Kangaroos and Chocolate Biscuits!

I guess it was about time to let everyone know that I was still alive. I have been very bad about emailing and skyping since I have left South America. Maybe I left my brain there - time to go back and find it then! I am writing this offline because internet has been very frustrating! It seems to cost a fortune everywhere except my hostel where it is just annoyingly slow. I have just found out that libraries and McDonalds both have free wifi, but it is 10 pm and I am in my pyjamas so it'll be another day.

I spent five days in Melbourne and had a very good time. I stayed with some friends of ours from London who moved back a couple years ago. It was nice to see them and have a break from hostels. I still haven't quite caught up on my sleep, but I am getting there. My first day was rather boring. I spent several hours at A & E. It was definitely needed though. I got my foot xrayed to find out that it is not broken like the Ecuadorian doctors told me, but I have done something to the tendon. Just needs rest and ice. Which means a longer recovery time, but they taped it up differently so I am alot more comfortable.

The second day I went with Lisa to Geelong to see Harrison who is at boarding school at Geelong Grammer where Prince Charles went. It is a beautiful school - if only Bedford looked anything like that! We went to an AMAZING French restaurant where I had veggie crepes and a chocolate soufflee. I seem to constantly be hungry and tired! I am hoping some relaxing will get it all out of my system. The late nights and lack of sleep are definitely catching up to me. Will also help when I don't need to stay in dorms anymore.

On Thursday I met up with Ali, a friend from school who is now studying at Monash Uni in Melbourne. It was really nice to catch up and also saw her Friday evening, my last night in Melbourne. I walked into the city on Thursday and meandered my way through the botannical gardens and WWII memorial. You can climb up to the top and get a good view of the city. I went back in Friday night with Ali and we walked around a bit. I also purchased a netbook and got a pretty good deal. I also got some Jeans and Shoes so I am feeling like less of a hobo.

I flew to Sydney yesterday. Had to get up at 430 am! Way too early. I checked into my hostel which is in Kings Cross and is very central. I took a nap and by the time I woke up it was 3pm. I managed to pull myself out of bed. Eventhough it was sprinkling I decided to go for a walk. I managed to get myself lost in a resedencial area where there were a load of dead ends. By then it started pouring and I finally found my way to a train station and got back to the hostel. I had an early dinner and a fairly early night. The hostel is nice and small, but everyone has been here for at least a month already working, so it is a slightly hard to get mixed in. I am in a small room though which is nice. There are 3 other beds, one of which is empty. One roomie is no where to be seen and the other works nights so she was just going to bed as I was leaving this morning. In otherwords it is lovely and quiet!

I met up with Elvira today, a German girl I met in Ecuador. We spent about a week together and also met up again in Santiago briefly before I left. We had a nice girly day and walked around the city. This time I managed not to get lost and we made our way to the Sydney Opera House. We made a nice dinner and worked on her CV. She is here for a few months working and travelling before going to South East Asia. She is doing a similar RTW trip. She finished her PhD in Biochemisty last year and is taking a year off before going back. She's in a different hostel right behind mine so we are very close! Not really sure what are plans are, but tomorrow we are going to head to Bondi Beach with a picnic if the weather is nice. If not then we might go to the aquarium and maybe to a few museums.

I have had some success with couch surfing and will be staying with somebody in Singapore. I also got a message back from someone here in Sydney who I may meet up with for lunch one day and he has offered to show me around the city for a bit one afternoon.

Parenti - I promise to call soon, but this time difference is doing my head in. I get so confuzzled. When I tried to call this evening, I got through to dad but then got cut off - sorry. I then was going to try you mum, but I realised it was 2am or something in California. Will definitely try harder tomorrow!

Another day, another country...

I arrived in Auckland yesterday at a god-awful hour: 420am, after a rather pleasent flight where a boy kicked the back of my seat for thirteen hours straight. Auckland isn't such a bad place, but I am feeling that four days may be rather too long, or really 3.5 days. James calls it an "un city" although I am not really sure what that means. I asked and then forgot, but I remember him using a bunch of sounds and hand gestures to describe the meaning, so somehow I don't think it'll quite work for me to translate it into words.

We are staying at a hostel in queens street in downtown Auckland. We have done a HUGE amount of walking. It is strange to be out of Latin America and I rather miss it. We are meeting a bit of a different crowd in the hostels. Mostly british people on their gap years who have large bags and straightners. Hmmm... this will take some getting used to, along with being able to put toilet paper in the toilet (and not the bin), not haggling (although I did do that with a shuttle into the city from the airport) and wearing seat belts. But soon that will all change when I get to South East Asia - so excited!!!

I keep trying to couch surf, but am not having any luck, so it looks like more hostels and dorms - yay? I am not too excited, am definitely looking for a break from dorms. Here we are sharing with several Essex Girls and got woken up at 3am this morning after... I think I should just leave it there.

Looks like more walking around the schedule tomorrow. We did go to the Auckland museum today which was very good and saw a movie yesterday. Also have been fufilling craving like hummus, but we are still looking for Spring Rolls.

Need To Start Google Mapping Sanitariums in Santiago

When I first arrived, I thought that spending two weeks in one place would be a good vacation from a holiday. What I didn't realize is that two weeks is a very very long time. After paying for five more days, I realize that I am going to go insane here with my remaining time left. Since I have paid I am pretty stuck as Chile is expensive and a trip elsewhere just isn't likely.

Only three more nights until Auckland. I don't think I am quite ready to leave South America, but it will have to be done. At the same time though, I think I am ready for South East Asia. A stop in the modern world is much needed as purchases do, sadly have to be made as my underwear still seems to go missing. Wonder how the Santiago Police would react if I reported THAT one...

I did manage to get a new backpack though. 70 liters! MASSIVE! But it will be able to fit my future dive gear and it was on sale and less expensive then smaller bags. Still though, it is much bigger than my last one which means I will probably be carrying around even more unnecessary junk.

Have looked into couch surfing for Australia and may do a bit in SE Asia depending on how things go. A break from hostels would be nice, but more importantly it is a way to meet some locals and see a different side to a place... I hope...

It looks like I may be meeting up with a few people that I have met along the way. I am still considering doing a dive master, but that depends on a lot. I will hopefully have my foot looked at in Melbourne. Still not healing well, and I am back to being in quite a bit of pain. Doesn't help that I can't sit still to save my life.

Not a lot has been going on here. I have been ill the past few days, but James and I did walk up to Las Condes. A shopping mall over two hours walk from our hostel. We went to find a camera card reader, but got distracted by the cinema. We saw remember which was heaps better than I had hoped but still not much.

Since that is all the news I have, it just shows that I need TO GET OUT OF HERE!!

I have withdrawn my application from UCAS so won't be going to uni in September. I decided that I do not want to study physiology and would like to pursue languages. That does mean another A level or two, but I know it's definitely the right direction for me. Tomorrow will probably be one of those fun filled days where I try and figure out what I am doing with myself. But for now I will bid adieu as it is 1am on a sunday night.

I think another Volcano might be in order for tomorrow. I tried one the other night. Pineapple ice cream, white wine and some liqueur or other. They were pretty strong, so am glad that I had a meal pretty soon after a couple of sips. They taste lovely but gross at the same time.

A "Holiday" from a holiday

Still in Santiago and looks like we will be here until I fly to Auckland on Wednesday. Not a lot has been happening. Yesterday four of us went to Valparaiso/Vina del Mar. They are two cities about two hours from Santiago by bus. There wasn't a whole lot going on there, but we had a really nice (although expensive) lunch and walked around. It was chili and I was starting to feel a bit sick. We came back around eight and I had a very early night.

Friday night in Santiago should be a little more lively. Looking to go out to the seafood market, where I will probably have trouble finding anything remotely vegetarian and then will finally try some earthquakes. They sound interesting...

Not much to report on this end...

A new country and a whole lot of driving...

The tour of the salt flats was great, except we got stranded for 28 hours longer than we expected. Apparently it snows one day a year in that part of Bolivia. Usually in June or July we were told. However it snowed and snowed and snowed our first day... the 30th April. Many cars turned back, but we kept puttering forward with the hopes we wouldn't have to return to the dreadful Uyuni (surely anyplace would be better than there!!!!) Our wonderful driver Felix navigated us through the salt flats to our first stop, The Fish Island. I foolishly thought it would be in the water, but I was then informed it was once in the water as the salt flats were a giant lake. Now it is just an island in the salt with hundreds of cacti. After hiking around and having some lunch (even a vegetarian one), we went onwards to the salt hostel. This was a warm night and I felt able to strip off one of my many layers (I was able to put on every piece I own, and the llamas socks/leg warmers were a saviour). We had a fabulous multi-lingual car with Spanish, Portuguese, English, and Italian being spoken.

The second day was really when all the snow came in. We kept going and saw some lakes, but Felix looked worry so we put on a barenaked ladies CD and sat back with our fingers crossed that we would make it to the next hostel. We did! Not as nice or as warm as the one made out of salt, but we were at least further away from Uyuni. We had been told when we booked that trip that we would be waking up at 530am, but Felix made our day when he told us that because of the snow we wouldn't have to leave until 8, because IF the border was open it wouldn't be until 12.

The third day we arose and went straight to the thermal baths, where five of us went into the hot water. Getting back into the cold was horrible, and I thought surely I would lose at least one of my limbs. We did it and were on our way again to see some geyers. They were nice to see, but at this point most of us were too cold to get out of the car and just managed to open the windows enough to take some photographs. Those who booked a full tour went back to Uyuni and those of us crossing into Chile went on. We were now composed of two brazilians, a norweiegen, two dutch, and two confused nationality children (being James and I) We made it to the border at elven, and waited nervously (playing a newly learnt dutch game) until the border opened. Twelve came and passed and no bus. The road on the Chilean side was closed (at least someone cares about road safety). This meant we had to go back to the "hostel" 5km away near the entrance to the national park. We were told that it may open at four. We played several hours of cards until four came and went.... the border was still closed. Then we were told 9am the next day. We were given food and huddled together to keep warm. It was FREEZING so we managed to fit four people on a tiny bench. It was warm but rather uncomfortable. After playing EVEN more cards we went to bed thinking we would leave early the next morning.

We awoke the fourth morning, feeling not very refreshed and rather smelly (it had been 4 days since our last shower). At nine the roads were still not opened and we were worried that we would still be stuck. Nobody had the money for another night at the hostel, so we though we would have to sleep in the snow. We played MORE cards then made a football. It was rather sunny, so we couldn't understand why the roads were closed. We were told they were still too dangerous. At four, they opened them and a bus came! We were finally on our way to San Pedro de Atacama, Chile. It could have gone a lot worse. We had a good group and were with a good company. Some people were dumped at the border earlier that day and had to wait outside for several hours, not knowing if the border would be open or not.

Five of us (two dutch guys, a norweigan girl, James and I) checked into a hostel and took some much needed showers. We went out for a wonderful dinner and had our first taste of Chilean wine in Chile. After a late night (later for some), we went to bed ready for a new day.

The next day after some much needed Laundry, Ida (norway) and I rented some bikes and started biking through the desert in search for a El rio de san pedro. We never found it, but did manage to stumble accross some ruins after our picnic of Empanadas. The ruins were rather disappointing and were really just a bit of stone in the ground.

Our second day in San Pedro, James, Ida and I decided to rent some sandboards. We cycled out to some Sandunes and gave them a try. After a few unsuccessful attempts at standing up, I decided mine made a good enough sled and was able to make my way down pretty fast. This was entertaining for about 20 minutes, because the sun was out and walking up sandunes isn't a whole lot of fun. We cycled back to the town and managed to stumble accross the "river" which was really a creek. Our plan had been to shower in the river because we had to check out of our hostel. This was not possible so we returned dusty to San Pedro. The dutch guys had already gone to Argentina, so we said goodbye to Ida and waited for our 730pm bus to La Serena...

...or so we thought. We had really bought tickets for the 700pm bus, which we found out when we arrived at the station at 705. We were told that since we missed it, we could get 50% off our next ticket. It turned out to be cheapest to buy a ticket straight to Santiago. It cost the same as it would have, had we bought it in the first place. So our 15 hour bus, turned into 24. It went smoothly, and I got the best sleep I had had in WEEKS. Got to practice my spanish by watching badly dubbed bad movies and read the entire South East Asia guide book I have been carrying around for months.

We arrived in Santiago and checked into a lovely hostel. Thinking we had no money (neither of us could use our cards), we bought some cheese and bread and to our suprise I found a 20,000 peso note ($20). We spent today walking around, and ringing Natwest. We are staying in Barrio Brasil which is near downtown. Some areas look strangely by home. Especially the area which looks a bit dodgy. Looks very similar to the west way and up near the westbourne park road tube station.

We have payed for a week here. I have a lot to do. My back pack broke, my shoes have hole, and I am slowly losing my underwear (a pair goes missing everytime I get laundry done). I also need to sort out what I am doing with myself. I have changed my flights and will be breezing through New Zealand and Australia getting to SE Asia sooner than I had planned. After a week here, we should be going to Mendoza, Argentina before flying out of Santiago.