So....
After leaving Argentina we headed off to Chile with much anticipation and excitement. First time in Santiago for both of us so we were really looking forward to it. We had already been told that our choice of hostel was excellent and rightly so - if ever you find yourself in Santiago on a budget, Happy House Hostel in the Barrio Brasil district is the place to stay....really great.
After a few days mooching around the (not particularly exciting) city we headed back to the airport and collected our hire car from Alamo (more about these guys later -it's not a happy story either). A fine vehicle (Vauxhall Corsa Saloon - a beauty) which despite its rather rustic appearance, filthy interior and empty washer bottle would actually turn out to be a bit of a reliable workhorse. We crammed our stupidly heavy luggage into the boot, breathed a sigh of relief and headed south....
First stop was a pretty nice little campsite near Lago (that's lake folks!) Rapel. Mucho tranquilo and all very relaxing...this was a great stop off for the following day as we had arranged to visit the excellent Cono Sur Winery in Chimbarongo (one of Robin's Novum contacts).
Cono Sur were great hosts and we had a good few hours there touring the winery, vineyards and cellars followed by an excellent tasting and a really lovely lunch. Great wines, available in most UK supermarkets and before you ask, no, we're not on commission! http://www.conosur.com/
From here things began to deteriorate!! Our plan in Chile was to hire the car and drive south to the Chilean Lake District (an area well endowed with natural wonders according to our guide book), maybe getting as far as northern Patagonia and the 'mystical' (read 'shite') island of Chiloe. On paper this looked good and we were right up for some walking/camping and general wilderness buffoonery. Unfortunately it was not to be....
Our first campsite at Lago Rapel had been pretty good as campsites go. Grassy, flat, clean and near a lovely lake. It turns out that this must have been the best campsite in Chile! From here on we struggled. We should have known it was was going to be bad when we arrived at the next campsite (a dustbowl in a forest - hmmm...nice) and saw the posters warning of the dangers of Hantavirus (or Rat AIDS as we chose to call it from here on). A rather nasty rodent borne virus with a 50% mortality rate in humans. Campsites in Chile are pretty prone to this if they are not kept spotlessly clean (which they are not - far from it in fact) and everyone is responsible with their food and rubbish (which they are not either). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hantavirus We pitched the tent in the dust and embarked on a meal of (dusty) pasta in a dust sauce. Things got better as we were finishing dinner when a small scorpion decided to show its face from under the table and stroll around our dinner plates for a bit....which was relaxing as you can imagine.
All in all Chile didn't really get much better than this.....fair enough, there are some spectacular landscapes, particularly the volcanoes in the Southern Andes, but really very limited infrastructure (one road down the middle of the country - no good for touring really as you can only go back the way you came) and very little interpretation or signage for tourists anywhere.
The lake district paled by comparison to ours. In fact it was a bit of a tourist destination for Chilean masses and as a result was more like Blackpool or Saaafend. Not the peace and tranquility of the Andean wilderness that we had been lead to believe by the guide books....If we went back we would definitely head for either the Atacama Desert at the top of the country or go way down south to Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego - and wouldn't do it on a budget either!
One of the very few highlights of this part of the trip...no, actually, the only highlight of this part of the trip was our day at some really very cool thermal springs hidden away in a steep gorge in the Andes http://www.termasgeometricas.cl/ this was a really amazing place and we thoroughly enjoyed wallowing around in the unbelieveably hot waters follwed by the odd dip under an icy waterfall. Great road to get to it as well....really windy and past some spectacular rivers and volcanic fallout. Go here if you ever have the misfortune to find yourself in this part of the world....it makes things better!!After one too many nights among the rat AIDS infested campsites of southern Chile we decided on a whim to see if we could change our flights and get the hell out of there a little earlier than planned. A quick visit to the LAN Chile office and we were sorted. Only thing was that we were a thousand kms. from the airport and the flight left the following evening - best get in the car right now then! The Chile dash!
After a fine piece of driving from The Colonel/Robin/Beener/The Beanmeister/Snake/RC (delete as appropriate) we arrived back at the Alamo car rentals desk in Santiago airport (having previously phoned to tell them of our changed plans) and proceeded to be on the wrong end of the worst example of customer service either of us has ever experienced. Truly astonishing. They overcharged us and wouldn't accept it, they were rude, confrontational and then decided to add some extra charges on as well, despite telling us at the start of the rental that the price was fully inclusive....When they threatened to charge us even more and that we could take it up with Head Office Yolanda had to be physically restrained. Truly unbelievable attitude (Alamo, not Yolanda!!) We will never use Alamo again. The flight out of Santiago was slightly delayed so we sat and watched a group of geriatric Americans on some tour or other try to figure out the departures board...highly entertaining...lots of tracksuits and fanny packs...it was like a scene from Cocoon...
In light of the changed flights we were now faced with the prosepct of a week in LA. Reports about LA were not great with most people telling us that it was a bit of a dump....as a result we had planned to see if we could change our flights to NZ as well and just get there a week or so earlier. On arrival at LAX the Qantas office was closed so we vowed to call them the following day and jumped in a cab bound for Hollywood. Yolanda had booked a great hostel (no commission unfortunately!) http://www.orangedrivehostel.com/ which was one block back from Hollywood Blvd. and pretty much right behind the Kodak Theatre and Grauman's Chinese Theatre. A great place to be if you want to see the famous Hollywood sights. The difference in customer service in the US having come from South America was staggering...the USA gets a pretty bad rap from the UK media on the whole but in reality it is a great country with some amazing people....we had an absolute ball....LA also gets some pretty bad press but we loved it and would urge every
one to give it a fair go...loads and loads of really cool stuff to do. We ate pancakes, went to Venice Beach, did an open top bus tour of Hollywoood and Beverley Hills (no Beckhams anywhere to be seen). Also went to a very cool place called Farmer's Market which claimed to be the first Farmer's Market in the world...allowing local farmers to sell direct to the public. http://www.farmersmarketla.com/ We had been warned by my brother to 'just act normal' should we see any celebrities but thankfully we didn't have to as there were none to be seen - the bus driver had seen Will Smith the day before though, so they do exsist!
one to give it a fair go...loads and loads of really cool stuff to do. We ate pancakes, went to Venice Beach, did an open top bus tour of Hollywoood and Beverley Hills (no Beckhams anywhere to be seen). Also went to a very cool place called Farmer's Market which claimed to be the first Farmer's Market in the world...allowing local farmers to sell direct to the public. http://www.farmersmarketla.com/ We had been warned by my brother to 'just act normal' should we see any celebrities but thankfully we didn't have to as there were none to be seen - the bus driver had seen Will Smith the day before though, so they do exsist!The unbelievably helpful girl on the desk at our hostel had advised us that two days in LA would be long enough so we now had a bit of a quandry on our hands...we were having a blast in the States so do we stay for a bit longer or crack on to NZ?? After a bit of time spent trawling the interent we had hired a car, booked a hotel and were heading to Las Vegas!! Yolanda had been before but it was to be a first for Robin and he was very excited.
The next morning we picked up the car (free upgrade - get in - even more massive american car - such a shame as we were carbon nuetral until this point) and headed east to the bright lights of Vegas. This would turn out to be a particularly bizzare couple of days.
We checked into to our 3000+ bedroom hotel (The Monte Carlo) which was slap bang in the middle of the strip and pretty much next door to The Bellagio and it's amazing fountains. If you never been
to Vegas you must go - it rocks! Kitsch - yes, tacky - yes, full of freaks, misfits, gambling addicts - yes....but really it is an incredible place to spend a few days. Each hotel is an economy the size of a small country, never mind the town...gambling revenues are around the $12-13 BILLION mark - thats per year!!....We went to some great restaurants including Thomas Keller's Bouchon http://www.venetian.com/BOUCHON.aspx, played the slots (Yolanda won about $50 on the last night - great work!), went to a Cirque de Soleil show called 'O' at The Bellagio which was AWESOME go if you ever get the chance - you wont regret it. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/o/o-Las-Vegas.htm
to Vegas you must go - it rocks! Kitsch - yes, tacky - yes, full of freaks, misfits, gambling addicts - yes....but really it is an incredible place to spend a few days. Each hotel is an economy the size of a small country, never mind the town...gambling revenues are around the $12-13 BILLION mark - thats per year!!....We went to some great restaurants including Thomas Keller's Bouchon http://www.venetian.com/BOUCHON.aspx, played the slots (Yolanda won about $50 on the last night - great work!), went to a Cirque de Soleil show called 'O' at The Bellagio which was AWESOME go if you ever get the chance - you wont regret it. http://www.cirquedusoleil.com/CirqueDuSoleil/en/showstickets/o/o-Las-Vegas.htmWe booked a trip to the Grand Canyon on our third day which we were really looking forward to, but prior to this got roped into going to a timeshare presentation at Planet Hollywood on the promise of some free cash and dinner - sounds too good to be true right...we were skeptical but went along for a laugh (2hrs being talked to by a 50 something all-American salesman called Joey who, to be fair, was very good at his job in a slightly desperate, sweaty, Glengarry Glenross kinda way!) and sure enough we walked out of it with $80 casino credit and a free buffet dinner for two....the $80 credit was quickly turned into $84 dollars cash thanks to some nifty slot play by team Roblanda. All good so far. We had our dinner and went to bed ready for our 6.00am departure to the Grand Canyon. This would turn out to be one of the most bizarre days of our lives!
All was well on the bus...we saw the Hoover Dam - very low water level and getting lower each year thanks to Las Vegas growing and the climate getting hotter - and drove on to the Grand Canyon....about half an hour before arrival the bus driver got what sounded like quite a serious phone call and proceeded to infom us that the top four floors of our hotel were on
fire! (we were on floor 31 of 32 so this was excellent news as you can imagine) 'Oh bugger' said Yolanda, going a sickly ashen colour....'I think I left the iron on.....I feel sick'. The next hour was spent desperately trying to get a message home to reassure parents etc. in case they had seen it on the news and then trying to get some info from the hotel as to just how bad it was.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7210121.stm Thankfully everyone got out unharmed as the fire started at around 11am.
fire! (we were on floor 31 of 32 so this was excellent news as you can imagine) 'Oh bugger' said Yolanda, going a sickly ashen colour....'I think I left the iron on.....I feel sick'. The next hour was spent desperately trying to get a message home to reassure parents etc. in case they had seen it on the news and then trying to get some info from the hotel as to just how bad it was.... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7210121.stm Thankfully everyone got out unharmed as the fire started at around 11am.It turned out of course that Yolanda's fears of being sued by a Las Vegas Hotel were unfounded and that the fire was started by a careless welder on the roof of the hotel. We got back from the (snowy) Grand Canyon (dont really remember much about it cos of all the chaos about the fire - but the 
photos look good!!) and checked into the really rather swanky Mandalay Bay Hotel as instructed by the staff of the now closed Monte Carlo. We were given a complimentary suite as compensation for the disruption but at this stage didn't know whether our belongings had been trashed in the fire. To be fair the Vegas hospitality came up trumps and we didn't have to put our hand in our pockets once for the rest of our stay... Breakfast, dinner, clothes if you wanted them, laundry, toiletries were all provided FOC. (we checked our bank account the other day and they have even refunded the cost of our room for the first 3 nights before the fire...!)
photos look good!!) and checked into the really rather swanky Mandalay Bay Hotel as instructed by the staff of the now closed Monte Carlo. We were given a complimentary suite as compensation for the disruption but at this stage didn't know whether our belongings had been trashed in the fire. To be fair the Vegas hospitality came up trumps and we didn't have to put our hand in our pockets once for the rest of our stay... Breakfast, dinner, clothes if you wanted them, laundry, toiletries were all provided FOC. (we checked our bank account the other day and they have even refunded the cost of our room for the first 3 nights before the fire...!) After another 24hrs we had managed to get our belongings back in their entirety, all undamaged by smoke, fire or water....phew!...that wouldn't have been good - some were not so lucky judging by the rather smoky looking patterns on several suitcases that we passed.
All in all we had a truly amazing time in Vegas and would both go back at the drop of a hat...it was a slightly weird few days what with one thing and another but hey....that's Vegas, what did you expect!!
All in all we had a truly amazing time in Vegas and would both go back at the drop of a hat...it was a slightly weird few days what with one thing and another but hey....that's Vegas, what did you expect!!
Next posting will be Roblanda's North Island NZ Adventures......coming soon (yeah right) to a PC near you....
We'll also try and get some more pics onto Flickr soon but dont hold your breath as it takes ages to upload 3-4Mb pics in an internet cafe...we'll try but no promises....words may have to suffice.
Thanks for reading, more as it breaks....
Miss you all
Roblanda xxxxx
