Flying in yesterday I was amazed to see the city of Santiago surrounded by mountains. many of them topped with snow. This is prime skiing country, but I didnt expect snow in the middle of their summer. It is now my first morning here and as I wait for the restaurant to open for my first 10 cups of coffee, here are a few final notes on Brazil. The Carnivale there did start Feb 1 but tickets were impossible to get. They sold for $90 USD through regular channels but sold out almost immediately. I heard that the day of the event scalped tickets were selling for over $800 - so no Carnivale for me. One last experience that I would recommend is dinner at a Japanese retaurant called Irori. It has every combination of every kind of japanese food imaginable and the topper was a desert, - Banana Flam Bada Com Calde de Laranja. Actually it is the only bananna dessert on the menu and for $3 USD you get heaven. It is a variation of banannas Foster with the banannas sauted in butter and served hot over vanilla ice cream. In this version the very rich vanilla ice cream has a hint of mango in it.
Happy Trails
