We left you as we were crossing the border into Argentina, and didnt arrive to Salta until fairly late that evening. we decided to hang out at the hostel, and basically fall asleep.
The next day we got up and went for a walk around Salta and ended up at the cable cars. the city is so vastly different to what we were used to everywhere else in South America, especially Bolivia. It was alot more modern and reminded me somewhat of some places in Melbourne, so it felt alot more like home than anywhere else we had been.
The view from the top of the cable cars made us realise how huge Salta actually was and the park up the top was so pretty with little fountains and so much green. it has been a while since we had seen so much green.
We walked down the mountain instead of taking the cable car, and being that we were alot closer to sea level than we had been for so long (yipee!) it became increasingly hot in terms of temperature. We walked around the city for a bit longer, stopped in at a mall (been a while since we saw one of those!) and sadly we got maccas for lunch...we couldnt resist, it had been a long trip and we were starving. We then went for a walk to the main square of town, and poor Aiofe on our tour fell off the curb and has sprained her ankle quite badly....seriously what is with people on this tour and injuring/breaking their feet so badly?? this was person number 4!
Emma, Sally and I got seperated from everyone and tried out our terribly spanish trying to figure out where we were and where we wanted to go. The policeman had no idea what we were saying, so we gave up and opted for icecream. what a healthy day so far! we made our way back to the main square and found the others having some wine, and decided to head to the markets to buy our Kris Kringle presents (we thought it would be fun for everyone to have something to unwrap on our fake christmas day).
We ended up going back to the mall and having some success in buying presents before retiring back at our hostel, and found the boys drinking by the pool. By dinner time (aka, 10pm) we were hungry again and headed out to find a nice resteraunt. we ended up at italian, and i was sitting at a table with Corry, Steph and Lauren. This provided so much amusement that i wet my pants...literally, but not in the way you are thinking....i have bladder control thankyou very much!
AFTER drinking a faaaaair too much sangria and ordering some ridiculous looking/tasting pizza we decided that the most mature thing to do would be to throw glazed cherries at each other... it seemed like a great idea at the time, and looking back on it, i still think it was a great idea. While Lauren pretended to be one of those carnival clowns with its mouth opened, Corry tried to throw cherries into her mouth from the other side. after many failed attempts he managed to get it down her top instead, she picked it out and threw it back at him in shock, and...... IT LANDED IN HIS MOUTH!!! he was laughing so hard that his mouth was wide open, and it went straight in. the beauty of this was that i caught it all on video also. o so funny, but perhaps it was a drunk "you had to be there" kind of moment.
So i had just poured another glass of sangria, and at that moment a bug flew straight into my face, i jumped and poured the sangria ALL over my self. thus making my dress and pants went...and my face....and pretty much every other inch of me. I am so so classy, you would be proud.
ALAS, there was nothing to be done except for to go to a place where everyone smells like booze. yep, we headed to the bars, soaking wet.
The first bar we went to we sat and had a couple of drinks (boy do they make the drinks strong here, 3/4 of the glass is rum, and 1/4 is coke..no joke) and we decided the best idea from here on out was.... KAREOKE!!!!
Off to the kareoke bar we went, sat and drank some more, and the boys got up for a rendition of "i come from a land down under" before the girls got up and we sang "girls just want to have fun". i beleive we will be receiving a grammy at any moment for our prize winning performance....aaaaaaaany moment now......... *awkward turtle*
There was a bit of a cat fight happening between the kiwi boys about the kareoke, but they kissed and cuddled and made up (minus the kissing and cuddling....or did they....???) and we ended up crawling into bed at about 4am.
We had to get up reasonably early, and slightly hung over to go horse riding on Christmas day (our celebration two days earlier). we went up into the mountains, all hopped on our horses and went for a ride. My horse this time was a bit wild at heart but not the one that everyone feared...his name was something like mostaza, but i decided he was called mofasa instead. the views were so pretty (as always) and this time there was alot more oppurtunity to gallop.....which i did....often....and managed to stay on the horse. woohoo. It was so much fun to gallop through the paddocks and around the mountains, and was quite freeing to be going so fast. however trotting was a tad uncomfortable...ouch for my boobs! hahahaha. too much info? nah, you love it.
We got back in the arvo and had a well deserved shower, and Lauren had gone to the supermarket and supplied us all with cheeses and dips and nuts and fruits and cakes, and it was oh so delicious. now this was starting to feel like christmas! We snacked on lots of goodies, and hung by the pool drinking our malbec (hey, when in argentina) and we were all in our sunday bests primped up for our groups christmas dinner...when i was pulled into the pool, clothes and all. ok true, i didnt really resist a whole lot, but i did end up wet again. So we danced and frollicked in the water for a while, before trying to find another dress to wear for the dinner. we managed it though, and once we were dry we drank some more wine, and all settled around the dinner table.
The hostel we were staying at put on a huge bbq and set the table for us, and gave us all a huge christmas dinner, with argentinian steak (which was yum, except i like mine well done, and this was medium so i didnt eat a whole lot of it ) plus other meats and salads and potatoes!! Potatoes became the funniest word for us that night, as we have an irish girl on the tour currently, and she provides us with all the best sayings, such as "oh christ on a bike!" "lets get wankered!" (meaning drunk) and anything about potatoes. for the night we decided that potatoes was her zweite forenamme...or however u spell it, hehe. she also speaks german for all of you playing at home.
AFTER dinner we sat and exchanged our KK presents, and i got some lovely earrings and forrero rochers (my favourite!) and sally received some earrings also and little local trinkets. other presents included toilet paper that declared love all over it, a spiderman backpack aaaaaaaand a nappy...boys will be boys, and always put so much thought into their presents, lol.
We decided since we were all dressed up that we would go out again to the dance clubs, and went with a few of the locals that our guide knew, and got our boogy on. Bit of salsa dancing, and swing dancing, and Vicki and Tim hooking up (did not see that coming)and more drinking, and finally falling into bed at around 4:30am and me having to get up at 7:30am to skype the family for christmas eve their time...yeah you better appreciate that, i hadnt slept much for two days hahaha. It was ok, because that day we had a bus journey to get to mendoza....a 20 hour bus to Mendoza, which i spent sleeping the entire way. yep, the entire way, obviously needed the sleep!
The next day was really christmas day, and we arrived around midday and went to our hostel....buuut no one was home. so we spent the day hanging out the front for a while, eating christmas cake, watching the boys play cricket...hey it kind of was like an australian christmas! we had to move to another hostel, and then spent the rest of the evening lying in the park, relaxing with fairy floss, and i bought a barney the dinosaur bubble blower which provided lots of fun...until i got bubble stuff in my eye...ouch :( and i thought barney loved me! We wandered around the night markets after some dinner and went to bed.
BEING boxing day the next day everything was still shut, so we went to thermal baths, and swimming pools in the mountain area. it was so nice, but so hot and we all got a little burnt, as we were there for the entire day, but it was relaxing. apparently over here you are not allowed to wear boardshorts...the girls arent anyway, we kept getting told off by the life guards, and they would be like ¨no shorts, bikinis only!¨so we kept swimming somewhere else until we got caught by another guard...silly rule really!!
We got stuck on the bus back to town though until 10:30pm as there was such bad traffic, and we didnt get to go out to dinner until midnight, but hey, in argentina, they dont eat until that late. most people got a big juicy argentinian steak, and ofcourse wine, and just spent the evening chatting and drinking and having fun. we didnt get home until about 3am, and crashed after a long day.
Our third day in mendoza was spent wandering around in the morning, and sally and i stopped for coffee in a nice part of town (seriously, i really love mendoza, i could live there!) and we then headed off to a wine tour in the afternoon. we went to a big winery and tried a few of their specialties (and played silly games with their giant wine statues, hehe woops), before heading to an organic, small family run winery which was so pretty, and the wine was so good, so we bought a bottle. our next stop was to an olive oil factory where we got to try some of the nicest olive oils, my favourite was one that was infused with rosemary, so i bought a small bottle (dont use it for pizza this time sharnee!). we next went to a chocolate/ alcohol/jam factory. it made some delicious chocolates, and jams (my favourite was a mango and orange one... YUM!) and got to ry some of the home made absinthes and other alcoholic drinks. i bought a small bottle of this delicious pink drink, and sally bought some absinthe! we then headed back to our hostel, packed our bags, and lauren had bought some more cheese and cracker platters and we sat in the dining area eating and drinking some of our new purchases before heading out to dinner on our last night with two of the people from our tour. it was sad to say goodbye to tim and emma as they both were wicked people, but they were to go to buenos aires and party it up.
The next morning was an early morning as we had to catch another bus to santiago, chile!
There was the usual such as customs, and passport checking and long windy bus rides!
We got into santiago in the arvo and a few of us who were starving headed off for a wander through town to find some food. santiago is such a big city, and we went up another cable car to admire the view and see another statue of a virgin. soooo many virgins! (i should also mention now that alot of "thats what she saids" happen on this trip.) we also found a really really pretty park that had old style palace-like buildings that we went for a walk through. there were fountains, and big trees and the park was pretty much full of couples having a snog-fest. clearly the romantic spot to be at sunset! we headed back to our hostel, and went out for dinner in a modern area of town before going out dancing at a local bar/club. many many creepy guys there that you had to avoid, and a few glasses being broken that night, and we made our way to bed at about 4am...so many late nights, haha.
We were then off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of oz.....oh wait...no that didn´t happen... my bad, now i have ruined the flow of this entire blog (bear with me, i saved the blog last night and have now come back after new years eve to write this in a slightly sleep deprived and hung over state. apologies...but more on that later)
Our second day in Santiago sally and i posted some things home and did a bit of shopping at hippy markets and made some new brazilian friends. yay for new friends. either way, we had a bit of a write off of a day and just wandered around the city a bit more, had lunch at TGIFridays (FAIL!) and had to say goodbye to some of our friends on the trip again. this was quite sad, but we will be seeing our sydney friends in march, so it wasnt goodbye, just see ya later alligator!
The hostel we were staying at had a bbq put on for us, so we ate lots of meat, drank more wine (wine from the bottom of the list...all the colours...well yellow) (actually it was red wine, i lied) and met the new people on our tour until buenos aires. so far we have now 5 original people, me, sally, the two kiwis and vicki from the uk, plus now two more families, a uk guy and an american lady. so we drank the wine and had good coversations before going to bed late again. beginning to get quite tired, but my wine drinking tolerance has doubled and i am not as much of a lightweight as i used to be. all is right in the world. you may now bow down to me amazingness. bow down, bow down, ok thats enough. :)
The next day we endeavoured to explore some of the museums in town, and an art gallery, however the place we thought was an art gallery turned out to be a theatre, and so we just went to the one museum. it was really cool with sculptures and photography, so i enjoyed spending time having a look at all the different photographic works by some chilean artists. unfortunately one of them was called Sammuel Shats. Shats...tragic name, but a giggle fest did follow, especially with the piece titled "Oh God - by Sammuel Shats"....hahahahaha. It was interesting see though in some areas that at funerals people take a big family photo with the coffin, professionally done. its defiantely a cultural difference as i would find that too depressing.
in the afternoon we went to the biggest mall in south america hoping to find ourselves a nice dress for new years eve (being that we were so sick of our clothes that we currently have). Getting to the shoppping center we took the underground metro system which sally was exceptionally excited for not having been on one before, and then a bus. the locals here are really friendly and they let us on the bus for free because we looked confused and then told us which stop we had to get off at. how nice! we managed to find a dress each but i beleive our shopping centers like chadstone and doncaster are way bigger than this one, which means the rest in south america are quite small.. we ended with thai food and then had to catch an overnight bus to Pucon.
We arrived in Pucon the next morning and that was new years eve. Pucon is really quite pretty and there is a massive snow capped volcano in our view of the hostel which we are going to be hiking up tomoro, oooh excitement! for our first day in Pucon we went for a walk around the town in search of yellow underpants. yes thats right, yellow underpants. random perhaps, but here in chile they all wear yellow underpants on new years eve for goodluck, so who are we to question the power of yellow knickers. we also had to stock up on some more booze, and then proceeded to tizzy ourselves up. which is where i left you yesterday.
The afternoon proceeded with a bit of drinking (shock horror!) and we all had a huge bbq at the hostel with the beautiful views of the mountains and the volcano (i should mention that it is actually an active volcano, and you can see lava when you are up the top and from here you can see the smoke coming out the top). we drank some more and then headed out to the beach (technically i think its a lake, but they still call it a beach) and thats where everyone gathers with their glowing things such as devil horns and light saber-like sticks (yep, i got both) and then we waited for the fireworks. Walking to the beach in a tipsy state i was discussing with some of our friends whether or not i would freak people out by randomly hugging them all that we passed....not thinking that anyone understood english i got a reply of "i think you should do it!" by one of the local guys, and it occured to me that this man was wise, so i gave quite a few people around me a biiig cuddle. the fire works were amazing, even better than some i have seen in australia, i couldnt beleive it. I got my happy new years kiss and cuddles from sally and the rest of the people in our group and there were plenty of hugs to go around. and at midnight we covered each other in glitter and such. Gabs (a girl from another intrepid tour who hung out with us) and tim went for a swim in their underpants and we all wandered the streets back to the main part of town to find a good club to go to. we got lost and seperated so we headed back to the hostel and waited for a bit and decided we would just go find our own place to go to, when two people came home and took us back to where everyone was. it was a pretty cool club with the main dance floor out on a bit balcony and we decided to have a boogy with some of the locals, and make some friends, and then the entire club out on the balcony turned into a gitna foam party, and we were covered from head to tow in bubbles and foam. it was so much fun. we stayed out until about 4:30am when we decided we had enough of the scary creepy local guys trying to feel us up and running away from them that we headed back to the hostel and fell asleep laughing about all the stupidity of the night and our escape attempts to run from creepy men. we are getting good at that now!
So here we are on new years day, having woken up looking like a my little pony (as sally put it since we were still so glittery...it doesnt matter how much you scrub in the shower, we are still covered in rainbow glitter) and we are hanging in the sun watching the amazing view from our hostel. thanks to vickis laptop i can enjoy the sun and chat to you all!
So i must sign off now, because i am so tired that i think i might have a nap! happy new years to you all, hope you all had an amazing time!
Love Ruby xoxoxoxoxox
New years resolution....stop drinking......bahahaha, whatever!
wish us luck for the volcano climb, hopefully we wont be burnt to a crisp by a giant lava eruption!
real christmas day at the park
fake christmas day drinking on the swings, classy
fake christmas!
i am on a horse...moo....cow.
spilt sangira all over myself...dang it!
but i like the wine!
wine tour
nye
nye
nye
nye
nye
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