Hola South America!

We finally arrived into Santiago, Chile after an extremely long flight. What made the flight so strange was the fact that we landed in Auckland (from Christchurch) at 11am on the 30th and arrived at the same time on the same date in Chile! How does that happen! We were actually in the 30th September for a total of 42 hours. VERY long day. After we arrived we could not sleep so we decided to venture out on the streets to sample a little piece of Santiago. What we didn't realise is that the people of Chile like to drink during the day....everyday! There seemed to be street parties everywhere. People sitting with friends eating and drinking for the day. Oh and you obviously can't have a street party without some music.....

At this point the 5 became 4, as Darragh hopped off on a 30 hour bus across the continent to meet Anne-Marie for a few weeks. Next stop for the rest of us was Valparaiso, which some of you may recognise from an old Irish poem by Pádraig de Brún (Thanaig Long o Valpariso..."), and was an important transport hub back in the day. But once the Panama canal was finished, it ceasd to be and nowadays is just a regular town. We didn´t think it was a very nice spot and didn´t venture out at night. We got the feeling from walking around during the day that it may be safer to stay indoors after dark! However, we stayed in a nice hostel where we got our first chance to cook steak for dinner. As Darragh would say "Uummbelievable!" The best thing about South America is you can go to a butcher and buy a huge steak for one euro! We left for Mendoza, Argentina after a couple of days in Valparaiso. It was a long bus trip over the Andes. At one point the bus went through a tunnel that went under a ski slope. Very bizarre. Check out the hairpins on the road below, I spot a potential Top Gear special.

My head nearly exploded with the altitude pressure. No joke! All the lads thought it was funny. A headache followed for the next couple of days...and yes the lads still found it funny!! However, the trip wasn´t that bad as we got to see some great views of the Andes. Oh and Argentinian immigration also have a problem with Conor (as did Malaysian). I definately think there´s another side to this man.

Our first stop in Argentina was Mendoza which was a nice little town famous for its wine, particularly Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignons. You may remember from a previous blog, the wine tour we did via a minibus in Australia. This time however, as the land was so flat we decided to do the trip by bike. So off we set one sunny morning, out to a bit of a local cult hero called Mr.Hugo who gave us a map of the local wineries, mountain bikes and wished us on our way. The wine was a bit different to the Australia tour. Surprisingly it was about as expensive (about 5 euro per winery), but what you got for your money was much better. Some of the vintage wines were amazing, some 8 or 9 years old which makes for some very good tasting. After cycling (about 18k) we were ready to head home, when a local policeman decided we´d had too much and escorted us all the way home to be safe.

Mr.Hugo was delighted to see all his bikes back in one piece and was greeting

us with wine back at his hut before sending us all back to town on the bus. Very enjoyable day.

When we arrived in Cordoba we stayed in probably the worst hostel ever. All the hostels were booked up (Bank Holiday Weekend) so we were stuck with what we had! In our room we had a double bed, a single and a mattress on the floor. We had no floor space as the beds took up the room. We thought we had it bad until we realised people were sleeping in the hallways and common areas, in tents on the roof of the building and yes, even on the pool table! We gave some feedback on hostelworld...lets just say we didn't hold back! We went to Oktoberfest just outside Cordoba in a town called Belgrano. The town is made up of German descendants. Nice town ( we actually thought we were back in Germany) but the weather did not hold up. It started raining for the entire day. We got soaked from head to toe. People ended up having mud fights which as you know always ends well! Getting a drink was an interesting experience. First off you had to buy a glass (well big cup - the bigger the better). Then you had to get it measured at the bar to see how many ml´s of beer you needed and finally you went to the bar to pick out your tipple of choice. Fun day though.Basically a big stage was set up, and each country was given a half hour slot to showcase their talents. The Ukrainian act was impressive, as was the Scottich Highland dancers. The Iraqi show wouldn´t have gone down well in America to say the least. The Mexicans stole the show with their lads - 2 guys in sombreros singing some very popular latin american songs.

We attempted to stop off in Rosario but landed on the Sunday of the bank holiday weekend. After 8 hours of looking for a place to stay (I reckon we tried about 20 places), we decided to give up and just get a sleeper bus to Buenos Aires. Darragh made it with Anne-Marie tho so he can add a bit about it later.

So eventually we landed in Buenos Aires to study spanish. YES back to school for us...