So! ...it seemed at first that this was an ill-fated journey due to a few false starts, the result i think of a very difficult transition psychologically from the uber-vacation mode to the uber-vigilant mode of international travel. However, although at certain moments we thought we just had to be detached everything worked out in the end (all i´ll say is Thank you Air Vanuatu!) - so i guess it was a warning shot. and since then we´ve been very good with our stuff.

From tropical Vanuatu we arrived in cold and windy Sydney and at¨Home backpackers¨ where on the first morning in the shared kitchen we encountered some good omens: a whole lot of South Americans! ..one of them being a guy from Santiago! and his name was Daniel! so he got to give us a couple of pointers. A lot of posting took place: shedding skin (more! what were we thinking leaving Adelaide with so much!?) and also some souvenir presents sent to various newly weds whose wedding we missed, and friends assorted... a lot of walking about in the lovely company of ¨Great Aunty Helen¨ and both Dan and i took separate opportunities to see a movie at the Uber Greater Union where seats are allocated and the theatre is packed (i saw Harry Potter 6 - fun) lots of people dressing up in costume...

Then off on 16 hour plane trip to Santiago, Chile; they tried to simulate a night for us and get us acclimatized... but it didn´t quite work. We arrived at 3 in the afternoon and were all totally dream - state zonked!! After arriving in Barrio Brasil, one of the oldest quarters which in the 1930s was the fancy neighbourhood and is referred to as the ¨Bohemian¨ neighbourhood had a lot of old buildings and a grungy sort of happy poor feeling. To keep ourselves from falling asleep we wandered about and discovered a Jem!!: Plaza Brasil, which apparently is renown, full of children and their entire families playing on large brightly painted concrete playground equipment and others with trolleys assorted sugary things and shiny plastic toys. In another corner of the same park were a large group of musicians each with a drum of some variety, beating out a bouyant merengue beat from Brazil... in yet another corner a couple set up a little ´theatre´and proceeded to perform a very impressive magic and puppet show. Hero LOVED it, and became very attached to one particular large frog puppet which, after the show, she sought out and hugged at length. sorry, no photos. not long after this hero had a hissy fit and fell completely asleep on my shoulder. we returned to the hostel with a couple of local specialities: completas (hotdog with guacamole and tomatoes and sauces aplenty) and daniel wisely went to bed while i watched a crappy film on cable tv with spanish subtitles. it´s an interesting way to learn new vocab!!

Anywaaaay, since then, impressions and highlights have been, in no particular order:... cold cold cold Santiago. a bit dreary and sombre. smog overhead. no sight for the first few days of the magnificent Andes which ought to overshadow the city, because of the smog. Beautiful stone sculptures in the the museo de las bellas artes. so many different colours and tones to the 33 different communas of Santiago. Found the more ´yuppy´/young part of town: Providencia with a bit of a shock but the pleasure of seeing more colour and a bunch of interesting second hand stores. clothes, books... searching madly for warm jackets for Hero and myself in anticipation of a predicted 2· wednesday. managed to score both in time. so many winter sales going on. hero happy in a big dusty pink parka. big impressive lunches: little soup, salad, mains, dessert, all for $4. put that in your pipe! crazy theme restaurants that go all the way. maritime themed one that we went to with no bare piece of wall: boats, uniforms, steering wheels, head of boat maidens (i´m sure they´ve got a special name but hey! i´m no sailor. ) there´s also a viking themed one, a really scary one that we can´t quite pick theme of but in one room (seen through the window) every bit of wall is covered in wooden masks... it really made us wonder how awesome people here would be at dressing up for theme parties! lots of street vendors, selling anything you can imagine. hats, gloves, socks, ear warmers, mint pastilles, (what looks like) goats balls, etc... and where are all the buskers?? well, we just found out yesterday when we finally took a bus (the metro system is so comprehensive we´d only travelled underground): they get on with their voice and instrument of choice, do a little intro and then play and sing - we encountered three and they were really good!! not many people got excited about it (i couldn´t hold myself back from a bit of a ¨whoo!¨personally) but they very often contributed as the musician went around after a few songs, with their open hand. it was pretty good. captive audience. not so cold. no money lying around to be stolen. i can see the logic... now the question is, do dan and i have the guts to pull something like that off?? ask us in a few months. great hostel. fresh fruit, scrambled eggs, coffee, toast etc. although, it´s getting a bit that way that even a really good thing when repeated, becomes hard to swallow... awesome staff too! lots of long late night conversations in stumbling Spanish as i learn learn learn. they´re very encouraging. spent almost an entire (particularly cold) day sleeping. re-creating jet-lag for ourselves. have met up with lots of beautiful bahaí people and gone to a couple of sublimely spiritual devotional meetings with them, shared some music, seen the Bahaí centre, seen the model for the upcoming new Bahaí temple here. now have a bit of plan for after our stay with the wwoofing couple. there´s a school and organic garden project in a rural area of Temuco (waaay down south) which is in harmony with the indigenous Mapuche people. this is run by some baháis and apparently theý´d love to have us for a while. so we´re thrilled... although a little tremulous regarding just how much colder it´ll be down there. oooh!! it rained and cleared the smog and we got a really decent and GLORIOUS view of the GLORIOUS Andes capped in snow. i just cannot get enough of big mountains.

but we leave Santiago tomorrow for nearby Talagante, where we´ll be for at least 3 weeks, and that should be good. photos to follow soon.