Date: Wed, 20 Jan 1999 08:39:52 PST

HOLA for 1999

A few little stories of our travels around the Southern Cone - that´s
Argentina and Chile by the way...

BOCA
Everyone knows that South Americans are mad about soccer and luckily we
arrived in Buenos Aires in time for the last game of the season. BOCA
Juniors the B.A. side had already won the league the previous week. We
managed to get hold of cheap ´seats´for their victory celebration
against Union Santa Fe.
The noise at the start of the game was deafening - fire crackers and fog
horns aswell as frenzied chanting. God knows how the players passed the
ball around - the pitch was literally smothered in blue and gold paper
(BOCA colours)
The most fascinating aspect of the match wer the fans. At one point,
with Santa Fe following the script and losing 3-0, the whole crowd
(c.60,000) started singing - in tune - and in unison, waving items of
clothing. Halfway through the song, Santa Fe had the cheek to score,
but the BOCA fans just kept singing as if nothing had happened (English
supporters would have groaned, shouted at the ef and gone to get a pie
and a bovril).
Other odd things from the game:
1. BOCA fans singing "Somos Campeones" (we are the champions - Queen in
Spanish doesn´t really scan too well)
2. Rich being perfectly happy to admit to being American rather than say
he was English when surrounded by thousands of Argentines
3. The confiscation of all potential weapons during one of the four
security checks before entering the stadium (this included tamara´s belt
- sorry dad). On leaving the stadium all confiscated items had vanished
- obviously an Argentine policeman was running a second had market stall
somewhere!

TANGO
Argentina is the home of the tango and it would have been criminal to
leave Buenos Aires without visiting a tango club, during their annual
tango festival. On entering, my first thoughts were of the Blue Oyster
from Police Academy. We were soon settled in and watching the
proceedings. The most curious thing, however, wast hat ageing,
over-weight men always seemed to be dancing with beautiful, fit young
women. To me (Rich) this seemed to ahve the potential for an excellent
retirement plan - learn Spanish, become a tango èxpert´ and then head
off to Buenos Aires with my dancing shoes on.

ON THE BUSES
Learning Spanish was going ot be one of the big challenges on this leg
of our trip. However, little did we know but we were going to have
lessons even while travelling on buses. Abut halfway through our first
journey, squares of card were handed out to all the passengers - these
cards contained a grid of about 16 numbers. Yes! we were going to play
Bingo in Spanish!!!

ON YER BIKE
In a fit of madness we hired mountain bikes to spend the day in the
Argentine Lake District. Rob (R´s friend from work) was with us at the
time. It was hot. After lunch we faced a choice. Up the big hill and
down the other side, or around the bottom. Rich decided that he had to
see the views from the top. Rob and I decided that he could tell us all
about it when we met around the other side. Rich arrived at the meeting
point an hour after us (luckily there was a cold beer shop nearby, so we
had things to keep us busy). The sad thing about it all was that by the
time we got back to town (another hour`s ride) Rich had perked up again.
Rob and I - blaming sunstroke, too much food/alcohol, confusion with
gears etc - had completely had it.

CHRISTMAS DAY
After a 32 hour bus journey ending at 9pm on Christmas Eve, we decided
that we deserved a bit of luxury for Christmas. We walked straight to
the most expensive looking hotel, checked in and proceeded to spend the
next 24 hours lying in a massive double bed, drinking wine and watching
cable. Maybe not your traditional Christmas, but just what we needed!

NEW YEAR`S EVE
So we`re a few days into a 10 day hike around Torres del Paine NP in
Patagonia. Anyway, it`s 30th December and we realise that on New Year`s
Eve we`re going ot be in the middle of nowhere - no shop, no bar, no
restaurant. All of us make a pact and carry 1kg of alcohol each to the
next campsite, so that we can have a party-ette of sorts. (I got the
best end of the deal - Rich carried 2kg for a 5 hour hike, leaving me
with more energy to drink at the end of the day - what a gent!!)

TAXI

We´ve finished 9 days hiking and we´re tired, hungry and need a bit of
civilisation. We meet 3 Brits for dinner. At midnight we´ve had a
couple of glasses of wine and are ready to go home but realise that it´s
20 mins walk away - not what we fancy. A taxi is called. We climb in
and the following conversation ensues, in Spanish...
"Where do you want to go?¨"
"We don´t know what it´s called"
"What street is it on?"
"I don´t know but it´s broken so you can´t use it (there were roadworks)
- it´s run by a lady called Maria"
"Can you draw a map?"
So we draw a map (featuring the supermarket, pharmacy and every other
shop we can think of that´s on the ´broken´ road and then try to explain
that it´s not actually on that road, but another one beyond it and off
to the left a little.
Eventually he reckons he knows where we mean and starts driving. It
feels like roughly the right direction (it is past midnight and pitch
black). Then Rich suddenly says, "I know where we are - turn left".
After a couple of minutes we do a U-turn (R having decided that he
doesn´t recognise it after all) and 10 yards from where Rich had
interfered we come slap-bang up to the hostel. Very grateful - and
embarrassed we thank the driver and pay him 1$ for his trouble.

BOAT TRIP

So did you see Michael Palin´s ´Full Circle´? We were on the same boat
as he was!! Except that we probably weren´t travelling in such refined
luxury. As ever, we´d gone for the cheapest berths possible - down in
the depths of the hull in a dormitory with 22 other people.

Obviously, securing the best possible bunk was vitally important on a 4
day voyage and we had developed a cunning and sophisticated plan to
ensure that we got good beds. As the lift carried all the passengers up
to the boarding deck, we positioned members of our group (about 4-5
people) at all possible exits. Then, when we reached the top, they
would run like buggery down the stairs to the dorm. Standing smugly by
our beds in the bottom of the boat, we smiled knowingly at the other
passengers entering the dorm. Then, one of us suddenly realised that we
were right by the toilets & so another frenzied panic ensued to find new
beds.

Soon after this, we had our emergency briefing. The film, ´Titanic´
inspired a number of witty questions for our guide, Gonzalo..
"Why is there a separate briefing for economy passengers? Are we being
told something different to 1st class?"
"Are there enought lifeboats even if they are only half-filled"

However, our guide left us all on the reassuring note, "if you hear the
alarm for abandon ship, proceed to area B where a member of crew will
assist you with your lifejackets....hopefully"


Also, there was a giant chess set on board - Rich and this guy Alex are
determined to have a game. DAY 1 - freezing cold, biting winds - not a
great day to be on deck. DAY 2 - scorching sun, calm, chess v. popular.
About 3pm the boys get their turn. By this time on the journey we`ve
got a gang of like minded people together and we all start watching the
game. After 15 minutes only 2 moves have been made - we`re a little
bored of watching. An hour later the rest of us are engaged in "if you
were lost on a desert island..." kind of conversations - a cheer goes up
as the first piece is taken ( a pawn). An hour after that, the wind
picks up and a few of us go inside because it`s cold. After the last of
the gang come in and comments on the glorious sunset there is still no
sign of Rich and Alex - the game continues. Just before it`s completely
black outside, Rich comes in claiming victory.Funnily enough no-one was
tempted to challenge either of the marathon players to a follow up game.

STAR GAZING
About 7 hours north of Santiago by bus is an areas in Chile which is
home to some of the world`s most important observatories. One of these
has recently been opened to the public at night, so we thought we`d pop
along.
In preparation for uor visit, we decided to gen up on our Spanish
astronomy vocab. As you can see, it proved time well spent:
the galaxy = la galaxia
the universe = el universo
the orbit = la orbita
the constellation = la constelacion
the nebula = la nebulosa
the martian = el marciano
The first part of the tour was a slide show about the history and
development of astronomy. Now our guide tried very hard to translate
what he could into English - however, he had this uncanny knack of only
translating the bits that we`d managed to understand in Spanish.
Then it was on to the highlight of our trip - the stargazing itself.
Now the observatory room itself was circular and about 15 feet in
diameter, so I was expecting to see a big old telescope in there. In
fact, it was only about 2 feet long!! Still at least we got to see
Saturn`s rings, the nebula star in the middle of Orion`s belt and an
ancient globular cluster star (really cool).

THAT`S THE STORY SO FAR...

SORRY TO BORE YOU FOR SO LONG. IT`S NOW OFF TO BOLIVIA TO HOPEFULLY
MEET FE (IF SHE EVER TELLS US WHAT FLIGHT SHE`S ON!)

BYEEEEEEEE