SMELLY PELICANS, BOLSHY BEGGARS AND MR PISTACHIO!!.. We arrived in Vina Del Mar under a massive cloud, not the lovely blue skies we had expected. Our hostel was perched very close to the edge, teetering right on top of a hill and looked very spanish conquistadory as did most of the buildings on top of the hill. Apparently Vina Del Mar was devastated and flattened by a powerful earth quake at the turn of the last century so all the wealthy tradesmen decide...

THE DAY WE HAD 'R' NARNA'S NICKED!!!!..... So there we were at another border crossing, this time somewhere in the icy Andes. Why they put a border crossing on top of a freezing mountain when on the Argentinian side and the Chilean side there is generally beautiful sunshine just defies logic!! ...maybe they get sick of the burning heat and like a bit of frost? Anyway there we were in the longest queue ever waiting to get stamped with an icy blizzard blowi...

TASMANIAN DEVILS, WILLY WONKER AND BIG DENTED BOTTOMS!!.... The journey out of Buenos Aries to Mendoza was probably the best bus journey yet. Comfy seats, good food, blankets, film (in English) and the company of an old (she probably wasn't old, just another person who had ignored the need for sunscreen!) Tasmanian lady who had been travelling for years on her own. She seemed to have been everywhere the world could offer. She had decided against going t...

BUENOS AIRES.......Part 2 Everywhere you turn in Buenos Aires you will find a tribute or a reminder of Eva Peron. We decided to visit the Evita museum and see what all the fuss was about. I only had the hyped up Madonna film (which I have never watched) and Rice/Lloyd Webber songs as a frame of reference. (I can remember Norm, my welsh step dad, singing 'Don't Cry for Me Aberystwth' when it first came out) As we wondered around the exhibition (humming the...

GOOD AIR.???!!! ..(BUENOS AIRES) Part one........... Having spent just one day under a grey cloud in Montevideo we decided on a bus and boat journey to Buenos Aires. The bus this time was painless and fairly comfy and just 3 hours to Colonia then a one hour boat trip to the port at Buenos Aires. At the bus station we met a young girl called Valentina from Montevideo who helped us with a few translations and then ended up sharing the journey with us. She was ...