Santa Lucia Summit

Yesterday was a nice day here in Santiago. We took the underground metro to downtown were we visited Brazil´s embassy, cause Diêgo wanted to have a protection to his passport, as in all other places he didnt get it. We went to the Moneda Palace were we went inside to the court yards, but thats the only places we could visit. The president herself is not there, she is in a visit in Canada.
After the Moneda Palace we walked on the streets of the city to the Santa Lucia Summit, a mountain in the middle of Santiago with a beautiful water fountain and many old towers and a chapel. We walked up for many stairs till we got all tired in the legs. At the top we could see this beautiful capital of Chile surrounded by the icy mountains of the Andes. We were at the top while the sun set in the horizon, later we went down and looked for a place to eat. I wanted to eat chilenian food, but instead we ate at a place in the shopping called Kentucky Fried Chicken, it was tasty, but not chilenian.
At our way back to the underground metro we stopped by at the street were a man borrowed us his star telescope for 3000 pesos for us to look at the craters of the moon and the planet Saturn. It was very cool to see the moon so close, and more cool to the planet Saturn in reality. It was small in the telescope but I could see the rings surrounding it, it was such a cool view, to see something so far away so close, and to see it in reality and not only in pictures.
Today is a new day, and we will go to the center again, now to look for souvenirs, told my mom I would buy some handcraft from this country.
This was all for today, bye!

Santiago del Chile

Brrrr, here is cold, really cold, specially at night. I am in Santiago now, the capital of Chile, in an indian langague the word "chile" means "cold", and I understand why, cause hot this time at year at least, is non existing.
We sleep in a hotel for 8000 pesos, wich is really cheap. Yesterday we took out some money, it sounds alot, 180 000 pesos, but its really not even close to that much. Well, the money here is still not that horrible as in Paraguay were we walked around with half a million of guaranies.
We took the underground metro to the center were we looked at some churches and a great cathedral. The batteries at our camera was over so we had to buy new, unfortunately we cant load our batteries in Chile, cause the plugs here are different.
We aslo saw the Moneda Palace, the place were the president of Chile is living.
We didnt see much more than this the last day but today we will explore the old town of Santiago. Lets see what we more will do today, we planned to go up in the mountans in some days, Diego wanted to stay one week in the snow, but now we decided we wont do this, it is all to cold and we dont have enough clothes.
Well, I like Santiago, its a very nice city, but it is said that the underground is a bit dangerous, lets hope its not that horrible as I read in internet.
This was all for now, bye!

Across the Andes

Yesterday we left the hotel room and spent our last day in Còrdoba. We spent the afternoon in the downtown, later we went to cyber at the evening before heading to the bus-station were we awaited our bus. In a shop there we bought the shield of the Còrdoba province as a memory. We are collecting shields from different places, countries mainly, yet we have of Brazil, Argentina and Chile.
At nine o´clock the bus left, we spent the night aboard the bus and this morning we arrived in Mendoza were we stayed two hours waiting for the next bus. It was cold there, and in the horizon we could see mountains, and behind those white mountains with snow, Diêgo loved the view.
When the bus came and we went aboard we came closer to the mountains and the more far we went, the more white mountains we saw. It was really a smashing sense to see the Andes, the worlds longest mountain-chain, from the south of Patagonia to the north in Colombia.
The bus took us higher up in the mountains and soon the path were surrounded by snow, a beautiful view for me, I have never been so far above the ocean level before, but even more cool for Diêgo who saw snow for the first time in his life.
After an underground tunnel in a mountain we came to the border between Argentina and Chile. We got our stamps and after this we went out from the building to feel the snow. Yes, it was really cold up there, and Diêgo´s hands got frozen when he touthed the snow. He was in love with the new frozen landscape we was in, so was I, but not like Diêgo, snow is really not rare were I come from, the mountain tops were more fashinating than snow.
Later we countiued our trip down in serpentine roads with wonderful views. Soon the snow dissapeared and we were in a normal level over the ocean niveau.
After one hour or something we finally arrived in the capital city of Chile, Santiago!
We searched for a place to sleep after chaning 50 reais into 12 000 pesos. We found one place for 8000 chilenian pesos.
We rested in our room before going out after the sunset to eat, and now we are here. Tomorrow we go to downtown, time to explore the new city we are in, in my 9:th country, Chile.

Last day in Argentina

Today is the last day of our visit in Córdoba and Argentina, tonight we will take the bus first to Mendoza were we change to the next bus that will take us to Santiago, the capital of Chile!
Yesterday Diego didnt wanna wake up, so I had to go out by myself. Went to this cyber to write to my mom, later in the end Diego arrived here too.
We didnt do many things yesterday, ate hotdog to dinner, mcFlurry at McDonalds, but they didnt have what I wanted, told us after the paying, so I took the opportunity to complain a little.
At the evening we went to the bus station were we wanted to buy the ticket to Santiago. The first place for 125 pesos didnt accept card, so we took the other one for 140, I thought the price would be the same cause of the tax to take out money, but it was apperently wrong of me to think this, by the way the seller here was rude... I regret to buy it there...
Today we recently left our hotel room, and now we are here. Ill send a post card to Linnéa today, needed to come her to catch the number of the addres, later we will eat, Im hungry!
Well, wish me good luck on my trip tonight, see you again, bye!

Córdoba

Yesterday we arrived here in the city of Córdoba in the province with the same name. Its autumn here and the trees lost almost all leaves. We walked around in the city, its very beautiful and looks very developed, very "european" as Diego said. A shopping we went to looked very "european" in the entrance. We ate at McDonald´s to start with, went to cyber when I wrote my latest upload of the blog and later went to a bookshop.
My shoulders got hurted cause of the heavy bag I walked around with on my back, and my left foot got a bit hurted too on the small toe, its the shoes...
We found one place for 80 pesos. Before sleep yesterday we went to the shopping to eat pasta and later fruit sallad... a bit bitter I must confess.
Today the owner of the hotel woke us up 10 o clock cause the time was over, so we had to leave. We found a new place for only 55 pesos, but we only had 46 at the moment, so we went out to change new money, so now we have around 300 pesos in cash. Ate at McDonald´s as usual and now we are here at the cyber. Found the coat of arms for Chile, a small one, bought it just for safety if they dont have it in Chile. Also saw a place on the market were they protested against United Kingdoms claim over the Falkland Islands, Argentina say it belongs to them, and I agree, it was argentinian, but I didnt fil the paper cause they claimed a part of Antartica, a place that should not beling to any country at all.
This was all for today, bye!

Stuck in Asunción

Hi again. We wanted to leave Asunción this saturday, but we couldnt cause there was no tickets until tuesday. We bought the tickets and had to wait a while for it to be fixed, talked to a woman from Argentina, talking good things about her country.
Next day we spent in downtown searching for the coat of arms of Paraguay to save as a memory, as we did from Brazil, but in Paraguay you must have permission from the police to have right to buy it. At evening we were so tired, we ate at Bolsi before heading back to the buss station and search for a new hotel, this time we found one for only 60 000 guarani.
Yesterday it was time for us to continue our trip to the south, to Córdoba, Argentina´s second largest city. In the buss station I bought new shoes, cant use sandals in Argentina now, its winter here on the southern hemisphere. I also bought a present to my sister, Rebecca, an indian bag and Paraguayan flags to me and Diego as a memory from this country. In the bus we met the Argentinian woman again, Iracela her name is, she sat on the seat beside us. She only spoke spanish, so it was mostly her and Diego who talked to each other.
The trip took all night, but the bus had a very good standard with dinner and breakfast, at the late evening they gave who wanted a glass of champagne to drink, very luxury, but I wont drink champagne ever again... bad memories from the student day...
This morning we arrived in Córdoba, and here we are. Argentina is my 8:th country I am in. This was all for today, bye!

Republica del Paraguay

This is the fourth day I am in Paraguay. We stayed one night in Ciudad del Este, after the first night we wanted to go to the cyber, but the man was busy, so we got tired of waiting. Diego wanted to call his grandmother, but its much cheaper to call from Brazil, so we decided to pass the Friendship Bridge again. We would only stay in the brazilian side just some minutes, so we skipped the passport controls, passed the border and went to a telephone and called. Later we ate at a lanchonete close before heading back to Paraguay. After passing the bridge not less than five people wanted to sell things to us, the last one told us we must go to the passport control, to be on the safe side we did so. Well, its a fact, as the man in the toll said, we broke the law, we should have gone there to take a stamp that we leave Paraguay, and I should get two new stamps in Brazil, one for entering and one for leaving, later we both get new stamps for entering Paraguay again. But the man didnt make big thing of this and let us go, whatever, some mintes and we can pretend it didnt happen, hunderds of people is passing the bridge without even look at the controls.
We decided to leave Ciudad del Este and went to the Rodoviario station. As fast as we left the city buss several men asked us were we wanted to go, a woman from Brazil said its okay to buy trips like this, she have done it and it is safe, so we bought one ticket for 50 000 guarani to Asunción, the capital of Paraguay. 50 000 guarani is about 20 reais, and this is about 70 crowns, extremly cheap, and it takes 5 hours to Asunción, a trip like this in my homeland is about 2000 crowns and many many millions of guarani.
We arrived in Asunción at evening, got a hotel for 90 000 guarani for two people. Later we ate at a restaurant close by, asked if they accept card, Visa card, and they said yes, and was in a hurry to make us sit. After the dinner they suddenly didnt have a card mashine anymore, really false people, but we had money. Well, the cellphone doensnt work anywhere in Paraguay, so I wanted to use my card so my mom can see that Im alive at least when she check the internet bank. Next day I wanted to be online on msn, but the cyber we went to didnt work. Yesterday we saw the President´s palace, it was white and beautiful, but it only had some few guards and no wall surronding it. The guard was nice and talked to us. It was interresting to think about the contrast between this palace and the Buckingham Palace in London wich is totally surronded with both guards and walls, arrogant guards that not even look at you, and here its so open and the guards say hello to people passing by, I liked it. We also met a man at the street when we asked for the way to take to the downtown, we talked a while and he was interrested that I was from Sweden, he had a very good friend from Malmo in Sweden, he lost contact with him long ago and wanted to hear from him again. We changed mail, and he invited me and Diego to his home for a while, it was a fine home. His name is Emilio, got a pencil from him as a memory.
Of course, it feels abit odd to just go to someones home like that first, but after it feels nice to make contacts with people from the palce you visit.
Before heading back to our hotel, we ate at a confeitaria, Bolsi. Today we will continue our trip to the south, to Córdoba in Argentina.