Since the awesome airport rendez-vous we have:

- treated (or forced upon) our Santiago couchsurfing hosts a pavlova. The finished product was not bad (if you ignore the pancake-like flatness) although it is questionable as to whether it was worth the 2 1/2 hours, no exaggeration, of egg beating by hand... Alice and I, now probably both have bulging muscleman arms thanks to this exercise and also a new found respect for those who lived in pre electic beater times...

- bused our way over the Andes to get to Mendoza, Argentina. Alice was tempted to get off in the super cute little smaller-than-a-village villages while I remained too frozen to consider such exertions wrapped up in my thermal liner and wearing about 6 layers of clothes...

- had an interesting insight into the 'tipping' process at the fresh produce declaring part of the border crossing. Definitely not the same as New Zealand's terrifying sniffer dog filled customs area!

- decided to spend a day actually doing something (as a change from the sleeping and eating pattern) so went on a day trip to Uspallata, where 7 Years in Tibet was filmed. We lasted about one hour on our planned 4 hour hike before the shade and cold bottles of water of town drew us back. While my sister was not suprised by the intense dryness of the surroundings I was gutted - not only did we not see Brad Pitt but my image of a lush mountain-filled Tibet was shattered!

- spent 26 hours on a bus from Mendoza to Montevideo, Uruguay. As I seem to compare all buses to transport in Africa this bus was AMAZING! Reclining seats, air con (e.g. arctic temperatures), free tea and coffee... I slept much better than on a plane. Would have been more ideal if the movies playing hadn't had the volume on full blast and also if their choice of movie at 1am had been a bit more soothing... somehow waking up to the sound of loud bangs and the sight of a gun emerging from the screen is not quite the sleep creater you may imagine. And no matter how thrilling 'Rightious Kill' is, they definitely didn't need to play it twice in a row!

- arrived in Montevideo to find out hostel was 2 blocks from a suprisingly nice golden beach. Loved the hostel with its ridiculously comfy beds and array of free stuff, from breakfast and loquats to yoga classes in the outside pattio - awesome!