Hola!

We are now in Mendoza in Argentina. We landed in Chile on Monday, and have been pretty jet lagged as we left Auckland at 5.30pm Monday and arrived in Santiago at 12 midday, 5 1/2 hours before we left! Tried to stay up as late as possible to introduce some normality but Betty crashed out about 7.30 and I made it until about 9pm. Santiago was a bit strange and as we hadn´t really planned anything to see, we just spent the afternoon booking our bus tickets. Had been told there isn´t really that much there and it´s quite expensive but do feel a bit bad about not staying a little longer (we were also interviewed by the Chilean tourist board on our way out - they were impressed). Anyhow, we took a bus the following morning across the border. The route is literally through the Andes so it´s pretty incredible. Here in Mendoza we had planned to do a Spanish course to aid us with the rest of our trip but are now finiding it expensive to do and would involve us spending about 2 weeks in Mendoza. Fair enough not big problems to have, but a bit of a headache especially with a hangover - on a Wednesday!. We went out to check out the town last night, found out you get 6 pesos to the pound and somewhat overcelebrated ( a litre of beer is 5!) . Language difficulties also played a part resulting in me getting a 3/4 litre bottle of beer and Betty and entire bottle of wine. From then on things assume a life all their own.

Argentina is pretty cool though, the mountains are looming in the distance and I think we want to plan some wine tours and rafting. I´m tempted to try to climb a 7000m Mountain (the highest in the Andes) but we´ll have to see. We may pop back into Chile and are really not too sure what we are going to do so will need to start looking at the guide. After the extensive planning that went into Thailand it´s a little odd. Where are those 3 months on the Internet when you need them ;)

I´m kind of struggling with my complete lack of Spanish. Just managed to get a haircut with the use of my fingers and nodding. Betty is having a Spanish lesson as she seems like our only hope for meaningful communication here as I am a lost cause and need to safeguard all that swedish I have learnt. Is a bit strange here after the ease of NZ and especially as we spent the last week or so with friends and now it´s just me and B again in a strange place where no one seems to speak any English. Fair enough, it´s a long way away and why should they. Haven´t done a lot of planning for this bit either so it´s kind of disorientating in that we don´t know what we are supposed to be seeing or doing. Am sure we will muddle through.

Later....

We have decided to move on from Mendoza. We did an afternoon wine tour but decided not to do rafting as we heard the rivers are pretty low. We are off further north to Salta to see what is available there and as it is supposed to be a very beautiful city, ´Salta the Fair´, indeed. From then maybe on into Bolivia which all seems a little scary but much closer to the traveeling experience we were after. Just need to get kitted out with our 6 guns, sombreros and ponchos and we are ready to go!

Let us know all your news!

Take care.

Hasta Luega.

love Betty and Paul.