DELHI-BELLHI

i have a dose of tummy trouble so will be brief.RE.the trip to Cafayte,I had an interpreter for this trip,a young man who could hardly speak English which made the going a bit hard,but I did ascertain that the old man and the llama ,that ros referred to were called Asterix and Obelisk for reasons best known to themselves.My interpreter kept pointing out various rock formations,such as the frog,and the Titanic with leonardo and Kate winslet at the fore.Obviously we werent on the same drug as he was,which brings me to the return journey.Our driver,who had been driving all the time as if his life depended on it,descided to turn on the passengers with coca leaves,and as several middle aged argentinian ladies,politely chewed,boisterous clapping and singing broke out,of local ballads.After about half an hour of this,they all descided that it was the two brits turn.Help.We racked our brains,then Ros eventually very bravely sang my bonnie lies over the ocean,and all the argentinians joined in with a resounding bring back,bring back my bonnie to me.And on that note,I am back to dry crackers and weak tea. love from Sue x

SALTA

Friends and rellies all, feels like we are on the last leg of this trip, south of Rio. We have bought our bus tickets for the Friday afternoon - overnight - to Clorinda, on the Argentine/Paraguay border, and Saturday morning should arrive in Asuncion, capital of Paraguay. Meanwhile we are having a rest day here in Salta after most of yesterday being in a minibus tour to Cafayate, through Quebrada de Conchas. That is an enormous gorge, 72km long and 1,500mt in the highest places. A sort of giant Avon Gorge I thought, and Sue, a mini Grand Canyon. The red of the great cliffs was the predominant colour, though there was plenty of green too from trees and shrubs and some very tall cactus plants like the ones you see in pics of the Mexican desert. There are many extraordinary shapes in the cliffs, formed by the action of wind and water over a period of hundreds of millions of years. It was all originally a part of the Pacific Ocean and shell fossils from that period are to be found in the river bed flowing through the gorge. This has given the river its name in this place, of Rio de las Conchas. This river is the longest in Argentina and changes its name several times in the early stages before becoming the Rio Parana and then Rio de la Plata (River Plate) and entering the Atlantic by Buenos Aires. We stopped a number of times to see better and take photos of the most impressive of the interesting shapes. One of these known as the Anfiteatro is a great hollowed out arena, very high on all sides and with incredible natural acoustics. The New York Philharmonic orchestra played in there some time ago, we were told.
In the gorge we met with an old man and his llama - photo opp! Also saw lots of goats clambering about. Earlier we had stopped at a small goat farm for morning coffee, where we saw the little cabritos, their mums being milked, and a big horned billy. I had a piece of delicious goat cheesecake with orange. Tomorrow its horseback riding for the day. Sue will be adding her own stylee notes later........

ERRR...WHERE ARE WE????

This is what it feels like, but I think the answer is a little city called La Rioja. We have been having a very lazy day (for us) after deciding against a rather expensive all day tour starting 6 a.m. and ending just before we have to catch the next bus. Must be getting wise in our old age.
We have ambled about and managed 2 very interesting museums, an artesan market and a church. We also spent an hour or so in the park, where I was held in conversation with an ancient crone (as opposed to a young one like me) who was a kind of catholic jehovas witness. She was convinced I was Spanish, despite my very poor conversation skills, also that I was in bad company, since Sue was not wearing a hat despite the sun.

Sue:where are we,when is it,when were we,its all a bit like that now,and quite a lot of irrational giggling.We are off to a folklore festival in a minute before catching the night bus to Salta,where I really hope that we can get in a bit of horse riding.Carnival is at full blast back in Rio,so glad were out of it.Mind you,its baking hot here,a sort of no man place in the desert surrounded by mountains,where the entire population seems to be on very noisy scooters.much love

ALTA MONTAÑAS

Here we are again back in Argentina. We came through the Andes tunnel on the night bus, Thursday night. This was a mistake from the point of view of missing the views, but compensated for by a stunning night sky, with the biggest stars I´ve ever seen, falling like jewels down from on high to disappear behind the black mountain outlines. Then we had to spend hours going through the border controls inside a huge shed. We reached our hotel in Mendoza somewhat the worse for wear and were immediately confronted with a choice of tours by the receptionist. We had talked about what to see before, so went along with doing one of vineyards and bodegas that afternoon, and an all day one for Friday going up into the high mountains.

The bodegas tour turned out to be good, with 2 of them, including tastings, and an olive oil producer in between. We both felt unsure of the next day however, as it meant getting up at 6.30 am, having our bags packed to be stored in the hotel as we would not be back till 8.30pm and then catching a night bus again. Mad or what!! Next morning on the minibus we suddenly realised we were dressed for heat as it had been 40 c. the day before, and everyone else had jackets, boots and socks. EEk!!! Luckily our guide and driver took us back to the hotel to find our appropriate gear and set off again. Since we then encountered cold winds, fog and drizzel that was just as well.
Anyway it was a great trip. The first lot of mountains we went into, were up an unmade, narrow, mountain road known as "caracola" (the snail). Before long we found ourselves in low cloud and then more and more till nothing at all could be seen, with occasional places where large rocks had fallen in the road. Not getting the views was a bit disappointing for me. Once on the way down again we came out into sunshine on the road to Uspallata.

This was a green oasis where many plants and vegetables are grown. Each field is surrounded by huge poplars to protect the crops from wind. A stop for coffee and then on through a huge valley, known as the 7 colours, for the colour in the rocks. Beautiful! The road ran alongside the Rio Mendoza and an old railway, now disused. We stopped to take photos of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the whole Andes chain, and topped with snow. Then the high spot of the tour which was the statue of Cristo Redentor at 4,300 meters. Our minibus among many others crawled up a great red track winding above the normal road to reach it. At the top the wind blew mightily and cold. Stunning views all around though. This statue was made and placed there to celebrate peace between Chile and Argentina and the opening of the tunnel which makes passage between the 2 so much easier.

We stopped to eat lunch on the way back, about 4.30 pm so were well ready for it. A feast with everything all in including wine and the best steak we have eaten on this trip. Now I think I am feeling quite barmy as we even consider another such trip for tomorrow..... leave you to Sue


Our farewell from Valparaiso was suitably mad,we watched a brilliant mime artist control the traffic at rush our,watched by the police,in front of a large crowd,we were all roaring with laughter.
The wine tasting was very informative,and we enjoyed the glug at the end.
Off we went next day feeling very tired,but soon woke up.The first part ,in the fog was ,for me,terryifying.I couldnt make up my mind whether it was better to see the drop or not.Scmehow we got back down,to my relief.The oasis that Ros mentioned was part of the inca road,,which they referred to as a place of peace and silence.The next stage,going up to the highest staue on earth,was a unknown thing for me ,because I am a heavy smoker I didnt know how the altitude would affect me.However,apart from a small pain in my ears,all was fine,so now I am thinking of the possibility of further journeys,bolivia,peru,sometime ahead.
The range of mountains are where the famous plane crash took place,when cannabalism took place in order for survival of some of the passengers,one of which managed to reach the argentinian army.The highest mountainsAconcagua,is -35 in summer,and-80 in winter.The mummiried remains of a ten year old boy were also found here,he was part of an Inca sacrifice.
We have been in volcano and earthquake country now for a while,have seen one or two doemant volcanoes.
looking forward to some live music tonight,it might wake me up a bit.
However,all thetiredness has been worthwhile to see,and be among the wonderful Andes.

ps from Ros: if there are any inaccuracies in any of this it is down to my poor translating skills from the rapid spanish of our guides.
--

VALPARAISO

We have both fallen totally in love with this place. It's the most amazing hodgepodge of buildings on lots of different hills, all rising steeply above the harbour with docks and a narrow strip of commercial city with some parks. We have been staying about halfway up the hills Alegre and Concepcion in a lovely room with outside window overlooking the street and views (for the first time since the start of this trip). It's cheap too because of the shared bathroom. We have rambled about quite a lot over the 2 days of being here, helped by the fantastic little feniculars which rise almost perpendicularly. They are just like little old wooden sheds on rails, and I hope dear Jason can find a picture. This morning we went up one (and then quite a lot of steep walking) to see the Pablo Neruda Museum in his old house called "La Sebastiana". Inside it went up and up too, and was full of all sorts of "stuff" as he was a bit of kleptomaniac.



SUE: If I was young this is where I would want to be,fantastic murals,funky buildings, artisans and musos everywhere, lots of markets,and a lovely climate to boot.It feels like something fresh is happening on every twist and turn of the streets and alleyways.The railways up are practically virtical,with apt names such as the holy ghost fenicular.The place really comes alive at night,with cool tunes coming from little hideyhole bars,young people eating eachother everywhere and a lovely fresh breeze rising up from the sea below.It is a world heritage site,something that I support,as most of those sites are very straight.It has a special place in both our hearts as it was visited and spoken about by ros' sailor dad and my first husband ,Dick,who was in the merchant navy.Sad to leave,I highly recommend it,it brightens the world.ps.it also has great trolley buses.

MISCELLANEOUS

Various bits have escaped both our minds and the blog as we have been going along and we decided we should try and catch them before they get away for ever.
Beautiful blacknecked swans were seen in Puerto Natales in the Sound there. They are apparently in many parts of Patagonia but that is the only place where we saw them.
We also saw these ducks which looked quite normal most of the time swimming along. But a couple of times we saw them from the boat and they had to get out of the way. They did this by running along on the water flapping stubby little wings and looking hilarious. This is because they are flightless, known at Steamer Ducks.

We have been in "knitting heaven" for all you knitters out there. This is another Pategonian phenomenon, but best place of all was Puerto Montt. There were loads of stalls and shops with tons of all kinds of great hanks of wool and various people standing around knitting. All sorts of colours, mostly it seems with natural dyes, and stacks of huge wooden knitting needles. Also masses of hand knitted garments and objects of all kinds.


By the way, no train from Temuco. This was most disappointing. The train now runs to within a couple of stops of Temuco, and though the powers that be keep saying it will be restored, it just gets shorter. Sad.

A BIT MORE SANTIAGO

Just to bring things up to date. The current President is a Presidenta by name of Michelle Bachelet. She is, I believe, something of a socialist and the government is a leftish/centrish coalition I think. She sounds a very interesting person and is a single parent to boot. Last seen giving Fidel Castro a big hug - the first Chilean president to go to Cuba since Salvadore Allende. I am afraid I don't know much about the current situation here though, except that there are still various ongoing struggles of course. The one we have probably noticed most about is that of the Mapuche people who continue to fight for their land rights chiefly. Recently I read in the paper that an 11 year old girl, Relinutray Cadin and her aunt, have had to flee from here to Switzerland where they are seeking political asylum. This is because so many of her family, including both parents, have now been imprisoned (and are in solitary confinement) for the leading role they have been playing in this struggle. I am sure there will be more info on all this out in the net.

SANTIAGO & POLITICS

Sue and I have mostly been doing different stuff while here so far. This is my stuff.

First a bit of history.

Back in the 60´s a massive social and political movement of the people began to grow and develop. It involved hundreds and thousands of ordinary people, trades unionists, musicians, theatre people and artistes of all sorts, from the cities and the countryside. It was a movement for change from poverty and exploitation, from suppression and maintenance of inequalities.

This culminated in a great democratic victory for the socialist coalition led by Salvador Allende in 1970, when he became President. A message of hope also went out across the world, that a socialist government could come to power through the ballot box.

However, this was short lived, as a conspiracy was begun almost immediately between Chilean conservative elements, the military leaders and the American CIA. By 1973 these people and their allies had caused a great deal of economic instability and chaos in the country. In September of that year they siezed their chance and a military coup was staged. Allende was murdered within the Moneda Palace (the Chilean Parliament at that time) and the building was blitzed from the air. Many died alongside him and hundreds of thousands more were killed, tortured and dissapeared during the immediate days, and many more in the following years of the military dictatorship of Pinochet.

Soon after September 73 Chilean political refugees began arriving into whatever friendly countries would have them, including Britain. And that is how I and many others became aware of those events. So............
I wanted to find various places in Santiago where I knew things had happened and do a little pilgrimage.



I have seen the sports stadium where many, including Victor Jara (a hero of mine, with a beautiful voice) were tortured and murdered in the first days of the coup. A couple of years ago it was renamed for him, with his widow and daughters present. Then the museum of artist solidarity with Salvadore Allende. This contains many paintings and sculptures donated by artists from 1970 onwards, who wished to express solidarity in this way with that government. Last year it was finally rehoused properly into a lovely purpose modernised old building. I went to the Moneda Palace, which no longer houses the government but which has been restored. And finally, this morning, I made my way to the huge cemetary where Victor Jara is buried and there is a very moving and huge memorial to the "desaparicidos", built just a couple of years ago. While I was at Victor Jara´s niche in a wall I noticed acres of identical plain metal crosses, and discovered this is where many of the disappeared ones have been placed, without name or anything, as they were buried without anyone knowing (or wanting to acknowledge) who they were. I have to try and find out more about all that.
The best book I know to read on the subject, and in English, is written by Joan Jara, Victor's English wife. She writes about the years leading up to the 70's and what happened 1970-73. It is an extremely moving book, "Victor, an Unfinished Song".


Sue's Santiago:i didnt write anything in puerto montt because i was upset about the state of the street dogs there,including a young one that was obviously dying.Anyway,we are staying in a typical colonial part of Santiago,in the middle of a heatwave.The hotel looks very grand from the outside but is fading on the inside.I have been ambling around on my own ,trying to capture the feel of the place.One cannot escape what this country has been through in the recent past,even a few doors down,there is a house where people were tortured and murdered,and every thursday a vigil is held for them,and there names are read out.To me the significant thing is that they can do this now,freedom of speech seems to be returning.This address is londres 38.Ihave been to a museum on precolumbian art ,whis was amazing,with mummies,3000 years before the ancient egyptians did it.


Went to an exhibition of freda kalo art.Today I went to the main square,where I seemed to get immersed in Amnesty international,a demonstration about womens aid from violence,a charity for animals and a peace vigil.So Ros is rubbing off on me.Also heard some great music including a rap pair,who had just got married and performed in her wedding dress.Bought a load of rugs which were begging me to buy them,and a plastic bag with London tower bridge to carry them in..Ilike it here,it feels like its waking up from some kind of nightmare.People wander round with placards saying hug me,and everybody seems fresh somehow,although there is undoubtedly appalling poverty here.love to all.

PUERTO MONTT

This was a place for which we had no expectations. Yet we both loved it. Arriving early in the morning of the first day of sunshine since before leaving Puerto Natales helped no doubt. We left all our stuff at the funny little B&B we had found in our Handbook (Leticia) and wandered off to have coffee and look at artisan stuff. There was masses of this a short walk along the water front. We both indulged. Then wearily we turned our minds to picnic and decided to go on a wee boat across to an island. We got on the boat without asking too many questions and promptly set off on a tour around the island and back again! Unexpected but very nice. We even saw a sleeping seal on the loading platform of a fishing boat.


Puerto Montt still has many of its little, higgledy piggledy wooden houses going up the hillsides. But Temuco, where we are now, had all the wooden stuff burned down after a great earthquake in 1960. The result is a quite ordinary, modernish city centre, full of shopping malls etc. This morning we have been to the municipal market which is full of handicraft and artesanal stalls, as well as meat and fish around the edges. However, apart from a few things much of it is pretty standard and looks almost mass produced (tat for the most part).

I feel we are following backwards in the way of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy, the Beirut hostages of early 90's, who came here a few years ago to realize a fantasy they had whilst imprisoned together. They wrote an interesting book together of the trip "Between Extremes", which I read and now keeps coming to mind.
During the bus ride yesterday we passed some lovely green countryside, not entirely dissimilar to the English Lake District. A sad fact is though that millions of araucania trees have been felled in the past 30 odd years to produce much of it. Some of this has been replaced by the wretched eucalyptus. Ah me!

Tomorrow we shall be in Santiago.

THE FERRY "EVANGELISTAS"

We got off this ferry at 9 a.m. this morning after 4 nights and 3 days at sea. Still slightly rocking.
We sailed at about 4.30 a.m. last Friday and I was up on the top deck soon after, lapping up the excitement, the adventure of it. Still dark of course but saw a wonderful sunrise as we repeated the thrill Hamish had had the week before (without any of the responsibility) as we raced towards the narrow gap and into the narrows itself. There were a few others out with the cameras going and i do have one vid as well as stills. The rest is already a bit blurry but a number of highlights for me. First the glacier Amalia. Everyone almost crowded on the decks for this and as we rounded a corner there she was, sending a freezing, howling, ferocious breath down on us. Thank goodness for 3 hats and all the other layers.


The second day Sue and I and a number of others left the ship at dawn in the rain, in a little local boat for the island of Puerto Eden. This is the home of a small number of indians who were originally the sole inhabitants all along the coast and islands. They are boat people and still make their own boats and canoes, but they are now extremely poor and it seems the government is trying to do something for them. We went ashore and walked quite a way along a wooden walkway as no roads. This took us some distance round and then we seemed to be lost. The ferry was hooting for us all to return and eventually we did, rather damply and looking forward to breakfast.
That evening we went out into the Pacific and met with some swell, which made many a little queasy, including me as I stared into my spaghetti as it slid about the table. Nuff said. An early night did the trick and by next morning we were back in the channels and all calm. Now we are up on deck again and waiting for whales to appear. They were very reluctant to oblige till eventually a distant spume. This was repeated a few times during the afternoon and finally two whales came quite close and showed more of themselves. One a Humpback and the other a Blue Whale, the biggest mammal on earth. Stunning!


Sue says: we also had black and white dolphins leaping beside the ship, albatrosses gliding in the wake, and lots of seals. As we approached the glacier the noise of the ship hitting ice was extraordinary, and the glacier was many colours but predominantly blue. The glacier is moving and makes a cracking noise. The ship later went past Nossa Senhora Stella Maris, Our Lady Star of the Sea, protector of seafarers the world over, and the ship acknowledged Her with 3 blasts of the hooter. I can't really describe the feelings I had on seeing those whales except nobody should be hunting them anywhere on this very beautiful planet.


We finally docked this morning at Puerto Montt after saying goodbye to new friends made on board. The Full Moon shone low over the town as we docked. Is it really a month since the last Full Moon in Uruguay? I have just bought my first rug so we christened it on the grass with a picnic. Also we have been seduced by a drink called "pisco sour" which many of you may be
familiar with. By the way, we are back to heat and having to strip of the layers again.

PUERTO NATALES

Here we seem to be having real summer now, or else a heavy dose of global warming. For the last 4 days its been warm (25 C), long periods of sunshine, otherwise cloudy and humid. Since our day in the Park we have visited 2 local museums, one of which, this morning, felt quite wierd. It was in a big room within the Silesian College, and just contained stuffed birds and animals of the area. Taxidermist heaven. The work had clearly be done a long time ago and many of the creatures were a bit worse for wear (as well as being dead).


Yesterday Sue took a day off and I went for a hike up the local hill, Cerro Dorotea (Dorothy Hill). It was quite steep and long enough to make me feel very unfit, but the views over the Last Hope Sound and the town were beautiful. Only the heavy cloud obscured the more distant snowy mountains. At the bottom I was fed with homemade bread and jam and cup of tea by the local farmer, a sweet woman who kept me chatting for some while too.


Sue:All the chileans seem ever so sweet,and a lot of them are very small,which makes a change for me.They always stop if you want to cross the road,very polite and caring.However,this town feels as if they have seen better days,and every thing is getting a bit rundown,and many former hotels are either up for sale or are closed.I guess there are less tourists than before,and it is a very short season.Most of the houses are made of tin and wood,sort of cobbled together.Very little is thrown away,and many of the shops are half empty with an odd selection of wares for sale.We are now preparing for our big boat trip,starting tomorrow,so will be out of touch for a few days.We have our sea sickness pills at the ready as we have been warned of rough seas.

TORRES DEL PAINE

In addition to meeting Hamish our other reason for coming to Puerto Natales was to visit the National Park "Torres del Paine" (pronounced pinee) which is famous for its glaciers, lakes and hugely exciting snowy mountains. Paine is the Tehuelche word for blue. They were the indigenous people who originally inhabited this area. We were picked up by our minibus at 7.15 am., luckily being the first so able to take the front seats, later people being quite squashed in the back. The first stop was at the Cave of the Milodon...


This was a prehistoric ground sloth, rather like a huge bear with a tail. It lived between 12,000 and 10,000 years ago. The cave is massive, 96 ft. high and 230 ft. wide and very deep. Sue says she managed to get herself lost, but found again without too much trouble.


We went on to the park which is 2 hours drive from Natales, where we saw all sorts of things including several herds of guanacos, condors, eagles, waterfalls and lakes. The mountains of course were the most imposing presence of all. Especially some called the Cuernos (the horns). These were surrounded by even higher, snowcovered peaks, the biggest of which is Cumbre Principal at 3050 meter Also we went to the Grey Glacier, though could not see much of it from where we were. We walked to the Grey Lake, and then out on a long spit right across the lake. Floating there were huge chunks of glacier which had broken away just in the last week. These had blue areas which looked as though they had been dyed. However, it seems this is caused by some sort of effect from the sun in conjunction with the freezing ice. If you want to know more on the subject go to: www.luminous-landscape.com and then on to What´s new.
That was all on Sunday, a full day out not returning till 8.00 pm. Monday was a chill out day of looking round the town, visiting the local history museum, which was excellent with lots of information on the indians who inhabited these parts of Patagonia over thousands of years.

Sue:we have found a really nice place to hang out in and eat good veggie food,listen to cool music and drink very nice vino.It is run by an english girl,who fell in love with a chilean goucho and has stayed here.There is a good book exchange shelf too.We are over half way now,and havent fallen out yet,a few dissagreements,but nothing important.I am really looking forward to getting to Tomuco,where Ros informs me there will be loads of beautiful rugs for me to drool over .
In between we have a fantastic sea voyage to take .

Ros again: we are missing your comments dear friends and rellies, tho do understand that you have many preoccupations with horrid weather, bills and other mundane facts of life back home. However, hope you are enjoying all this nonetheless.