Karl and Kara in South America

Kara says: Cuba. Finally! Karl's been bonding with his old friend, Che, and strengthening his communist roots although his Vietnam T-shirt has remained conspicuously absent. Viva la revolucion! Spent the first couple of nights in the fancy schmancy hotel we had to stay in to get our visas. Is this not straight out of a Doris Day & Rock Hudson film? It had just opened as the Havana Hilton in 1958 when the Castristos took over (Jan 1st 1959) and Fidel initally ran the country from a suite in the suddenly renamed "Habana Libre" hotel. We brought Christmas with us, photo of Karl with the tinsel and tiny christmas tree. Havana is fabulous. Lively, tropical, beautiful buildings - some crumbling, some not. Salsa music everywhere all the time. Friendly, helpful people (our guidebook calls then "the Irish of the Carribean" and I think it might just be right). Cocktails. It has it all. The architecture is a combination of colonial, art deco and ......stuff that looks

Kara says: Well it seems we did a Nathan. Not quite as spectacularly but a Nathan all the same. Wouldn't let us board the plane to Cuba without visas...new rules blah, blah, blah...so we're still in Santiago. For a whole extra week (even the staff in the hostel starting suggesting other places to go when he heard this)! After a brief mourning period we decided to make the most of it and actually I quite like Santiago now (though maybe still in the denial stage). Photo of me not paying sufficient attention in front of the Palacio de Moneda. A photo of a church and a jacaranda - pop quiz: Santiago or Brisbane? So having a week in Santiago we thought it was time to hit the vineyards (having already hit the wine). Decided on Concha y Toro as I've been financially supporting them from a distance for years. Interesting fact that I only discovered this year - I always thought Concha y Toro was a region with lots of different wineries but it's actually one very large business w

Kara says: Santiago. We were a bit nervous about coming here (sorry Gonzalo) after less than glowing reports from everyone we talked to (boring, smoggy, bad food) but it's not that bad! In alot of ways it's a little bit like Brisbane - clean, modern, pedestrianised centre full of jacarandas, warm and sunny, lots of outdoor eating and drinking. Today is Friday and judging by the amount of people drinking after an extended lunch there are alot of empty offices and lecture theatres around. Photos of the Plaza de Armas and of an obelisco (the two things you need to be a city in South America). Also photos of some older, more crumbling buildings in Barrio Brasil - a quieter suburb. And photo of the city from a hill. I'd like to pretend we climbed the hill but actually there was a funicular. They're good with the funiculars in this neck of the woods. Maybe someone important died once after climbing a hill prompting legislation so that no-one need ever climb a hill again. So t

Kara says: Valparaiso - a port town near Santiago with little colourful houses climbing up the hills behind the bay. Thoughtfully, they have provided funiculars around town to help you up the hills. Photo of me enjoying the very healthy Chorrillana - a pile of chips, fried onions with egg, meat, melted cheese and whatever else they feel like piling on top. Also photo of a street and a market spilling out onto the street. We wandered around and did mostly nothing. The Amazing Race came to town - we spent a whole lunchtime in a plaza waiting for the couples to come running by chased by their out of breath cameraman and soundman. It was funny (in a slightly cruel way) to see the teams that went down streets that none of the others had chosen. Losers. How we laughed as we sipped our beers. We headed to the beach, see karl posing, and down a very spectacular coast to see one of Pablo Neruda's (Chilean diplomat, poet and Nobel Prize winner) houses. Have picked out a nice little second ho

Kara says: Buenos Aires....for the last time!!! Back in San Telmo for old time's sake. Visited all our old haunts. Photos of me on our balcony wistfully looking over San Telmo and of Karl with his Galway shirt. Also discovered that BA is covered in jacarandas - so pretty and welcoming. And Christmas is coming, trees and decorations are appearing, pressure is on for pressie shopping. We tried, unsuccessfully, all week to go to a polo game but they scheduled it for the rainy days and ignored the forecast for sunny days and rescheduled it for another rainy day and then cancelled it again. Karl finally made it to a Boca game and survived to tell the tale. Photo of Karl at the ground and (hopefully) video of the atmosphere. It was loud, it was exciting, there were goals, missiles were thrown at the away goalie and the local police, there was singing and general merriment and no-one (to our knowledge) died. Karl will have further details in the pub over a pint at Christmas no doubt.

Kara says: Rosario. Birthplace of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. And we have a winner! Most agreeable city in South America. Why isn't everyone living here? Any Argentine who doesn't live here (apart from Portenos because you can't really compete with a big city like BA) should have to justify their choice or have their citizenship revoked. Loads of gorgeous old colonial buildings, plazas, trees, pedestrian streets full of cafes and restaurants, a river, restaurants on the river, parks, jacarandas! Like all the best bits of Buenos Aires in a city of a million people. Photo of Karl strummin' a tune on our roof terrace ('cause naturally in a city as perfect as Rosario you end up having a roof terrace off your room), world's prettiest silo ('cause in Rosario even the ugly things are made pretty), Karl strolling back from the flag monument - they have impressive monuments here too - to General Belgrano who designed the Argentine flag. And as a reminder that th