Not enough Spiglord on the Blog.

Fiona has complained that there are no photos of me on the Blog, so to rectify this injustice, here are a couple....

Enjoy...

Using Technology at the Museum

Up in the Mountains

After another night of broken sleep, we were up far too early to catch an assortment of buses to travel south to a town called Talca, and from there up into the mountains to a place called Vilches Alto, right next to the Alto de Lircay National Park. It was a long but reasonably comfortable trip, and we arrived at where we were staying around 2pm, and proceeded to sit and eat ‘Empanadas’, (a sort of meat pastie type affair), and drank a few beers.

Never one to let an opportunity for a walk to pass her by, Christine suggested that we take a short stroll into the woods to a popular viewing spot. 

Personally I could have sat outside in the sunshine drinking beer all afternoon, but it seemed churlish to not at least show some enthusiasm for seeing some of the scenery. We wandered through the autumnal trees to a site where an earlier civilisation had used the rocks to grind herbs, spice & corn, leaving a very distinctive ‘pitting’ in the rock surface. From there we went up a gentle climb to a look-out spot, (Eagle Point) to admire the view of the mountains. It was a spectacular perch overlooking a deep ravine and 180 degree views over the surroundings. We sat for maybe 20 minutes soaking in as much of the brilliant sunshine as we could and admired the view and the natural beauty of it before retracing our steps back to the cabin we were staying in.

I guess in real terms the walk was very short and only involved some mild elevation change, but I was completely shagged. I don’t know if it was the altitude, the continual lack of sleep, or the exertions of the past days, not helped by the lack of exercise over the past few years, but I felt very poor and washed out. I was so ill that I refused a couple of beers...! Fortunately, the sensation didn't last more than a couple of hours, maybe it was the Chilean wine, or Andres’s excellent BBQ food he had cooked for us, but I started to revive. We finished the night playing a card game called Wizard, a sort-of modified game of Trumps, which was hilarious fun.

Once again, even with the efforts of the previous day, Fiona & I still suffered from poor sleep, and as I lay there in the early morning, the thought of more walking during the next day was giving me a “I’m Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here’ moment...! But after a filling breakfast and a cup of Tetley Tea, (thanks Christine), I was feeling a bit braver and committed to another day of walking in the mountains. When I say ‘Day’ of walking, that is a little of an exaggeration as Andres is a notoriously late sleeper and we never left until after 11:00am we were back by 3:00pm. This time we walked up to another, even more spectacular view point overlooking an enormous mountain, known as ‘Cerra de L’Indo’, or ‘Face of the Indian’, where we sat in the brilliant midday sunshine. After that we went a little further uphill to a rock formation that looked like the face of a Gorilla..! We sat an rested for a while before making our way back down to the cabin, in time for more beer & empanadas. Even though I was tired after the walk, I felt much better for doing it and felt that I was finally finding my ‘Walking Mojo”.

Andres cooked another awesome meal that evening, he is not only very good at it, but also amazingly passionate about his cooking, and we enjoyed yet another feast, was down with lashing of beer & wine. I had declared that the solution to Fiona and my jet-lag was to stay up as late as possible in an attempt to prevent us waking in the middle of the night, and therefore 2 rounds of Wizard was played and we crashed soon after 11:00pm. I slept solidly until Fiona woke for a pee, and I looked at the clock fearing it would only be 2:30am, but was relieved when it said after 6:00am, so we had had a proper night’s sleep for the first time in a week...! I finally dragged myself out of bed around 8:00am, actually looking forward to doing some walking that day before we returned to Santiago later that night.

After breakfast we headed into the National Park up a long, and to me, steep entry road, with several stops for a breather. Once in the park we took an ‘Interpretive Loop’, where we made Christine act as interpreter at each of the 10 or so information stations, just so we could stop and rest a little...! Half way round we came to another lookout point, again looking over ‘Cerra de L’Indo’, but from a much higher vantage point than before, with views over the other higher mountains behind covered in snow. We sat for quite a while taking in the majestic view and soaking in the quiet ambience of the place. Whilst the walk up here had been the hardest of the weekend, it was well worth it.

We headed down again to the cabin for our now routine beer & empanadas, before retiring to pack and prepare for our bus & train journey back to Santiago. We said our goodbyes to the lovely Maria, who runs the cabins and seems to have taken a real shine to Christine & Andres, who have been coming here for a couple of years now. The bus was very crowded but we were on from the start so managed to get seats, and we had seats booked on the train, where we concluded our Wizard tournament for the weekend. We arrive back in Santiago at 11:00pm and were back at the apartment before midnight. Fiona & I started packing when we got back, as we had a very early flight the next morning, North to Calama and then on to San Pedro de Atacama.

Next stop the desert...

Down in the City

Immediately after finishing the last blog post, Christine announced that a few friends were going to be coming round for a small dinner party and to meet Fiona. The chance to meet Christine’s mysterious cousin from New Zealand was an opportunity not to be missed, and we felt a bit like celebrities! If I am honest I was just glad to be able to sit down and relax after the exertions of the morning.

The first of Christine & Andres’s friend to arrive were Matias & Gaelle and their daughter, Abril, and we were soon sitting round their dining table tucking into some lovely food. Both Matias & Gaelle spoke excellent English, and over a few beers & several glasses of wine the conversation flowed effortlessly, with much laughter and jokes. Later another friend, Jenny, a Swedish girl with a decidedly Irish accent, arrived on her bike and joined us in what was becoming more ‘Party’ than ‘Dinner”...!

Then we started tucking into the spirits...... Fiona & I had brought some duty free Gin & Rum for Christine and Andres, and I took the opportunity to pick up a bottle of Laugavilin Scotch Whisky on the way through the airport. Initially Fiona thought that I would struggle to finish the whole of the bottle of whisky in the time we had in Santiago, before flying down to Brazil, but she need not have worried. I introduced Andres & Matias to the delights of Laugavilin, and Christine being a genuine scotch lass, need no such introduction. By the end of the evening the bottle was empty and there were more than a few slurred words and incoherent sentences being spoken. Not bad for a Tuesday evening.....

Fiona & I have been knocked sideways by the jet-lag, which has really interfered with our sleep patterns. For the first few nights we seem to go to bed and fall asleep quickly only to wake 3 or 4 hours later, wide awake that is, and then find it impossible to get back to sleep for a couple of hours. The worst of it is that when we wake up in the middle of the night, we feel fine, only to eventually fall back to sleep and wake up the next morning feeling awful.... I can feel your lack of sympathy from here....

Anyway, when I arose on the Wednesday morning, I bumped into Christine on her way out to work, and she was very much the worse for wear, and swearing off whisky for the next eternity before she left. Fiona and I sat around waiting for Andres to get up, as he had offered to be our tour guide for the day. Eventually around midday he made an appearance and I was not convinced that he was not suffering a little also.

Anyway we left the house and headed in to the city, which is only a few minutes’ walk away. We walked through the Parque Forestal to the Museum of Contempory Arts, and spent an hour or so looking round this lovely boutique museum, not too big, not too small. We stopped for coffee and Andres got a message that Christine had given up fighting her mammoth hangover and taken the rest of the day off. I have to say, I did feel somewhat responsible....

We continued our tour of the city with a walk through the Mercado Central, to a Railway Station that had been converted into an arts space, and thorough the local Santiago produce market where Andres gets his produce for his chef business. We ate lunch at a Peruvian restaurant where we had a mountain of a speciality dish, (the name escapes me), and we got to experience ‘Inca Cola’...! We next made our way to the Place Des Armes, the central city square, and visited the Catholic Cathedral which was pretty spectacular.

With a walk through one of the main shopping area, (no, Fiona managed to avoid buying anything), and a quick visit to the very old and very cool Church of San Francisco, we made our way our way back to the apartment. Overall, Santiago is a pretty chill place, with some lovely places and some cool stuff to look at. The people are very smart & friendly and there is no sense of social problems or despairing poverty, although I am sure they are there if you know where to look for them. If you want a 'soft introduction' to South America, then I would recommend Chile & Santiago.

During our day looking at the sites we clocked up a creditable 12kms of walking. Adding that to the 14kms walking we did the day before, Fiona & I were pretty much exhausted, and we had only been here for a couple of days... Oh yeah, and for the next few days we were heading south to experience the Andes Mountains, and even more walking.... Oh Gawd...!!

Welcome to Chile....

The trip from Christchurch to Auckland was reasonably uneventful, if you call losing and then finding my wallet uneventful. We chilled out in the Business Class lounge in Auckland for only a few hours before getting on the flight to Santiago. Flying cattle class for 12 hours was as much fun as it ever was, but once I found a comfortable position to lie in, it was not too bad. I managed to watch 3 movies and grab about 3 or 4 hours sleep so it was far from an uncomfortable flight. This is the longest flight we have until we head home, so all our upcoming flights will be short hops.

We were met at the airport in Santiago be Andres, who is the Chilean husband of Christine, Fiona’s cousin, who organised a taxi back in to the city. Christine & Andres live in a large apartment in a lovely part of the central city, very close to Piazza Italia. By the time Andres had made up a cup of tea, Christine arrived home, and we sat around chatting for a couple of hours, while Andres made us a very nice meal. After eating we went out for a walk about the local area to help us get our bearings, and to keep us from falling asleep in our strangely jet-lagged state. We ended up in a great little bar called Amadeus for beers and pizza, where I had my first couple of Chilean ‘craft beers’, a great India Pale Ale. After that, everything was good in the world.

We crashed out at about 9:30pm local time with no idea what the time was in New Zealand, but are bodies were telling us that they had had enough and we seemed to fall asleep quickly. I woke up at about 3:30am thinking that I was not going to get back to sleep, but the next thing I knew it was 10:00am. Over 12 hours of sleep is unusual for me.

After Breakfast, this morning we went for a walk up the Cerra do San Christobal, which in my eyes is a small mountain on the edge of the city, but was in fact not much more than a large hill. The walk up was slow & steady, and we had great views over the city of Santiago, which really put the size of this capital city into perspective.

Christine & Andres are the perfect hosts, giving us the run of their wonderful apartment, answering all our questions, and helping us when we bastardise the language with our attempts at ‘pigeon’ Spanish. Christine is from Scotland and teaches English in Santiago, and Andres is a chef, who’s English is far better than my Spanish, so chatting is always entertaining...! While I write this, Christine & Fiona are on the sofa making the arrangements for a couple of days away in Valparaiso the weekend after next. 

I on the other hand, am drinking my first beer of the day, as a thinly veiled excuse for rehydrating from this mornings exertion....

Packing….., Packing….., Packed….!!

So it’s done…. Both myself & Fiona are packed and ready to go. This time tomorrow, we’ll be somewhere over the Pacific on our way to Santiago in Chile.

Packing is a necessary evil, which if I am lucky, will mean that I have everything I need and nothing I don’t. In the past I have found that there is always some little item or piece of clothing that gets missed off the list, which will only be remembered when it’s too late. This time around I have had 3 solid days to get it right so let hope I am not carrying anything I don't need...

So now that the packing is done, it’s now my traditional chance to choose who I think will win the World Cup…?

I am not sure anyone out there would be too surprised to know that I would back Brazil as the possible world champions in 2014. The Cup has been won by the hosts more times than not, and so far, no European team has ever won the World Cup when it is played in South America. So the omen are there, and if the passion of the fans alone was enough to guarantee the win, then Brazil would be odds-on.

Spain, Germany and Holland should be there or there abouts, and Argentina will have something to say about it too. If I was going to choose a dark horse to pull off a surprise win, I might be persuaded to put some money on Uruguay, who will be playing on almost home ground. With Suarez & Forlan up front for Uruguay, anything is possible.

And of the teams we generally follow…?

England are in transition, with a mix of old & young players, and not very strong this time round. They have a tough group and they will do very well to get out of the group D and make to the next stage. Not impossible…

USA and Australia both have a very difficult groups to get out of to make any progress in the competition. It will be a miracle if USA get a result against either Germany or Ghana in group G, and likewise, Australia will need to pull off a sequence of unlikely results against Spain & Holland to get out of group B. That won’t stop us cheering them on….

Next update will be from Chile…. 

Hasta pronto mis amigos

Last day at the office……

 Well it’s finally here, my last day of work for the next 12 weeks…. It’s been a long time coming and there were times when I wasn’t sure it would actually arrive, but now it’s here. I’m not going to say that I will miss the work, cos I’m a “work-to-live” kinda guy, but I will miss the people, especially my team. It was great have a few drinks with them this evening, and the world’s worst game of table tennis, but I have left them in good hands and I can unplug from work and enjoy my time away.

Fiona and I will not be flying to Santiago on the first leg of trip until Tuesday morning, but I have metric-tonne of things that I need to do, the least of which is packing…!

Now, where is my passport...?

Ticket Update – Final

So last week marked the end of the main ticketing push for us, with the ‘Last Minute’ Sales phase opening for business on the 15^th April. Both Yates and I were prepped and ready at our computers when the sales phase went live, which was no mean feat as it was 3:00am in the morning for Yates, and 10:00pm for me in New Zealand.

Sadly, even though we were both trying to access the website from the second it opened, we were both unable to get on to the site for almost an hour, by which time all the tickets at the last remaining match we were after had already gone..!

There is still hope though….

At past events, there has been a facility to get tickets that are returned before the match kicks off, so we are hopeful that this option may be available to us. Finally, the last hope of the desperate is being able to scalp tickets locally from the venue. We have had surprising level of success in the past, but obviously this is usually a more expensive option and generally seen as being illegal…! I am still convinced that it will be very difficult, but not impossible, to get tickets this way, especially as it is the opening game featuring the hosts Brazil…!

So where does that leave us in terms of tickets? Here are the games for which we have tickets:

Match 7 - Fortaleza - Uruguay v Costa Rica

Match 17  - Fortaleza - Brazil v Mexico

Match 29 - Fortaleza - Germany v Ghana

Match 38 - Greece v Ivory Coast

Match 51 - Winner of Group B v 2nd in Group A

Match 56 - Winner of Group H v 2nd in Group G

Match 59 - Winner of M51 v Winner of M52

The later matches in our schedule look like they could turn out to be interesting fixtures. Right now the teams that are most likely to move forward from Groups A & B include teams such as Brazil, Mexico, Spain & Holland, and any combination of those 4 teams would make for an exciting match. The teams most likely to progress out of Groups H & G are a bit more difficult to predict, but could include any 2 of the following 6 teams; Germany, USA, Portugal, Belgium, South Korea & Russia.

So we are getting close now…… For Fiona & I it is only 27 days until we start on our trip with a flight to Santiago Chile. 18 days later we will meet up with Yates in Sao Paulo, which is just 6 days before the whole tournament kicks-off….