20 - 21 December 2015 - eating, eating and more eating...

Not much has happened over the last 2 days.  Lots of eating, then preparing to eat again…

The highlight has been this mornings visit to do some banking.  First up was Itau, which was effectively empty and everything was accomplished with minimum fuss.  Then it was off to Banco Estado, which was a nightmare.  Nearly two and a half hours to update some passbooks (who uses them these days anyway?), organise a card to access said accounts from overseas, and close one account.  Just to update the passbooks took 17 minutes!  Then some more waiting, then a long conversation with a so-called executive to print out a heap of documents at a laser printer other than the one he had in his office, having to walk to the other printer each time, then upstairs to wait to see the teller.  That took 27 minutes in the queue and the work was done inside 30 seconds.

Chile has many things going for it.  The inefficient bureaucracy in the banking sector used by the general public is NOT one of them…

19 December 2015 – Mucho vino…

Another beautiful day in the south of Chile.  Sun shining in a cloudless blue sky (early in the day), although a distinct lack of birds singing.  They are around, but just not the chirpy types.  At least there aren’t any damn crows!  The sparrows looking for crumbs where Nina (the dog) was eating are entertaining with their flitting around, expecting Nina to suddenly jump up and chase them.  Nina on the other hand, couldn’t care less about them, stretching out for a siesta in the morning sun, then getting too hot and wandering off to find some shade.  A short time later, it’s back to the sun.  Such a difficult life!

Other birds we see are bandurrias, sort of ibis-like but with a shorter beak and red legs.  They are very pretty birds!  Go on, google them…

The remainder of the day was relaxed.  I’ve got a cold and am not 100%, but hopefully on the improve.  There might also be an element of hayfever, as Andrea is sneezing away like crazy.

We were out for dinner with Victor and Claudia.  We had an Asian-inspired meal, with sashimi, rolls, various prawn dishes, chicken etc., all of which were delicious.  There was also lots of wine, with some especially good carmenere in particular, although the dessert wines were also terrific.  So good, that all of a sudden we realised it was 1.30AM and we didn’t have keys to get in quietly at home.

Let’s hope we can sleep in tomorrow!

18 December - Temuco

Even in summer, it is nice sleeping weather in the south of Chile.  The nights cool down and by morning, there might even be a bit of a chill in the air!  There was this morning and even though the sun is shining brightly, I have to change from my initial shorts and t-shirt combination to jeans and finally the addition of a light jumper.

After a leisurely breakfast, we headed off to the supermarket for gringo supplies.  We went to Lider – Andrea’s supermarket – and spent a good while wandering down memory lane, so to speak.

After lunch, the two of us headed into central Temuco by micro (small bus) to wander around.  We had a package to send to Senora Ester, our housekeeper from Copiapo, and some cards to send via Correos, Chile’s world class postal system (tears in my eyes, rolling on floor laughing) – we were fourth in line and had to wait at least 10 minutes in order to buy 2 stamps…

A quick wander around the rest of the central area, including picking up some Christmas presents, and it was time to brave the collectivo back home.  Squeezed in like sardines, fighting our way through the merciless peak hour traffic, we finally arrived.

Dinner and conversation followed, before going to bed relatively early, around 11pm!

17 December 2015 – Tur Bus

Off to Temuco today via Tur Bus, but first we have to get ready.  Surprisingly enough, we manage to be ready BEFORE it’s time to go.  Late yesterday we found out that there is a strike at the airport, causing chaos with flights in and out of Santiago.  Figuring that this might cause a spike in demand for buses, we head off to the bus terminal a bit earlier than originally planned.  Seems it might have been a wise choice, with the traffic heavier than expected and it being a bit further than we figured.

On getting out of the taxi, I have one of my less good moments.  In Chile, and particularly Santiago, I’m well aware of the taxi scam where a tourist hands the taxi driver a 10,000 peso note and looks away.  The driver then says hey, it’s not enough and shows a 1,000 peso note.  The tourist, not being familiar with the currency, then apologises and hands over another 10,000 peso note.  Unfortunately on this occasion, it played out almost exactly as written.  EXCEPT, I was distracted enough with trying to get out of the taxi that I may well have handed over a 1,000 peso note originally.  I had reached into my wallet and thinking the notes at the back were the 10,000 peso ones, I took the first one and handed it over without looking, then went to get out.  Hey, he said, it’s not enough, showing me the 1,000 peso note.  I curse myself for not paying more attention but because I’m not sure, I have no recourse but to hand over a real 10,000 peso note.  Bugger.  While I don’t think I was scammed, there is enough doubt to have me continuing to wonder.  Andrea, very helpfully, is furious with me, concluding that I was most definitely scammed.  I can’t take a trick…

We collect our pre-booked tickets without having to queue and without fuss.  Remarkably easy.  That might be the first time I’ve used those words in Chile!

Our bus arrives and on we get.  We’re in Salon Cama class – the fancy(ish) downstairs part with the seats that recline almost to horizontal.  Andrea kindly reminds me to be paranoid about everyone, because everyone will be out to rob the gringo.

The trip is long and mostly event-free.  At our first stop, Andrea ducks off to the toilet, which takes longer than it does to deposit and receive passengers.  The buses run to such tight timeframes that they pull out of the parking bay without us (or the conductor) on the bus, so we have to run a little to get back on.  At our third stop, it’s my turn to be almost left behind.  I had to wait to get my toilet entry token for about a minute while the lady attended to someone who wanted to collect his left luggage from the same location.  She moved, literally and without a word of exaggeration, in slow motion.

We arrived into Temuco about 20 minutes behind schedule, but nonetheless safely, which is no mean feat given Tur Bus’ relatively poor safety record over the years.  It was comfortable enough and not very expensive (on this leg).

The family are pleased to see us, as expected and have a nice dinner waiting for us.  It’s light until nearly 10pm, which is still catching us out.  It seems like it has only just gone dark and we look at the clock and realise why we are so tired – it’s nearly midnight.  I climb into bed and am asleep in about 30 seconds.

16 December 2015 – Last day in Santiago

It’s our last full day in Santiago on this trip, so there’s lots to do.

We’re up early to find the place that sells enamelling supplies.  Turns out it is not too far from the hotel – walking distance in fact.  It’s an entertaining walk, watching the crazy traffic.  We cross the Mapocho River into Bellavista(?) and soon find the shop.  Warehouse is perhaps a better description, with a shop inside it.

The building is old, lined with asbestos sheeting.  One of the storemen wears a full canister dust mask, while his mates in the same area are blissfully free of safety equipment.  In the sales area, there are a series of “posters” showing the range of pottery glazes and enamelling powders.  There’s a surprising range of effects possible, so we take some time to work through them.  The biggest surprise is the range of materials that identify as having lead in them – we steer clear of those!

While we were perusing, one of the storemen came into the showroom to ask who was driving the Subaru outside.  When the driver finally owned up to it, she was asked to move it as someone wanted to leave.  In typical fashion, she said that she was just about finished and she’d be out shortly.  She was clearly not close to finished and continued to stuff around for at least 5 minutes more before a somewhat agitated lady, the person who wanted to leave, showed up and asked (remarkably politely) if the annoying lady would mind moving her Subaru as the patient lady needed to go.  Oh yes, of course, no problem at all, right away, replied Stupid Lady.  So, off she trotted to move her car, jabbering about how she was just about finished.

The subtle and not so subtle classism here is still surprising and rather grating.  Stupid Lady had no intention whatsoever of doing anything when she thought it was merely the storeman who wanted to move something.  When it was a ‘peer’, she was all apologies and rushed off to move the car.

Next, we split up to do our own things today.  I was off to catch up with a friend from last night and meet one of his Australian colleagues, who is also a mate of another former colleague of mine.  A ride on the metro and wandering in circles looking for Parque Titanium led me to having to ask a local on the street how to find it.  Being a bit flustered, I used the worst Spanish I could have to ask for directions.  Fortunately the lady was nice and kindly pointed me in the right direction.  On arrival, it turned out some meetings had come up and I only had about 15 minutes to chat with Peter.  Not to worry.

Turns out it left me with more time to visit Mundo del Vino, my favourite booze shop in Santiago.  Within the first 30m of entering the store, I had no less than 6 attendants ask if I needed help.  The last one even thought to ask if it was my first time there.  When I replied no, I’d been many times before, he grudgingly left me alone.

After getting back to the hotel and replenishing my water, I headed off to wander around a neighbouring suburb called Lastarria, which appears to border Cerro Santa Lucia on the east side.  The eastern part is a nice collection of relatively quiet residential streets, along with some small collections of trendy café’s and boutique shops.  There is a small ice cream shop which is alleged to be one of the best 25 in the world.  I asked for a strawberry milkshake.  They were out of strawberry icecream…  The girl then proceeded to indicate the other flavours they did have that were somewhat similar.  The first one was frutilla, at which point I asked “Isn’t frutilla the word for strawberry?”  Yes she confessed, but turns out she meant raspberry (fresa).  Good enough, so I had one of those.  It was nice enough, but not especially great or memorable.  Probably should have stuck with a couple of scoops of vanilla in a cup!

Back to the hotel to meet up with The Two before heading out for the evening to have dinner with other Chilean friends who we had met in Perth but were now living permanently in Chile.  It was a good evening – empanadas, humitas and salad, some wine and a couple of nice dogs.

15 December - Santiago Central

Today was a day largely for catching up with friends, but first there was a museum to see.

The Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino (obviously enough, the Chilean Museum of pre-Columbian Art) is a fabulous collection of artefacts from throughout Latin America, with a reasonably sized emphasis on Chile, but certainly from plenty of other areas as well.  Lots of wonderful pottery, statues, textiles and jewellery to see, especially the textiles.  In particular, there was an exhibition on textiles associated with death (for example, in which bodies were wrapped for burial after mummification).  Sadly, it wasn’t permitted to take photos of the textiles – they were stunning.

Afterwards, we met up with a friend of Andrea’s from Perth, who is here in Santiago with her husband for 6 months.  We lunched and then wandered around.  There’s lots of public works going on in the city, with a resulting increase in the number of trip hazards.  You certainly have to keep an eye on where you’re going rather than being eyes-up looking at buildings etc.

After lunch, it was time to get ready for dinner.  We were to meet up with my old colleagues Walter and Juan Carlos for dinner at a restaurant in Providencia(?) called Boca.  It was great to see them again, as well as meet Juan Carlos’ wife for the first time.  A lovely evening ended with us falling into bed at around 1AM!

 

14 December - Santiago, empanadas and completos. And wine.

After not sleeping much on the plane due to being surrounded by the peanut gallery, we arrived into Santiago at the fabulous hour of 3.04AM.  The one benefit of arriving at this hour is that there are few people to get in your way and delay you.  One disadvantage is that there are few people working, so you are delayed, with the exception being the aduanas (customs), who had four people chatting at each x-ray machine but only one of those was interested in working.  They provide the illusion of being able to expedite your journey, although it never works out that way.

Santiago (well, Chile) retains the ‘reciprocity’ fee for Australians and Mexicans on arrival at the airport.  Aussies pay US$110 for the pleasure of entering the country, to be renewed every 3 months.  Who knows what the Mexicans pay.  Anyway, I went and paid it (the only person on the plane to need to do so) and headed for the immigration line.  The girls had gone ahead, very kindly taking my immigration paperwork with them, necessitating waving frantically at them to come back.

Bag collection was the usual chaotic free-for-all with no regards for good manners or personal space, but surprisingly our bags were not last, meaning we got away quite quickly.

Our hotel transfer was in a slightly more upmarket mini-van than we have used before, although the driver displayed the same South American machismo we’ve seen before while driving – up to 130 km/h, weaving in and out of lanes and whatever traffic he could to give the sensation of being a race car driver.  Nonetheless, we got there in the end with only a few heart-in-mouth moments!  5AM.

We’re at an apartment-hotel in the centre of Santiago, next to Cerro Santa Lucia.  While our arrival at this hour was expected by the hotel, the concierge was still asleep at his desk.  There was a dog curled up on the mat outside the front door too, to make it feel like home for us.  Welcome back to Chile!

After the lad from the apart-hotel showed us to our room, we had a quick shower and then tried to catch a few hours sleep.  Unfortunately Andrea’s alarm went off at 7.30AM, and the workers on the neighbouring building site were doing some grinding and hammering, however we managed to sleep through until 11.30AM, when the second alarm went off.

Feeling a bit more human, we headed out for a bit of an orientation tour of the area.  There’s lots of works going on in the streets and footpaths, which means some additional chaos on top of the cracked and broken pavements, random holes and missing metal grates (more holes).  One needs to pay attention while wandering around, unlike one of the gentlemen I saw today, busy ogling the ample bosom of a young lady walking along in the opposite direction.  He was so busy leering at her that he almost twisted his ankle in a large hole.  Seems there is a god after all, and she has quite a sense of humour…

During our wander, we grabbed lunch (the girls managed to order Nectar to drink – sugary, syrupy version of juice – the first item on their Chilean food odyssey), bought a local phone chip, found a closed museum, perused some shops/arcades, and picked up some supplies from a supermarket.

Back at the hotel, our wifi wasn’t working…  A bit of an inconvenience, as we need to contact people to catch up with.  We had earlier managed to arrange to catch up with one lady and her daughter (and as it turned out, her mother as well) for the evening.  After an exhilarating metro and then taxi ride through peak hour traffic, we managed to catch up with said friends.  Cheese empanadas and completos (italianos) were on the menu – another Chilean junk food pairing crossed off the list!

At one point in the evening, it came as a surprise to us to realise it was so late.  It gets dark between about 9.30-10pm, quite a change from Los Angeles, where it was dark by 5.30pm.  I know, I know, it’s the winter vs. summer thing, but the extreme’s in a short period of time still catch you out, especially since the weather in LA was so similar to here in Santiago (in terms of temperature).

Oh, I nearly forgot.  I found a new wine store in Santiago.  It’s called BB Vinos, located in the GAM complex, building B, level -1 if anyone is in the area.  Small but nice selection of wine and at least one very helpful attendant – the other was on the phone the entire time I was in the shop.  Additionally, they sell a small selection of gourmet food items, including salt from the Atacama Desert.  In terms of their stock, I’d guess they target the non-supermarket wine buying crowd – I didn’t recognise many of the labels!

Anyway, a nice day was had by all.

13 December 2015 – Panama City

After leaving LA at nearly 11PM last night, we arrived into Panama City this morning at 8.04AM (local time) – a flight of around 6 hours or so.  Very little sleep due to lousy cabin lighting schemes (far too bright to sleep), people talking too loudly, and a child in the seat behind us (as always) who woke up with a scream just as we were nodding off.  He was either having a nightmare, had a handicap of some sort, or most likely, a combination of both.  His parents solved his screaming by covering his mouth with their hands in order to try and shut him up, but that just made him work harder.  Poor thing, but it certainly woke us up in a hurry!

Arriving into Panama was quite spectacular due to all the islands, forests and the sea, although the sea appears quite shallow and muddy for some distance from the shore.  The city itself is surprisingly big, even though I knew there has been (and still is?) a building boom.  There are many high-rise towers, including one that is spectacularly twisted.

After passing through immigration (our luggage is forwarded to Chile already), we found a place to store our hand luggage and then contracted a taxi to take us to the local artisans market.  Turns out there are several and there is some debate amongst the taxi drivers as to which is best to visit.  Our taxi driver differs in opinion to the others and eventually we come to an agreement that he will take us around for a couple of hours, wait for us and so on.  We drive past the marker he didn’t recommend and it is easy to see why – it is next to deserted.

We eventually arrive at the recommended market (in Balboa) and it is much better.  Lots of little stalls in a vacant space that appears to have once been a hotel.  It is now in poor state, appears half built, and is generally a mess – perfect location for a craft market!  After wandering for some time and asking the price of various things, it appears that there is far less competition than originally appears.  A number of attractive young girls tending the stalls have no idea how much things cost and repeatedly defer to an older lady.  Seemingly she owns somewhere between 4-6 stalls.  The variety is somewhat less than initially imagined too, prices are much the same and drop to the same “final” price quite quickly and so on.  Still, we got some nice things.

Afterwards, we went to a small duty free shop at a fancy marina.  There were some fabulous boats, although I suspect they should be called motor yachts or something similar.  Impressive craft.  The duty free was junk if you are travelling from larger cities – perhaps if this is your first stop out of Caracas, you might think it was OK…

By now we were feeling a little peckish.  Restaurant recommendations were refused, as we wanted something simple.  We eventually agree on the “Mercado de Mariscos”, which is a seafood market with a large number of stalls providing cooked seafood,.  Each has its own PA system with loud music pumping out.  Entertaining.  Oh yes, it’s outdoors.  And have I mentioned how hot and humid it is?  We’re sweating a lot.  Anyway, back to lunch.  We decide on fried fish, initially thinking it would be fillets, but alas it turns out it was an entire fish.  We also asked for some chips.  Of course.

After a surprisingly long amount of time, the fish arrived and wow, it was delicious.  The chips were also fabulous.  A must-visit location if any reader is in the area.

We then trucked back to the airport, avoided the confusion of checking in again (and the potential presence of a tourist tax) due to already having boarding cards from Los Angeles, and settled in to wait for our flight – we have about 4 hours.  All in all, we’d recommend a visit to Panama.  Seems interesting enough for a good couple of days, especially if you were to head out of Panama to other parts of the country.  It‘s pretty hot and humid though, so be prepared!

12 December 2015 – Ventura, Malibu and Santa Monica

Last day in Los Angeles today.  We checked out of our hotel and headed west, with the aim of seeing some of the mountains and coastline to the northwest of LA city.  We drove out to Ventura (on the Ventura Highway, now referred to as a Freeway).  Weather was fabulous – beautiful cloudless sky, temperatures very mild, with perhaps even a hint of cool in the air (but not chilly).

The town of Ventura was not very exciting, although the mountains and valleys in the region were quite spectacular.  Some of the distant peaks even had a dusting of snow on them.  Must be fresh, given the hot temperatures earlier in the week.  The redeeming feature of Ventura was the river(?)/port outlet to the sea and the beach at that location.  Quite spectacular beach lined with houses, all receiving the salty spray from the waves.  They must have some fantastic maintenance schedules!  The inlet even had frolicking sea lions!

Heading south from Ventura towards Malibu was spectacular, although a lot of the coastline was developed, with houses even being built out over the ocean on stilts.  The mountains/hills were very reminiscent of those in northern Chile, although with a bit more vegetation here and definitely more people around.  Perhaps the Chilean versions are a bit bigger, but not by too much.

The coastal development around Malibu features, by the look of it, many of the rich and/or famous in the area.  Some of the houses were enormous AND incredible-looking, while some were just plain ugly.  They were built on some incredible eyries, as well as the slopes.  It almost seems as if people choose the most difficult slopes and build there.  Or perhaps the original owners of the land sold off their worst pieces?

Because of the lovely day, there were thousands upon thousands of people out and about.  Almost all of the available parking spaces along the roadside were taken, people were out surfing, hiking, biking and so on.  Lots of motorbikes were zooming around, fancy/fast cars were at it.  It was an entertaining drive!

Back into Santa Monica, we drove around a little, looked at the Santa Monica pier from a distance and decided not to go anywhere near it given the likely crowds.  We stopped for a late bit to eat on the Main St.  We found a whole heap of vegan-type restaurants, as well as the occasional one serving real food (very long queue, so we left).  Ultimately we found, of all things, an Australian Pie shop.  They weren’t really Australian, and certainly cost a heap more, but we liked the idea.  I had a vegetable pie, served on top of mashed sweet potato, with a half-serve of mashed peas on top, topped with mushroom sauce.  Very delicious and disappeared rapidly.

Afterwards, we drove around ?Hollywood? (the Avenue of Stars was boring), then went to Beverly Hills and drove around some residential areas (some spectacular houses, some fairly ordinary ones) and a few commercial streets, including Rodeo Drive.  I played “spot the supercar” and had a right old time.  The highlight was the Bentley covered in what looked like black suede, although the Maserati’s, Lamborghini’s, Ferrari’s, McLarens, Rolls’, etc etc were good fun too.  Our Chrysler certainly didn’t cut the mustard…

Then it was off to the airport.  Trying to refuel before dropping the car back was a bit of a saga but eventually completed, only to discover two ‘gas stations’ right next to the Thrifty depot.  Oh well…

Checking in at Copa Airlines was a splendid reminder of Latin American ‘efficiency’ and something to prepare my mind for over the coming weeks.  There were perhaps 25 people in front of us.  Most of them had long, chatty conversations with the check-in staff and it was all very slow, taking nearly an hour for our turn.  Eventually we were done and we passed through security – another long and tedious process.  Despite signs clearly saying it was NOT necessary to remove shoes to pass through security, we were then told to take them off and pass them through the x-ray machine while we passed through the full body nudie scanner.  Hooray!

We’re now waiting for the plane, scheduled to leave at 10.43PM, arriving into Panama tomorrow morning at 8.04AM.  The flight promises to be interesting…

11 December 2015 - Mall/s

Not much to report for todays activities.  We visited a couple of examples of North American shopping malls.  The first was the Glendale Galleria, famous in my mind for the episode of Big Bang Theory where they try to teach Sheldon to drive on a simulator.  After originally driving on one of the normal roads, he somehow manages to end up driving in the Galleria!

We wandered and wandered and I’m afraid I didn’t see much to get me excited.  Of interest was the fact that I could only find one (1) ATM within the entire complex, which charged me US$5 for the privilege of withdrawing money.  Thank you Wells Fargo – you suck!

Across the road is the “Americana on Brand” mall, which is more of a selection of shops along a closed street.  Much nicer than the Galleria, but much more upmarket.  There’s a nice bookstore in there – very large but also a bit pricey.

So, all very interesting and a box ticked.  No need to return.

10 December 2015 - more Pasadena

We got off to an early start this morning.  We headed in to Pasadena to visit a museum, however we were so early it wasn’t yet open!  Turns out it opens at 12pm on Thursdays!

It’s fair to say opening hours are a bit later here than they are in Oz!  We’re finding many things aren’t open until 10am or later, which has come as a bit of a surprise.  It will be good practice for Chile though!

So, we’re in old Pasadena, waiting until midday for a museum to open, having spent yesterday wandering around and seeing most things of interest to us…  We thought we’d grab a coffee and found ourselves in a little bakery shop on E Colorado Blvd – Aux Delices.  Looked lovely but unfortunately failed to deliver with either their mocha or the chai latte.  Both of them were largely frothy milk with a hint of flavour.  Disappointing.

So, what next?  We took to the streets, weaving our way through the residential streets of Pasadena.  Many lovely buildings to be seen, just like in the movies of nice suburbs in the US.  Additionally, we found ourselves driving past Caltech, thinking of Sheldon, Leonard etc and lo and behold, walking along the footpath were a bunch of nerdy looking guys that MUST have been from the Physics Department!  Bit of a giggle!

After driving around until 10am, we found a cluster of antique shops that had just opened.  The first one we went in was enormous, with lots of interesting things to see.  Turns out it is a collective of lots of people all selling from the one address.  Nonetheless it was a great place to wander for an hour or two.  On the way back to the car, we ducked in to another smaller shop, which was less interesting however the owner was more interested in chatting.  He knew a little about Australia and has a son studying geophysics!  Of most interest, there was a plant growing on the front wall with stunning flowers, apparently called a Passionflower.

We headed off to the museum – the Norton Simon museum.  Very impressive collection and well worth the visit.  I was most impressed with the collection of Degas sculptures, although van Gogh’s “The Mulberry Tree” was pretty darn good, along with the collection of Asian statues (Indian and Thai).  The Rodin bronzes were also good.

Afterwards, we headed for a late lunch at El Pollo Loco (the crazy chicken).  Quite tolerable!  It came with a choice of sides, one of which was broccoli!  You don’t see that at every fast food place…

The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering the stores on old Pasadena that we missed the yesterday.  We dropped in to a Venezuelan coffee shop and had some churros.  The dipping chocolate was reported to be outstanding, along with the cocoa that Andrea had.

Back at the hotel, we fancied a light snack for dinner, so we went over the road the El Super Burrito.  Unfortunately there was a very angry man threatening the people working there over some imagined insult, so we left, did a lap of the block and came back.  Apparently he was suggesting he was going to get his gang and come back.  Fool.  Anyway, we got our nachos and went back to the room.  The dipping sauce and the guacamole were just excellent!

Now, it’s time to wind down the some junky Christmas TV movie, then sleepy time………………

9 December 2015 - Old Pasadena

Today was Old Pasadena day.  There’s a historic precinct around the Pasadena Town Hall shown on the visitors guide for tourists so we thought we’d check it out.  En-route, we managed to find the local equivalent of a Salvo’s/Vinnies, known as a Thrift Shop.  Of course, that meant stopping in for a browse.  There wasn’t much of interest in the clothes/music/books sections, but there were a few interesting bric-a-brac items that were tempting.  Fortunately common sense prevailed and only one small jar was purchased, rather than the large glass cake display.

We next stopped out the front of the Town Hall.  It’s the building you can see from the window of Leonard and Sheldon’s apartment in The Big Bang Theory.  It’s most definitely an impressive building.  Apparently there has been considerable effort by local (and tourist) geeks to figure out where the apartment is, based on the view out the window.  The apartment clearly isn’t real – it is TV after all – and the view is provided by a photograph.  It is suggested by said geeks that the photo is taken from either a local parking structure or from a nearby building.  I drove past the parking structure, which wasn’t much of a highlight!

While in this area, we stopped in for a coffee/chai in a local ‘tourist promenade’ and then browsed a really good antique shop.  Lots of books, old clothes, jewellery etc etc, however the owner managed to upset Andrea when she was picking out some crystals, so we ended up leaving.

Wandering down to the proper Old part, the girls discovered a second-hand clothing shop that was a little more upmarket than the one earlier today.  Run by some younger, funky types, they buy clothes from people for 35% of the price they will sell for, or give 50% of the price as store credit.  They are obviously then choosy about what they take and the prices are somewhat higher, but both of them eventually emerged with some alleged bargains.  Of interest was the stream of people entering the store with clothes to sell.  Most I saw went home with a large proportion of what they arrived with, including one lad who went home with everything.

Beyond that, we wandered the streets, browsed the lovely shops until we were hungry.  A highlight was a beautiful lolly shop targeted at adults called “sugarfina”.  Highly recommended if any readers come across one in their travels.  Another highlight, this time for me, was the Tesla shop.  They had two cars in it (and a chassis to show the motors) and they are just lovely.  Expensive, but lovely.  We’ve seen a few driving around so I was curious, and the sales guy reckons they’ve started selling them in Australia, but I’m yet to see one in Perth.

Our final highlight of the day was having a late lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  Neither Penny nor Bernadette were there.  Actually, the store is quite different from the TV set.  None of the menu items mentioned any link either – one presumes negotiations over marketing rights haven’t gone anywhere.  The vanilla bean cheesecake was gloriously rich!

On the way back to the hotel, I made a quick stop at a local wine shop.  Tiny thing – very boutique.  One wonders whether the Dan Murphy’s or Vintage Cellars concept would work here.  All the liquor shops seem to be individually owned and small, and I am yet to see any large chain, nor can I find one on the internet.

Back at the hotel, it’s time for some laundry.  Sounds like fun…

2011 and 2012

I got a bit distracted over these years.  Did a fair bit of travel but it would be a major exercise to document it all in detail.  Instead I'll give a brief (and undoubtedly incomplete), non-chronologic listing of a few places I went to.

• Northern Argentina - including Belen, Londres (Ruinas de El Shincal), Chilecito, La Rioja, Aimogasta, Tinogasta, Hualfin, Amaicha del Valle (Museo de la Pachamama is fantastic, as are the ruins at Quilmes), Cafayate (great wineries), Salta, San Salvador de Jujuy, and the road to San Padro de Atacama in Chile
• Southern Argentina - Villa la Angostura, Bariloche, San Martin de los Andes, Junin de los Andes
• Southern Chile - Valdivia, Puerto Octay, Lake Llanquihue (Yan-key-way), Puerto Varas, Puerto Montt, Lake Todos Los Santos (and the magnificent view of the Osorno Volcano), Castro (on Chiloe Island), Puerto Saavedra, Santa Cruz wine district.
• Northern Chile - Calama, Antofagasta, San Pedro de Atacama, Loa River Valley, the Lasana ruins, Tocapilla, Iquique, the Quebrada de Camarones, Arica
• Peru - Tacna (where you can find Tim Tams in at least one of the supermarkets!), Moquegua (the Ruta del Pisco), Arequipa, Juliaca (including picking up a hitch-hiker on the altiplano), Puno, Lake Titicaca, Ilave, Juli, Desaguadero (highlight!!! not), the road between Desaguadero and Moquegua, Lima

At the end of 2012, I moved back to Australia with promises of working through Asia.  Fools dream that was...

8 December 2015 - a couple of art galleries and some traffic

After several days of poor sleep due to jetlag, I’ve finally slept through last night.  It’s such a relief…

At the hotel, I’ve discovered the bagel collection available during breakfast.  Best of all, I’ve found that they have cinnamon and raisin bagels, which are more or less the same flavour as raisin toast back in Australia, but better!  All I need is some vegemite…

Today was Art Gallery day.  We went on a long drive this morning, leaving the hotel at about 9.30AM.  I presume that this is the very tail end of rush hour, and the traffic was so crazy that I can’t imagine how it would be during the full-on rush hour.  We arrived in Westwood Village (to the west of Beverly Hills) at about 11AM, although it is fair to say our route may not have been optimal.  We found the most expensive parking lot in the area, charged $2.80 every 15 minute block, up to a maximum of $22 per day.  Despite taking umbrage at this, I couldn’t reverse out because of the cars in the street, so in we went, steam coming out of my ears.  Andrea was quite to remind me that she didn’t say we should go in.

So, we headed over the road to the Hammer Museum, which is part of the University of California (UCLA).  It was free entry, which helped with the pain of the parking.  After visiting the first display and being somewhat disappointed at what passed for art, Alma noticed that the building had parking underneath.  I went and checked with reception and found that they charged $3 for 3 hours.  With great delight, I went back to the original parking lot and took the car out.  Despite having been there for only about 20 minutes, I was in to the second time period, so it cost $5.60, which is the poorest return on $5.60 that I’ve ever had.  After a few laps of the block with the museum, and an illegal(?) u-turn, I finally managed to park the car and join the girls.

I had missed the first gallery they went to, which on the basis of what we saw in the first gallery, didn’t concern me at all.  The second gallery was entitled THE IDEA OF NORTH : The paintings of Lawren Harris.  With low expectations, in we went.  Well, fair to say, the collection was outstanding.  Fabulous paintings of Canada’s north from around 90 years ago.  Can’t recommend them highly enough.

In an additional chamber in the same building, there was a small collection of paintings from famous masters like Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Monet, and Toulouse-Lautrec.  My favourite was the portrait attributed to Gericault (his most famous work is Raft of the Medusa).  Small collection, but fabulous.

The next exhibition of entitled UH-OH by Frances Stark and unfortunately represents everything I hate about modern artists and art.  Pretentious claptrap and junk masquerading as art.  While the Rembrandt, Rubens, Goya etc will surely still be considered masterpieces in another 200 years, the other will hopefully have long been consigned to the rubbish bin.

At the gift shop, I was pleased to find an interesting tea towel that I thought would be great for Andrea’s workshop.  It was a list of reasons why it is great to be a woman artist.  They were all ironic/sarcastic, but was quite amusing.  Most amusing however was the price.  US$35 for a printed tea towel.  I’m still giggling…

After we left, we continued driving east down Wilshire Drive and we passed through Beverly Hills.  That was an experience.  Lots of shiny things.  Our baby magpie was impressed!  I must admit to secretly enjoying the car shops.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen a McLaren shop before…

Ultimately we arrived at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA).  Being about 1.30pm, we took the advantage to have a quick lunch from one of the many food trucks parked out the front.  I went with the green organic food truck and a vegan burger which was very delicious.  The girls went with some other thing that came with chips.  I think they were only moderately happy.  The chips were twice cooked, as is the current fad amongst the foodies, however they seemed a bit overcooked.

By chance, we had arrived at the Museum on free entry day.  The first gallery was a series of Japanese woodcut prints which were extraordinarily detailed and just wonderful.  They’re not something I normally think much about, but every time I see a display of them, I love them.  There was another display elsewhere in the complex but we didn’t get to them, which was a bit disappointing.

Second gallery was a collection of German left-wing propaganda from immediately after WW1.  Powerful works.  Certainly not to my taste though.

The next gallery was a collection donated by the Lazarof’s.  Interesting collection, including a lot of German and Eastern European works from post WW1.  Grim but nonetheless impressive works.

Following that was a collection of more modern works (largely 1950’s and 1960’s?) by US artists.  At some point, there was a gallery of Picasso’s works.  My but he was a strange fish…  Some impressive works but others feel like he was just cashing in on his name.

Some other works, including the famous tomato soup can by Andy Warhol.  There was also one by another artist featuring a Spam can.  More interesting than it sounds.

My least favourite was a large diamond shape, painted white.  Apparently someone paid good money to purchase it for the gallery.  When I get home I’m going to do a series based on this work and see how much I can get.  I suspect that it won’t be enough to retire on…

A quick trip through the South Pacific art collection completed the Ahmanson Building and we headed to the Broad Contemporary Art Museum (part of the LACMA complex).  Unfortunately we only had time for the Junk Dada collection by Noah Purifoy.  Against expectations, I quite enjoyed it, with some pretty cool works.  Vastly better than the earlier works of Ms. Stark.

After leaving LACMA, we decided to continue driving east along Wilshire Drive.  There was lots of traffic but at least it was moving, so we continued on.  We saw a staggering number of Starbucks and every other chain store you can imagine.  El Pollo Loco (the crazy chicken) is my favourite, in terms of its name.  No idea of the food quality.

We eventually arrived at an intersection where we could get onto a freeway to get back to our hotel, however it was choked with cars so we continued along Wilshire.  Eventually that got more and more choked, so we tried to get onto a freeway nearby.  A kind man at an intersection pointed out the way to get on the freeway.  He may have been homeless, as after giving us the advice, he waved a plastic cup at us.  We gave him a dollar, which he seemed happy enough with.  Karma renewed, we got onto the freeway and guess what.  It was pretty much choked with cars.  We continued for the better part of an hour and a half before we got back to the hotel.  It’s hard to describe.  We were on only one of the many freeways crossing LA.  Each and every one is a good 4-6 lanes wide, each direction, running for many kilometres, all choked with cars.  And then all the minor streets we had traversed earlier were full of cars.  It’s like everyone in LA gets to 4pm and thinks that it is a great idea to go out onto the freeways and drive around for a couple of hours.  Ugh.

So, another day done and dusted.  Off to bed we go.

7 December - Jewellery & Fashion Districts

Monday in Los Angeles – what to do…  Today we thought we’d visit the Jewellery and Fashion Districts of the city.  Somehow in the past it came to be that various industries clumped themselves together in the city.  Was it planned or did it just evolve?  I have no idea.  Suffice to say that there are recognised districts where one goes for certain things.

After another hair-raising drive amongst the thousands of cars that were all going to the centre of the city today, along with some lousy navigation skills from my co-pilot, we eventually arrived in the general area of the Jewellery District.  Well, I have to say it was a let-down.  I wouldn’t be buying anything of the gold and silver jewellery with any confidence that it wasn’t just plated.  We wandered and wandered with increasing disillusionment.  It was smelly, the shops were crappy and in general seemed a bit dodgy.  Not hugely, but enough.

Most of the store owners/workers were Latinos.  I’m not sure what that says.  I’d expected that the full ethnic diversity of the city would be on display, but that didn’t appear to be the case.  I found it odd.  We had a couple of conversations with some stall holders, including one crazy Israeli who Andrea was convinced was trying to rip her off, but eventually we found a nice (apparently) Japanese man who sold us a few bits and pieces at what seemed to be reasonable prices – i.e. neither ridiculously expensive nor ridiculously cheap.

So, having had our fill of crappy jewellery stores, we headed towards the fashion district.  Arriving into a zone that appeared to sell fabric by the roll in every single shop visible, we stumbled across a nice pizza place for lunch – Papi’s Pizza – which is recommended if you are in the area and not in a hurry…

After lunch, we discovered the zone of rhinestones, shiny beads and semi-precious stones (real and fake).  Hard to believe any of them can make anything against all of the competition because there is little to distinguish most of them.  Eventually we bumbled into a shop where the owner was nice and helpful, suitably chatty, so of course a few more baubles were acquired.

At about 3.30pm, we decided we’d had enough.  While we achieved some interesting things, today was generally disappointing, probably due to having expectations too high.  And maybe it was a bit crappy too.  We successfully navigated back to the hotel via a different route than originally planned, but one that worked out well enough.  We stopped by a Trader Joe’s store, as I’d heard about it and we’d been given good coffee from there when we were living in Chile.  It was pretty good – a little gourmet supermarket, although I don’t feel the urge to rush back again tomorrow!

It’s still early now, but I’m very tired.  Last night involved 3-4 hours sleep, then a good 4 hours awake being bored before I got so bored that I had to get up.  I’m loving the jetlag…

6 December 2015 - Outlet Malls

Amongst the list of things on the MUST DO list here in Los Angeles was to visit an Outlet Mall.  Apparently they are all set outside Los Angeles in strange locations, one presumes to avoid some local taxes?  Anyway, while the girls were getting their nails done, they were recommended the Desert Hills Premium Outlets in Cabazon, some (roughly) 120km to the east of Los Angeles.

Given it was Sunday, we thought we’d head out and see what this was about.  Our route took us past San Bernardino, the city where the recent mass shooting took place.  It was somewhat sobering to be driving so close by after such a terrible event, however there appears to be a bit of a local outpouring of support for the residents, both externally and internally.  There were a bunch of signs out by people saying how much they loved the city, American flags and so on.  Despite having to concentrate very hard on the drive, I still found time for a bit of reflection on the craziness of the world…

As mentioned the driving is crazy.  We were on a big freeway heading out of town and it was 3-5 lanes all the way in our direction and the same going the other way.  Or maybe there were 6 lanes for a while?  Anway, big roads and wow, lots and lots of cars.  I knew there’d be lots of cars but I’m still blown away by how busy it was.  And don’t they drive fast!  I sat on the posted limit of 65mph and there was cars whizzing past me all of the time!  Some of them were more than whizzing too!

So, after about and hour and a half, we spotted a sign to this Mall.  Right in the middle of not very much.  Odd.  So, we park and wander in.  Despite not really liking shopping that much, I was amazed at this place.  Apparently there are around 180 premium outlet stores in this Mall, featuring genuinely premium brands such as Alexander McQueen, Prada and a whole bunch of others that I’ve never heard of, although I was assured that they are quite famous.

We arrived at about 12.30pm and left at 8pm, having done a lap and seen most of the shops exteriors and quite a few of the interiors.  It was sale season (or is it always sale season?), so prices were massively reduced.  To give an idea, one fancy coat I looked at was originally about $1400 but was on sale at $400.  Still pricey for sure, but also massively discounted, presumably because it was sooooo 2014, or some other such silliness.  I got into the spirit of things by buying a pair of jeans for $25 that I’d normally get in Oz for around $80 on sale.  So, I’m happy.  The girls made a whole lot of “investments” such that I had to make a trip to the car during the middle of their frenzy – ostensibly it was for my jumper as the sun was going down, however it was mostly to avoid being lumped with an increasingly worrying number of bags on a frequent basis.

At 8pm, the official closing time, the place was just about deserted, apart from the cleaners and us.  The girls tried to buy a churro, only to find that the stall had been shut and cleaned, and that the churros on display were fakes.  FAKES!!!  Outrageous…

The drive back to Los Angeles and our hotel was somewhat frightening in the dark.  Still have to concentrate hard to keep the car in the correct position in the lane but at night, people still drive like maniacs, but you can’t see as well as during the day.  Despite a few close calls due to other idiots nearly crashing into other cars (not me!), we made it back to the hotel.  A quick bite to each, a bit of water and then off to bed to see how the jetlag goes on the second night.

4-5 December 2015 - Perth to LA

Well, after a long absence, I’m back in the Americas although this time as a tourist rather than a resident.  It’s a long trip though, around 7.5 weeks.  As per previously, the blog will be mostly my own personal diary so that I don’t forget about various happenings and places I’ve been, along with documenting impressions and the like.  Additional viewers (most probably only my parents) may find it interesting and beyond that, maybe it might prove useful for anyone else planning a visit through the region.

Today’s post deals with the first leg of the trip – the big issue of getting from Perth to Los Angeles.  My, but it’s a long way!  But everyone knows that already…

The flight from Perth to Melbourne was the midnight horror, the red-eye, or whatever other expletive-laden description you might have for it.  We left at 11.40PM and were due to arrive into Melbourne at around 6.30AM local time.  The flight is a necessary evil to commence trips from Perth as soon as possible after work on a Friday and on this occasion, was to be followed up by the long flight from Melbourne to LA.

As it turned out, while the flight to Melbourne got away on time, as we were nearing Melbourne things went awry.  Thick fog meant that we couldn’t land and the pilot advised that we had to turn around and head to Adelaide.  The 6 people with connecting flights to Adelaide were stoked, however the remaining couple of hundred were NOT particularly happy.  We had to sit on the tarmac for around an hour while they dillied and dallied with refuelling, performed the relevant calculations and got a take-off and landing slot for the Adelaide-Melbourne flight.  Not that it particularly mattered to us, as we had a 4.5 hour wait between flights anyway, so now it was just a bit shorter.

Some comments on the flight from Perth to Melbourne – at the risk of repeating things that are all well known, my but we were squeezed in!  My being reasonably tall meant that I wasn’t going to get any sleep, so I contented myself with watching some movies streamed onto the iPad we (each passenger) were given.  I like that much better than “old technology” seat-back screens, so kudos for Qantas for that!

So, after arriving into Melbourne, we wandered over to the international part and headed through customs, with the idea of getting some breakfast in that area.  While some options did exist, and we did have a very nice breakfast at the Air Bar & Lounge (my “open omelette” was excellent), the best-looking options were probably outside.

The flight to LA was on an A380, which was far more spacious than the A330(?) from Perth, UNTIL the little cretin in the seat in front reclined all the way.  Suddenly the seat-back screen was about 8 inches from my nose.  At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, I can’t figure people out.  This kid was around 10 years old and it’s difficult to understand how he needed to recline his seat all the way back SO THAT HE COULD WATCH TV!  If it was for him to go to sleep, well perhaps I can understand that, but for watching TV?!  I don’t really blame the kid, as 10 year olds are notoriously ignorant about anyone but themselves, but the parents seated alongside of him could surely figure it out?  Apparently not.  Anyway, my squeals of discomfort with the chair squashing my knees went ignored.  I did eventually figure out some positions that were a bit more comfortable, but still not great.  It did force me to recline my seat (partially), much to my delight, to annoy the stupid teenage girls seated behind me, who were on a school trip and decided to talk LOUDLY amongst each other, as well as their colleagues seated in other rows in the general vicinity, during the middle section of the flight when everyone else was trying to get some sleep.

The net result was that I got about 2 hours sleep (in 3 batches) across the flight to LA.  I did get to catch up on a bunch of movies that I’d either not seen or only partially seen over the last 5-6 years, so there was a small win in amongst the pain.

Arrival into LA was relatively painless other than our bags being amongst the last to be unloaded onto the conveyor.  One of our bags was EXACTLY the last, something that happens to us all too frequently…  Not sure what to make of that.

After passing the long queues for immigration and customs, we made it out into the fresh air, with fresh being a relative term.  I must say that the transfer buses to the car hire locations outside the airport is an excellent idea and worked very efficiently.  Once we were at the car hire place (Thrifty), things became a little less efficient.  The amount of time it took to collect a pre-booked car was surprising – it feels much faster in Australia.  The other people trying to rent cars (with and without bookings) seemed extraordinarily slow.  No idea why.  One neat ‘innovation’ was that once I had chosen the type of car (full-size in this case), we were free to choose whichever car in the fleet of that type.  I still don’t know what it is that I chose, but it is plenty fancy and red.  Happy camper.

Driving on the ‘wrong side’ was a bit more entertaining than I expected.  Having previously lived for 2.5 years in Chile and driven on the RHS, I thought it would come back to me easier than it has so far.  I’m still having to concentrate a lot to keep the car properly positioned in the lane, not to mention the LA drivers on the freeways driving like maniacs.  Fun times!

We eventually made it to our hotel and am pleasantly surprised.  We’re in a Best Western (Pasadena Royale) and for the price, comparing it to what I’d pay for similar in Perth (or most of Australia for that matter), it is pretty good.  We’re across the road from a little Mexican diner type place.  Having seen it on Google Streetview, I’d sworn there was no way we’d be going there, but walking past it and being a bit hungry at 3PM, the menu looked interesting enough so we thought we’d have a go.  Great decision to try it.  Fabulous vegie burrito and well and truly big enough to fill the hole in my tummy – enormous!  Highly recommended.  Andrea had the super burrito and it was just as good, if not better, due to the salsa it had drizzled on top.  We’ll be eating there again before we go.  It’s far from fancy – you sit outside in an area that is admittedly shaded, but is right next to the major road, but we liked it.  Really quick service too.

We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the main street (E Colorado Blvd) near the hotel, marvelling at the size of the 4x4’s/SUV’s in the car yards, spotting an old dusty/rusty E-type Jaguar in a mechanics garage just begging for someone to restore it, and checking out the various nail shops (of the fingernail variety) that plague the area – apparently it is absolutely necessary and incredibly urgent…

First impressions of LA – I’m surprised at how many people are speaking Spanish around the places we’ve seen so far.  I know Spanish is widely spoken here, but it seems like every sign has both English and Spanish on it, or just Spanish!  Crazy.

OK, time to see how the jetlag goes tonight.