Cocaine, cats and karaoke

Dear devoted readers, I remain grateful for the continued support for my little blog amongst it's now quite substantial circulation. This weekend just passed I spent in Valparaiso and Viña Del Mar which are on the coast about 2 hours from Santiago. Both cities are beautiful in their own ways although nowadays they are more or less as one city since the land in between has become populated also.

Valparaiso is a port city where a thick sea mist blankets the city all day and doesn't burn off until mid afternoon, obscuring the wonderful views that are possible from the various hills that make up the city. From the sea front port the city rapidly crawls higher and higher into the surrounding hills, the houses and shacks are built atop each other and funicular elevators which consist of train carriage type things on rails travel up the sides of the hills negating the need to walk from the bottom to top through the confusing streets. It really is very pretty almost as if something out of a fairy tale. Unfortunately though parts are quite dirty and where Santiago has an issue with stray dogs, Valparaiso has an issue with cats.

Viña del Mar although only a few kilometres up the road is like another world, the streets are clean, the lawns are neatly trimmed and someone has obviously made a point of rounding up all the dogs (and cats). It is very touristy and has a beautiful beach where if you squint hard enough you can just see the Sydney harbour bridge on the other side of the pacific. I am informed however by Leonardo that the water is damn chilly, so I didn't brave it (as it happens I don't have alot of luck with water anyway). Leonardo used to work with my Aunt and Uncle in Venezuela for the Danish shipping line Maersk. He still works for Maersk, however is now based in Valparaiso whereas my Aunt and Uncle are in Saudi Arabia and harms way (I think Leonardo got the better deal). I got in touch with him about a week ago and told him of my little sojourn to Valpo (as the locals call it) and Viña (as the tourists call it) and he kindly offered to give me a personal guided tour. We drove all day in his ute, up through the Valpo hills at suicidal speeds and then back down again and along the esplanade in Viña. I think Leo (as he wants me to call him) must have wanted to be a tour guide when he was a boy because he was obviously enjoying the whole thing a little too much. We had stops for photos at points that he believed to be the most picturesque, however he wouldn't permit me to be out of the ute for more than about 2 minutes before we barrelled up and down some more hills and over some cats (almost, don't worry cat lovers). Perhaps the most bizarre part came when he took me to see the local prison as though it is a "must see" on the tourist trail. The huge edifice of a building stands alone in a crappy old paddock with small barred windows dotting the whole thing, the poor souls inside (although they probably deserve to be there) lean out through the bars and wave at the passing tourists. I think I can say that I liked Valpo and Viña quite alot more than Santigao, and it was nice to actually see the sea for the first time in a few months.

Anyway back in Santiago now, the flat remains the same, Jesus or the "cocaine sniffing saviour" as dubbed by one of my readers (thankyou Luke) still makes an appearance (miraculously of course) every couple of days, stays a while, sniffs a bit, has dinner with Ed' and Jonathan, then promptly buggers off without doing his washing up. Most of Ed's other pals maintain this type of practice also, if they were only around once a week then I could understand it, but since they almost practically live there you'd think that they might make an effort to clean up after themselves. I mean really if you saw our kitchen most days you'd think there'd been a war in it (all 2 square metres of it).

Lastly, just thought I'd mention that the embassy shindig went well last week. Lots of free booze and nibbles, got to have a chat with the Ambassador and the Minister. Emil you'll be glad to know that I passed on your regards to Brendan Nelson (he really is a knob), he and you would have got on slendidly.

Until next time take care.
Ps. Just thought I'd mention that I have developed some sort of Karaoke fever, In Viña I sang at three different karaoke bars; "California Dreaming", "Horse with no name" and "Father and son". Got laughed at all three times!!