Bed bugs, explosions and the biggest hotdog in the world

If they say the golden rule of travelling is to double
the amount of money you think you will need and to
halve the amount of clothes, then I would also say to
add on 50% to the expected journey time when
travelling any where, especially in South America; I
don´t know if it would have still taken 2 and a half
hours to cross the border between Argentina and Chile
had there been more than one window out of five open
and more than one member of staff working, but my
guess is that perhaps not.

So far we´ve put more than 55 bus hours behind us, the
last few by far the most tedious, as the modest
seating compartments afforded very little space and
there was a family of four occupying the two seats
behind us (Chileans carry their kids with them) which
made for constant, sharp kicks on the back of the seat
at 5am.... grrr.

Making our way up to the Northern tip of Chile, a 24
hour journey from the coastal resort of La Serena,
takes the Pan American highway through a never-ending
expanse of desert and salt flats; barren wasteland for
as far as the eye can see, with steep canyons and an
endless horizon. I´ve never seen star constellations
so clear and awe-inspiring.

It´s a little over a week since we left and it´s hard
to believe the distance we´ve covered in that time.
First stop was wine country, Mendoza, where we
indulged in the finest wines, drinking in the aromas
and flavours, commenting on the full-bodiedness of the
grape, as if we knew what we were talking about, and
then sheepishly ordered one bottle... the cheapest
they have.

Then into Chile, where the habbit of speaking as if
(as Matias so eloquently puts it) someone were
"squeezing their balls", has caused some confusion and
led to the sampling of some curious, unexpected and
yet delightful foods... such as the largest hot dog in
the world, stacked four inches high with avacado,
mayonaise, tomato and whatever else you desire ( or
say yes to without realising). This is the land of the
avocados; they grow on trees (sorry couldn´t resist ;)

Valpariaso was an interesting stop. City where stray
dogs roam free in the streets, ramshackle buildings
slide down the hills into the port below, and
sidewalks stained grey with the colour of age. Sadly,
we ended up calling it "city of the explosions", as
its state of disrepair saw more than one serious
explosion in the short time we were there. As we left
they were still rescuing people from the ashes of a
collapsed builing, which caught fire after a gas leak.

Very far from there now, after a day of relaxing on
the beach and contemplating the crossing to Peru, I
thought I´d write and update you all. It´s been an
amazing trip so far... In 8 days, I´ve crossed half
the continent, gotten very good at beach racket and
ball, been eaten alive by bed bugs, participated in
enlightening debates about Chilean politics, crossed
the desert, and even watched my first American
superbowl. Ahh the open road, never fails to surprise.