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The proposed early start for our 2 day excursion up the chilean coast towards Zapallar has gone out the window due to the fact that a) we are knacked, and b) we have now fully understood the chances of it being sunny in the morning to be less than remote, so there’s little point of getting to any beach before lunchtime.

We finally mange to get ourselves on the right bus by 11ish and start heading up the coast. Now, the problem is that when you are on a bus going to somewhere you’ve never been to, the the issue is knowing when you are there. We ended up just sitting on the bus looking at each other saying “ is this it?” and, as we are pants at making decisions, we just stay on the bus. Once it became clear that we have seriously overshot Zapallar we decide to get off cos at this rate we’ll end up in Peru unless we do something! The place we end up in is called Papudo which it turns out is only a few minutes north of where we wanted to be. It seems quite nice though so stay for some lunch before heading back to Zapallar.

After some feverish arm waving and guesturing we manage to comunicate with the bus driver in order for him to lets us know where to get off. Zapallar seems to be quite a posh place where apparently all the rich people and politicians have holiday homes. It certainly seems a lot cleaner and nicer than naywhere else, so feeling at home, we head down the hill to the beach and find our spot. Note however that it is still cloudy but ignored such a small detail and proceed to start sunbathing (even though its quite chilly too (this coutry is really living up to its name).

There did however seem to be a distinct lack of holets or hostels, and even after asking some locals there does not appear to be any options. However, on the bus journey we remomber passing a town that was on a huge beach where there were a load of Casa’s so we decide our best bet is to head there, and send in the Negociator. True to form, we get there and Ayfer secures us a really nice place on the beach after talking to an Agentinian bunch who help us by calling the ownwe. It’s like a mini holiday cottage with all its own facilites; bit pricy but worth it. A quick trip to the supermarket and we’re sorted for the night.

One point I need to make here, and countries around the world take note here..: I wanted to have a nice cup of tea so merrily headed to the tea section of the supermarket where I was confronted by a ridiculaous array of tea varieties including Twinings and Lipton. I need to make 2 points here: Firstly, people in the England (the home of a proper cup of tea) do not drink Twinings or Lipton cos it truly tastes crap. The only place you find it are in hotels or abroad. I don’t care whether its got the “by appointment of her majesty..” mark on it, its not proper tea (and she’s German so what would she know), and we don’t drink it. So if you are foreign and want to have an English cup of tea, don’t not buy this. Either give up and have a coffee, or come to England. Secondly, there’s the stupid amount of varieties of tea on offer: Earl Gray, Lady Gray, Prince of Wales, English Breakfast Tea, English Afternoon Tea, English Just After Lunch Tea, etc..etc.. blah .. blah.. again, whilst all these varieties exist, we only drink bog standard normal tea, apart from a few poncy people. PG tips is all you need.

After a debate about what to do, our options are still to either head up the coast and chance it finding somewhere to say, or just do day trips from Vina. We actually got to a point of decideing and actually wrote a note for Gisela and Carlos say we would be off the next morning. We then of course changed our minds and removed the note to leave any difficult decision making to another time.

As the weather is still looking a little dodgy (I’m beginning to think the sun never shines in this damed country) so we have decided to head to Renaca and Concon for the day. These are supposedly smaller but still commercial town just a little bit up the coast.

So we get on the bus and head for Renaca. The bus is full of a load of other people looking attired for a day by the beach so we stay on the bus until they get off thinking they will know the best places. At Renaca they seem to stay on the bus, so we also stay on until Concon which seems like the place to be! We walk around a bit looking for a nice bit of beach and evently give up and head for the main beach which is pleasant enough although a little touristy/commercial, but at least the place is a lot smaller than Vina, AND the sun has at last come out!

In the evening we go to a rather nice little seafood restaurant that Gisela recommended called La Gagita (which means “kitten” for those that want to know, and proves that we do learn the odd word along the way). Whilst Ayfer is a little dissapointed that the Sea Bass is not available, she happily settles for a Sole, which is indeed a relief. We spend the meal still debating what we are going to do for the next couple of days and finally have reached the decision that we will head off for one night but keep the room in Vina. That way both options are covered.

Guess what, it´s cloudy…. what´s more, the town itself is not really that nice! It´s a lot bigger than we were expecting, more of a city really, so we don´t think we´ll be getting the relaxing time we were hoping for. We spend the day wondering around the town, and had the idea of hiring as car for a few days to find some santuary. We weren´t however factoring the issue that everything closes in Chile at lunchtime on Saturday, and hence no cars to hire! Come to think of it, its not easy to find a time when things are open especially around Christmas and New Year, they certainly aren´t the most entrepreneurial or hard working bunch I´ve ever met!

We are staying in a hostel called “Carlos and Gisela House”, and it quite literally is Carlos and Gisela´s house run by a Chilean/German couple called (you’ve guessed it) Carlos And Gisela. They must have spent hours on the name. Its OK, and the breakfast is nice. Beds are quite comfy but unfortuataly we can only have a twin room and we have to share a bathroom (which has an extremely odd method of getting the correct temperature in the shower!). Also, its on the wrong (and not so nice) side of the town in my view and is a bit of a walk to the beach. They do have a table tennis table however which makes up for it… I shall kick Ayfer´s arse later..

We are now debating whether to go north and search for a quieter nicer little beach town, or to stick it out here and hope for sun.. option are Zapallar or Papudo although we are struggling to find any hostels on the internet!!

Early moring bus trip from Mendoza to Santiago is again very scenic! Even though we took loads of photos when we traveled the other way, we felt compelled to take even more on the way back in the hope of finding the one great shot that truly captures how amazing the scenery is. On the border, which is above the snow line and must be one of the highest borders in the world, we have to wait 2 hours while the rediculously laborious passport/customs control process. Again they are checking for any fresh produce that people are carrying over into Chile. What they fail to find though it the 2 apples we have left in the coach, and they don´t check the coach.. muppets!!

We meet up with David and he takes us on a whistle stop tour of the Chilean captial. This actually turns out to be quite a good way to do it. Even though Santiago is a huge captial and seems nice enough, I don´t think it warrent a holiday stop off, so we managed to see a few good things without wasting a nights accomodation. Weather is nice and hot and got a few nice shots of the capital.

We meet David´s new Chilean girlfriend who doesn´t speak any English (ridiculous!!) but seems very nice, and rather strong willed! I recognise this caraturistic.. After a quick round of Pino sours its off back to the bus station to catch our bus to Vina del Mar where is had better be bloody sunny..

After getting in at 3 am we slept till 12, and only woken up by the sound of heavy rain, yes that correct, the rain has followed us to supposedly sun-drenched wine region of Mendoza. We are truly cursed, and even though I have checked the weather for Vina del Mar where it is supposed to be great over the next few days, Ayfer has bet me that it will rain when we get there, and quite frankly I wouldn´t be surprised.

Have achieved absolutely nothing today as not only wet, its also quite cold (in the sun-drenched wine region of Mendoza) so its a bit of a write off; a day for clothes washing an getting ready to leave for Vina.

Tomorrow we plan to stop off in Santiago for a few hours to meet up with David..

Still question remains which hostel to stay at. Current one is pretty awful and depressing, but spending time searching for another may be fruitless; what a dilema. Anyway we start the day with our wine and olive tour around Mendoza. We first on the bus and pick up Martin and Stefan. I think they have the hope of getting rediculously drunk and then sleeping it off before strating again this evening… I think they are going to be dissapointed..

First winery was quite pleasant; they started talking us through the wine making process telling us why theies is better than other winery´s blah blah. Eventuly get to the important bit and we all look rather dissappoint with the ammount of wine in each glass. They explain this is not the reduce the ammount we drink, but it lets us see the colour properly, air the wine and smell it properly… mmm I think its cos they don´t want us to get drunk! What was more surprising was that one mexican girl had a taste and then poured what was left of the meagre ammount into the bucket, what a waste!! Any way, we try another couple of wines, get taken to the shop, buy nothing, and leave. next stop the Olive Oil factory.

Same story again, (although of couse its oil, not wine) although this time Ayfer can´t resist and buys some Olive Oil, and Olives. I also now know what the difference is between Extra Virgin, Virgin, and bog standard Olive Oil!! (and I can´t be bothered to tell you here, you´ll have to look it up on google!)

Finally we go to another winery and they explain the wine making process again… and again why they are better than all the other winery´s in mendoza blah blah.. I thought of challenging them to say the other winery didn´t think so, but though better of it, since we want them to give us more free wine at the end of the tour, which they did afater a concerted charm offensive by the four of us to the obliging host!! We also purchase a nice bottle of Pinot Noir between us for this evening to celebrate the New Year.

We finally decided to leave our hostel and join Stefan and Martin in Casa Pueblo Seemed a lot more chilled out and friendlier that Empedro (and we might even get butter with our bread here!)

After an afternoon hours kip, its time to start celebrating the New Year. Our plan was to go to an all you can eat for 30 Pesos resturant and drink our own wine. Little did we know what a challenge that would be. As we wandered into the centre at about 8.00pm, we noticed the whole place seemed spookily quite. Whats more, it started to rain rather heavily, and then we discovered that not a single restaurant seemed to be open! We then wander around for the next hour or so desperately trying find somewhere to eat, only interupted to occasionally come across other tourists searching for the same think with equal puzzelment as to the lack of action. Eventually we found somehere offering 3 course meal with unlimited drink for 100 peso. This last part was the deal clincher, and it turned out to be pretty good and the wine started flowing.

What happened from here is a bit of a blur, but we end up staying around the restaurant, drink champers, hugging and kissing everyone and talking (well, frantic hand gesturing) to locals. Martin then attempted to get into the Hiatt Hotel while we distract the doorman by insisting on having out photo taken with him wearing the 2009 glasses. It almost worked, but all he managed was to get a cup of coffee, after which we are all escorted of the premises. Me and Ayfer went back to the hostel while “ze Germanz” go back for another attempt to get into the hotel (unsuccessfully as we discover the next day).

All in all, a great fun New Year!

So we have finally arrived after long flight and get to our hotel (the Rio Guest House) We were told that breakfast starts at 9.00, so not wanting to miss it and waste the rest of the day we got up promptly. We seemed however to be the only ones up, and after a hour or so we were getting quite annoyed. Its only then I realised that we hadn’t chnaged our clocks to Brasil time, hence we were 2 hours early for breakfast. After a discussion between we established it was my fault. On a plus side though it was a sunny morning and the view of Cococabana beach was spectacular.

Cococabana beach

Breakfast (11.00 am UK time) was really good though with Ayfer suitably impressed, and we were chatting with the other guests, and were strongly urged that today was a good day to go up the Christ Mountain (Corcavado) as clear days like this are actually not that frequent this time of year.
Nice people at breakfast table sharing experinces
Beautiful waether, encourage to go to Christ mountain today!
Bus to Corcavado
Caught by friendly tour guide..
Christ redemer itself etc..

Local lunch bar where he eats every lunch
Got back and slept rather than going to beach presuming weather was going to be great every day.
Santa Teresa in evening, train on the way up, people not to pay jump on risking life. disappointing in evening. but nice dinner in bar/restaurant authentic atmosphere

Cococabana at night

Don’t ever buy or hire a Ford Fusion. It is buy far the worst, most gutless, crude, and unrewarding car I have ever had the misfortune to drive.

I discovered this to my detriment on my recent holiday to Turkey to meet the in-laws, and was stuck with this thing for over a week. What piece of sh*t..

Its been a sad day for music with the news that Pink Floyd legend Rick Wright passed away yesterday. Its a bit stange for me as often in the news you here about the passing away of various stars over the years, some you’ve never heard of, some you sort-of know and some who you are extremely familiar with, but I think this is the first time I’ve felt really sad for the loss of someone I have never met.

For anyone who knows me will testify, Pink Floyd have been an extremely important part of my life since I first heard them in 1990 at the age of 15 when the Knebworth Silver Clef concert was broadcast on ITV. I recorded the concert on VHS tape, mainly for the reason that Eric Clapton and Dire Straits were playing which were favorites of mine at the time. I knew Pink Floyd were on the line-up but I’d never really heard them before, and certainly didn’t know the names of the band members, so it was by chance that I stayed watching until the end to see Pink Floyd finish the show. The three songs they played (Sorrow, Comfortably Numb, and Run Like Hell) really had a profound effect on me; I’d never heard anything like it and its fair so say from that moment I became an instant fan, I was literally mesmorised by Comfortably Numb, particularly Dave Gilmour’s guitar playing, and it started a craving to discover more about the band. It also prompted me to start playing the guitar, and the following Christmas predictably became the owner of a red Fender Stratocaster in homage to Dave Gilmour!

It therefore comes as no surprise that since then I have acquired pretty much all of their albums, and after initially tending towards the post-Water’s work, I can truly say I’m a huge fan of pretty much everything they have done. I also managed to see them live a number of times; first time was during the Division Bell tour at Earls Court which just blew me away (although I do distinctly remember the part of the first half was somewhat ruined by a rather stoned individual on the seat next to me that insisted of singing every word stright into my ear, arms aloft, that prompted me to ask to move somewhere else for the rest of the concert!). The second time was the most memorable when I managed to get tickets for Live8; on the news that Pink Floyd were reforming for this one off concert, I had a knee -jerk reaction that made me text the ticket-line a fair number of times (at my company’s substantial cost!) and fortunatelty I managed to get a pair of tickets! Even thought the line up for the whole concert was pretty impressive, I was there for only one thing – to see the four members play together after a break of 25 years for what has now turned out to be the very last time. Although I saw them play again in the form of Dave Gilmour’s touring band without Waters at the Albert Hall, the Live8 reunion was an amazing event that I’m prevelidged to have been able to see.

So back to the original point, the loss of Rick Wright to me is more about the very end of Pink Floyd rather than the man himself, and I know that sounds a bit strange, but, as has often been quoted for bands of such influence, Pink Floyd is bigger than the sum of the individuals, and I’m gutted tht there is now no prospect of the full line up ever playing again. Its a shame really that Dave Gilmour, after initially being the driving force for the continuation of Pink Floyd after the bust up in the 80’s lost the appetite after the Division Bell. Even after Live8, when it was Waters who seemed most keen to get things moving again, with similar noises coming from Mason and Wright, Gilmour seemed to have had enough and wanted a quiet life without the hassles and tension of getting back into the recording studio with Waters. So now, even if the remaining three did do something together as a tribute (which I very much doubt), so much of the Floyd sound is down to the combination of Wright and Gilmour that it just wouldn’t be right!

So it really is the end as far as I see it. Shine on Rick..

I, like many others I suspect, are very keen on getting the new iPhone 3G but do not want to sign up to and O2 contract. Previously yhe 2G iPhone has been evry easy to unlock, but the 3G version on 2.0 software is proving to be much tricker to use on non-O2 network. As the PAYG version is available on the 16th September I’m have been keen to find the best solution that will give a me trouble free and future proof way of using it on nay network (in my case Vodafone in particular. This is what I have found to so far:

1. Software unlocking seems to be rather problematic. The main issue seems to be that the current solutions don’t seem to be robust in the event of the iPhone SW updates, which mean each time an update is installed, you have to re-unlock the phone. In fact most of these solutions are in fact jailbreaking the phone, not unlocking it. In reality, with the aplle aps store, there is no need to jailbreak anyway. All you want is for a non-O2 sim to work.
2. HW solutions seem to be the best here, and after doing quite a lot of searching around, the Any-Network.com solution seems to be the best. I’ve seen various reviews from different sources that give approval of this method, a solution that appears to have no drawbacks. One thing to note is that a pre-requisite to this solution is that the iPhone is already activated. This had been a problem in that until now you have to sign up to a 18 month contract in order to activate the phone which kind defeats the object as you’d want to unlock it in order not to sign up! But from the 16th September the PAYG option is available for £399, so now the solution fits well. I plan to use this method!