Begin At The Beginning......

To coin a well known phrase, let's begin at the beginning, and then go on to the end and then stop.....

So how come I am in South America?

It all started earlier this year when I was reading an article about temples in Japan being open to the public so they could enjoy the autumn colours of the Acer trees......

The article was an extract from a book of travel articles called, collectively, 100 Journeys For The Spirit, which, as I just happened to be ordering from Amazon anyway, I thought it might be nice to have. You too can own this very interesting book, in fact I have put a link to the left so you can order it from Amazon too.....And if you do then I get 10% commission.

Well I have to pay for my holiday somehow.....

Anyway the book duly arrived and in it is an article about Machu Picchu, which I had vaguely heard of, but more importantly it re-awoke my interest in South America and like you do I started looking at Japan and ended up looking at South America instead.

No, I thought, the air fares will be much too expensive, but hey, a flight from Frankfurt to Lima, Peru and back again is only €700, and if
I book it now (April 2011), I will have time to save up and sort out the rest of the details later......But then again I have heard how wonderful it is in Rio at New Year, and then there was that bit I read about cruises down the Patagonian fjords...And then they make wine in South America too...

Which is why you find me now, sitting at a cafe on Av. 11 September, Santiago, Chile, looged on to the free WiFi from Macdonalds just across the road, writing this.