Back to reality! Alarm clocks, deadlines, homework, it's all too much. So, going to spanish school every morning (and yet somehow, still not fluent?) we have joined the throngs of Buenos Aires commuters squeezing themsleves into the magic subte (underground) trains. The trains are magic because even though they are clearly packed to capacity when they arrive on the platform it's always possible to fit loads more people in. Magic! I think they actually have some sort of vacuum packing device fitted to the aircon. And managed to drag Karl to tango class. Alas there doesn't seem to be the concept of a beginner class here so everyone else is very fancy schmancy flying footwork. We got "special attention" from the teachers and were confined to the retard corner. There must be something special in the air here because Karl has almost found rhythm! And one of his left feet occasionally behaves as if it were a right one. Some photos here. A touristy visit to an old ship ...
Kara says:
Quito. Really lovely colonial city (I haven't said that before have I?) surrounded by green hills with the suburbs climbing up them. In the new part of town the hills seem particularly close and covered in wild jungle that no-one's ever got into 'cause of the monsters. Especially when the afternoon clouds and thunderstorms roll over the mountaintops. So Quito - Pizarro, 154_, you know the story. For a big city it's got a great, quietish but busy, really well preserved old centre full of plazas, churches and pleasant streets. And it's real! The plazas are surrounded by real shops for real people not tourist restaurants and souvenir shops. We had to get a new transformer (stupid 110V sockets) and went to a fabulous little electrical shop with every possible plug, wire, switch, capacitor, thingymagigy that you played with in physics class and now can't remember what they're for. If you lived here I think there would always be at least one dome...
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...
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