viña del mar, mendoza, 0,35kg of apples

valaparaiso is not far from viña del mar, which is where monica's family lives, so we spent a day in their pool and wandering the streets. the next day we found a beautiful part of valparaiso where there was a huge amount of amazingly cool graffiti (photos are coming, and how do you spell graffiti?).

valparaiso

theeen we took a bus back to santiago and from there across the border to the argentinian mendoza. the bus we took drove over night, through the andes, and the view was magical: dark looming mountains with gleaming snow caps... aaahh...

we arrived at about four in the morning and were absolutely dead tired. due to our lack of sleep we figured it would be a good idea to take taxis 6km outside of town to a camping place which was already filled with kids. which we did. and surprise surprise: it was far away and full of kids. and all the others were closed.

so we decided never to make decisions if we've had less than six hours of sleep (which could make you ask if this was a viable decision to make, since by this time we still hadn't gotten any sleep - but that would just get complicated). we figured we'd take the bus back into town get off at a random stop and crash at the first hostel we see. which we did, and it worked magnificently. we happened to land in a hostel right in the middle of beautiful, tree-lined-streeted, hanoi-like, park-filled and sunny-hot mendoza. so we spent the day enjoying the parks and eating a lot.

the next day we did a bike-wine-tour which was delicious and fun. yay! and a chocolate factory and an olive oil factory was part of our tour as well. mmmm...
when we went to return the bikes, the owners took a great liking to charles (carlito) and so they invited us for a bottle of wine and some mate (argentinian tea). we also got to admire their parrot - which has a hilarious and horrifying fake evil belly laugh.

the next day we took the bus back over the border, and i was arrested. well, not really, but taken in for questioning and made to pay a fine. for two apples. as i hadn't declared them (but WHO declares stuff at a border!?! and i'd wanted to eat them for lunch... damn...). i hope this is the last time i pay 25euros for 0,35kg of apples. the apples, btw, are being sent to a chemical lab for investigation. i seem to be a wanted criminal in chile.

mendoza

after the seven hour exciting bus trip, we had some dinner and immediately got on another bus, this time for 14hr. which brought us to puerto montt. a cementy, gray, sea-side, fish-smelling city. we're going to rent a car and go look at national parks and penguins over the next week. yay for penguins! :)

pictures will come eventually... they take sooo long to upload.

collection of photos - santiago and valparaiso

valparaiso



yay! piercing! rockon!

my piercing! and alex's sticker!

look lucas!

sara, a.k.a. crazy cat woman: write your name like this, with that "a"...

flag-selling people at the soccer game

a wall in valparaiso

monica contemplating getting a piercing, too

crazy pirate charles

Ahh! Three holes in my nose!

yesterday: my first ever soccer game! peru vs. chile... and chile won, so everyone was happy.



we spent another day wandering santiago. we searched everywhere for light, cheap, good, small but not too small tents. we spent the morning in a huge mall where alex finally got his starbucks-fix, and we finally found the perfect combination of tents.





sm has wanted a tattoo forever, and we found out a good place to get tattoos done safely but cheaply, so we set off looking for it. it had moved, so it took us aaages to find it, but we finally did. sm decided to get her tattoo done right away, and ive wanted to get my nose pierced for about 7 years now, and since they proclaimed to be experts at this as well, i now have three holes in my nose!! and almost fainted in the process... the set up was slightly questionable, since he stuck a needle and tube in my nose and THEN started looking for the scissors with which to cut off the needle part... and left me sitting there, white as a ghost and sweating and with my eyes closed... but i survived it! and its sooo pretty.
and sm has a beautiful self-designed lotus tattoo... yaaaay :)





exciting exciting day!

this morning we left to valparaiso:



a beautiful city by the ocean, with amazing colourful houses, lots of stray dogs, beautiful hills, an amazing mix of strange architecture, and good food. were staying in a beatiful little hostel: with our own house, own bathroom, beautiful colourful walls, own kitchen, and artwork hanging everywhere that nelly (the owner) has painted herself. were some happy happy wellfed backpackers :)





im hoping to upload pictures in the next couple of days, so you can see the beautiful houses, and the ocean, and the mountains, and eeeeevvveeeerything. (and i DID it :)...)

Santiago sans backepacke

arrived!! after a looong gruelling flight (and the generous offer of "duty free, pickled duck, duty free, pickled duck!"), i arrived in santiago.

view from the airplane...


i was greeted with the announcement : "Mr.Ring! calling Mr. Ring!"... only to find out that my backpack had been left behind in toronto without me... :( wawww. just like hannes predicted. the good news: i get money. and who needs a backpack anyways.... right?

you can see im alive :) and now im off to explore the beautiful city stuck between two sets of mountains (one with, one without snow. it looks utterly amazing).

you guys enjoying uni in marburg?

astonishment

things are nearing a marburgian end. and a few things have happened the last few days.

the best of all:
suprise party!! for meeeeee :). danke danke danke! habe mich soo gefreut euch alle noch mal zu sehen.

naive as i am, i suspected absolutely nothing, causing great astonishment on my part when i walked into daniela's crowded kitchen. and i got a cake!! with piggies and doggies and kitties and duckies on it! yay for kitch cake.



second thing thats happened:
my room is now more or less empty. still have my laptop, and my desk, but everything else is gone. lots of dust, still. couldnt find the vaccuum yesterday (as it turns out, it's hidden in plain sight in the hallway).

so now there's a few more fun but sad goodbyeish days left here, before my flight leaves on monday. ich werd euch sehr vermissen!

current location:

Größere Kartenansicht

where i'll be in four days:

Ver mapa más grande