what's next?

Finally, we are back. Bettina and Sigi are planning the next big trip. But where will they go?

Find out more by clicking on the image to the left.

that's it

No more posts for this blog - at least for a while.

All photos have been sorted (see box with links to the left),
all video clips have been assembled (see below),
all lyrics have been typed (see below below).

Adios, Good Bye, Auf Wiedersehen.

Bettina and Sigi

here's the proof

reluctant survivor

apologetic connoisseur

video clip: Swiss sailors at the Horn

Video and text from  http://www.sailinganarchy.com/index_page1.php (please visit the original), here is the copy:

"Bravo to Swiss sailor/adventurer Yvan Bourgnon and crew Sebastien Roubine on their successful rounding of Cape Horn aboard their modified Nacra 20 “Terresen’s Cape Horn Challenge”, and here’s some info from the skipper’s mouth, translated from an AFP piece.
"It's the hardest thing I've done,” Bourgnon said the day after his arrival in Ushuaia (Argentina) after rounding the Horn. The Swiss sailor acknowledged that it took "a good dose of insanity" to make the attempt. "All the dangers were present," said Bourgnon, though he stressed that the expedition was “very well prepared to minimize the risks." The sailor and his Swiss teammate Sebastien Roubinet Ushuaia landed Thursday at 8:45 p.m., 60 hours and 30 minutes after pushing off on their Nacra F-20, a sports catamaran designed to sail into sheltered waters. “
The two men lived in their dry suits for just under three days, sleeping in snatches of a few minutes on a trampoline drowned under the spray. "It was exceptionally hostile,” he recounted in a telephone interview with AFP. “At the end of the Beagle Channel, entering the Pacific, we sailed with hundreds of whales. It was magical! " “The hardest time was the 12 hours of running in the Pacific,” he said. “The sea was rotten. We risked being ejected at any time. We clung, concentrated to avoid capsizing. We tried to slow the boat ... "
After Cape Horn, the wind increased to 50 knots, and Bourgnon “started to overtake the waves – it was surreal,” he said. “We had several near-death experiences, doing everything we could to slow the boat, but still sailing 15 knots. For an hour and a half, we spoke nothing. We knew we could count only on ourselves in a sea where you can measure life in two hours.” After passing Cape Horn, Bourgnon and Roubine rested for a few hours in a sheltered bay. “ We huddled against each other, sheltered under the collapsed canopy." ... "

back home

We are back home and hence this blog ends.

The house to the left does not quite resemble our current home, however, you never know where renovations might lead us.

return by plane

the good old 767 from Santiago to Dallas

after check-in line-up wait-up
a US security check, and another security check (somebody got paranoia?)
breathe-out squeeze-in breathe-in hold-breath
eat-up swallow-down line-up use-washroom
breathe-out squeeze-in breathe-in hold-breath
land in Dallas - aaahhh

and then 757 from Dallas to Vancouver

line-up wait-up
another security check, (somebody got paranoia!)
breathe-out squeeze-in breathe-in hold-breath-longer
eat-up swallow-down line-up use-washroom
breathe-out squeeze-in breathe-in hold-breath-longer
land in  Vancouver - aaahhh


luggage allowance 23 kg per person in one bag, in two bags US30 extra;
check-in time 2-3 hours prior to departure;
preparation of travel and hotels by Lillian from Travelcuts.

Thursday and Friday

Thursday, Jan.12: Last full day in Santiago. We have booked the aforementioned 3 hour walking tour through the inner city area with an English speaking tour guide. A hotel taxi took us to the Mercado Central where we met with Felipe, a young tourism student who gave it his all to explain history and politics of Chile to us while guiding us through the lunch hour crowds of the city. We saw all the historic government buildings, many churches, parks, the university with protesting students singing socialistic songs in front of it, gypsies, the old and modern parts of Santiago, many statues of formidable warriors and leaders and remembrance stones of killed soldiers and anti-government rebels in the pavement. It was very mind boggling and exceedingly hot...

After we bade Felipe farewell we went for a late lunch in the “Calle de London” and then got 2 taxis. The Foos went to the hotel to meet their friend Michelle while Sigi and I drove back to the “Patio Bella Vista” for some copper jewellery and a nice big cool Chilean beer. After that it was the pool for us to relax and cool down.

Friday, Jan. 13th: The hotel granted us an extended stay till 2 pm when we had to leave for the airport. A very comfortable hotel taxi van took us to the airport where we had to kill time for about 4 hours before we were allowed to check in our luggage. The line-up at American Airlines was huge, and they had only 2 counters open. The Foos who traveled with Air Canada were through very fast and had to wait for us. After security checks we decided to have one last dinner together before they left for Toronto an hour and a half before us.

Thus our very impressive adventurous trip came to an end and we arrived almost on time to snow and ice in Vancouver. What a difference to 33 degree hot Santiago. A bit of a shock to the system…

Santiago from ...

... San Christobal

foreground: Santiago city

background: Andes

more background: more Andes





Ricardo: Man, it is hot in Chile, too. We are still trying not to look like tourists.

Sigi had to get up at 7 this morning in order to be ready for his 2nd presentation. I slept in and met the Foos for breakfast at 9.30. Our plan was to go up to the San Christobal statue, take a taxi to the funicular first and then go up the mountain. It turned out to be good timing because we were early before the masses and the big heat. The funicular was a more modern affair than the one in Valparaiso, having at least 4 or 5 cars like a train instead of only one wooden cart. Also, there were 2 funiculars running, one up the hill the other down. They met at one short stretch of double rails in the middle to pass each other. Up on the mountain we checked out the big statue and many more smaller ones, the church and souvenir shops. We had a super view of the city of Santiago as well as the Andes mountains in the background, some palm trees and exotic flowers in the foreground. Many pictures later we descended the hill by ‘ascensor’ again and walked right down to the barrio of “Bella Vista” where all the students of the “Universidad San Sebastian” hang out as well as tourists. We took lunch in a great restaurant at the “Patio Bella Vista” and went on to the shopping district of the Lapis Lazuli which is only found in Chile and Afghanistan. Shirley and Frank bought a few pieces for her and the kids, I still have my eye on a very nice set of a copper necklace and earrings adorned with a lapis stone. Maybe tomorrow…???!!! (She got that set and more ... - Sigi)

It was getting unbearably hot around 3:30 p.m., and we hailed a taxi that took us straight back to the hotel, in typical Chilean neck breaking manner, weaving in and out of traffic as if the devil was on our tail….

At the hotel I found my hubby taking a siesta after his presentation waiting for us to return.

Dinner was – again – on Sigi’s wish, at the Argentinian Beef House, and we had a great time enjoying steaks, wine and pisco sours…

Tomorrow we will be going on a 3 hour guided walking tour through Santiago, much to the chagrin of Sigi who is fearful of the heat and getting blisters. He was, however, overruled by the majority at the dinner table, yeah!

-- and I, Sigi, was right: got blisters, can hardly walk any more, am completely dehydrated, speak slowly in a slurring voice, etc. --- if the gods would have wanted me to walk large distances they would have given me wheels ...

creepy crawlers from ...

the Pacific

first the show

then the action

to the bitter end


Sigi is ‘off’ today, and we all decided to take a scenic city tour on a “Touristik Bus” that drives around the most interesting sightseeing points all day long. It is a so-called hop on, hop off bus where you can either go around the same tour all day long or just once to get an impression and then explore points of interest. We did just that – had a go-around once and then got off the bus at the “Mercado Central” to sniff some local air. First we went for lunch in the market, eating the famous congria eel soup plus a giant southern Pacific crab (see picture). What a feast. We needed to walk off the calories and then checked out the rest of the market, went around the area outside and the market across the street with many vendors of veggies, fruit, clothes and gadgets. Frank and Sigi got their shoes shined in one of the pedestrian zones, and the shoe shine guy asked Sigi if he was Frank’s “papa”, since he paid the bill…Needless to say the Foos still crack up about this question. Sigi – NOT!!!

We caught the almost last bus at 5 back to the hotel and took a cooling swim in the hotel pool before a short siesta. Went to dinner at the “Argentinian Beef House” at 8, had a pisco sour and very nice Chilean wine along with our excellent steaks.

Santiago

Santiago: On Sunday we had to leave Valparaiso for Santiago and hired a taxi van to take us there. Since the Foos had tons of luggage a normal taxi wouldn’t have cut it so a Mercedes Sprinter showed up at 1.30 and drove us the two and a half hours to Santiago. Along vineyards we went (now we can picture them when drinking Chilean wine at home), through dry desert like areas and up into the Andes mountains towards the capital of Chile. What a difference compared to Valparaiso! We found a big modern clean city that reminded the Foos of Singapore. Our driver had a few problems finding the Hotel Intercontinental (no GPS here) which provided us with a little sightseeing tour of Santiago and a first impression.
The (conference) hotel is huge and impressive with marble and mirrors everywhere and staff galore. Our room is a very luxurious corner suite with 2 big corner windows on the 7th floor, well-appointed with couch and coffee table, flat screen TV and a big desk with very fast wireless internet connection. Even the bathroom blew us away – huge and marble, is all I can say…
Our first Santiago dinner was taken last night just around the corner from the hotel in one of many super restaurants. We chose one that specialized in Chilean seafood (sea bass in particular), and we were not disappointed! Good food and wine, funny waiters who tried to teach us Spanish and a singer and guitar player whom we offended by sending him away – unsung so to speak…. A little funny anecdote that Frank found offensive, but we cracked up about: One waiter compared Sigi’s Spanish to Tarzan’s English ("Yo Tarzan, tu Jane")!!! Har, har, har!!! Differences of culture and humour…
Sigi is presenting his first paper right now while I am typing this. I will explore the pool on the roof of the hotel in a few minutes and then find the Foos to go for lunch. BTW, it is hot enough here to turn on the A/C in the room, 29 degrees today, phew! Hasta la proxima amigos!

Here I am again. Pool is great, water temp just right, fountains for water massages and a big enough “piscina” for length swimming. The Foos and I met up in the lobby to find the Sushi restaurant across the street from the hotel which we had already spotted the night before. Went there, saw no other guests, place was too hot, so we left. Walked the same route around the corner that we had taken last night in hot pursuit of the other Japanese restaurant we had seen. Walked and walked, didn’t find it, went back and forth, couldn’t understand it until Shirley had the brainwave to realize we were on the wrong street. Sure enough, we hadn’t realized that the ‘avenida’ had a fork in it, and we took the wrong prong. At long last we did find the restaurant and had a good meal. Not as good though as in Vancouver – we are very spoiled!!! We also made another observation – as with dinner people here eat lunch late, not much before two o’clock in the afternoon. That explained the gaping spaces in many of the restaurants we saw on our unintended excursion. Now we know better and behave like real Chilenos – lunch after two, dinner after eight…
The Foos had contacted a friend of their kids who lives and works in Santiago. She called back, and we all met for dinner that same night at the “Argentinian Beef House” just 2 blocks from the hotel on foot. Michelle is a young woman who works here as a volunteer for the UN, and knows her way around as well as Spanish fluently. She had no trouble ordering our food, wine and pisco sours and chatting with the waiters who on their part, liked a young good looking woman. She told us about the intricacies of Chile and their inhabitants, how to get around, what to avoid and so on. After dinner we all walked Michelle home to her apartment that was just a few blocks from the restaurant. As a reward she invited us to her flat that she shares with her landlady and another lodger. Very interesting for us to see. Cluttered common rooms, with lots of religious décor as well as self-made art work of many different designs and pictures on the walls, tiny kitchen overflowing with too many gadgets, chairs and other clutter and a small bedroom and bath that Michelle has to share with other mates. The rent is $400 a month though, and one can’t beat the location – 10 minutes on foot to work, and well connected to the city center by SUBTE (Subterraneo-Underground). We were happy to having been given a glimpse into a typical Chilean apartment. Michelle has to write an exam on Thursday morning, but will meet with us again in the afternoon for sightseeing and dinner. We are already looking forward to meeting again with this lively intelligent young woman.

Valparaiso

no comment needed

you wish you were here - Shirley and Frank are!

listen! - can you hear the dogs?

Valparaiso: We arrived at 7 am in this port city and disembarked around 10. All went very smoothly, and we said our good byes to passengers and crew. A taxi took us via the scenic route up the hills to our boutique hotel Cirilo de Armstrong which overlooked the hillside houses, valley and the sea. Being too early to check into our room we left the luggage in the ‘oficina’ of the hotel and made our way to downtown on foot. Luckily we were located only blocks away from many restaurants, sightseeing spots and the famous ‘ascensor’, a German made funicular that takes tired visitors and shoppers from the waterfront up the hill. There are 4 of these old machines – they all have wooden box carts in which about 20 people can squeeze into standing up. Apparently the funicular was built in the early nineteen hundreds, and we just hoped that technical maintenance was kept up over the last century… We took a late lunch at a fantastic pizzeria in an atrium garden with real Chilean beer (‘Kross’) and cool ambiance. Hotel check-in done we enjoyed a long siesta in our great abode – on 2 stories with the most modern furnishings, Chilean art on the rough plaster walls and hand woven rugs, cushions and wall hangings as decoration of the minimalistic rooms.
Dinner was eaten in a typical Chilean ‘resto bar’ on recommendation of the hotel receptionist Elisabeth. The ‘Vinilo’ was just a hole in the wall with simple furnishings and a juke box from the fifties, a tiny kitchen that turned out fabulous authentic Chilean food. There we enjoyed our first ‘Pisco Sours’ as an aperitif and great Chilean red wine later with dinner.
Next morning at 11 am the Foos arrived at our hotel, ‘fresh off the boat’ (they had taken a month long Princess cruise from Europe to Chile), and we had a noisy great reunion with lots of talking and laughter that went on the rest of the day till after midnight. We had a lot to catch up on since we saw each other more than year ago in Vancouver.
A curious thing occurred to us in most of the South American cities and towns we had so far seen: There are a LOT of stray dogs. They seem to own the streets, nobody takes notice of them except to avoid the mounds of their ‘doo’ on every sidewalk. In Valparaiso the number of these dogs culminated into almost stratospheric numbers, and the worst thing was, they all started a barking concert that lasted from sundown to the wee hours of the morning. Every night!! You cannot be a light sleeper in Valparaiso, you have to move!

back on land

We are in Valparaiso! Internet connection is great and a gallery of photo shows is available. Please find links in the box to the top left.

At present we are in our hotel, waiting for our good friends Shirley and Frank to arrive. First order of business: Bettina talking to her sister by Skype.