February 2009

Yes, I am the slackest blogger on the planet!
Believe it or not I have been very busy, no really.
For those of you who live under a rock (or aren't on facebook), I no longer live in Thailand.
So I left Thailand, there were parties and tears and I travelled overland to Malaysia, did some posting and stuff in K.l.went down to Bali and went diving on the Liberty wreck in Tulumben the highlight of which was definitely seeing my first real live baby seahorse, it was tiny and sooo cute.
Bali was interesting as the American elections had just been held (yay Obama riding his unicorn of change over the rainbow of hope and into American hearts), the guy who ran one of the guest houses I stayed in (and in defence of his character I will say I saw him reading a newspaper, which he assured me he did every day) told me that they were all surprised that Americans had "voted for the Muslim ". I was indeed momentarily speechless but then thought hey this could be the best thing for world peace ever if all the countries that are breeding ground for terrorists believe this.
Also the Mumbai bombings had just happened and the Bali bombers from 2005 (I think) had just been executed the week before so there were travel warnings about that part of the world, The place was empty (it was Blackpool in winter all over again). People were very interested in how safe I felt being in Bali and discussions about "What terrorists want" were rampant. I of course am of the opinion that if I cease living my life my way then the terrorists have indeed won, I'm not saying one should be fool hardy in regards to their own safety but at the same time allowing others to dictate your life style has never been a thing that sits well with me.

Anyways, I then Christmassed with all my old friends in Australia, I was spoiled rotten and generally speaking drank far too much, and ate too much. January was spent in much the same manner in New Zealand with the family and friends of my childhood, great fun and thanks to everyone who humoredme, feed and sheltered me, besos darlings.

And so I have embarked on a new continent and hope to have a job here shortly, I flew into Santiago at the start of the month arriving fortuitously during a magnificent sunset over the spectacular Andes, even seeing some geoglyphs in the ground here and there as well, it was all a bit too fabulous as an arrival really. I am now in the process of discovering Chile, For some reason I find the lack of Spanish more disorientating then I did the lack of Thai, I am starting to string the odd stumbling sentence together but it takes me so long to understand what has been said to me and formulate a response that most people have given up by then. My first day I went to Plaza de Brazil and found my first rabid dog (luckily he was dead) unluckily in the children's playground, which made for some odd juxtaposition photography. I then headed down to Plaza de Armas where I discovered Chilean police wearing not only guns but bullet proof vests (oh yeah I'm feeling secure now). The glimpses of the Andes through the shop fronts keeps reminding me of what Upper Hutt (nestelled in the Akatarua mountains) might look like on steroids.
There are a million churches in Santiago, they fall into threebroad categories, Posh, under renovation, and slowly rotting, the first one I went into "Saint Francis" church had the goriest Christ on the cross I've ever seen, seriously any kid going into that church is doomed to nightmares for the rest of their days. Next I went into the main Cathedral, it has many splendid iconographic paintings, the cielings had not been spared a generous splashing of the oils though my favourite had to be one of the holy lamb barbque, I have a picture I promise to post it next time I have my camera hooked up. There was also some great stained glass as well.
Day 2 found me at the "Mueseo Chileano de Arte" which did indeed (as promised by the satanic verses) have many stunning statues and items from Inca and other Central and South American native peoples, it was exceptionally cool and i would love to have been able to take some photos, to remind myself how cool a lot of the stuff was as they simply don't do postcards (or allow photography) go figure!
Today I caught the bus, past a surprisingly barren but for cactus and eucalyptus trees sceenery to Valparaiso and am now staying at my friend Karenn's house, she is a lovely girl whom I have met through a friend of my Mothers and we walked over Valparaiso and saw some very cool architecture, again very reminiscent of Wellington. It{s late, I will try to post again soon (I know, I know, such empty words are bound to come back to haunt me).