Hi,

Have now arrived in South America after a week in Melbourne, mostly spent in the company of my brother Donald. The weather was not spectacular but after Thailand anywhere cooler was welcome. Apart from a serious catch up we also managed to get down to the coast and into the Yarra valley wine region. In the latter the autumnal colours provided spectacular contrasts and hopefully some good photos, which will be added to the website in due course. Thanks to all of you who gave me feedback on the site and it's contents.

Have now spent nearly a week in Chile, based in Santiago. Even after all the travelling to date it is still really thrilling to experience a continent for the first time. Santiago seems to have a very European feel, quite similar to Spain. Santiago experienced a major earthquake at the beginning of the 20th Century and the centre is a mixture of late 19th Century buildings combined with the newer styles from last century. One particular contrast on the main square is a baroque cathedral next door to a stylish modern glass and steel structure.

I saw the changing of the guard at Palacio de la Moneda in Constitution Square. This is where Allende committed suicide in 1973 after being offered a safe passage out during the Generals coup leading to the rule of Pinochet. There is a statue of Allende overlooking the square.

The city is in a fairly spectacular setting. There are two main hills in the city and both provide good views. The smaller is a massive lump of rock right in the city decorated with terraces of a Gaudiesque quality. The higher hill looking onto the city has a huge virgin mary statue atop it and below you can see the city with a backdrop of the snow capped Andes, which are the highest mountain range in the world after the Himalayas. On the downside, the smog from the city obscures the view considerably.

The hostel where I'm staying is very convivial and has provided good company for the solo traveller. Have spent most of my time here with Neil from Plymouth, Andrew from Aberdeen, Rob from Salzburg, Stacey from Auckland and John from Luton. Hopefully some of us will meet up again later in the South American leg.

The Chilean food is not outstanding. Although the basic ingredients are of high quality the seasoning seems to lack imagination. The wines here however, are probably the best on the Continent and very affordable, probably circa 4 quid for a good red in a restaurant and about two quid in the supermarket.

On Monday a group of us took a trip down to the coast. This was about an hour and a half each way on the bus and cost four pounds sixty pence return. We arrived in Valparaiso, which is one of the biggest ports in South America. I was only familiar with it from the words of an old Irish sea shanty. The last line of the chorus is 'and we're bound for Valparaiso round the Horn!' Like many ports the city was typically gritty and seedy, providing a huge contrast from downtown Santiago, where we had come from. The shops were amazing. Sawdust on the floors and old fashioned displays of tinned foods gave some of them the feel of a grocers shop during rationing in the last world war. There was even one called Presto. This is a bad place for pickpockets and one of the company did get a notebook removed from his bag during the day (thankfully, only with some travel details in it).

Despite having left Santiago under sunny conditions, the sun didn't come out on the coast and we were unable to see the hills above the city. We caught a train fifteen minutes up the coast to Vina Del Mar, which is a more upmarket resort. This is the winter season however, so we were met with the sight of huge hotels lying empty and the beaches deserted. The temperature was even lower than in Valparaiso.

We decided on a walk along the front to a pier and were adopted by a stray dog I had said hello to. He started accompanying us and another older dog joined up as well. The first dog was a real character and if he fell behind would come racing up as if worried he had lost us. After following us onto the pier and back we decided to head for the town centre. By this time he obviously felt very much involved and took to aggressively defending us by confronting people coming towards us. He only challenged males and seemed to be much more irate if they were dressed with red tops. It was becoming embarrassing. We were moving into a more upmarket part of the town and both dogs were charging alongside the group, jumping hedges into well manicured gardens and drinking water from fountains, amongst other waste disposal activities. One thing that identified the dog even more with our group was his willingness to accept orders. One well dressed city gent cowered behind his briefcase at the barking stray dog and I shouted on the dog to move away. Bob (which is what we called the dog) looked back at me and then moved on obediently to merely confront the next approaching male. The business man looked at me in a bemused manner as we went past him, but I was no wiser than him as to why the dog was taking orders from me. Fortunate for him nonetheless! Next up Nigel from our group decided to visit a McDonalds to use the loo and the dog swaggered into the joint behind him. We were getting worried Bob would get knocked down crossing so many streets with us, but after I had shouted at him not to cross one dual carriageway, he looked at me for instructions on all the other crossings and obeyed all necessary commands. All in all the dog, having not been petted or given food, spent the best part of two hours with us, providing much entertainment. Eventually he did meet someone with food and so we parted company having had visions of him heading back to Valparaiso with us on the train.

Other Santiago stuff: Visited the house of Pablo Neruda the Chilean poet and communist who won the Nobel Prize in 1971 for writing a history of South America in poetic form. He was a collector of artifacts on his travels abroad and his house provides a fascinating collection of things from all over the world, now restored after being wrecked by the fascists when they took power. Haven't read much of his poetry but some is even more verbose than my emails. In fairness, his love poetry is highly rated and I'm told was well cribbed by South American males in the days when letter writing formed a part of courtship.

Anyway, end of the first country visited in South America. I felt a bit sluggish after the Asian leg, but this week has blown all the cobwebs away and I'm really looking forward to arriving in Peru tomorrow and hitting the Inca Trail and Macchu Picchu next week. Will write more from Cuzco next week.

Thanks a million once again for all your emails. Please keep writing.

Yours aye

Murdo