Chiloe

Flew south from Santiago 1 1/2 hours to Puerto Montt. Then negotiated the bus terminal and hopped on a bus to the island of Chiloe. Completely different vegetation down here. Lots of beech forest and have even seen a type of cabbage tree. Staying in Castro which is famous for its houses built over the water on stilts. Very colourful!

We now call Sam "Chico" as that is what the locals seem to call him. Graham seems quite tall amongst the Chileans. Not much English down here but we are coping with our pidgin Spanish.

Intending to go into the local national park tomorrow. Will keep you posted.

Sam´s Easter Island

Easter Island was Awesome!The heads were massive.I liked the Guided Tours the first Tour was of one of the Volcanos it was enourmous! after that we went to a village were the Birdman was held. We saw petraglyphs engraved in rock and we saw houses made out of rock stuck together.

The next day we had a full day tour and we took a route round a volcano and saw loads of Easter Island heads. After that we went up into the crater of the volcano then came back. After that we went to the only sandy beach on the island for a swim. There were more heads there.

The South American World

Hi it´s Lachie here. We´re having agreat time here and it has been really funny with all our Spanish,but I think Mum and Dad are doing a bit better than Sam and I at it. I suppose it´s a bit late to tell you now,but Í´ll tell you anyway. Back on Easter island we had just got there with no money or water an I was really tired,so I fell asleep Bang in the middle of the footpath! Have fun laughing about that one for a while. The food has been really good and I really like the ice cream and now I can order it in Spanish.
Keep an eye on the blog,
Lachie.

Big Heads 2

Wow, think I just took the longest way possible to publish the photos!!!! Anyway, we thought the Heads were amazing and hope you do too. The thing the boys are standing next to is the Top Knot or Hat that only some of the heads have. It would have been a tremendous feet of engineering to move the heads once they were ready and there is great debate as to how they did it!

Big Heads

Santiago

Easter Island was fantastic. Always a danger that this sort of place will be an anticlimax. This was not. Very polynesion. The local cave called `kai tangata` did not need any interpretation. This is where they ate people.

Jane`s bag is now with us, which is a bonus for us boys, but cuts out a very good reason to go shopping for her.

Santiago has been a wonderful first day. Roger our travel agent gave us a contact through Rotary and we have just had a day gatecrashing part of the orientation for the latest group of NZ Rotary exchange students. We were late joining them and had to bluff our way into the presidential palace. There is a story behind that!

Had a very pleasant afternoon barbequing, sampling Chilean red wine and generally eating ourselves silly. The boys had a ball swimming, playing football and generally being fussed over by the locals and the students.

The interpreter is meeting us for coffee tomorrow to help us with plans for the rest of the trip. Her sister is a travel agent. Thinking at this stage we will fly south, then work our way north overland to the Atacama desert, then fly back to Santiago to catch our flight to Buenos Aires.

The spanish is kind of coming along. Went to Vacas Gordas (The Fat Cow) for a meal last night. Big Chilean steaks, but really hard to order when you know the word for beef and underneath it there are about 25 options!

Easter Island

Wow! we made it to Easter Island, nearly minus 1 bag! Great place, amazing heads and wonderful people. Spanish improving slowly and Pisco Sours going down well.
Adios Amigos

Ready to Go

So, we are now all ready for off! Sooooooooooooo excited!

1 more day!

Hi. It's Lachie here. I can't believe we're really going tomorrow! It's so exiting. This morning I had snakes in my stomach I was so excited. Sam said I should try drinking milk and drowning them. Wish us luck and keep looking at the blog.
Lachie.

Sam speaking

I'm really exited about going away but it's quite sad as well because I'm not going to see my Friends for a while.I'm exited about seeing the Leening Tower Of Pizza and the tank museum.

Graham's first blog!

Reality is finally sinking in. We have been planning this for about 15 months now and couldn't be doing it without the crew we are leaving behind to run the business. Thanks guys!

Finally managed to give my liver a day off yesterday after some seriously alcoholic goodbyes. We had a party last Saturday and there was so much leftover booze that we had to have another one. While we are away, Nikki and Cam are house sitting. They are both serious athletes and any left over alcohol would be past it use-by-date when we got back, so as you can understand our options for disposing of the excess were limited.

We are now just sitting around finishing off a coffee and psyching ourselves up for the final push to get packed up and cleaned up. Nothing like leaving it to the last minute! Jane & I work so much better under pressure!

Saying Goodbye

The only down side of heading away is having to say "Goodbye". Just ask my family back in the UK....... its horrible! Anyway we have had a great couple of weeks catching up with friends and family, and to be honest everyone is so excited for us that it has been fun!
So now its a case of loading the bags (G and I still in discussion over whether to bring in the big pack at the last minute). Then a quick tidy of the house ready for N and C to move on in!
Easter Island for 3 days and then on to Santiago, Chile!
Hopefully we have done everything we should have, and if we haven't, I'm sure it can be sorted!

Hasta luego!

Just practicing with photos! This one is to remind me how beautiful New Zealand is..... Queen Charlotte Sound!

10 days and counting! We have 4 very small packs (still have my original larger one sitting there if required) We practiced packing very little for our few days at the beach.....we just had to spend time at an awesome NZ beach before we set off! Also have the camera and am VERY excited about that. Am now brushing up on my Spanish, particularly the phrase "please speak slowly"! Its OK though as "una cerveza por favor" just seems to roll of the tongue!