A shit memory and rizla chess...

Man my memory sucks. First I left my fleece in santiago (which I have decided will make a great song title: I left my fleeeece in saaaannnnntiiiiagooooo...). Then I decided that seeing as I had to go back to santiago to get it before heading north, I�d make a stop at a little place an american guy recomended to me called Isla Negra. Then I could head straight off to santiago from there, collect my fleece, and jump on the bus up north. That is if I hadn�t then left my money belt in Valparaiso! So there I was in Isla Negra, with my passport and money in Valparaiso, and my fleece in Santiago! I decided the best course of action would be to hang around in Isla Negra for a couple of days and get stoned and eat barbecue. The hostel I was in, the casa azul, was run by this lovely chilean guy called bruno, who kept me supplied with huge chunks of roasted animal and cheeky little bifters the whole time! On the second night all the other gusts left except for me and this canadian girl, who promptly fell asleep on the sofa. So what can 2 guys do alone in a house in the middle of no where? Play "Rizla Chess" of course! You too can play this amazing game! The rules are as follows:

Take a chess board, and arrange some pieces on the board in an approximation of a maze/obstacle course (you�ll learn to modify it as you go along for the most exciting games), then take a rizla (a cigarette rolling paper), and place it face down on the edge of the board in front of you. The idea is to get the rizla off the other side of the board without it falling off the sides. The catch is that you cant touch the rizla or blow it! You have to move it using air movement generated by your hands. The idea is to use bruce lee style hand movements and get it over in the least number of moves possible. Try it, i think you�ll like it.....

Anyway, moving on, after my night of rizla chess, i failed to get up at 7am, and instead woke at 9am and managed to make it to the main road by 10:30am, and caught a bus to Santiago. My plan was to get my fleece, get a bus to valpo (valparaiso), and then catch a bus to la serena in the north. By 5pm I was still on the bus to valpo. It wasn�t looking to promising. Then I read in my book that bolivia is in the middle of it�s rainy season, and my whole plan of heading north started seeming less than appealing... So what to do??!! I was starting to get a bit confused. I�d been in S America for 2 weeks and so far had only moved in a very small circle between santiago and valpo and isla negra. While I was sitting at the table back at the hostel in valpo and reading by book, trying to decide whether to go north or south, I heard the girls at the table mention mendoza. "Are you going to mendoza?" I asked. "Yeah! Do you wanna come? Oh go on!" they replied enthusiastically. Mmm, sounds promising, but where the fuck is it? I thought to myself. Then I found out it was in Argentina! And it was to the east! Perfect! I coudln�t decide whether to go north or south, so go east!!!

So, after a long bus ride thru the rugged and stunning Andes, I am now in Mendoza. It�s a pretty town, lots of big squares and parks with fountains and trees and people snogging in public. So anyway, I�d better be off now cos we�re gonna go try some argentine steak, which is supposed to be the best in the world.... mmmmmmm.

by the way, loads of new photos up at http://community.webshots.com/user/undercoverhippy thanks to my wonderful ex girlfriend Selene!! Hooray for Selene!