The world's greatest party by Kylie Fuentes


Well I've only been in Rio for about two days but it is totally fair to say that by this stage I'm completely in love and never breaking up. The colour, the music, the super glamazon women, the super glamazon men, the football, the sun, the towering cliffs, the massive hills surrounding the city, the beach, the lifestyle and the chilled out attitude of this town have blown me away. Not that I'm surprised though, I mean - have you met me??? This is my playground and I am only just beginning...

The plans here are very loose. We got in and had no accommodation booked, just a loose plan to end up in Ipanema or Leblon... But like the big Christ on the hill before he was born, there was no room at any of the local inns. So, we made do with this cozy but ramshackled mid range hotel in Copacabana for a couple of nights. There's so much noise outside the building, that it almost competes with the noise coming from inside the building. Yes, my hotel room neighbours are VERY noisy.

But ah, it all adds to the fun.  But we're off to Ipanema now so we'll say bye bye to 70's heyday hangover and hello young funky town.

So far, we've been lucky with the sun. There's plenty of it and it is hot. Like 29 degrees - which seems like a heatwave compared to the 1 degree temps in Santiago from the other day. Ski gear to bikini - this is my kind of perfect getaway!









Viña del Mar y Valparaiso by Kylie Fuentes


The other day we took a trip to the other side of Chile, across the country and over to the coast to a town called Valparaiso and it's neighbour Viña del Mar. The sun was beaming (so different from freezing Santiago) and the water was sparkling. We even saw the cutest seal splashing around in the sun!

This place was cool, the houses are all built on hill tops and the only way up is to walk thousands of stairs (nope, not exaggerating) or to get in a very old fashioned street lift.... these things were literally built in the early 1900's so you can imagine the construction quality!

Even the dogs were lazier here. So many strays just lying around on the street having a snooze. Good thing I got all those needles before I got here :)