My Life in Words

Ok. Despite the lack of facebook likes, I know people are reading this because my blog has a "page view" counter and it jumps up every time I post.  So thank you.  I write this for myself mainly (because I really like to write and it's nice to have a topic other than the impairment of mining assets to write about), but it's nice that people seem to be reading and enjoying. I want to start this post by saying that I never want to eat another ham and cheese sandwich on white bread ever again in my life. I seem to get served this at least once a day in some form or another. On the bus, on the plane, for breakfast, for lunch, and even as dinner on my LAN flight to Lima. It's served as a snack on day tours and as breakfast at hostels (toast with ham and cheese). Ham and cheese toasties (toastados) are on every cafe menu in Argentina and are the only breakfast food of any substance (the options are croissants or a tostado). I can't take it any more. No more!  Anyway

Hola amigos! Post numero 3 from South America.  When I last left off I was at the private hospital waiting to see a doctor. Turned out to be the best $30 I've spent on this trip to date. The doctor was excellent. Better than a lot of the doctors I've seen in Sydney. Perfect English, very helpful, etc. gave me some antibiotics and I was feeling better within 12 hours.  With my new found lease on life, I went on a free walking tour on Tuesday of the city. It was very good, albeit a bit long.  Also, the group was massive (about 40 people) so that made getting around a bit cumbersome. But the guide had lots of interesting info about the city and Argentina's history in general. The city is so diverse - every neighbourhood has a different feel and vibe. I really enjoyed just exploring each area by walking around.  My favourite story from the tour was about a fight between two extremely wealthy families; some aristocrats and a family of Irish builders/architects. This Irish family

I'm going to start post 2 as promised, with an account of my 18 hour bus trip from Mendoza to Salta. I believe I said it was 16 in the last post, but no, it was actually 18. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as I thought, although I was itching to get off the bus in the last few hours.  The buses here have a number of different classes similar to on airplanes. Everything from your standard bus seat, to (what is essentially) first class. Obviously I wasn't prepared to spend 18 hours crammed into a standard bus seat, so I booked a first class ticket. The most expensive class I could get. It was $150.  The first class experience on the bus was pretty funny - they are trying to be sophisticated like on the airplane, but everything was just not quite right.  Upon boarding, we were given square cards with numbers on them. The 'bus attendant' (is that what you call a flight attendant equivalent on a bus?) then started calling numbers over the intercom system, and I realised

Hola amigos! I'm currently in South America travelling for about a month, so my blog is back by popular demand (seriously...so many people have asked if I will be writing!).  I feel like the pressure is on and this better be good! The general plan for my trip is: A night in Santiago, Argentina, Iguazu falls, Peru and the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu, and then a few final nights in Chile at the end before flying back to Sydney from Santiago. I booked this trip using frequent flyer points so I didn't have much option on what days I could travel (you know how it is when booking with points...). I booked a flight out on 12 March knowing full well that I have a number of 15 March deadlines. I (stupidly) thought that everything would be under control by the time I left.  Wrong, wrong, wrong. So I've spent the last few weeks in a mad scramble trying to get everything done and haven't put a lot of thought into the some of the smaller details of this trip that I probably should h