in santiago

as for our plans to visit ingapirca, they never happened. it ended up that it was much further away than we expected anyway. last friday, due to shoddy work and our desire for a cheap hotel, pauline was injured by a falling sink. the sink in our hotel came dislodged from the wall during tooth brushing and crashed to the ground...cracking and slicing poor pauline's toe real badly.... muy profundo. (very deep) luckily dr dave was very prepared and was able to clean it and bandage it up real good. but not without some good red stains on the floor and some scary moments. contemplating what to do was a bit difficult as we were not sure how bad it was, if stitches were necessary, and then where we would feel comfortable going for this type of thing. fortunately the building our hotel was in also served as offices for a number of doctors and we were able to get a doctor to come and look at pauline's toe. this was also a very new experience for us, and although the doctor was very nice, we weren't left feeling entirely confident with the situation. the doctor cleaned it up well, gave me a box of gauze, some iodine, alcohol pads, and basically said to keep it clean. And, since it wasn't really hurting..just badly cut..we continued on with our plans to move on to guayaquil and then to santiago de chile. needless to say, we wouldn't recommend the hotel 'il monasterio' to anyone travelling to cuenca.

we hopped a taxi to the bus terminal early sunday morning...but had allready been awake for hours as cuenca has a february tradition of marching bands and choir singing very early during weekend mornings. we were awake early both sat and sunday at 6am by this. ...and they keep playing the same thing over and over. i guess it was a good thing since we didn't have an alarm clock and needed to wake up early. actually sat morning, we awoke to nuns singing..choir like, at about five am for half hour..very dreamy.

the bus ride to guayaquil was pleasant, and it was good for pauline, as all she had to do was sit. as usual, we met some interesting people during our ride, including a teacher and his family who lived between cuenca and guayaquil and claimed to have three wives.

the ride lasted about five hours and went from around 8500 feet to sea level, traversing andean country side all the way down thru lush forests and eventually to wet, hot flatlands. the ride slowly became damper as we moved closer to guayaquil. although we didn't actually spend any time in the city of guayaquil, it seemed to look very different than what we had seen in the north and in the mountains. the landscape was very flat with many waterways and wetlands, the people much more mixed in ethnicity, and the architecture more modern. people were also dressed much differently, as the temp required t-shirts, tank tops, etc... lots of people on bikes...bikes everywhere.

upon arrival at the quayaquil airport, we grabbed some chow, and waited for our plane. Eventually we boarded (you get to walk on the tarmak in ecuador..yeah!) and we were off....and feeling somewhat relieved to be out of ecuador. once on the plane, we again met some nice people ( a super nice women from santigao ) and travelled about 6 hours, making our way from quayaquil to lima,peru and then from lima to santiago...arriving at bout 1 am.

the last few days we've been essentially touring (pauline,hobbling) around santiago and we both think its a fantastic city. the weather has been super hot, around 85 degrees, and then usually cools off nicely in the eves. here in santiago, we visited another doctor to have a second look at pauline's injury. we have since seen him again and he has given p the green light to be back on her feet. (yipee) he was an incredibly nice guy and even invited us back to his house to meet his family and to have pisco sours when we come back thru in mid march.

yesterday we spent the day running errands and making plans for the next couple of weeks. we've both ventured out to have haircuts...luckily pauline speaks spanish..., figured out the very efficient and clean santiago metro, visited some great neighborhoods, been to santigueno grocery stores, and figured out where to buy stuff like shampoo and toothpaste. We also booked a trip, which leaves on sunday, from puerto montt to puerto natales via ferry. its a four day trip thru fjords, with views of rainforests and glaciers along the way. the area, which is essentially the patagonia lakes region is often compared to south east alaska in its terrain and scenery and we can't wait for the experience. tomorrow we'll leave on a night bus..14 hours..to puerto montt. we purchase tickets for the 'salon cama' class, which is the delux bus class..with dinner, drinks, movies and chairs that recline for sleeping. it will leave around 8pm and arrive at 10 am the next day, travelling thru small towns, lakes and forests along the way. its much cheaper than flying and should be fun!

in santiago, we also visited one of pablo neruda's homes...named la chascona. it is located in bellavista, one of 'the bohemian barrios', and was a very special place. the place was clearly built with the spirit of an artist. the interiors were filled with toys, dolls, items from around the world, wonderful personal items, art, awards (nobel peace, legion of honour), and an incredible selection of furniture. between the architecture and the interior, you could really get a feeling for nerudas personality. la chascona, (which means wild hair, named after his third wife matilda - they called her medusa when they lived in europe) was one of our favorite adventures so far.

tonight we're off for a night out..our first nice dinner since we arrived. things are a bit expensive in santiago so we've been pretty frugal with our dinning tendencies. i hope its worth it....