Although we are back into the stress and long hours of work, I think so far this week we’ve both kept at least a modicum of relaxation about us, trying to make the effects of a good and long vacation last as long as possible (in the old days, I used to call that keeping the gruntle level up – as opposed to quickly becoming disgruntled!).  We certainly both felt as though we’d really been away (properly, as the British would say), and it felt a little odd to be home again at first…but the hoarse meows of two angry kitties quickly won us over again!  While we had a great time, it was really good to be home, back to a place where English is spoken (after three full weeks of nada pero espanol for me!) and where I don’t necessarily have to keep one hand glued to my wallet in my pocket absolutely all of time.

I’m glad and a bit proud perhaps to say that we’ve already told you about our only real challenges on the trip – namely being robbed of 4 ounces of coke (fluid ounces, of coca cola zero that is!) on the street and handling the bus strike in Mendoza, which led to the trip’s best highlight of driving across one of the highest mountain ranges in the world.  We’ve got a lot more interesting pictures and stories to share, as well as perhaps a couple more thinking pieces about South America.  We have great ambition to share all of that, and hopefully in time will achieve that.  We also have quite a backlog of pictures from past trips as well.

For now, I thought I would share just a preview of some of the highlights of the trip here, with a stab at a top five below…

Crossing the Andes was clearly the highlight of the trip! Here is one view of the 24 hairpin bends following the border crossing on the Chile side of the pass. Luckily, traffic currently only goes in one direction (each half of the day), but that is due to extensive road construction.

Our time in Valparaiso (Chile, not Indiana, which we learned was named after this one following the naval Battle of Valparaiso in the War of 1812) was excellent. Here you can see “our” ascensor, which scales the hill from the (working) port area to the neighborhood where our B&B was located. The city rises spectacularly, in vivid colors, from the beautiful harbor.

Following a fast catamaran ride across the brown (they swear, it is sediment!) Rio de la Plata from Buenos Aires, we spent a lovely day in Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay. Colonia was a beautiful Portuguese (you guessed it) colonial town with an amazing, romantic waterfront location. Here you can see the impossibly picturesque Calle de los Suspiros (Street of Sighs) at twilight, where we enjoyed an amazing bottle of local Uruguayan Riesling.

One of our best dinners ever (so much so that we went back for a second night!) was at Ocho Cepas in Mendoza, Argentina – where excellent wine and olive oil, amazing steak cooked perfectly, the best empanadas ever, and a good atmosphere were a perfect combination.

Rounding out the top five highlights from the trip was another day trip from Buenos Aires – to the town of Tigre and the Parana Delta region, which gave me a Louisiana bayou vibe (even though I’ve never been there).  We took a great three-hour round-trip boat through the closer parts of the amazing delta, but barely scratched the surface of the 5,000 square mile area (similar to Rhode Island or Delaware). Luckily, the sun gave us a break and there was a great breeze!

Finally, how could I not include a transit picture? This is the Universidad de Chile Metro Station in Santiago, with some amazing artwork inside a very 1970s station on what is one of the busiest metro lines in the world. It is interesting that Santiago (like Montreal, but perhaps less easy to understand) bought into the French rubber-tired metro technology in the 1970s, and so have narrow trains with whooshing sounds and no screeching!

9.5 hours

7 dead dogs

18 dry rivers

14 tunnels

3 pee stops

427,048 t times Astrid said “Oh my God we are going to die!”

……. and we finally made it to Valparaiso!  Thanks for all your well-wishes.  Will post details and pics soon, but rest assured, it was an amazing journey.  Alex kept saying it was a once in a lifetime event (although we differed on whether that would be because we are not stupid enough to try it again, or if we’d go off the side of the road and plummet to our deaths!)

Paso Internacional los libertadores – Frontera Argentina-Chile (Photo credit: Fulanitoo)

It is number 9 on the list of 10 most dangerous roads in the world.   Not exactly encouraging!!!   Wish us luck!!!

http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/worlds-deadliest-roads-098394

First, a quick update on the trip so far.  I already explained how I lost 5000 pesos upon arrival in Santiago!  After that the rest of the work week was smooth sailing, and Astrid arrived with relative ease on Friday morning over a week ago.  After finishing with work (and a work-related dinner Friday night) we enjoyed six days in and around Buenos Aires.  If I have to put it in one short statement, I’d say the city is generally a mixture of New York and Paris with elements of Spanish cities thrown in, all cast in a slightly tumbled-down way.  Our first day was a bit rough, wandering around the center of the city on a Saturday was perhaps not the best plan, as I was quickly robbed of about 4 ounces of Coke Zero.  During the rest of our time in Buenos Aires we enjoyed absolutely excellent day trips to Colonia del Sacramento in Uruguay (a 1-hour catamaran trip across the monstrously large Rio de la Plata) and the Tigre Delta area about an hour north of Buenos Aires.  We plan to blog, with pictures, about all of that.

Thursday night we flew to Mendoza, and I will move on to explain our current predicament.  After a late arrival and a nice morning sleeping in, we decided to go in search finalizing arrangements for the next leg of our journey across the Andes Mountains into Chile.  The original plan had been to take a bus – this is the typical way of travelling in South America, and long distance buses in Argentina and Chile offer accommodations as good as business class air travel, with flat and semi-flat beds and very comfortable surroundings (and all for relatively low prices).  As there is limited air services (which are therefore very expensive) and no train services over the Andes, buses are the way to go.  However,  Astrid very recently got her UK driving license, opening up the option of renting a car.  We decided that, pending the cost, this was our preferred option, as it would give us more freedom and the ability to stop and take pictures on the mighty mountain crossing.  We had read mixed reviews of one-way rentals from Argentina to Chile, due  to international relations and the like.  Some reports on the Internet say that it is impossible, others that it is very expensive, etc.  We decided to try our luck and visit the many rental car offices right in the center of Mendoza.

At our first stop, Budget, we encountered the first roadblock – pasaje cerrado!  That means that the mountain pass (through the Cristo Redentor Tunnel at more than 10,000 feet elevation) was closed.  We had read about this happening in winter (which is reversed down here!), but most reports said it only began in late May.  However, on Friday it was closed, and reports indicated that it would remain that way throughout the weekend.  So any and all plans seemed to be out the window; what to do?  Some further investigation led us to believe that it would open up again on Saturday, so we booked bus tickets on Andesmar, one of the best recommended Argentinian companies offering services to Chile.  Come Saturday midday, the pass reopened, and all seemed in order.

We awoke this morning at 5 to pack up, check out, and get over to the large bus station for an 8am departure to Valparaiso, our next destination.  After some chaos in locating the right place, we found no bus there and lots of people milling around.  It turns out that there is a strike occurring by long-distance bus drivers, affecting many tens of thousands of travelers around the country!  Who knew?  The bus company’s website seems to make no mention of it and continues to offer to sell you tickets for buses today and tomorrow, when in fact no buses are going!

Now we have a new issue – we thought we had gotten over the challenge of the crossing, but (alas) that is not the case.  The Chilean bus companies are still operating, but they were totally booked up for today and filling up very quickly for tomorrow.  After a stressful morning of looking for alternatives, we have now managed to arrange a one-way car rental so that we can drive across the Andes and return the car in Santiago on Wednesday.  This will be very expensive, but saves us from losing our committed accommodations and arrangements in Valparaiso, as well as the expense of extending our stay here in Mendoza (and seems to be still cheaper than the air alternative, which  is about US$1300 for the two of us to go on the 50-minute flight).  As I write this, we are camped out in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for the rental agency to arrange the necessary paperwork (apparently an expensive permit is required to take an Argentinian car across into Chile).  I hope to be able to report by the end of the day, or maybe tomorrow, a successful and beautiful crossing of the mountains and us tucked in safe and sound in our B&B in Valparaiso!

The bad news, though, is that I got ripped off for 5 thousand pesos in the process.  I had read all about the problems paying with large bills and receiving change in Argentina, but I wasn’t really thinking about it in Chile when I bought bus tickets for my boss and I outside the Comodoro Arturo Merino Benitez International Airport in Santiago.  Savvy worldwide business traveler, or schmuck?

The other good news – while it might sound like a lot, 5000 Chilean pesos is actually only about $10.50 (and the bus + metro + conned money was still way cheaper than a taxi!).  You see, the bus tickets were 2800 pesos, and I gave the guy a note for 10 grand.  But, he only gave me change as if I’d given him 5k.  Of course, I didn’t realize this until I was already well on the bus and speeding away toward central Santiago.  I suppose it could have been an innocent error…but what happened later in the day made me pretty sure it wasn’t.

My boss and I decided to pick up some soda and water as we typically do, stopping at a small independent convenience store between the metro station and our hotel.  He paid this time, and the total was about 2400 pesos; this time he used a 5000 peso note, but only received about 1600 pesos in change.  I was watching the register and the guy and told him, that isn’t right – he asked about it and the guy first pretended like he had given back two 1000 notes, and when that was clearly not hte case he then made a fuss getting some supposed manager to come over and carry out a long process to open the register and give him another 1000 note.  So, once bitten twice shy…which made me feel a bit better about earlier.

You can bet that I will be counting change quite precisely for the rest of the trip!  Now it is on to get some quick sleep for my 5:30 wakeup call and an 18-hour day ending in Buenos Aires at about midnight tomorrow.

A very large note! After stopping at the best London sketchy-but-cheap currency exchange, exactly 207,000 Chilean pesos were burning a hole in my pocket on the bus on the way home

We’ve been busy planning our trip to South America!

The plan so far is to fly into Buenos Aires, and spend 4-5 days exploring the city. We haven’t nailed down a hotel yet, so any suggestions are greatly welcome. Then we’re heading up to Iguazu Falls, which is one of the most amazing waterfalls in the whole world. We’re staying on the Brazilian side, in the center of town. Because it’s still a bit dicey as to whether I’ll actually HAVE my license by that point, we’re planning on using public transport the entire time. But if I DO have my license by then, we might rent a car and go exploring.  After 2-3 days in Iguazu, we’re heading to Mendoza, which is in the prime wine-making region of the Andes. We’ve got 2 nights in Mendoza (or Mendoozy, as I’ve been calling it), and we plan on tasting some great wines while there. We’ve recently tried a Torrontes, which is one of the famous Argentinian varietals, and we’re big fans. Haven’t tried the Malbec yet, but maybe this weekend.  After Mendoza, we’re taking a bus across the Andes to Santiago. Alex promises me that the buses are very luxurious,with lay-flat seats and televisions and everything. It’s only a six hour crossing, but through some of the most amazing mountains in the world. He’s very much looking forward to that bit of the trip. Then it’s onward to Valparaiso, a small town on the coast. After two days on the water, it’s back to Santiago for a few more days, before heading off to Sao Paolo, where have a very brief stop to spend some time with our friend Lucas, and then it’s back home!

Phew! That was exhausting just typing it all. Not sure how we’re going to make the actual travels.   Of course, all the usual debates are underway: which suitcase to take, which shoes to wear, should we take jackets or coats, etc….

None of that makes for particularly scintillating blog reading, however, but I will try to get some of the highlights down on our actual trip. Only three weeks to departure! Yay!

But I thought I’d post a few funny stories from my recent lessons, because I haven’t blogged in a while and you deserve a funny on this dreary Wednesday.

First off, driving on the wrong side of the road is not a problem. It’s not an issue in the slightest way. I’ve never once gone over to the wrong side, or been tempted to turn into the wrong lane, or anything. Your mind just makes the switch, and it’s surprisingly easy.

It’s also not hard to shift with my left hand. In some ways, I actually prefer it. Because I’m right-handed, my right hand has better motor control, so it does better on the steering wheel. And my left-hand has more strength, so it does better with the gear shifting.

Other than that though, the layout of the car is exactly the same. You still clutch with your left, and break and gas with your right. The layout of the gearbox is also the same, 1st gear is top left, then down to second, etc. Easy peasy.

Where I run into trouble is with the road signs. There are LOTS of them, and they don’t always make sense.  The universal sign for “don’t do something” is a red circle with a line through it – think of the No Smoking sign, right?  So if you see a sign that looks like that, but WITHOUT the red line across it, I would assume that it means that thing is allowed. Makes sense, right?  But no.  This sign, below, means “No bicycles allowed”

But THIS sign, below, means No Right Turn.

It’s so inconsistent!  It’s killing me!  Argh. Obviously I can remember the difference, but it seems like such a good example of BAD informational design.

Okay. My second story is actually funny, I promise. My driving instructor was talking about the kinds of drivers that you have to watch out for:  motorcyclists, white delivery vans, and then he said “boy racing”.  I wasn’t quite sure what he meant, so I asked. He said it was teenage boys who line up their cars on a straight stretch of road, and race down it at really high speeds.  I responded “Oh, you mean drag racing!”,  and he said “No, not boys in skirts. Just boys. Although sometimes girls do it, too”.   And there you have a perfect example of how British English and American English are not really the same language.

Have a good Wednesday!  (One week the driving test, BTW. Wish me luck!)

I’ve only got a few minutes before boarding, but I wanted to send a quick update.  My colleague and I started by flying to Las Vegas on the party flight from Gatwick Airport, amid groups of stag/hen do groups (sorry, that’s bachelor/bachelorrette party groups).  We had a good evening in Vegas before heading north into less sinful territory.

First business stop: Salt Lake City. The mountain views were great, and reminded me of Denver – as did the high and dry atmosphere!

As Las Vegas is in Pacific Time, we flew to -8 from London, before having the clocks “spring forward” on us overnight and then flying an hour back east to Mountain Time.  After a good couple of days, including a Utah Jazz game, we headed back to Pacific Time in Spokane, Washington.  Pictures of the famous falls there to follow…

Now, after 12 days in Pacific Time, I’m heading back home, (currently) 7 hours to the east but also about 75 degrees F colder – but back to the warmth of home, where a beautiful wife and two snuggly kitties will be very welcome signs of home.

I hope everyone out there is well and easing into 2013, which is almost 25% over already.  Now we must turn out attention to finalizing plans for South America, as departure is now less than a month away.  Cheers!