Two American trips
16 November 2019
Winter seemed very long this year. We have often visited the Northern hemisphere in the middle of the year, but this year we were planning to go to South America instead and it made no sense to go in their Winter, so the trip was planned for November. By then we were both looking forward to some warmer weather and brighter days.
In August there was a reunion for staff and students of the school I attended up to year 4 (1979). I was surprised to find there were only one or two fellow students I recognised but that several of my former teachers were still alive and at the event. I'm at the right edge of this photos, sitting next to Grevis Beard. The senior school where the event was held was also mostly unrecognisable. I had only been back there once since 1981, when I attended a funeral in the chapel.
During the football finals we went to games both in the NRL, watching the Storm lose to the Raiders, and the AFL, watching Richmond win their preliminary final. I had applied for allocated seats at the AFL Grand Final, but was not lucky in the ballot this year, so we went to Sorrento for the weekend instead. The pictures show how much more interest there is in AFL than NRL in Melbourne.
My sister had given us tickets to see the Monster Trucks. It was well outside the normal range of events we go to, but quite entertaining. The children behind us were even louder than the trucks, so it was fortunate that we took earplugs. The drivers were certainly very skilled, but nonetheless several the trucks ended up upside-down or undrivable. Our other shows around the same time were "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", a production of "Sunday in the Park with George" the Kronos Quartet's "A Thousand Thoughts" and the Bendigo Classic bodybuilding show for which my trainer was the promoter. We put together a table for the rowing club trivia night and for the first time in a decade we were not involved in the production of the event.
In September I went to the Anesthesiology 2019 conference in Orlando. It was humid and tropical and quite a change from Melbourne. The meeting was excellent and on the way back I visited Jay's sister's family in the Bay Area. I had the opportunity to have dinner with our oldest friends in San Francisco, Joel and Sam. I also caught up with other friends there including Kelvan and Sherman. Derek came to visit Jay in Melbourne while I was away.
After I had been only a week back at work, we left for South America. The "bucket list" destinations on this trip were Easter Island and Iguazu Falls. Getting to Easter Island meant flying to Santiago via Sydney and then back five hours across the Pacific to Hanga Roa. Shortly before we left, riots had begun in Santiago campaigning for a new constitution to help address inequality. We had planned to stay two nights in Santiago before flying to Easter Island, but unfortunately our hotel was immediately adjacent to the Plaza Italia which had been the centre of the rioting and the hotel closed with little notice. Instead we rented a car on arrival and drove to Valparaiso, about 100km from Santiago on the Pacific coast.
Valparaiso was a little calmer than Santiago and we did a walking tour of the old city, seeing the street art. Our last-minute hotel was a place built from shipping containers and run by a New Zealander who was also a winemaker. There are some photos in an album I put up online.
On Easter Island we saw almost all of the major archaeological sites and enjoyed the relaxed culture. The lack of television and the comically slow Internet access also helped to make it a relaxing stay. From Easter Island we flew to Buenos Aires where we had a few days to see the city. I was surprised how reminiscent it was of Barcelona: a very beautiful city in the areas we visited.
From Buenos Aires we flew to Iguazu, where we stayed in the hotel inside the national park on the Argentinian side. Access to the falls was very easy from the hotel: the pool had a view of the falls and it was a short walk into the jungle to get to them. We saw the capuchin monkeys, coatis, toucans, lots of butterflies but no jaguars or ocelots. I was also stung by a bee which was a new experience.
Our last two days were in Santiago. It was not the best time to be there as a tourist. Though people were going about their normal business during the day, many of the public buildings and even shops were damaged, boarded up and covered with anti-government graffiti. The museum of pre-Colombian art was open and was excellent. The unrest came to something of a crescendo on our last night: we stayed in the hotel and watched the coverage on CNN coming from two blocks away. Fortunately in the morning the government had agreed to the drafting of a new constitution and the airport was still open, so we headed our separate ways: Jay to Stockholm for Frostbite DevDays and me back to Australia.
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In August there was a reunion for staff and students of the school I attended up to year 4 (1979). I was surprised to find there were only one or two fellow students I recognised but that several of my former teachers were still alive and at the event. I'm at the right edge of this photos, sitting next to Grevis Beard. The senior school where the event was held was also mostly unrecognisable. I had only been back there once since 1981, when I attended a funeral in the chapel.
During the football finals we went to games both in the NRL, watching the Storm lose to the Raiders, and the AFL, watching Richmond win their preliminary final. I had applied for allocated seats at the AFL Grand Final, but was not lucky in the ballot this year, so we went to Sorrento for the weekend instead. The pictures show how much more interest there is in AFL than NRL in Melbourne.
My sister had given us tickets to see the Monster Trucks. It was well outside the normal range of events we go to, but quite entertaining. The children behind us were even louder than the trucks, so it was fortunate that we took earplugs. The drivers were certainly very skilled, but nonetheless several the trucks ended up upside-down or undrivable. Our other shows around the same time were "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child", a production of "Sunday in the Park with George" the Kronos Quartet's "A Thousand Thoughts" and the Bendigo Classic bodybuilding show for which my trainer was the promoter. We put together a table for the rowing club trivia night and for the first time in a decade we were not involved in the production of the event.
In September I went to the Anesthesiology 2019 conference in Orlando. It was humid and tropical and quite a change from Melbourne. The meeting was excellent and on the way back I visited Jay's sister's family in the Bay Area. I had the opportunity to have dinner with our oldest friends in San Francisco, Joel and Sam. I also caught up with other friends there including Kelvan and Sherman. Derek came to visit Jay in Melbourne while I was away.
After I had been only a week back at work, we left for South America. The "bucket list" destinations on this trip were Easter Island and Iguazu Falls. Getting to Easter Island meant flying to Santiago via Sydney and then back five hours across the Pacific to Hanga Roa. Shortly before we left, riots had begun in Santiago campaigning for a new constitution to help address inequality. We had planned to stay two nights in Santiago before flying to Easter Island, but unfortunately our hotel was immediately adjacent to the Plaza Italia which had been the centre of the rioting and the hotel closed with little notice. Instead we rented a car on arrival and drove to Valparaiso, about 100km from Santiago on the Pacific coast.
Valparaiso was a little calmer than Santiago and we did a walking tour of the old city, seeing the street art. Our last-minute hotel was a place built from shipping containers and run by a New Zealander who was also a winemaker. There are some photos in an album I put up online.
On Easter Island we saw almost all of the major archaeological sites and enjoyed the relaxed culture. The lack of television and the comically slow Internet access also helped to make it a relaxing stay. From Easter Island we flew to Buenos Aires where we had a few days to see the city. I was surprised how reminiscent it was of Barcelona: a very beautiful city in the areas we visited.
From Buenos Aires we flew to Iguazu, where we stayed in the hotel inside the national park on the Argentinian side. Access to the falls was very easy from the hotel: the pool had a view of the falls and it was a short walk into the jungle to get to them. We saw the capuchin monkeys, coatis, toucans, lots of butterflies but no jaguars or ocelots. I was also stung by a bee which was a new experience.
Our last two days were in Santiago. It was not the best time to be there as a tourist. Though people were going about their normal business during the day, many of the public buildings and even shops were damaged, boarded up and covered with anti-government graffiti. The museum of pre-Colombian art was open and was excellent. The unrest came to something of a crescendo on our last night: we stayed in the hotel and watched the coverage on CNN coming from two blocks away. Fortunately in the morning the government had agreed to the drafting of a new constitution and the airport was still open, so we headed our separate ways: Jay to Stockholm for Frostbite DevDays and me back to Australia.
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