Chile - Leaving South America with a lot of positive memories...

Today is a sad day as we, with tears in our eyes, realize that this is the last day in South America! 3 and a half month with so many memories.

Tonight (Wednesday) we leave Santiago to fly to Christchurch (via Auckland) in New Zealand and believe or not but we land on Friday morning in Christchurch. Our January 5 2006 will be “a nonexistent day” in our life. We are glad that we don’t have a Birthday (like Patrick at Jhomana in Quito!!) or Wedding day or alike on Jan 5 – this happens when you cross the dateline.

Let’s face it – South America was much, much better than we expected!! The most impressing part has been all the people we have met. Friendly, curious, generous, lovely, humanity, honesty is some of the characteristics we would use to describe the people we have met.

Knock on wood – we have had no “security” incidents even though we have spent a lot of time in the big cities (Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Curitiba, Buenos Aires, Mendoza, Quito, Lima, and Santiago) in South America! We where told that all South America is full of pickpockets and other criminals!

Well, well to be honest we have been reminded that there are criminals – especially in the big cities – in combination with poverty, but we have never felt insecure or been threaten by a single individual. It’s probably a combination of using common sense, be adaptable to the environment, luck, hide valuables – things you should do wherever you travel in the world!

A small earthquake, some flat tires on the buses, broken air-conditions on the buses, no water in the room, no hot water, no cold(!) water in the room, cockroaches (under the pillow!) and bats in the bungalow, very warm room, cold rooms, hard beds, soft beds, short beds, bad stomachs, altitude illness, blisters, hot sun, pouring rain, crashed glasses, crashed camera, crashed rucksack, to many hours on stiff benches, lost/forgotten clothes, screaming kids on night flights, bumps in the head (Anders) – well, that is part of the trip and they are only nice memories! "Always look at the bright side of life......"

Rio de Janeiro and Brazil was our introduction to South America and by the help from Peter Hult at Rioguiden we got under the skin on this fantastic town and together with Buenos Aires (many thanks Roberto and Mariel) they became our favorite cities. We miss the lovely carioca’s, Eva her acai and Anders his Brahma and we both the Caipirinhas, music and samba, the colibris in the trees and the churrascerias.

The country that we got most impressed by and really liked was Argentina. What a potential this huge country has. From the Majestic and powerful Buenos Aires to the lovely nature in Patagonia with the special memory we had looking at the powerful calving at the Perito Moreno glacier. Many, many thanks Roberto and Mariel for your passionate introduction to BA, the Argentinean cuisine (ooohhh – we loved the parillas with asado, lomo, bife de chorizo, chorizo, morcillas and the Mendoza wines), to La Bombanera (Anders is now a big Boca Junior fan!), tango, Havanna chocolate, dolce de leche etc etc.

We did not spend enough time in Chile to have a clear opinion but what we have seen it seams to be the most “European” country and the country that was least interesting – however, let this be clear – the nature in Torres del Paine is fabulous.

We miss the Indian atmosphere in Peru and Ecuador up in the Andes already. It is very charming to see these people and also very depressing to see that they are treated as third-class people, that they are very poor, begging for money but what impresses is the proudness they show to their history, culture and traditions. The fact that we also visited the fascinating and mythical Cusco, the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu is a bonus in our lives.

If you have the chance in your life to go to Galápagos – DO IT!!!! It’s still unreal that we have been there and experienced the perfect harmony between human and animals and it is (together with Africa, we assume) the paradise for a nature/animal lover.

Well, Amazonas together with our natural Indian guide Medoardo was also a marvelous experience and the knowledge we got from him about the nature we hope to use when we go to the Huli warriors and the mud people in the highlands of Papua New Guinea this spring!!! We where very happy to have Sophie, Lina and Peter with us in the jungle and at the beach in Atacames with its regaton music, tropical drinks and lovely ceviche. Their stomachs crashed and that is probably the evidence that there is a big difference between clean and hygienic Sweden and a relatively poor and underdeveloped South American country.

The Spanish is improving every day and Anders feels confident with his sabbatical (studying Spanish). Well, Spanish is most of the times the only way to communicate so the advice to You is to learn Spanish before you to South America – and get there!!!!!!

Hasta luego South America for this time – we will be back!!!!

A lot of Latino hugs!

EvAnders