I figured since we were home now we should finish off our trip..Basically we spent the last few days touring around santiago, visiting wineries, trying to drink as much cheap wine as we could before we left and of course, eating hot dogs.
END OF STORY.
We have been home a week and as usual, things have returned to normal pretty quickly. Di and Marc are still downstairs and Laura upstairs so its been fun. We will miss the Binks when they move to their house..tonight???!!!! so sad.....
HOW WILL FINN LIVE WITHOUT KENT????
In other unrelated news, Chris has still not cut his hair.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Monday, September 25, 2006
Soccer Game
Last night we went to a soccer game in Santiago between two Chilean first division clubs. It was held in the 80,000 person national stadium, this place used to be a prison during the time Pinocea took control of Chile in the 70´s, there is barbed wire, and heavy metal gates everywhere, its also in the slum district so the place defintily has atmosphere.
Tickets were very resonable at about $6 dollars but they we´re general admission. We were happy about all the police on horses outside the stadium but we´re surprised that they didn´t sell beer at the stadium, we soon learned why.
The game was great in the first half and the home team was leading 1 nothing. The only weird thing was the riot police in full garb ringing the field in groups of 4. These weren´t your parents 60´s riot police either, they were equiped with full lucite shield, helmets, leg and arm protection and tear gas.
During half time the riots started. People started tearing the benches apart, they were wood, and throwing them at the riot police, then they broke through the fence to the field and ran onto it, at that point the riot police poured out of every entrance and chased the fans around. All the while the crowd cheered on the hooligans including the families with children.
Marla wanted to leave if any of the families around us started leaving as well. Thankfully the soccer game started up again and the crowd seemed to loose interest after the home team was scored on and they conceeded an own goal.
After the game, everyone left the stadium immediatly so we followed their lead. We´ve got some really cool video´s of the whole thing, complete with flares and paint bombs going off.
Good times!!!
Tickets were very resonable at about $6 dollars but they we´re general admission. We were happy about all the police on horses outside the stadium but we´re surprised that they didn´t sell beer at the stadium, we soon learned why.
The game was great in the first half and the home team was leading 1 nothing. The only weird thing was the riot police in full garb ringing the field in groups of 4. These weren´t your parents 60´s riot police either, they were equiped with full lucite shield, helmets, leg and arm protection and tear gas.
During half time the riots started. People started tearing the benches apart, they were wood, and throwing them at the riot police, then they broke through the fence to the field and ran onto it, at that point the riot police poured out of every entrance and chased the fans around. All the while the crowd cheered on the hooligans including the families with children.
Marla wanted to leave if any of the families around us started leaving as well. Thankfully the soccer game started up again and the crowd seemed to loose interest after the home team was scored on and they conceeded an own goal.
After the game, everyone left the stadium immediatly so we followed their lead. We´ve got some really cool video´s of the whole thing, complete with flares and paint bombs going off.
Good times!!!
Friday, September 22, 2006
Touring Santiago
Well we´ve been in Santiago for the last few days. It has been fun. Instead of going from small town to small town around Santiago we have been doing day trips to places and staying in Santiago at night.
Yesterday we went to the beach town of Vina del Mar. Its kind of like Grand Bend for Chileans, or Muskoka if your in Toronto. Evidently all the Chileans flood here in the summer, even the president has a beach house here, we know because we saw it.
We´re busy trying to book some winery tours but this is surprisingly hard for a place that produces so much wine, no one is getting back to us and they all want 2 days notice for a tour so we´re just going to start showing up at places and demanding to drink.
We´ll see what happens!!
Yesterday we went to the beach town of Vina del Mar. Its kind of like Grand Bend for Chileans, or Muskoka if your in Toronto. Evidently all the Chileans flood here in the summer, even the president has a beach house here, we know because we saw it.
We´re busy trying to book some winery tours but this is surprisingly hard for a place that produces so much wine, no one is getting back to us and they all want 2 days notice for a tour so we´re just going to start showing up at places and demanding to drink.
We´ll see what happens!!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Up-to-date Photo´s
Photo Redux
Finally Photos
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
not so clear chile skys
We are back in good ol La Serena..
what a waste! we make reservations for the big observatory here, take a bus to this tiny town all to go to see the stars. Yesterday afternoon we went to the observatory office to make sure all was good for the night tour and they said yes no problem!!
So we go back at 10 pm (strom and richie can attest to this, as we had to sadly leave a messenger session where we were having a good time making fun of strom and loving amy´s harlequin covers). Richie, how is that for detail!
Anyhoo, we go back and they tell us that we were not going to the observatory. They may have given us a reason but as our spanish is very limited we do not know what it was. We figured it was either the sky was not clear enough, there were not enough people, or they did not want to waste time on english tourists.
So basically our trip to Vicuña was a big bust, and because of it we could not get a bus to Valpraiso tomorrow so we have to go to Santiago and backtrack. To make the bus trip tomorrow even more exciting, we got the last 2 seats again, yes, you guessed it right next to the toilets.. good times..
what a waste! we make reservations for the big observatory here, take a bus to this tiny town all to go to see the stars. Yesterday afternoon we went to the observatory office to make sure all was good for the night tour and they said yes no problem!!
So we go back at 10 pm (strom and richie can attest to this, as we had to sadly leave a messenger session where we were having a good time making fun of strom and loving amy´s harlequin covers). Richie, how is that for detail!
Anyhoo, we go back and they tell us that we were not going to the observatory. They may have given us a reason but as our spanish is very limited we do not know what it was. We figured it was either the sky was not clear enough, there were not enough people, or they did not want to waste time on english tourists.
So basically our trip to Vicuña was a big bust, and because of it we could not get a bus to Valpraiso tomorrow so we have to go to Santiago and backtrack. To make the bus trip tomorrow even more exciting, we got the last 2 seats again, yes, you guessed it right next to the toilets.. good times..
Monday, September 18, 2006
Partying with the locals
Last night we took a local bus from La Serena to Coquimba. Its one of Chile´s biggest parties, called La Pampilla. Its like woodstock or Glaustenberry. There are tents setup to sell everything from hardware to underwear to candy apples.
Evidently all the biggest south american bands come here to play but we didn´t recognize any of them, the bands we heard played almost exclusively local music.
Beers were only $1 a piece and the ticket to get in was $1.50 so it was pretty cheap. They also had almost any meat you´d want to eat there. We´ll post some pictures later of it.
It was fun!
Evidently all the biggest south american bands come here to play but we didn´t recognize any of them, the bands we heard played almost exclusively local music.
Beers were only $1 a piece and the ticket to get in was $1.50 so it was pretty cheap. They also had almost any meat you´d want to eat there. We´ll post some pictures later of it.
It was fun!
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Site seeing in La Serena
After a night bus where we sat beside the bathroom, not the best seats:), we arrived in La Serena Chile. It´s probably the nicest city we´ve been in since we started travelling, it may put some North American cities to shame.
Tonight there is a big tent party, beer tent, for the Independence week so we´ll hit that and then tomorrow we are off to the observatory for a night veiwing!
We were accosted by 2 gypsy girls in Antofagasta who wanted money to read Marla´s palm. But Marla thought they were too aggresive so we had to run from them, we´re OK, don´t worry!!
Tonight there is a big tent party, beer tent, for the Independence week so we´ll hit that and then tomorrow we are off to the observatory for a night veiwing!
We were accosted by 2 gypsy girls in Antofagasta who wanted money to read Marla´s palm. But Marla thought they were too aggresive so we had to run from them, we´re OK, don´t worry!!
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