18th March
Hey all. Well, so far, lets go with the list of names I have gathered so far, so that I don't forget.
Erika, Hwan, Philip, Philip, Grace and Katie. With that out of the way, Im sure I can start remembering their names.
So all day yesterday, the 17th, all I did was look for the grocery, play Civilization 3 and meet new people. First impressions of Santiago, mornings are bloody cold. But the temperature quickly increases, and with such wide roads, the pollution just floats into the air, obscuring vision. But the architecture of this place is so varied. It has Italian type buildings with arched doorways and decorative walls. It also has modern structures that just rise into the sky, and some weird ones, one that looks like a giant copper turtle.
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Friday, 18 March 2011
Hello Santiago
17th March
Hey everyone. John here. Well, who else right? I'm quite tired as I type this, but not too tired. Just that sleepy kind of tired where I will keep on talking and talking and talking. So I arrived in Santiago by 0630. The bus ride was very nice though, they gave us a pillow and a blanket. Also sandwiches, and it was only like a 7 or 8 hour trip!
The border control was easy to do. Get off the bus, get stamped in the Argentinian line, then the Chilean line. Then I go declare my goods. Thankfully they didn't take my more boyish goods. I think they just looked for food, because they had a sniffer dog.
So I managed to catch around 3 or 4 hours of sleep at most. Getting to the terminal, I had to locate an ATM. Fast enough, got some cash and went to the underground. Now it is only then did I realize how huge Santiago is. The map is bloody huge! I'm sure its bigger than Buenos Aires! So I got the underground to Bal something station, then got a taxi. Cheeky bastard, the hostel was only just round the corner! He could have just told me the directions! But oh well, I was quite tired.
Entering the hostel, footstep backpackers, I was greeted without a bed, as check in time is like 1300 here. So I crashed on the couch, just after I met a new person, Erika, an American teacher. So waking up around 9 30 ish, I was given a bed, breakfast, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and now I'm at the computer. Todays plan is to relax, don't go outside until 1700 to buy dinner and go to sleep.
EDIT
I forgot to mention. When I arrived at the terminal initially in Mendoza to catch my bus, I realized i forgot my trainers! So I had to look for another taxi, go back to the hostel, run inside, get my shoes, run out and rush back to the bus terminal. I still made it though, and I am thankful for withdrawing more money than I needewd previously.
Hey everyone. John here. Well, who else right? I'm quite tired as I type this, but not too tired. Just that sleepy kind of tired where I will keep on talking and talking and talking. So I arrived in Santiago by 0630. The bus ride was very nice though, they gave us a pillow and a blanket. Also sandwiches, and it was only like a 7 or 8 hour trip!
The border control was easy to do. Get off the bus, get stamped in the Argentinian line, then the Chilean line. Then I go declare my goods. Thankfully they didn't take my more boyish goods. I think they just looked for food, because they had a sniffer dog.
So I managed to catch around 3 or 4 hours of sleep at most. Getting to the terminal, I had to locate an ATM. Fast enough, got some cash and went to the underground. Now it is only then did I realize how huge Santiago is. The map is bloody huge! I'm sure its bigger than Buenos Aires! So I got the underground to Bal something station, then got a taxi. Cheeky bastard, the hostel was only just round the corner! He could have just told me the directions! But oh well, I was quite tired.
Entering the hostel, footstep backpackers, I was greeted without a bed, as check in time is like 1300 here. So I crashed on the couch, just after I met a new person, Erika, an American teacher. So waking up around 9 30 ish, I was given a bed, breakfast, brushed my teeth, washed my face, and now I'm at the computer. Todays plan is to relax, don't go outside until 1700 to buy dinner and go to sleep.
EDIT
I forgot to mention. When I arrived at the terminal initially in Mendoza to catch my bus, I realized i forgot my trainers! So I had to look for another taxi, go back to the hostel, run inside, get my shoes, run out and rush back to the bus terminal. I still made it though, and I am thankful for withdrawing more money than I needewd previously.
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Off to Santiago
16th March.
Hello peeps. Today is my last day in Mendoza, and I will be off to Santiago, Chile, at 2230. Its going to be hard adapting to the new culture and country, and Im going to miss Argentina, but alas, I must move on. Im just hoping the border control isnt a bitch and is efficient, so I can be quickly on my way.
For the time being, Im going to eat my food, read my book, paly guitar hero 3 and call my mama.
Oh, something interesting. Today I was reading my book at a bench, and this dog kept on barking at me. Well, not at me. There was another dog sitting next to me, so he was barking at that dog. Weird day.
Hello peeps. Today is my last day in Mendoza, and I will be off to Santiago, Chile, at 2230. Its going to be hard adapting to the new culture and country, and Im going to miss Argentina, but alas, I must move on. Im just hoping the border control isnt a bitch and is efficient, so I can be quickly on my way.
For the time being, Im going to eat my food, read my book, paly guitar hero 3 and call my mama.
Oh, something interesting. Today I was reading my book at a bench, and this dog kept on barking at me. Well, not at me. There was another dog sitting next to me, so he was barking at that dog. Weird day.
Riding drunk!
14th March
Hello everyone. Whats up. So on this day, I went bicycle riding through the wine road, something that is highly recommended for all who ever stays in Mendoza, as Mendoza is famous for its wineries. So taking the bus to Mr Hugo, the bike provider, with Donna, Hilda and Rory, we settled off on the terrible bumpy rocky cracked road.
Our first stop was the futherest and best winery. Capable of producing 200000 litres of wine, but only 100000 due to the aged vine yards, it makes very high quality wine. After a brief tour of the storage, the yard and everything else, we proceded to the wine tasting. Now, I personally hate wine. Wine sucks. But I refuse to waste a drop. So I got to taste 5 types of wine, the rosette, malbec, the malbec and rosette mixed in favour of the malbec, then in favour of the rosette. Then I tried the Malbec one year old in french oak barrel. Its much stronger than the Malbec 6 months in french oak.
After this winery, we arrived at our next winery. A smaller winery, as it still retains its old buildings from before the earthquake. It mainly produces high quality wine rather huge quantities. Being such a traditional winery, it still posess its cellar, allowing natural storage of wine. Here I got to taste 5 wines I think it was. The same as above, but with an addition of a sweet desert type wine.
After drinking so much wine, I started feeling abit woozy. So staying at the winery, I bought an expensive lunch. To be fair, it is my first time eating out in Argentina. This does not include panchos and such. It was chicken in beer something, with rice and salad as a side. It taste much better than I described it.
After wards, we went to the next winery, but here we didnt have to pay for a tour. I just took some grapes, drank a small amount of wine and off we went. Next stop, the one I was looking foward to the most, the chocolate factory. Now, when I thought of this, I thought it be like Willy Wonka. Nope, its mainly chocolate alcohol. So paying a fee, I got to taste many olive variations, such as olives and chilli peppers, sun dried olives, blah blah. After came the spreads, varying from different fruits and the variations of dulche de leche (its the Argentinian special spread only found in this country). After came the shots of alcohol. So I managed to taste chocolate mint, some grape thing, Absenth, Pineapple and coconut, and thats all I remember. So, Im quite sore after the bike ride and yeah...it was pretty awesome.
Hello everyone. Whats up. So on this day, I went bicycle riding through the wine road, something that is highly recommended for all who ever stays in Mendoza, as Mendoza is famous for its wineries. So taking the bus to Mr Hugo, the bike provider, with Donna, Hilda and Rory, we settled off on the terrible bumpy rocky cracked road.
Our first stop was the futherest and best winery. Capable of producing 200000 litres of wine, but only 100000 due to the aged vine yards, it makes very high quality wine. After a brief tour of the storage, the yard and everything else, we proceded to the wine tasting. Now, I personally hate wine. Wine sucks. But I refuse to waste a drop. So I got to taste 5 types of wine, the rosette, malbec, the malbec and rosette mixed in favour of the malbec, then in favour of the rosette. Then I tried the Malbec one year old in french oak barrel. Its much stronger than the Malbec 6 months in french oak.
After this winery, we arrived at our next winery. A smaller winery, as it still retains its old buildings from before the earthquake. It mainly produces high quality wine rather huge quantities. Being such a traditional winery, it still posess its cellar, allowing natural storage of wine. Here I got to taste 5 wines I think it was. The same as above, but with an addition of a sweet desert type wine.
After drinking so much wine, I started feeling abit woozy. So staying at the winery, I bought an expensive lunch. To be fair, it is my first time eating out in Argentina. This does not include panchos and such. It was chicken in beer something, with rice and salad as a side. It taste much better than I described it.
After wards, we went to the next winery, but here we didnt have to pay for a tour. I just took some grapes, drank a small amount of wine and off we went. Next stop, the one I was looking foward to the most, the chocolate factory. Now, when I thought of this, I thought it be like Willy Wonka. Nope, its mainly chocolate alcohol. So paying a fee, I got to taste many olive variations, such as olives and chilli peppers, sun dried olives, blah blah. After came the spreads, varying from different fruits and the variations of dulche de leche (its the Argentinian special spread only found in this country). After came the shots of alcohol. So I managed to taste chocolate mint, some grape thing, Absenth, Pineapple and coconut, and thats all I remember. So, Im quite sore after the bike ride and yeah...it was pretty awesome.
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Lost my phone
AHHHH WHERES MY PHONE! ITS GONE! LOST! I DONT KNOW WHERE IT IS!!
MEMORIIEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
MEMORIIEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
Friday, 11 March 2011
Hangover
11th March
Hey all. I have a hangover. It sucks. So Im just going to list what I did today.
Washed my clothes
Ate food
Went groccery shopping
Finished a Simon Scarrow Book
Going to play some game as I type this
And looking foward to visitng Maipu, an area where the wineries are located. I plan to rent a bike there and cycle through them. Should be fun.
Ah, I was just talking to Sean and Pratik. It seems if I decided not to visit Mendoza, my life would have been at risk as the tidal wave that hit Japan is supposingly going to visit the Coasts of SA, and Chile is on the coast of South America. So lets give that some thought. Did I escape death because I wanted to ride a horse? Was it some sort of divine intervention? Or was it just pure luck?
I reckon its because I wanted to ride a horse and be like a cowboy.
Hey all. I have a hangover. It sucks. So Im just going to list what I did today.
Washed my clothes
Ate food
Went groccery shopping
Finished a Simon Scarrow Book
Going to play some game as I type this
And looking foward to visitng Maipu, an area where the wineries are located. I plan to rent a bike there and cycle through them. Should be fun.
Ah, I was just talking to Sean and Pratik. It seems if I decided not to visit Mendoza, my life would have been at risk as the tidal wave that hit Japan is supposingly going to visit the Coasts of SA, and Chile is on the coast of South America. So lets give that some thought. Did I escape death because I wanted to ride a horse? Was it some sort of divine intervention? Or was it just pure luck?
I reckon its because I wanted to ride a horse and be like a cowboy.
Horse riding!
10th March
The bus ride sucked. Well, waiting for the bus did. My bus to Mendoza was well late, and that does not bond well with the 25kg of back weight I'm carrying. The sandwiches didn't get eaten as well. On another note, I had a spanish conversation with this girl who sat next to me. I must say, I'm fairly surprised I managed a 5 minute conversation.
So I arrived at some unknown time, but it was day light. I didn't know where my hostel was, so I had to use google maps. Dang the thing is useful. So the hostel itself is very nice. Its called Lagras Hostel. More expensive than what I would like, around 6 quid a night, but the staff is so friendly, roomy kitchen, and just a nice vibe.
So I left the hostel, and went locating this activity provider that was recommended on the Lonely Planet. After reaching the supposingly correct address, it turned out to be a perfume shop. A closed one too. So I gave up and returned to the hostel. But on the way, with luck, I managed to find an activity provider, and after a few enquiries, it turned out to be the one I was looking for! So swiftly joining today's horse riding excursion, I returned to the hostel to prepare for the trip.
At 1610, the van came and picked me up. We went up to the mountain ranch, mounted up and rode up the barren lands. We went up steep sides, went down, just general stuff. It was exciting riding the horse though, I even managed to get her running, because naturally I want to be in front of the line. So I directed the horse to the side and trotted foward. Its hard making her run without the full commands, so I generally hit the rump, gave her two kicks and a few clicks and a woop. Yeah, confusing. But it worked. Afterwards, we had BBQ and wine. Unfortuantly I had too much wine, ended up puking and going back to the hostel with a dizzy head.
The bus ride sucked. Well, waiting for the bus did. My bus to Mendoza was well late, and that does not bond well with the 25kg of back weight I'm carrying. The sandwiches didn't get eaten as well. On another note, I had a spanish conversation with this girl who sat next to me. I must say, I'm fairly surprised I managed a 5 minute conversation.
So I arrived at some unknown time, but it was day light. I didn't know where my hostel was, so I had to use google maps. Dang the thing is useful. So the hostel itself is very nice. Its called Lagras Hostel. More expensive than what I would like, around 6 quid a night, but the staff is so friendly, roomy kitchen, and just a nice vibe.
So I left the hostel, and went locating this activity provider that was recommended on the Lonely Planet. After reaching the supposingly correct address, it turned out to be a perfume shop. A closed one too. So I gave up and returned to the hostel. But on the way, with luck, I managed to find an activity provider, and after a few enquiries, it turned out to be the one I was looking for! So swiftly joining today's horse riding excursion, I returned to the hostel to prepare for the trip.
At 1610, the van came and picked me up. We went up to the mountain ranch, mounted up and rode up the barren lands. We went up steep sides, went down, just general stuff. It was exciting riding the horse though, I even managed to get her running, because naturally I want to be in front of the line. So I directed the horse to the side and trotted foward. Its hard making her run without the full commands, so I generally hit the rump, gave her two kicks and a few clicks and a woop. Yeah, confusing. But it worked. Afterwards, we had BBQ and wine. Unfortuantly I had too much wine, ended up puking and going back to the hostel with a dizzy head.
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