All Alrighty, Here in Ol' Blighty!

Hello all

Once again time for another blog, this one at superspeed, as we have now crossed the divide between cheap continents and expensive ones! Doing the conversion from pounds to aussie dollars brings tears to the eyes!

Well the last time we had left the blog had carrie and i preparing for our ferry journey around the bottom of Chile.... for someone with a susceptible tummy and a poor track on high oceans i was a little scepticle about the 4 day 'jaunt' in close proximity to the dreaded horn, so stocked up well with dramamine, and nearly enough booze to sink a ship carrie and i were off, with rachel our newly adopted mate in tow and clambered on board.

Its fair to say that the 280 berth converted cargo vessel felt a little empty with only 26 of us passengers onboard. And we have now discovered the easiest job in the world. Being a bartender on a ship that allows you to bring your own grog. The barman dutifully manned the bar from 10am until 12 midnight each day to sit back and watch all passengers get slaughtered on their own stocks. At final count we tallied that he had sold 5 beers for the trip, not bad for 4 days work.

The boat trip takes through the many 'squiggly' bits on the map down in southern chile, past some spectacular glacier country, and many more snow capped mountains. The journey is spectacular, and the weather we had was great too, so for four lazy days we sat back, sipped, quaffed and oggled at the beautiful mountains and just generally relaxed. Pleasing to say there was only one vomit on the trip, and im not even sure that it could be attributed to the rocky seas....

With massive hangovers and jelly-sea dog-legs we departed the boat at Puerto Montt, a small port village in Chile and headed straight back over the border back into Argentina to the ski town resort of Bariloche. Bariloche originally founded by a settlement of swiss migrants is now full of holiday makers, but the swiss were good enough to leave behind their chocolate shops and ski lifts. Carrie and i had not had the chance to do any skiing over here and jumped at the chance to get out on the second to last day of the season, it wasnt until we arrived at the slopes, skis at hand, did we realise that most stuff had been closed down. After a few runs down the begginer slopes we thought it was high time to get out onto the green runs (good for rookies on their first day of skiing) but were told that all of the green runs were closed and only blue and black were functioning, having not used any of our travel insurance up to date, we thought it was high time to risk the blues, thinking they wouldnt be too difficult .... well carrie swooshed off down the hill with no problems.... I made it down, eventually but long after they had closed the top ski lifts, so it was an angry man that followed me down enquiring in curt spanish if this was my first day, yep i replied, well maybe try your runs a bit earleir in the day was his retort, it didnt improve my mood much as i toboggoned down the hill on my arse, but anyways it was still a fun day in a beautiful setting, but i think earlier in the season might have been a better bet in the future for first time skiers...




From Bariloche we travelled to the wine town of Mendoza in Argentina where hiring a bike and riding to the various vineyards was definitely a great way to kill a day or two... Mendoza was also the scene of the only problems we have come close too in regards to personal security on our travels thus far... I had earlier been lamenting the fact that we hadnt had an authentic South American experience as no-one had kidnapped us, robbed us at gunpoint or even had the decency to give us a good pickpocketing. But whilst strolling through the markets in Mendoza and waiting for the lights to change i felt a slight tug on my bag, and noticed a shifty looking Argentine woman then walk past me, after a quick inspection of my bag found that it was half undone, and after finding no things missing i followed the woman down the street, and found her pulling off her best Maxwell Smart face pretending not to notice me while doing some window shopping, i noticed that she was both female and smaller than me, so my courage was high, and proceeded to give her a verbal barrage that crossed all language barriers, she fled the scene none the worse, and we both left the street with another story to tell.


From the crime ladden streets of Mendoza, our time in Argentina was up, and we travelled west back into Chile. The road across the Andes was spectacular, and dsespite the hours wasted at the border corssing it was an amzing journey. One part of the road cuts across a mountain so steep they decided the only way to get up was to add a number of switchbacks.... all up 23, a spectacular sight seeing trucks winding up this hill at around 10km/h past all of the hairpin bends.

Slightly dizzy, it was straight to Val Paraiso, yet another city i had dreamed of visiting since i was young. A world heritage listed city, built on steep hills around a busy beautiful harbour. To combat the steep hills at the turn of the century to the city built ascensors (cable cars on tracks) to lift you up the hill. The result is a stunning city, that is great to get around, filled with artists and some of the best street murals (graffitti) i have ever seen, and a new city to add to the list of (always growing) favourites.

From Val Paraiso it was off to Santiago for our final night in South America. Walking around the massive hostel we saw that behind the empty swimming pool there was a large cricket net, after a few questions to the staff we were provided with full equipment and carrie and i headed into the net to get my preseason training underway for season 2007/08. Carrie provided little competition with the bat as i ripped a few fast deliveries past her nose and then with memories of batting against dad in the back yard when i was a young tacker i belted carries bowling all around the nets and retired to the chairs to drink a well earned beer or three.

A little later in the night i noticed some activity in the nets and wandered over to have a look, and was informed that it was the official training session if the ICC (international cricket committee) Chilean Cricket Team. I asked to have a bowl and was soon steaming in to bowl at the leading lights of Chile cricket, ie expat Aussies who have lived the mandotary time in Chile to represent at international level. After a few overs (wearing jeans and dress shoes) i was asked to play on the upcoming Sunday in a local match, and that if i had a spare couple of years would i mind living in Chile so i could qualify for future tournaments. It was a tempting offer, i have always dreamed of representing a country in some sort of sporting event so it was with a bit of reluctance (but much patriotism) that i declined their offer. Playing for Chile just wouldn't be right, I am an Australian. And while my international cricket career for Australia is looking less and less likely i dont feel it is right to turn my back on it just yet. But it s good to know that should all else fail, the life of an international sporting superstar could still be on the cards.

Well from Chile it was off to London, for a catchup with friends and family, via a small detour in Barcelona for some Gaudi filled days of architecture, great food and wine. Barcelona is yet another great city, where Gaudi, an unconvential architect is held up as a national hero (as they all should be). First stop on the tourist circuit is his Casa Bastillo, a refurbishment of a traditional appartment building. I will stop boring the non archies out there and cut the blog short by saying that it was pretty speccy and will let the photos do the talking. Also visited were the church of Segrada Familia, still under construction after 130 years, reminds me of a few builders at home eh Paul?(again just check the photos), Richard Meir's Museum of Contemporary Art, The Barcelona Pavillion by Mies Van Der Rohe, Park Guiell and the 1992 Olympic Stadium. And despite a few unpleasant attempted 'massaging' incidents with Carrie and our Indian housekeepers (that we hope is not a sign of things to come in India) Barcelona was a great city and a great place to spend a couple of days!

Well the time has come, we have had enough of good food, sun and beautiful wine, that sort of lifestyle gets a bit tiresome, so we have headed here to London for grey murky drizzle, stodgy food, and warm foamy pints of brown ale. But already it has been great to catch up with Scotty and Lorraine who met us at the airport and have put us up in some cracking accomodation in a great area right on the river thames..... literally. So once again the susceptible seasickness will be tested again as we live on a converted boat floating on the thames, so far so good!

Well cheerio to all, good luck to the wineflies, my preseason has never looked better, ready to go early next year!

Take care all, drop us an email when you get the chance,

Brett and Carrie

Nice country... shame about the name....

Hello all

Last time we had left the blog we were in Uruguay, after just seeing the amazing iguazzu falls in Argentina and Brasil.

With little time, but much curiosity we ventured down to Montevideo, birthplace of the soccer world cup and capital of Uruguay, with a small stop on the way at the touristy summer beach town of Punte Del Este on the way. Carrie and I were looking forward to sun and beaches but unfortunately we had 10 days straight of rain and antarctic winds, not good for beaches but it did allow us many days of eating in nice restaraunts sampling the best food that Urugauy could muster.

Montevideo is a great city, modern, around the same size of adelaide with a very similar feel, they are still using horse and carts within the city centre (though adelaide did update to the automobile several years ago for those who didnt know) it was quite amusing to see the horsemen doing their best to run the red lights across busy interestections with their trusty steeds.

High on our priority list with our time in Montevideo was to go and see a soccer game at the birthplace of the worldcup. We saw the flagship side of Urugauy football, Nacional, beat their opponents 1-0 with a 80 mintue strike from long range that found the top corner of the net... the celebration from the nacional fans was amazing to watch, their goal celebration nearly rivalling their celebration when the other team missed their penalty shot earlier in the game. Despite no alcohol being allowed into the game the dancing and cheering did not stop for the entire 90 minutes.

The other highlight of our time in Montevideo was a saturday market where restaraunt owners turn their small shops into flaming BBQ pits and serve up massive meat meals and whisky straight to the thronging crowds. The lonely planet stated that you should only go to the market if you want to truly test your carnivore status, happily my carnivore status is intact and to be honest has never been healthier.

From a rainy Montevideo we headed west to the rainy town of Colonia, a UNESCO world heritage city, a beautiful little place where we were able to take a self guided rainy walking tour see some rainy buildings and generally hang out in the rain. With spirits slightly dampened we booked our ferry for Argentina, wandered down to the pier and jumped on board for our trip across the River Plata to Buenos Aires. The boat ride was supposed to take 3 hours, but due to rain and strong wind our 8:00 evening leaving time was postponed. At 10:00 it is fair to say that the crowd started getting a little anxious and by 11:00 a full blown riot was on the cards. It is quite amusing to see the ways different cultures will handle these type of situations, and the latin american tradition of people power and strike action was on full show with a full boat load of people chanting and rallying behind one Che Guevera type wannabe. It wasnt until they marched on the port authority and had his confirmation that the weather was as bad as the captain was saying and the first mate before him that the chant changed from ¨leave the port!¨to ¨we want food!¨ A few free drinks and some crappy sandwiches later and we were informed we wouldnt be leaving until around 9 the next morning. At 9 the next morning, with us unloaded onto a faster better ferry and we arrived in Buenos Aires.

Buenos Aires (or BA for hip traveller types) is a wonderful city, home to around 12 million people, it is busy and noisy and to navigate the piles of dog crap everywhere you need the skill and finesse of a russian ballerina, but its alive at all hours of the day, affordable, design conscious and super friendly. Birthplace of the tango, seeing a show over some dinner was high on our list of priorities, so with little thought on choice of venue we set off. The show basically consists of an emcee who introduces the dances, the other singers, sings a little himself and interacts with sparkling spontenaity with the crowd. Given that the crowd was Carrie and myself and a table of Chilean women and a couple from Brazil there was not a lot to work with, but the red faced fellow certainly did his best, encouraging us all to sing along with the music. With one of the singers (bearing a striking resemblance to Sollazo from the Godfather) singing a tune that brought the entire audience to tears. The singing wasnt too bad so i can only assume that the lyrics had escaped my spanish knowledge and were quite moving. A small moment of embarrasment occured as during one number he thrust the microphone in my face for me to sing along a few words, but with spanish flying out of my brain at rapid speed all i could muster was a ¨whats the words again bro?¨not my finest hour, but im sure other people may have made the same mistakes (hey mat?)

Despite the banter and the redness of the emcee we had come to see the dancing and it was very entertaining, wide sweep kicks small steps and long lunges, it was very romantic to watch, and even worth stopping chowing down on the massive meat servings we were enjoying, wine meat and tango, definitely a recipe for a good night.

The other principle tourist attraction of the city is the Recoletta Cemetry, centred in one of the wealthier areas of town this place has been a family burial place for the wealthy of Buenos Aires for hundreds of years. Each family building a grand crypt to celebrate the life and acheivements of their family. They are collosal things, and a morbid but entertaining afternoon was spent wandering around having a look. The star attraction of the site is the grave of Evita Peron.

After a week of general sight seeing and the best steak i have ever had we have left BA and bussed south. A stop in at Puerto Madryn, principle place for whale watching, had us hopeful of a sighting or two. It didnt take long as the first time we wandered down to the beach we spied several whales around 50m from shore. Confidence high we booked in for a boat trip and were lucky to see many whales so close you could reach out and touch them. They truly are awesome in size and to see them passing under the boat and playing around near was a wonderful experience.

From Puerto Madryn, with a Rachel and English Mick a couple of new travelling buddies in tow we headed further south still to El Calafate, a small town deep within southern patagonia. El Calafate was our jumping of point for seeing the Puerto Mereno glacier, one of the few advancing (growing) glaciers left in the world. It is fair to say that we have seen some pretty speccy spots on our trip, but this one i think has taken the cake, a stunning blue glacier on a milky grey lake with mountains in the background... photos do not do it justice.

The glacier face is around 50m-65m tall and extends 180m deep into the lake and extends back for several kilometres, for an idea of scale on the picture below the boat on the right hand side of picture (the white blurry dot) is a 200 seat ferry.

The glacier is growing in the centre and therefore pushing the glacier down the mountain, this creates enormous pressure on the ice and occasionally forces massive pieces of ice to ´calve´of the face and dump into the water.. With great theatre the ice groans and cracks and you can hear rumblings of ice breaking constantly, but we were lucky enough to see a massive piece of ice fall from the glacier (approximately the size of a 8 story building) and dump into the water, the roar was tremendous, and truly one of the most memorable events on our trip thus far.

The other highlight of El Calafate has been falling snow, for the first time Carrie and i got to experience hiking thru falling snow, snow fights and a pretty decent snow man too sadly the snowman was unable to survive a snow eating dog incident.... and a word from the newly snow experienced... stay clear of the yellow snow....

Anyway long blog, once again, i am currently preparing myself for a 4 day puke-fest boat trip thru rough seas in southern chile by downing truckloads of dramamine. Thoughts go out to the victims of the horrendous tragedy in Melbourne last weekend, and good luck to the Reynella Wineflies in their first forray on the green stuff.... will be thinking of you all, wish i was out there facing that first ball.

Brett and Carrie