Hi All,

Our last 2 weeks in South America were excellent. We were lucky enough to get an earlier flight from cold Punta Arenas to warm Santiago. It was very nice to stay in the same place for one whole week. We got to know our way around the city, chat with other backpackers and just take it easy in general. We had an excellent time at Don Santiago Hostel, a real party hostel. To make sure you know at what kind of hostel you are, they put earplugs on your pillow when you arrive. And yep we needed them alright. The best night out we had was when we went to the Manu Chao concert at the Velodrome. Together with 20.000 crazy Chileans we were singing, dancing and jumping for more than 3 hours.

The city of Santiago is surrounded by vineyards and the Andes range. Together with Henri Bloem, a Dutch wine distributor, we arranged an interview at one of the finest wineries in the Maipo Valley called bodega De Martino. The winemaker Eduardo made sure we had a great day. He gave us a presentation about wines in Chili, their challenges of making wine and had us taste some of their finest bottles. If Henri Bloem likes our report, they will put it on their website. In any case, we had a great day.

After Santiago we had an amazing bus ride to Mendoza in Argentina. Straight through the Andes from 500 meters above sea level to almost 4000 meters and then down again to 750 meters in Mendoza. This was for sure one of the most beautiful bus rides we have had so far. Mendoza is a nice and relaxed city. They have the biggest city park of South America and it's filled with running fit and nice looking Argentineans. After a couple of days cycling around the vineyards, we had an interview at bodega Pascal Toso. There we met the chief winemaker and tasted all their wines. Tasting 16 wines in a few hours is something not to been taken lightly. If you don't spit out the wines, you'll get drunk and might miss the "spitting bucket" which is not very charming. So we spat and spat until our bucket was almost full. However with the really expensive and nice wines you fake the spitting. Just kidding you don't fake, you just enjoy!

We had our last delicious Argentinean steak and went back again to Chile where we spent our last South American day on the coastal city of Valparaiso. It had a very artsy feel with brightly coloured houses and lots of art galleries and street art. After a sinterklaas skype session, we took our bus to the airport and are now ready for a 13 hour flight to Auckland.

Until the next blog from the land of the kiwis!

Harald & Sylvie