. Its so different from actual football that I have no idea how it really functions. There was a dude from New Orleans who was fired up for the superbowl. It must suck for him being down here, as he would miss their only superbowl. His father had 8 tickets on the halfway line in Miami as well. There was an Italian tourist as well. Quite mad. Only he was not Italian. Apparently he is from Buenos Aires. Wow a lot of 'Portenos' really sound like they are Italian tourists on holiday. They really do just speak a halfway house of a language. The scenery in the north of Tierro del Fuego is boring and flat, the same as in Patagonia north. Quite qhy anyone wants to travel through that repetitive nothingness is beyond me. Maybe I am too visual. We took a ferry trip that everyone was excited by. It was ok. It was no ballet dancing across a river using the currents in Guyana (I still think that was absolute genius). I ended up chatting to an English girl who loves Colombia as well. Eventually we arrived in Ushaia and I had just enough time to check my e-mail and find my hostel before the places closed. It was a cheap hostel and not a bad place. I got in and just went to sleep as I wanted to do some serious hiking the next day.



I got up at 6.30 am and decided to hike to Tierro del Fuego. Oh yeah the scenery is much more spectacular in the south of the island. Its 12km from the town so not sure why people take buses. Its also not 12km as I walked it in 2 hours and I don't walk 6km an hour. I walked past the Train at the End of the World. Not really sure what the point of that train is as its almost in the park anyway. Shit. I lost 100 pesos. What a retard. Only I can walk to save money and then lose 2-3 times the bus fare by dropping it. Oh well. If God favours me I will find it when i walk back and then I will have good food as its then not really my money. I made it to the park and decided to take the coastal walk. They reckon its 4 hours. It took one and a half. Jesus, what kind of zombies do they have walking these trails. Probably the same people that glide down Buenos Aires streets at the speed of a snail on ketamine. Its a nice walk, though not very challenging. I can see why people say they avoid it because its not hiking. So far, so easy. I paid too much money for empanadas and then set off to climb the hill walk. What the fuck is this? This is way harder than anything in Torres del Paine. A 1km ascent over the space of 4km so an average gradient of 22.5 degrees, but often much worse. Its a bitch of a climb. They reckon it takes 4 hours to ascend. I was up and down in 3.5 hours but it was rough. Took a lot out of me and I hike for fun. Its forest at first, then a boggy mudand that went into my shoes as my feet disappeared two foot into the mud. Then its watery marshland thats difficult to balance on. After this its a rocky near vertical hike, similar to Cotopaxi but at a much lower altitude. Following this its on to the snow and finally you get to the top. What a mothefucker. That hurt. The views are stunning though, but hell thats the toughest hike I did since Cotopaxi. This ones not for weaklings as the sign says at the beginning. Afterwards I came back down and staggered around the other routes. I went to see the beavers but they weren't there. I walked through the lake viewpoint and then to the end of the road. Southernmost road point ends there. End of the Panamericana. What a damp squib of an ending. Oh well. I would say the only walks worth doing are the hill and the coast, but almost all tourists do the others. Maybe that's why they think its easy. I have to mention the big blue buses of death. They were tour buses that followed me all day long. Everywhere I went. It was like duel. They were crammed full of almost dead old people. It was like an elephant's graveyard pilgrimage as they drove all the old people down to the end of the world to die. Hawaii dude had said Peninsula Valdes smelt of death, which I love, but that could be applied here. Why would you take one of these tours. Everyone moving in a line to the same places. Its kind of like being shuffled in generic lines. Almost like being at work so why go on holiday unless you have more freedom. Oh well. Bastards would not slwo down at the wooden bridges either so I walked right in the middle to stop them crossing. Then it started to rain. Bugger it. 20km walk home. Maybe I would find my money. Hiking along the trail I did. Class. 11 hours after I lost it. That must be Gods thankyou after he let me have my nose broken. I got back and crashed because a 60km hiking day is a little rough. Nice park though. Flopped down dead was how I wrote it.



In the morning I met an Irish girl, an Israeli and a couple of Yanks. We took a long breakfast. They said the glacier was not that great and it was raining so we just hung around in the town. We went to the museum at the end of the world. Its not that great. Was fun to read about the guy who had to have plastic surgery on his ears because they thought that was the reason he was evil. His ears were big and stupid looking like mine, so maybe I should be more evil as well. Not much happens in Ushaia. I saw a dog sleeping with another dog fucking it. Even the animals can't find motivation to put much into it. The Israeli had a fun story about a drunk guy who fell asleep on a lamp post. They gaffer taped him to the lampost. He woke up and tried to walk. He couldn't move so he went back to sleep. Sounds like something that would have happened with my friends when we were younger. The Irish girl had a cool childhood. She had lived in Papua New Guinea and afterwards went to Australia when she was a kid. She met santa in Australia at 5 years old and said 'That's not santa, he's black'. She also spent time in a lot of the former Soviet Stans. We split a pizza for lunch and then hung around with a crazy 40 year old Englishman before we went to the pub for the superbowl. AND THE SAINTS WON. WOOHOO. 31-17. The winning score came from an interception by the guy that everyone thought was the weakest link on the team so good for him. What a party they would have had in the Big Easy that night.



The next morning I overslept my alarm. Or maybe I woke up and turned it off. Either way I was fucked if the hostel guy had not woken me up to let me know I was about to miss it. I just about scrambled down to get it. It was a very uneventful trip. There were 3 Yanks with me and one of them said I can get work in Antarctica. Guy from Oregon was going for only $1,000 as a friend's rate and the others on the boat were going to be paying $16,000. Damn it. I just fucked up. Wrote to a job offer in Bogota and attached my cv for jobs in Buenos Aires. My attention to detail has always been too sloppy. Hopefully I can salvage it. Just being honest with them as that genuinely tends to be the best policy. I got back to Rio Gallegos and thankfully I did not get stuck there this time. I took a night bus to Puerto Madryn. Annoying pop remixes on the bus.



I woke up and Gladiator was playing. Cool. Our bus broke down in the Welsh town of Trelew for an hour or so to fix the toilet. Then we eventually arrived in Puerto Madryn. No map. Dammit. Lonely Planet has some uses. They have free internet in some of the petrol stations. Excellent. Dude there was very friendly. I found my hostel and then went out to meet Brenda for drinks. Really nice girl. We chatted until quite late and then I went back to get some sleep.



The next day I got up and had a breakfast totally with Argentines. One girl offered to help me find work but have not heard from her yet. Not sure if the Argentines say that rather like the English and less like the Colombians. I had actually left the hostel and met her by accident in an ice cream place so that would be a very coincidental job offer if I was to get one. I was getting a lot of advice and help from people in BA but so far it has not translated into work. I am a little stressed which is unusual for me, but I want to know whether I will be in Buenos Aires, Bogota or London in 3 weeks and at the moment it could be any one of three and I have no idea. And I have no cash. You can only draw half the value of your credit card in cash so I have almost maxed that, though I have a lot of money that I can't touch except by paying by card. Have to move hostels tomorrow. I walked 14km to a sea lion colony which was fun to see in the wold for the first time. Was drinking tap water as I forgot to bring anything with me. On the way back I was stopped by the police. My shoes and trousers don't really give off the vibe that I am anything other than a tramp so it was not surprising. Still it was the first time I had been interviewed in the street. Spurs and Liverpool lost, whilc Villa won. Shitty as Man City had won the day before. I then booked a tour and went out and had coffee with Brenda until 2.30am. Was knackered the next day when I got up to take the tour early and I knew that I was not going to sleep really well on the bus either.

I had two Swedes and a German for company. It was my last day of the trip. We would not see any orcas, which sucks but I will come back at another time of year to see them. I figured I would come back while I am working in BA. We saw sea lions and penguins. We pretty much had control over our itinerary which was cool and unusual on tours. We could go where we wanted and stay for as long as we wanted more or less. They even allowed us to opt out of the boat trip that would have been a waste of money. The tour guide was telling us about bloody elephant seal fights he had seen. Apparently we saw some but they did not look big. Apparently the big ones are there in october. It appears there is something cool going on all year round in Peninsula Valdes as the animals alternate being the major spectacle. I found a cheap hostel in BA. Peninsula Valdes is class and I was a little worried at first because a lot of people had bad experiences, but mine was pretty good. Anyway I got back and took a bus to Buenos Aires overnight. Here I am now and here I have massive problems.

Can't use my credit card for cash accept for 350 pounds. Not much to live off. Need a hostel that accepts credit cards as that's all I have. Need a job, but not hearing from anyone. Applying for stuff in Bogota but nothing is certain. I hate lack of certainty. It stresses me. In 3 weeks I will be in the UK, Colombia or here. I just don't know where. Fuck this shit. Next time maybe I will have an answer.

Argentina Part 1: El Calafate and Rio Gallegos

Ok this part of the blog is being written under duress. Stress, stress and no idea where the hell I will end up. All problems I need to fix.
Oh well. Shit happens and lets see where I end up. Basically I have a Russian roulette of options and not sure which bullet to shoot myself with (Though I realise technically there is only one bullet in Russian roulette so you don't actually have options or choices). Oh well, analogies are not my strong point at the moment. Woohaa. Back to the blog.

Ok I hit the border and was immediately greeted by a big sign saying that the 'Malvinas son Argentios'. Excellent welcome. Hmm basically the Falklands Islands conflict is massive down here, whereas at home its a small footnote in history. I have tried to explain that the Maradona handball is a bigger deal for us than the war, but it does not help. Basically it makes sense that the islands are part of Argentina as they are just off their coast. Only they weren't when we took them in 1833 as Patagonia was not even a part of Argentina then. Also no Argentines have lived on the islands. Everyone is British. Only they are not. We downgraded their citizenship before the war as we don't really care about the islands. We already have Wales. There is no other need for a country full of sheep. I think if Argentina had asked us for them we would have given them to them. I mean 98% of English people could not find them on a map and they really are irrelevant to us. Apparently Chile helped us with the war. Not sure why we needed the help but hey they have long memories down here. The fact that they have few wars and we have had at least 6 since 1982 changes things. It seems a pointless conflict really, but then apparently they may find oil and then they would become strategically important and maybe people in England will care, but if not I imagine it will remain a contentiously pointless point of contention. That about sums it up for me. Apparently its worse for the Argentines though that we don't consider it important as its insulting.

Anyway I met some Brazilians and we chatted for a while and then I got to El Calafate and found my hostel. 45 pesos, but they have some for 20. Shit. Anyway it had a nice breakfast. I had come to El Calafate because the bsues to Ushaia were full and expensive. Did not make any difference really as I would get stuck in a shithole anyway. El Calafate is like Pucon. Total tourist town but nice. Very expensive, but cheaper than Chile. It was not going to be cheap to visit the glacier so I booked a bus for the next day. I was not sure if 7 hours was going to be enough there. They were playing 'morphine' in one bar. Awesome. The band only famous for the end song in 'Wild Things' playing in the middle of Argentina. Funky. Went to the bird pond place. They wanted 10 pesos. Too much to walk around a lake, so I bought some bread and pomelo (pink grapefruit) juice. Awesome. Not had grapefruit juice for ages and I love it. Then I got chatting with a girl from Colorado. Love those Yanks from the mountains. We chatted in Spanish for quite a while and then I went to sleep.

In the morning I headed for the glacier. Ended up meeting the Brazilians again on the bus and we hung out together for the day. Only one of the Brazilians was not Brazilian. She was Belgian. Oh well. The boat trip was too expensive and does not go much closer, so probably is not worth it. The glacier is very impressive. Massive and such a vast array of blues and whites. Utterly superb to stand next to. The Brazilians reckon its the best thing they have seen. It advances 2m a day and is constantly cracking and collapsing. You hear booming cracks coming from the ice, like a monster ready to devour the viewing platform and huge chunks of ice tumble off. The boat almost got flattened by a huge block falling from the glacier. Superb and well worth visiting. Though 7 hours is perhaps 3-4 hours too long as the walkway is only short if you don't choose to take the boat. One Argentina woman was surprised I was English and was friendly and spoke Spanish. I tried to point out that most British tourists are middle or upper class and those people are more arrogant and unfriendly in every country. You don't get too many working class British tourists, but generally we are a little less 'rod up the arse English'. On the way back I was seated next to an Argentine woman who used to work in Mozambique as a missionary. I don't understand why people say Argentines aren't friendly. They are always chatting. Apparently its just the 'Portenos'. I suppose I will see soon enough. I called my mum eventually after she had not answered the day before and cost me loads of pesos in El Calafate's evil internet cafes. Then I turfed in.

In the morning I was chatting with the girl from Colorado all morning again. Really nice girl. Shame I had to move on. I had my bus to Rio Gallegos where they had told me it would be cheaper to find a bus to Ushaia. It wasn't. I got into Rio Gallegos and there were to be no buses for the next 2 days. Shit. What is there to do here? I don't have a guidebook? I don't think you need one. There is nothing to do. There. I can save your eyes some reading. Its a shithole. Think Tepic but worse. The cheapest place was 50 pesos. Bare in mind in El Calafate its 20. So I moved to pay more to stay in a place with less. Not my best move. I had to stay in a crap, expensive hostel for 2 nights. I went out the first night and nearly died in the streets from boredeom. It looks like a shit mid western US town. Ah yeah I bought a phone with a radio. Class. Except if I go back to Colombia it will be one of the most pointless purchases in my life I just realised. Oh well. Still they have good radio stations here. Makes up for the shit town with awful weather. It blows like a storm. Almost like Torres del Paine except in the streets.

In the morning I met a dude from Oregon. Nice guy. He wanted me to support the Portland Trailblazers at basketball because everytime I adopt a US team they win their title for the first time in ages. Superbowl on the sunday to prove this. No idea what that team are like, but maybe I will adopt them. I don't really like basketball much. There were a couple of Canadians, a Hawaiian and an Aussie who had just cycled across Africa for the last 4 years. Cool. I asked if it was dangerous and he said only a bit. Though he had been shot in Cameroon. Three guys jumped him. One had a homemade shotgun. He kicked him and jumped the guy with the knife. The guy recovered and shot him point blank with buckshot through all his intestines. He carried on fighting and was stabbed and eventually a bus picked him up and he spent 3 weeks in hospital. He needs to write a book. His stories were great. Makes me certain that Africa is the roughest continent to travel across though. Some English woman who apparently looks like the queen told us there were some good marshes to visit. Did not seem to be the case. I caught up with my writing and I still have not bought any shoes. In fact I still have not bought any shoes now. The next day I would leave this shithole and I was off to Ushaia.

Chile Part 7: Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales y Torres del Paine

They fed us on the bus. Nice. Only twice. The other times we got dropped off at random expensive restaurants. Hmm the lake district on the border near Bariloche is supurb. What a beautiful bus route. Will have to go back to Bariloche. Either in the summer next year when I finish in Buenos Aires or for the winter to learn skiiing if I get the opportunity. I will definitely make it there. Without the money for the navimag and the time for the Carretera Austral or El Chalten, I will definitely come back to do that trip with those three and maybe Antarctica depending on when I come back and with how much money. We had craptastic Muzak on loop for a long time. Then they went into films. We got stamps to leave Chile, but none to enter Argentina. So for one day I was technically in no country. We did stop and had some meat empanadas in Argentina. Superb. Angel had told me that the food would be much better in Argentina than Chile. I was in Argentina, but I would technically not be in Argentina until nearly a week later. The famous route 40 is so fucking boring south of the national parks that I can-t understand why anyone wants to travel down that flat dusttrack. We got night in the museum 2, RV, transporter 3 and then I fell asleep but I believe it was taxi. I wrote that Patagonia was going to be expensive, that you could see how windy it was, there was a crazy kid and this was too long a bus trip. Scenery spectacular.

I think by day two on the bus I was beginning to suffer from cabin fever of some type. Such a long bus journey I wrote. Then we got a Jim Carey medley. Bruce Almighty, Liar Liar, Me Myself and Irene and then I think Truman Show but maybe not as it got cut off for some Mr Bean. Reminded me of home so I was laughing more than maybe I should have done and the woman next to me clearly thought I was insane. Or maybe that was another bus. No idea. My brain got scrambled from the boredom. There was no space in Punta Arenas where I wanted to stay. Crappy. There was an Aussie dude in the place run by a mental old woman. I went out in the rain to find a cinema and was very disappointed to see I had seen everything. I got soaked, ate some pizza from the suprisingly good Telepizza chain and then went back to sleep.

Damn this internet can be slow sometimes. Not much in Punta Arenas, but its better than Puerto Natales. I went with the Aussie guy to the cemetry (which was ok), the regional museum (which was total shit) and the naval museum (which was mostel crap apart from the cool video showing an old voyage around Cape Horn from the early 20th century with commentary. That is more than worth the entrance alone). I spent too much on a pizza lunch and then took an afternoon bus to Puerto Natales. Eventually after 15 attempts I found a hostel run by an Argentine guy. Well he found me as I missed it. I set up my park transport for the next day and bought a load of food, for what I thought would be 4-5 days in the park. It did not look too tough on the map but you never know. Lets see.

30 dollars for transport and 30 dollars for the entrance. Woohoo. Patagonia had jacked up its prices just as I arrived. Just as I arrived with virtually no money and struggling to get through the last parts of the trip. I had made the decision that I would see all of Patagonia and then shoot for Buenos Aires via Puerto Madryn and Peninsula Valdes. As I write this I am about one week away from Buenos Aires. i should make it there with around 2k dollars to find work and live off while I wait for pay. Its going to be tight. May need a Plan B. Luckily Argentines at Perito Moreno were reassuring me I should get something. Still need to make my cv. Maybe tomorrow morning before the bus to Ushaia. I arrived in the park and hiked the road from Lake Almagro to the first hotel. 7.5km and I blitzed that. Left myself tired though. Ice, Ice Baby. This channel is too much. I figured there was no way I was going to take the full backpack up and down all the hills. I would just walk the base of the W with my rucksack and hit every point, there and back, without my bag. Should make it faster. Ok they reckon you need 4 hours to get up to the viewing point. Of course you do. Its a steep climb, but I nailed it there and back in 5 hours. The wind was looking like a problem for my tent. I blitzed the climb. Its a pretty valley running up. It really is a beautiful park. At the top there is a really steep climb and thats always been my weakness. Slowed me down. The viewpoint of the towers is stunning. Well worth the climb. On the way back I made friends with a Mexican girl and we chatted and hiked down together. Both of us prefer hiking solo to not slow down, so we could set a decent pace walking together. Just before this hill climb one plastic sweet rapper flew out of my hands. This should indicate the wind. I am quick. Very quick. Yet to catch this paper I had to sprint 150 metres to nail it down. I dont like littering, but I was going to keep my grip from then on. Wind was running around 50km/h. Very fast. I had gone looking for somewhere to have a piss and noticed a tent down in an old looking zone. It was the old camp site. There was a German guy there who had been cycling across Patagonia and being battered by the rain and wind. This area is in a dip and so has a wind shield. Also you dont have to pay so it was good for the two of us. I ended up shitting wild and the old benches made a good toilet. This old campsite is on the left, opposite side of the road to the main site.

The second day I got up and loaded up my bag to go to Los Cuernos. The Mexican had persuaded me it was too far to go the night before, but I think I could have made it. Its a four hour walk, but I hit it in 3.25 hours with full backpack. Its not a difficult walk. Moves over the hills, past a lake and then loops through some cliff hugging trails that are a bit rougher. I had left at 8.30am so I met noone for 2-3 hours. Lonely Planet says everyone goes east to west so naturally now everyone goes west to east to avoid people. So they all work it together and I ignore Lonely Planet and get the trail to myself. Stupid Lonely Planet. If they say anywhere is deserted you can guarantee it will be full of everyone going there. Some travellers have yet to figure out that everyone uses Lonely Planey when travelling, so you can only get space by ignoring the book. From there I hiked to Campin Italiano. Motherfucker of a trail. Easy on the rocks and lakeshore and then an absolute bitch of a climb. Nice views, but fuck me that trail was evil. Would be easy coming the other way. It took me less than 5 hours in total to there. Got overtaken the only time on this trail by a guy moving like the Tayronas in Colombia, but he had no backpack to be fair. I dropped the tent and took on the Valle Frances. There is no real trail for the first 20 minutes and you are scrambling over rocks, seeking a path. An orange symbol 50 m to your left, then 50m to your right. Damn it. Stay still. Then you cross a stream and the trail becomes clear. This is the most beautiful part of the park I saw and its a steep trail. I was up and down in less than 4 hours. The mirador halfway has a stunning view of the mountain to the left. The snow does not look real and the multicolours are completely contrasting to Englands white snow. All the blues and greys and shades of colours. Stunning. Then if you bang on up to the second viewpoint you are in the middle of all the famous mountains. Every way you look is beautiful. This is probably the highlight of the park and if you can only get to one place, that is the place you want to see. When I got back I ate my last tin of peaches to lighten the load and then packed up the bag and headed 7.5km down a trail, past a lake and over lots of wooden pathways that felt like walking on jettys. This radio station loves Michael Jackson. I pitched my tent and it was battering the wind. I had hammered 40km in 11 hours. 25km with backpack and 15km without. Not sure why this W takes everyone so much time. I met the German again, who had cycled round and taken the catamaran across the lake to this point. He was surprised I made it that fast and we chatted for a bit. The night was shit. Rainy, windy and I had to pin the tent down in the night. Food and drink is ridiculously expensive in the park.

The nights sleep was so shit that I just got up with sunrise (which is very beautiful in the park) and decided to hammer it to Lake Grey and back for the catamaran. If I made it there and back before midday I would have made the W in less than 2 days. It took me 5 hours there and back and I made it with an hour to spell in the end. Damn the wind was strong. I feared for my tent and really should have collapsed it myself if I was thinking smart. The wind shredded straight through one carrier bag and was leaving me blind at points. Never been in wind like this. It was also bitter cold. I had socks on my hands. The mirador at the halfway point was beautiful and it was mainly uphill to here and some serious downhill to the refugio. Made me realise it would be a bitch coming back and it was. After the mirador it would be easy. Did not see anyone for the first 3 hours and on the way back I caught and passed people I had met on the way there. Everytime you catch someone it gives you a boost. Like a chase. You feel like you can then hunt down the next person. Must be something like that in formula one. The glacier is pretty. Ok its no Perito Moreno and if you had to skip one part of the W I would skip this one. Got a rainbow over the glacier on the way back. The lake is full of icebergs and they are very pretty. The first one I had seen in the morning I had thought was a boat. I thought the zodiac was out early and then I realised they were icebergs. This park has such great sights in every place. I had done th W in 47 hours (total walking time around 21 hours). You do not need 4 or 5 days for this. What are you going to do. Walk 4 to 5 hours a day. Ridiculous. 3 days would be comfortable for any walkers. I managed to maintain 4km/h even with my rucksack and regardless of terrain and thats maybe a little quick, but still its not hard. The winds had massacred my tent. It had splinetered one of the legs and someone had pinned down the stricken animal with some rocks. Oh yeah I got face to face with a deer on the way back. That was cool as we both just eyed each other up. A fun face/off. Reminded me of the Apalachian mountains at the very beginning of this trip. I took the catamaran back at midday and then a bus. Another 22 dollars for the boat. I think there were a couple of Israelis who were scamming and trying their luck to get away with not paying. Well done to them if they were, but they still held us up. There were no spaces to Ushaia for a few days, so I decided instead to rest up and take a bus to El Calafate in the morning. More stamp space in my passport. Its one year old and it only has 5 or 6 completely clear pages. It would help if the retards did not keep stamping in spaces to limit how many can be put in the passport. I wince everytime some idiot cant stamp straight. All of central america had no problem with this simple concept. Oh well in the morning it would be off to Argentina at last. The owner of the hostel had lent me his jacket for the trip to Torres del Paine. Thank God he did as it was bitter cold. Nice of him. I came back to the hostel and chatted with him. Bought the last ice cream Mega Framboise I was going to get (love them, ate one a day) and gave the tent a burial in a bin. Tomorrow it was off to Argentina. I will cover that sometime soon. I reckon there will be two Argentine parts and then it will be Buenos Aires. The scary shit is now whether or not I can get a job or not. 19 months without working. Judas would be proud. 18 months on the road tomorrow. Come on the Saints. Who dat say dey gonna beat them Saints. I really like Chile. Probably my second or favourite country so far, but very expensive.

Chile Part 6: Isla Chiloe and Puerto Montt

Sweet Dreams. Excellent. We took a direct bus to Ancud on the north of Chiloe. It included a ferry crossing, which had awfully expensive and awfully awful food. It is a different sort of place. Very isolated and for want of a better word, quaint. I will have to shoot myself for using one of my most detested words in the English language, but everything has its place. We went to the fort, which is more a ruin and tweedle dum, and tweedle dee offered us a tour. A tour of what exactly. Bricks. We found a Brazilian who ran a protestant church and we were considering going there on the sunday, but never made it. We pitched the tent outside. We ate some local food that was hit and miss and then Marcela being a little drunk inspired us to some drunken running on the walls of the city. We met a couple of local girls, chatted a bit and then met some Germans back at the hostel before turfing in. There was some constant music all night. We had assumed it was a party, but in reality it was a fat drunken fool, asleep, catatonic and blaring music from his van, asleep with a half cocked glass of wine on the dashboard. In the hostel was a shotgun just lying on the side. Welcoming.

We ditched our bags at the hostel and set off for National Park Chiloe. We met the Germans again and its a cheaper route to go to Castro and then take a bus to the park, than going all the way to the next town. Save you around 800 pesos. At least it removed the doubt from my mind that we had chosen the right route. The park operator had maps for the wrong park. Well organised. We had left Pucon without paying for the last night in the tent, which I just remembered. Saved us 14 dollars. We had pitched our tent illegally next to the lake, so we had to move it later and the German guy helped. We went for a walk in the forests which was pretty cool. Like a Hobbit forest. Then we headed to the beach and met this Scottish guy the Germans had met everywhere. The beach was nice ish. Reed fields and dunes to get there, then the beach and ice cold water. Really ice cold. Fuck it. I am not going in that, but the others played around a fair bit. Then we came back to the camp site and I kept killing these stupid big flies. Eventually I killed enough of them to buy us some free time. Arsenal went out of the cup and Spurs had drawn 2-2 with Leeds. The cups big guns were all being spiked. We must be second or third favourite of those left in. We could not make fire. We sucked. We tried and failed horribly. In the end Marcela went and found us some Chileans to show us city boys how it works. That functioned much better. Then eventually we went to sleep and the tent door was left open so we got soaked. Was not a great wake up and we had another minor conflict.

We took the bus out of the park to Castro. Saw the church briefly and took a bus to Ancud to pick up our stuff. Marcela wanted to see the penguins, but I knew that I would have opportunities further south. I still keep postponing it. Probably in Puerto Madryn. I had a problem with the cash machines as I had forgotten a lot of them only work with mastercard and not with visa. We decided not to bother staying and push onto Puerto Montt and sort out transport for Barriloche that night. Back over on the ferry. Ok the buses only go to Bariloche in the day. Shit. We were stuck here. There was only one seat for the next day. I suggested I just go south to Punta Arenas and she take the city. I bought mine and while we were chatting someone else bought the last one to Bariloche. Typical luck. Ok we would stay here for 2 nights. It was NFC championship day though. She bought a ticket for Bariloche, but had no stamp in her passport and had thrown away the immigration paper. Shitty. Ok we would have to find the Brazilian consulate th next day. We got to the hostel and then ate hot dogs from a petrol station. Good value for money, though not quality food. Jets - Colts was on tv and the Colts won 30-17. Ok it would be the Colts if we made it. Bugger. It was not on tv. I had to go down and watch it online so Marcela went to sleep. We were up and winning, then it ended up 28-28. Vikings were within field goal range. Penalty. Twelve men on the field. Retards. Favre. Interception. Fuck you. Overtime. We advanced with luck. All the way. Field goal. Superbowl here we come. 31-28. Who dat indeed baby. We were off to the superbowl and the great luck American sides have when I adopt them continues. All my teams excel except for Spurs (the most important one). This sunday is superbowl sunday. Will be watching it in Ushaia and hoping my Saints can bring home the bowl.

In the morning we went hunting for the Argentina consulate as they did not have a Brazilian one in the city. They told us we had to go up the hill to some barrio to find the special police. They would sort it out. We had another mini clash after she had had to wait for 2 hours and I walked down the hill. We met up again and then saw some of the city. Not loads to see. They have a Mexican arts centre in the French cultural centre. We went there and looked around and then left to find a restaurant. Marcela had liked one of the Chilean photographers working there. I wanted to walk along the coast, but all of a sudden she exploded on me and I think this one was as much her fault as the one in Valdivia had clearly been mine. Anyway I did not fancy sitting round to get hammered, so I walked off back to the hostel. Its a shame. We have moments where we get on very well, but its like dry tinder. It only takes a little spark to set it off again. Strong personalities will do that too each other. She made it back to the hostel after me and was not feeling good. It cooled down again and we went for more excellent hot dogs and then to see the film in the French centre. It was typically French and slow, but reasonably interesting and most importantly free. Afterwards we walked to the pier and emt a group of three lesbians, a mentally handicapped guy and 6 young Chilean rappers. Odd bunch. We hung out and joked around with them for an hour or so. I was a little concerned after my nose was bust, but they reminded me a little of my group of friends when we were younger. Killing time doing not much and just hanging. Then we headed back and got some sleep. In the morning I helped Marcela carry her bag down to the bus station and saw her off to Bariloche. Then I came back and chilled a bit before taking a monster 32 hour trip by bus down to Punta Arenas.

Chile Part 5: Pucon and Valdivia

We arrived late at night and hiked to the camp site area. I pitched up the tent and Marcela went out to make some friends. I was too knackered and just dropped down to sleep. She ended up finding a Kiwi stone carver to chat to with his friends. Kid of cool. Eorann has taklen up stone carving as a profession. Can't say I had come across it much before she told me about it. It was good of her to find some creative outlet though. I think like myself she is too much of an artistically, free thinking person to be doing corporate banking.

The Jets beat the Chargers. Not sure how that happened. So we had Saints - Vikings and Jets -Colts for the superbowl. Ok so it should be the Colts v one of the others. Come on you Saints. I went and found some internet and then Marcela joined me. We ended up having an expensive breakfast at this Yankee owned restaurant for 3 days in a row. Perhaps we spent too much money there, but the food was good. Almost authentic Mexican food. The town is very beautiful. You have a snow capped volcano in the background, you have the giant lake, which is surrounded by reeds and a black rock beach in the north. You could tell it would be pretty, when the bus station we had arrived at was a wood carved building. All of the town is very pretty. Looks like a Swiss ski resort or a more polished Aspen. Everything was very expensive for us though. I was not willing to pay loads to raft or climb volcanoes that weren't as good as ones I had done before. I think for Marcela it was different as she had not been rafting or climbed a volcano, so it felt more of a disappointment for her. She was pretty cold at this point so she picked up a top to keep warm. I went for a walk along the beach. Pretty cute locals and I found a shit hot dj playing on the beach. They had a club in the city, but we never ended up going there. I still think I have not been clubbing since Valparaiso. Over a month. Way too long. Oh well, I will be in Buenos Aires in a week and may go clubbing in Ushaia over the week. We took a bus to Currarehue, which is a Mapuche village. I believe Pinochet moved them all there during his reign. We met a really old woman with no legs and she invited us into her apartment to chat with her. Was interesting to gauge the quality of life and the fact that the Chilean government just leaves them to fend for themselves. Then we went to the local museum and had a fun time with the guy who runs the tours. The Mapuches seem to have got battered by the Chileans and Argentineans. While they were one of the few native groups to resist the Spanish invaders, they had a rather less favourable nineteenth century against the industrial powers. He said that a lot of tourists just breeze through the building, but if you spare the time and chat you can learn a lot more. Oh yeah. Pinera won the election. We took mate with him and chatted for around 2 hours. We got to play some long pipe instrument, but Marcela's sucking sucked. We had equal trouble with the instrument you place between your teeth and twang. It sounds like the stuff that Ennio Morricone gets for his westerns. Was a fun experience. We got taught some strange Mapuche dances, which seems to be hoping around in circles on one foot to different paces of music. Instruments are sacred in the community. One family takes responsibility for each instrument and you would train your sons and grandsons in the usage of that instrument, so it bonds the community and keeps traditions alive. They tend to stay out of politics and don't involve themselves much electorally, which seems to be the mistake of a lot of indigenous communities. We then walked 1km out of town to try to some traditional Mapuche food. Was very good and vegetarian on the whole. Was a crazy dog as well. We ended up having to run for the last bus back, but the restaurant is right on the main road. We went back to the tent and stayed in for the night.

The next day we got up and I had quesadillas for breakfast. The Mexican type and not that shithole Venezuelan cake. We set off to Parque Huerquehue. Marcela left her new jumper with the park guard and ended up leaving it behind. We met a couple of old Kiwis on the bus and got chatting. Some local woman said she liked me because I talked a lot and Chilean men don't talk as much as me. Noone talks as much as me. Well except maybe Geli lol. Or possibly Marcela. Yeah fuck yeah. Danger Zone. This Radio Bangkok is awesome. I love my phone. First music since those little bastards stole my mp3 player. We joined up with a Dutch girl (who lacked charisma of any type) and an English guy (posh yet poor and educated at Oxford. The English will know the type). None of them were spirited walkers. Indeed Marcela burned them for someone who claims they don't hike much. She powered it to the lakes at the top, which were very pretty for all 5 minutes we got to see them. Very impressive effort. On the way down, we met the old Kiwi and a couple of Israelis. They hung out together, so I took the opportunity to do some sprint training downhill and blitzed the section. I am in very good shape since I stopped drinking. Need to rebuild the upper body and I could probably take up rugby again. Still very much in two minds over that. I waited for them at the bottom and got chatting with the Israelis. The girl was very interesting. Worked for Israeli intelligence, is a dive instructor and wants to train as a medic. She suggested I should go and work in Tel Aviv. Might well do that when I get over to the middle east. Israel would be an interesting place to live. We could not go to the Asado on the way back. So I gave Gloria a ring and we chatted for an hour. Was the first time we had chatted properly since she left Colombia and was cool and strange at the same time. We still have a nice chemistry and get on well. Back at the camp site, Marcela met some Chileans and wanting to hang out with locals (and also interesting in the dude with the moustache) she wanted to hang out with them. I was late to meet the Israelis, so being English was stressed a bit by that. Its remarkable the small crap that stresses people from my country, when serious stuff barely affects us. My eyes were almost not purple by this point. I think they healed in Valdivia. She went out with the Chileans and did not have a great night. I went to the Israeli hostel and it was shit at first. Everyone was chatting in Hebrew so I understood nothing. Eventually some people welcomed me to the conversation and I went out with them. We went to a few clubs, but never entered any and still did not dance. Fucking hell. Still had a really good conversation with Ya'ana for a few hours and she is a very interesting person. Hopefully we can catch up another time. We did not manage it in Patagonia, due to my acceleration, but maybe in BA. I walked back around 5am and ended up chatting with the guards and playing with the dogs before going back to sleep.

Marcela and I had our first really big argument on this morning. We both took each others comments far too personally and it escalated from there. Anyone who knows me, knows my potential to escalate stuff. She made an interesting quote. That when people click they bring out the best of each other and when they clash they bring out the worst in each other. Very true and we were definitely bringing the worst traits out to play. Suffice to say it was a ringing clash. I left the tent and went off to chill by the stream for 20 minutes. I still love water for shutting it down. Also she had had one of her shoes stolen by the local dog. I found it in the warden's hut. We ended up leaving for Valdivia late as we had to wait for the guy to bring Marcela's jumper back. He forgot. Idiot. So we took the bus to Valdivia. Its a very cute town. On first impression I really liked it, on second impression I think it would be the best town to live in Chile. At least for a short time. We stayed in a cheap, but cool hotel by the station. Shame it had no real hot water as we could not light the boiler. I never have been a mechanical man. The jazz/blues bar only played at weekends so we missed that . We gave up on doing anything and I watched some family guy before we went to sleep.

We slept a long time and then went down to the river to take a boat cruise. We had another huge fight. This one was mainly my fault, so I could tell I was being rubbed up the wrong way as I have not instigated fights like that for a while. I think little things were niggling us. Anyway Marcela ended up storming off the boat after I was criticising her negotiating for the boat. I stayed on and took the boat tour, which was not really worth the money. A longer one might have been. They have sea lions that swim and play in the river in the middle of the town. Thats quite rare and very cool to see. When I got back, Marcela said she would spend the day with the boat crew and I was quite releaved as I fancied some time to see the town myself and have some peace after the last 2 fights. I went off the the park in town and got chatting with a professor. He told me I should check out the universitys botanical gardens. Damn it. Keyboard does not have an apostrophe. The park has a cool lake and is pretty to wander around in. It also has a good and interesting sculpture garden. It really is a postcard city. Very beautiful. I think I could live there. The botanical garden is a very romantic and pretty location. You can see that from how many couples they have wandering the grounds. I walked around other parts of the city. The art gallery is pretty shit, apart from one long underground tunnel with an exhibition of sound at the end. Quite eerie but not worth the entrance fee. I was feeling a little sick from something I had eaten and I got tickets to see Sherlock Holmes. I met Marcela again and she was going clubbing with the boat guys. The relationship was pretty broken down at this point and I suggested online that we should maybe consider splitting ways before we killed each other. She came and met me and we took coffee to chat it. It seemed resolved, so I went to the cinema to watch the film. Was quite good and fun. Came back and now she suggested we separate. Nothing is ever simple. We debated on it until the early hours of the morning and decided we could carry on as long as we avoid the big clashes, which we mainly did. We ended up getting up late and had to get a bus to push on from Valdivia.

Chile Part 4: Talca, Santiago and Concepcion

Ok I tidied up the last entry to include the remainder of Santiago. You can take a read if you were curious as to what you missed. I took a train down to Talca. I so much prefer trains. I think I am always going to travel in them as opposed to buses. There was the first bit of rain I had seen since Bolivia, where coincidentally I rarely saw the sun. Also I realised I had developed a fear of small towns at night after having my nose smashed. Though in Pucon and here in Valdivia the fear has been drastically reduced, so I will put it down to post-traumatic nose disorder. I am tired, but writing this to MSTRKRFT so that helps. Really want to see them again, but don't think they are heading down here anytime soon. I met a couple of very uncommunicative Germans and stayed in a pretty cool hostel. Can't remember the name, but one of the best I have stayed in. Not expensive for here and you got cable tv, breakfast, excellent service and the owner is really interesting as well.



I got up really early, having bought a load of stuff from the supermarket and headed off into the National Park Altos de Lircay. I think thats spelt slightly wrong. I wanted to see Siete Tazas as well, but it was not looking like that would be possible. I took the bus there and slept all of the way. At the other end I met a German dude and we decided to hike the park together. Only he was going to try to hike from one park to the other in 4 days and I was going to hike with him to the mirador and walk about a little bit. Almost the same. Ah I have just reentered this blog. Last time I was writing in in the pleasant surroundings of Valdivia and now I am writing in the total shithole that is Rio Gallegos. On the plus side my new phone has a radio, so I get to listen to some good and sometimes dodgy music. Ah radio. Ah so where was I. Ah yeah hiking in the park. We hiked up through the ridges and the park looked like those in the Rockies in the States. Multicoloured. After being bored by the green and brown monotonous scenery of the Andean countries, it was nice to be back in a place with reds, oranges and yellows as well. A real mix of different colour schemes and styles. Very pretty. The path wound through the the campsite at the end. Number six. There I dropped my tent and went hiking with the German to the mirador. It had great sweeping views of the valley and the walk down would be a steep one. I opted out. Could not be arsed to walk back up the hill afterwards and you could see most of it from here. Ah I have crappy Argentine news in my ear about corrupt Rio Gallegos governors. At least its not adverts. Yeah 'I get fire from your tongue' seems some random group. Need to change channel. I opted to go back and hike up to the basalt or granite plateau. There I met a group of Chilean girls and chilled there looking at the sweep over the valley. The German and I had been farting around with topographical maps to work out which mountain was which. We weren't the best at it. Hope he made it back after camping up in the snow. From there I hiked across the top of the plateau to a beautiful lake, which included some hiking in snow (which was cold due to the holes in my shoes) and met some starving Chileans. I gave them a packet of crisps when I passed them again on the way back. Hiking through all these parts had taken the Germans 3 days. Took me less than one. I really think these lazy bastard hikers are not pushing themselves as much as they could do. I ran down the hill as I love running downhill parts of hikes. Takes less energy and a lot less time as you are just running with the gravity. My nose was starting to return to an appearance normal at this point. I rebroke my little left toe by kicking a rock on the way back and then just turfed in early into my tent.

The next day I was up with the sun. Well almost up with the sun. I decided to hike back out of the park as I had seen everything worth seeing and I had tested the tent. It was seemingly working fine. My stomach problem had maybe been from unfitness, as after hiking and my nose was broken it seems to function fine. I got out of the park and just missed a bus, so I had to sit there eating stale bread for an hour or so waiting for the bus. Eventually I got back to Talca and found out the Brazilian would get to Santiago the next day so I should head back. I did not do much. Just watched a lot of CSI, did my laundry and watched Liverpool get knocked out of the FA Cup. Hahahahah. Better for us. Fucking scousers. Torres, Benayoun and Gerrard got injured as well. Excellent as we would play a weakened Liverpool next week.

In the morning I got up early and got chatting with an Israeli guy who had been hiking around the middle of Chile. In the afternoon I took a bus back to Santiago to meet Marcela. I wanted to see Alex (the Colombian from, Manizales) as well but it depended on her. The hostel cost me $20 in Santiago. Damn this country. Too expensive. I met Marcela and we chatted before heading to meet Alex at his Colombian restaurant. She was tired and went back, so Alex and I went and chatted in a cafe until around 4am. Was good to catch up. Both me and Marcela realised early on that we both have strong, differing personalities and we were bound to end up clashing at some point.

In the morning I got up and met a girl from Sao Paolo. Very cute. We chatted for half an hour or so and then Marcela joined us. We went to Alex's house to have breakfast and bought a load of stuff from the supermarkets. They are not cheap in Chile. There is almost no point cooking. If you eat out it will cost you around the same amount of money, more or less. We had breakfast and then the other two went in the rooftop swimming pool. I did not have any clothes for it so had to stay on the side. Then I went and got a long overdue haircut, while the others went siteseeing. I cooked up a rather flat dinner. Always disappointing when you cook for some people for the first time and its a bit crap, as they will assume that is your level of cooking ability. Oh well. We went past a weird church that looked like it was constructed in four different time periods and then molded together. I still don't know why people bash Santiago so much. Its clearly a good city and one of three I would consider living in for a short period of time in Chile. We took a night bus to Concepcion and did not end up sleeping at all. Was a strange bus ride. Oh well. I was hoping Concepcion would be the only other expensive place in Chile that we stayed, but that was optimistic.

We arrived at 5am and the hotel would not let us check in until 7am. Shitty. We were both tired. Neither of us had really slept in the last few nights. There seemed a bit of game playing so I just went to sleep. Marcela went and chatted with the hotel owners and their son, who ended up hanging around with us a fair bit. Spurs and Liverpool both drew, while Man City lost. The Saints crushed the Cardinals. Excellent. They were in the NFC title match against the Vikings. Was going to be a good matchup the weekend afterwards. We walked around the town and saw a really cool little art gallery. Had a good mural painting that was very similar to the work od Diego Rivera. We then went to the local musuem, which was focusing on Mapuche history. Marcela did not fancy climbing the hill, so I set off to get a view of the city from the higher places. I always like to get the high point views. Its not a very pretty city. The rest of the city was shut down as the elections were the next day and they did not want any drunken voting.

The next day we were up and had some fun before breakfast, but it was pretty obvious we did not have great chemistry. This had been clear to both us really. Oh well. Onwards with the trip. Gloria needed a bit of help, so would give her a ring on skype. We went out to see the beaches of Concepcion. They were a bit rubbish strewn and just a bit rubbish in general. Water was still too cold. It was interesting to wander around some of the suburbs of the city though. Chilean small towns all possess a lot of multicoloured architecture. Very pretty. We even found a hobo lying in a tyre on the beach. Made for a fun photo for Marcela. The son had made us both perosnalised letters for when we left, which was a nice touch and then we took a bus to Temulco. Its a bit of an industrial shithole and the direction giving was so bad that we ended up wandering around for a while before we eventually found a bus to Pucon and we were heading to the Chilean version of Bariloche.

Chile Part 3: Santiago, La Serena and Vicuna

Hmm the blood seems to have stopped flowing. Well if not stopped, certainly reduced to mean this is the first bit of cotton wood shoved up my nose that has not gone red within one hour. I have high hopes I won't have to shove more cotton wool up my nose tomorrow and I can start to rehabilitate myself normally. In a continent as vanity obsessed as Latin America its never very flattering to walk around looking like you have been a contender for the heavyweight boxing title. People are so abhorred they won't even say thankyou when you hold open a door. Classy.

I was woken up by my landlady to leave the apartment in Santiago. I hate travelling without any form of alarm, but I am not going to buy yet another telephone until I get to Argentina as there I should get at least one year's usage out of it. I am also now travelling without a guidebook. To be fair to Lonely Planet I only used them for maps and bus times now and I can get them from tourist information and my Spanish is more than capable enough to take care of directions etc. Damn the bandage thing is wet, but it looks white from my angle so its not blood. Hoorah. Lucciana was not free until the evening, so I decided to head to the museums. I climbed up Cerro Santa Lucia, which has a cool castle at the top and a pleasant Japanese garden. I then went and took the cable car up the massive hill on the north side of thr river. Its in a multicoloured barrio that is funky in and of itself. I only wanted one way, but did not see the option for that (it exists) and bought a two way. It climbed to the top and the hill is kind of like Montserrate in Bogota, but you can see the smog cloud from the top. That's a shame. Its nowehere near as bad as LA's piss yellow cloud that hangs over the city, but I won't use this part to savage Los Angeles again. Its too shit to warrant it. Liverpool-Spurs got called off by the way due to a frozen pitch, but Lennon should be back for the next match. Arsenal drew and Man U are as well. At the top there is not much to see, but the view is good, except for the cloud. I opted to walk down and went down a path from the carpark. Seemed to go all the way down but did not. You cross a major path two thirds of the way down. Take a right there, because the down path goes straight to a fence. Shit. Its no fun hiking back up in the summer sun. I also had not brought water, but I was listening to some good African music and Michael Jackson. That main path runs past the second station and eventually leads to a way down. I think it took me two hours to get down, but the walk was quite pretty. At the bottom I gave the other ticket to some random couple and headed to the Art museum, which was shut on mondays. Great. Phoned around the family as it was my birthday and this was the day I fixed stuff up with the bank. Lucciana had her phone on silent from the conference she had been in and so missed my calls. I eventually made it there and they very generously took me out to a top class sushi place for dinner. They insisted on paying for my birthday as well. The company was good and the food was fucking top class. I had forgotten what good food tastes like. I have not maintained those standards since, it is fair to say. We talked all night and had monster cakes at another place. I don't have much money left, but I symbolically bought the drinks later to contribute something. It was a shame we had only got the one night together, but hopefully they will come and visit in Buenos Aires and I can repay the favour.

The next day I slept in a bit and then we got breakfast. We said goodbye and I headed to the art gallery, which was a collosal waste of time. One of the most disapponting art galleries I have been to. Normally they at least have one good thing and I had delayed leaving for this. In the end I took the metro (which is a way better system than the Economist seems to think it is) to the bus station and got a bus to La Serena. It took about 8 hours and arrived around 2.30am in the terminal, so I decided to sleep there for the rest of the night and then look for accomodation.

I did not think La Serena would be too busy, but I had forgotten that people would have to have left Valparaiso for somewhere after new year. Every hostel appeared to be full. Shit. Eventually after a lot of walking with the fucked up bag I found a hostel with space. I checked in and wondered around the town. Probably the least pretty of those I have been in so far, pretty small aswell, but nice enough. Least pretty in Chile that is. I came back to the hostel and in the kitchen were Mayra and Scott. Scott shouted over to me. This would be awkward after how it was left in Valparaiso. Scott was off for a run and Mayra said I should keep her company. Hmm a turnaround. We ended up walking down the beach and ahd coffee and shrimp/cheese empanadas in a cafe. Got the lunch eventually. We had a long chat on many things, mostly in Spanish as she has to use English all day normally. She thought I was staying in Vina and had never e-mailed her. I reminded her of her last comments and that I had e-mailed her. Oh well she did not remember too well. Maybe the blog might jump her memory. It was a lot more pleasant and less stressful time. We went back so she could do some washing and I walked to the beach for sunset, before heading out to see Ofelia as they did not want to join me. I told them to wake me the next day and went out. Met her at the gallery and ended up drinking with her cousin and his friends. Barmaids find it odd that I want a coke in a bar. Will be weirder back in England but I have dealt with it before. I promised them to go partying this weekend, but obviously that won't be happening now. Elephent men don't dance.

In the morning I woke up and noone had woken me. Hmm I figured they were just off, but have no concept of time. I always get the feeling they are looking to escape, but somehow we always bump into each other. At least Mayra seemed more relaxed in my company now. Testing the paper for blood with paper. Hmm yellowy. Much better than red anyway. I got breakfast and met Scott as Mayra must have gone to write her note while I was in the bathroom. Found it later. Anyway they left and I pottered around La Serena a while. All these chain of events led to me breaking my nose. When I eventually got a bus to La Serena it arrived too late to find accomodation. The drive on the way there is nice and I reckon the rest of the valley might be interesting. Never got to see it. They have a reservoir part way there that reminded me of the Hoover Dam area. Anyway. Nowhere to stay accept one place with no lock. With hindsight I should have taken it, but I dropped my luggage in the terminal equipaje and went off to book a tour for the observatory. Apparently you need to book a long time in advance. I don't think so somehow. I opted for the tour in Spanish as it looked more interesting (though I reckon they may be the same) at 12.30am and left. Bumped into Mayra and Scott again and chatted for a bit. They had been on a pisco tour they said was not that great. I did not go for obvious reasons. They also have horse rides under the stars somewhere here. It felt like I was stalking them, but I left to hike up the big jesus hill, which is kind of cool and probably the last time I will hear my mp3 player (though now with hindsight I am not c ertain I used it then). The little bag had stayed with me and I bumped into Mayra again in an internet cafe when we randomly got the two computers next to each other. Some sort of fate is going on here. Will have to catch up in Mendoza or Buenos Aires and probably will do by accident or design. I killed time online and got chatting with Marie-France online. Looks like she may come down to stay with me in april. Will be good as its been too long since I saw her. Eventually I went in search of a toilet. All the restaurants apparently did not have any. I was needing it badly now. They had shut the toilet in the terminal. Shit. Getting desperate. Ah excellent a dark alley. Damn it, the dark alley is guarded by an army of dogs. Shit. Eventually I just pissed on a house as I could not hold it any more. Relief all round. I took the tour and I believe I was the only non native speaker , but I understood around 90-95%. Some of the jokes flew by me. We got an interesting 40 minute presentation and then went up on the roof to look at various constellations through a telescope. The sky is unbelievably clear here and I had never seen stars like this, except maybe when Ollie and me camped in Mexican Hat. Though the telescope was disappointing. It showed stuff closer, but nowhere as awesome as those shots you get in space books. They just seemed like white dots more zoomed in. Oh well. Some of them were orange. That was better. Then we got some live music. Well it seemed like I was in Peru for a second. A band popped up and played two songs on pan pipes (one the simon and garfunkel one in a different style) and then plugged their cd. What a shameless sell. Anyway back to Vicuna (which has only 24,000 people so I still stand by my statement that towns are more dangerous than cities if you read what follows. Only other place I have been attacked in was my hometown of Watford with 80,000 people). In towns live the retards. Decent people live in cities or the countryside. Ok so I stopped off in the plaza to rest/sleep, when a gang of 6 hooded kids came in. Hmm. Was I in Watford. Two peeled off left and the other four went to the nightclub. This did not feel right as one of them had sized me up. I can tell when people do this from experience. I could see two of them and a dog come back into the park afterwards. I left the other way and figured they would follow me. They did. I walked fast, so did they. Ok now I know they want to rob me. I ran and so did they. Here is where I was a bit stupid. I clearly had them outgunned for pace (though not their dog) and I could have run into the nightclub, but was not thinking. Does not bode well for my decision making under pressure. That line will come back to haunt me if I ever run for prime minister and I can imagine justifying that in the future. Anyway, with those two options I ran a few blogs and then turned to face them. Stupid move. One of them had a metal rod (like a giant aerial) and whipped me with that. Then I managed to knock one over, but my attempt to bang the second guys head into the wall failed as I just banged my own head. Then they had me down and got some good kicks in. One broke my nose and the scattering of blood persuaded me that I was going to lose or had lost this one. I gave them the bag and they took my wallet thing. Dripping blood on the street, I asked them for my passport and they gave it to me. Excellent. So I asked for my bank cards and they gave me them as well. Excellent. Now considering those were the only two things worth losing I should have just negotiated. Everything else I have is a load of shit. Still I was bleeding a lot now. My money (40,000 pesos or 50 quid) was all with the cards, so the stupid fucks forgot to check that. Excellent. They got around 1,000 pesos and a bag full of books. Yep my bag was full of books for teaching English mainly. It also had a decrepid lonely planet, a dictionary and a Garcia Marquez novel. I am sure that's what they had in mind when they stole it. Oh it also had the diary, hence why I have to write this now while it is fresh. Good job I keep this online record for my adventures now that the hard copy is gone. Anyway next time they rob someone they should be able to do it in English. I told this to the medics and they thought it was funny, but that I was weird for making jokes after being beaten up. I had told Mayra the English take nothing seriously except sport. Anyway I was dripping blood and no idea how bad any injuries were. Did not have any real pain though, but my threshold is pretty high. I have been stitched without anaesthetic. Knocked on a door of a hostel and they would not help me, even dripping with blood. They are on Mistral street just opposite the Mamalluca tour office if anyone wants to know or even firebomb them for me. I staggered back to the club and a big group of Chileans were helping me. They thought my nose was broken. I did not as it did not hurt. Went to the club and washed my face. Then I woke up on the bathroom floor. Hmm I don't feel drunk. Where the fuck am I? Ah yeah I have been beaten up and I have just passed out and whacked my head on a urinal. Bit of a bump there. Disorientated is the right word. Only the second time I have passed out and was hoping it was from blood loss and not a kick in the head. Then the police arrived. I kept trying to buy water but they did not sell me any. They took me to the hospital and the doctors seemed bewildered by my statement that nothing serious was taken, I wasn't staying anywhere and I was on my own. In the end they x-rayed me and it all looked ok enough. I have the cd. Should be fun to view later on. Just a little crushed on the upper right side but I could breath still. I took it to mean it was only lightly fractured. Good test of my Spanish this incident though. All the doctors love the Premiership, one of the nurses was excited to have a foreigner, though the doctors assured me they had had a lot of foreigners in their hospital. I took that as a sign this town is a little dangerous. Meanwhile I am sure the thieves were getting to grips with present simple and will soon master 'give me your money.' Bengals v Jets has kicked off in the wildcard round. No idea who will win, but I bet the Chargers or Colts won't be scared of whichever shit team gets through. They said I need to see a specialist, but they cost a lot. I think it is Latin vanity as they can't stand anything not looking great. My dad however said if I can breath don't bother as the operation is horrible and he's broken his 4 times but you could not really tell. I am not a nose model so I think I will let it heal natural. Still yellow, not red. Woohoo. Maybe the last day with a plugged nose. They kept me in for observation. Excellent news. I got a place to sleep for free. All the medical stuff is free here. Class. They put me in a room with a young guy with one of those bags filled with water and a coughing old man. Hmm you can tell I have never spent much time in hospitals. First break in my life and first time I had slept in one. Hmm they take ages to let me go in the morning. I assumed the blood from one nose, meant a rupture and no internal bleeding. Still not dead, so I guess that holds. If I do die publish the blog as it stands as my last will and testament. Ok so I left and got to baggage woman. I apologised for being late, but she said I did not have to pay because my face was beat up. Excellent news. Another bonus.

I took a bus back to La Serena where I am now. Have not done much as I lost a fair whack of blood. Slept for 14 hours or so. The woman in the hostel said the kids must be from Santiaho and gave me a huge bit of watermelon. Every Chilean seems ashamed I got whooped in their country, so they are all very eager to do anything they can for me. I still prefer to do my own stuff though. Slept for a long long time after writing yesterday. Jhon informs me that someone rang him to say they have my bag and diary. Oh well. None of it is important enough to go back for and I don't fancy another kicking or visiting Vicuna again. One good thing about Chile is that stuff that's very expensive in other countries is just ok here, so you don't feel so guilty spènding money. Off to a book store in a bit to pick up some stuff. So today I stayed a long time in the hospital, because they forgot to put my details in the computer screen. A cute nurse fixed up my nose with more delacacy than the doctor in Vicuna. I am sure he pushed the cotton into my brain. She just walked in the internet place now actually. Ironies. Many ironies. Anyway I don't think much else will happen here. Maybe I will go and watch a shit film. I have considered contacting some people here to hang out with, but may just leave it as rest is probably a more sensible option. Oh well. At least I caught up with my diary. Sure some good, small things escaped like in the US, but should have covered the most of it. If the blood stops, I am off south.

Ok I figured I would update this. Managed to get back to the hostel afterwards and all of the Chilleans were so embarassed that one of their countrymen had broken my nose that they cooked a giant asado and invited me to join them. Second lot of really good food in a week. Was interesting to practice my Spanish in that environment. Just figured I would update that as the next day I took a bus to Santiago and stayed in a sex hotel just near the terminal. The woman on the door did not want to let me in because I looked dodgy with my broken nose. The blood had at least stopped by this point. You know you are in trouble when even a sex hotel won't let you stay with them. Remarkable how soon you forget something like that as well. Its been 2 weeks since I broke my nose and sometimes I forget it was broken. It seems to have healed looking almost like new, with only a mild deviation and noone I meet even mentions it as the eyes have stopped being purple lol. Anyway the sex hotel had a music player on the bed. I assume to set the mood. It had good taste in music as well, as there was only one channel, but it got cut off at midnight which was a shame. A Brazilian girl Marcela had contacted me to go travelling with her. I wrote that I hoped she did not bring drama lol. Will get to that. The next day I spent $72 for Lonely Planet Chile. Probably the most I have ever spent on a book and got a sleeping bag and a tent for a lot less. I decided to head south to road test this equipment and see if it would be up to the challenge of Patagonia or whether it would fold at the first challenge, like the Walmart equipment in Yellowstone. Damn, so long ago lol.