Santiago

A five hour flight and short busride and i'm safely installed in The Happy House hostel in Santiago. Stunning building, wood floors, high ceilings, a lounge, a bar area with pool table and roof terrace. A tenner a night is a bargain for what is basically a posh hotel with dorms.

The next few days are spent lazing around recovering from Easter Island exertions. Just about managed to drag myself to the cultural centre which had a great photo exhibition including Cartier-Bresson shots of Santiago in the fifties, awesome.

Decided to get the bus to Mendoza, a mistake. The border crossing took 3 hours, a queue of twenty buses waiting to go through immigration with one bloke in a booth. Ouch. Recovered by quaffing a beer and visiting the casino. Tonight i'm off to Buenos Aires, a twelve hour bus ride, but full cama (first class airline equivalent) is only 50 dollars so should get a bit of kip. Killing time on the internet and have stumbled on Bushisms. This was a bit of a cracker:

President Bush: "Peter. Are you going to ask that question with shades on?"
Peter Wallsten of the Los Angeles Times: "I can take them off."
Bush: "I'm interested in the shade look, seriously."
Wallsten: "All right, I'll keep it, then."
Bush: "For the viewers, there's no sun."
Wallsten: "I guess it depends on your perspective."
Bush: "Touche.
--an exchange with legally blind reporter Peter Wallsten, to whom Bush later apologized, Washington, D.C., June 14, 2006

and this:

"I was not pleased that Hamas has refused to announce its desire to destroy Israel." --George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., May 4, 2006

and many, many more