tan lejos y tan cerca: Times they are changing

From now on in English - for your pleasure

It's hard to understand that today is the 15th of April 2013, what happened to those months that I would have never imagined to live?
Well, the answer isn't simple nor necessary to explain. Still, to sum up; after starting the travels in Ecuador in November of 2012, continuing to Peru and Bolivia and finally to Chile my life has changed more that I would've ever thought. Today I'm writing these words in Santiago de Chile under the forgiving rays of the autumn sun - yes, the winter is coming and at once I'm not running away from it. No, even though the airplane that was supposed to take me back to my old life in Finland is starting its engines in two days - without me.

Ever since Ville and I arrived to Chile and decided to continue to different directions I struggled to decide whether to stay in South America or to go back to Europe. Finally some two weeks ago I made up my mind and took the biggest step of my life so far without actually knowing what there is ahead of me. That I still don't know.

Obviously after spending 5 months and some thousands travelling I had to come up with a way to earn some money in order to support myself here.
After going through some ideas and failing to put any of them into practice I found a young European family that needs help with their 6-month-old baby boy and luckily for me it's the easiest job I've ever had; all I have to do is to enjoy this little goblin's company for a few hours a day and that's it! Plus, I never thought that my sorry excuse for a cow impression would be such a success.

The problem with a world with borders is that no matter how much you would like to keep enjoying your time in one country you have to earn your right to be there. For a Finn -or for almost any other nationality in that matter- the maximum length of a stay here in Chile is two times 90 days per year, that is if you don't have a contract and a working visa, which I don't have... yet. The two times 90 means that after three months you either have to pay US$100 to extend the tourist visa or make a trip for example to Argentina to get another 90-day tourist visa. And that is exactly what my friendly neighborhood Chilean guide and I did last weekend.

Mendoza is located in Argentina approximately three hours from the border of Chile and it's a very popular place to go to weekend trip for those who need to get an extension of stay in Chile. The bus ride there was supposed to take some 7 of 8 hours and since the customs are open only to one direction at a time (meaning that you can cross the border from Chile to Argentina only by night and the other way around during the day) we got to sunny Mendoza on Friday morning after nine hours and celebrated our successful journey by having a beer (or two) in the city center. Without going to any details I can say that the weekend was made of a lot of laughter, sun, sleeping and some partying and I even got a new visa!

The way back to Santiago took 12 hours - that's something I had the hardest time to understand. Okay, the borders are never quick or delightful but this time we first had to wait for four hours to get the passports stamped and after that two more hours just to have the pleasure to put our baggage through x-ray scanner in case somebody is carrying illegal products, such as fruits, to the country.

Fortunately the way from the border to Santiago took only 2,5 hours instead of the six that we spent in the bus on our way to Argentina.
The weekend in Mendoza was definitely interesting and enjoyable and yet it was good to be back in Santiago!

Today I have a day-off and and the weather is b-e-a-utiful; a clear blue sky and the temperature rises up to 32 Celsius degrees, that's my kind of Autumn!

I'm off to the fruit market.

Because I'm a lazy-ass blog updater here are some pictures taken along the way, the first ones from Bolivia and the latest ones from Chile.