Around the world

Today was a rather lazy day by us. We started off with a ride on the furnicular next to our hotel up to see La Virgen del Cerro on the hill called Cerro San Cristóbal. On the ride up in the furnicular I have repeated alerts from my travel app that our flight to Punta Arenas had been cancelled. Cue panic spiral, Matt was madly trying to find other flights tomorrow that got us there in time and I was just losing it! After Matt’s third flight option routed through Panama City we stopped, and decided to wait till I got ahold of the airline at the top of the hill. I had already rebooked this flight twice, and the return flight through different airlines twice. An eternity (5min) on hold later with airline and our flight hadn’t been cancelled but renumbered. So our check in no longer applied but we did still have a flight. I feel sorry for the other passengers showing up tomorrow, at no point did the airline let us no of the changes and we would have thought we were checked in and ready to go. Then we went on a hike to see the radio Virgin. She was a beautiful statue with a giant antenna behind her leading me and Matt to make snarky jokes about Divinity enhanced cell coverage and Broadcasting Virgin-ity. Silly jokes aside about climbing the ladder on her back to enlightenment, we then went for a Teleferico ride. The Teleferico is a cablecar lift with little cars that carry you in the air exactly like that ride at Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. It gave us gorgeous views of Santiago and a pleasant ride. It was surprising and jarring in the stations though where they were blaring out Christmas music in the 90 degree heat. After a great lunch of octopus and grilled meats we went to a cafe and read the afternoon away. Finally a yummy dinner at a fancy restaurant and off to get ready for our flight (por favor madre de Dios) to Patagonia tomorrow.

Hello all,

We’ve started a crazy new trip, this time visiting Santiago, Antarctica, and Easter Island. Should be exciting!

We arrived in time for an evening meal in Santiago, and went for a wander. We found a fun restraint and ordered Chorrillana. A giant mountain of fries smothered in cheese sauce and pulled pork greeted us. So yummy! Then we caught up on sleep from 8pm to 10am, we were tired! For lunch we wandered through the city to the central fish market. Along the way we saw amazing street art all over the place and graffiti decrying the current president Piñera. Chileans are protesting the ruling class and their stronghold on resources to enrich themselves. The graffiti was at times creative, at times violent, but always angry. Then we got a city tour from a fiery feminist protestor, she was awesome! We were taken to a park that sits on a hill in Santiago that has great views of the city. The park had been built a couple of centuries ago for the rich of Santiago and was beautiful. From there we went to see all the government buildings which were cordoned off because of the protests. We did get to go into the Municipal Cathedral which had beautiful paintings and architecture. Then we went to visit Dignity square, renamed from Italia square by the protesters. On the way we saw police massing for who knows what so we did not stop. Finally a lovely park in the rich part of town. Modern landscaping with indigenous swans, ducks, and flamingos gracing the pools of blooming water lilies. An oasis! Finally a relaxing drink at our hotel listening to competing zoo and siren noises.

Today is the last day of our vacation, we are both sad to see it end but also ready to come home. We decided to have a lazy day in Athens. Woke up at a scandalous 9:30 and wandered over to the Agora. The Agora was the central market and meeting place for the city of Athens, the hub of life. There was one intact temple as well as lots of ruins everywhere. There was also a small museum on site showing items from everyday life in ancient Athens. We then wandered the city for awhile, taking in the atmosphere. It is such a strange city, it feels like the most and least European city I’ve ever been to. Towards the most, it is full of ancient sites scattered throughout the city, we stumbled upon them all over the place. Towards the least, the level of poverty was astounding, not at all like other European countries with their strong safety nets. The lost decade of economic collapse was evident everywhere. After grabbing a couple beers and some souvenir shopping, we went to the Acropolis museum. A really interesting museum hovering over an excavation site of 4th century BC homes. That museum was full of statuary and relics found on the Acropolis site. At the top of the museum they recreated the dimensions of the Parthenon and laid out all the marble statues where they would be on the actual building. It was very cool! Then we went for ice cream, yum! And a nice dinner of gyros and kebab, super super tasty. After that, a nice relax at our hotel’s rooftop bar overlooking the Acropolis. Goodbye Athens, it was lovely!

Today has been a long day/two days. It started yesterday at 6 with our talking showers. That’s when you have a dude outside your tent pouring hot water for you while you shower. It was odd. Then a drive to the Lake Manyara airport, stopping once at a tourist shop where the sales man attempted to truly spectacularly rip me off. It happened at all the shops in Tanzania, I guess they get more susceptible tourusts than usual. After a two hour wait there we flew to Mt. Kilanmajaro airport and a 5 hour wait. Mt Kilanmajaro was smaller than I expected, also for some reason I had imagined a more volcano shape but it was rather wide. Then to Addis Ababa, 2 hour wait. Weird weird airport, and then to Cairo which was surprisingly nice. We were there five years ago and were clearly in a different terminal. This one was modern and nice, the last one didn’t even have seats for people so everyone sat on ground lining the hallways. Finally a flight to Athens, a long taxi ride, and our hotel. Horrifyingly, they could not check us in (at 7 AM), we had been awake for about 26 hours at this point. So we stowed our luggage and booked a tour of the Acropolis. We did a walking tour starting with the Pnyx, the birthplace of democracy. In that field the citizens of Athens in 600-400bc gave speeches and voted on policy. Then we saw what was once thought to be the jail of Athens, it was in fact just a house. Then the walk up to the Acropolis. Amazing buildings, the Parthenon, the main building in the Acropolis, was huge and imposing. They’ve been restoring it for 200 years and well, they still got some work to do. The Parthenon is a temple to Athena and was built in just under 9 years. It was the first time cranes were invented and used for construction as well as several architectural tricks to make it look larger. The other buildings are also temples to Athena, one the wingless Nike, the other I honestly don’t remember. It was late/early/I was lucky I could walk I was so tired. We then went back to the hotel, still couldn’t check in, read for a couple hours, then finally, FINALLY, got checked in and a bed. 1pm, 31 hours since we last got up. Ouch. Slept for 6 hours, went out and grabbed dinner, an amazing skewer of meat and pita. Finally drinks at our hotel rooftop bar, watching the Acropolis lit up in the night.