Our first stop though was Santiago de Chile. Chile is not overly tourist friendly for English speaking people, very few people there spoke any English and even for Spanish speakers the Spanish spoken there was incredibly hard to understand. I am no Spanish expert but even our Chilean tour guide for one of the wine tastings has led me to agree with various guide books that the Spanish they speak is equivalent, and as untranslatable, as to listening to a drunk Glaswegian after a couple of pints, in a noisy bar.
This itinerary, following a prolonged spell in Australia with my fiancées mother and her Italian heritage of never stopping feeding her guests and my heritage of never saying no to good food, looks like leaving me a few kilos heavier than I wanted with a wedding looming in 3 months, so in order to get into my wedding dress drastic measures are being taken. I ran everyday in Australia, and in chile we walked miles every day, this included climbing the big hill with the Virgin Mary statue (pictured), this was also worthwhile because of the spectacular view, we also made full use of the apartments gym. Argentina will be all about bikes, although we will be using these to travel between vineyards so I am not entirely sure that will be enough.
Eating healthily is also tricky when you don't fully understand the menu, In chile they love to feed you hunks of meat, usually in large quantities, disguised as a platter or some other traditional dish. Sometimes this comes with with bread, but as often as not with chips, always doused in salt.
I have included a picture of 1 platter, which as well as empanadas had a selection of deep fried stuff, some of which such as the sopillianos (sliced, fried plantain) was really tasty but definitely not good for you.
If it is not with chips is it often baked in pastry empanadas style, which is again like having a Cornish pasty (or two) this would be ok but it is usually served as a starter. I think the biggest surprised was that the best meal we had in Santiago was probably at a vegetarian restaurant called Naturallist (definitely a shock find) near the plaza de armas, this also constituted the healthiest.
Other than the rabbit food the only solution we have found to eating healthy was to order a meal and share it, while studiously not drinking (we only had the 4 glasses at the Chilean wine tasting in our time in the country!). This may have made us look like poor student backpacking types but at least I stand a chance of getting into my trousers for the wedding!
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