SARS, Wars and conger eels

it seems like the SARS thing in Southeast Asia has really put Singapore in the spotlight for a while.. even the doctors in the little isolated island of Chiloe were talking about it when i was there!

it struck me yesterday, as we were zipping down the highway up to Santiago, that travelling through the continent of South America at this time has really cut me off (and in a bizarre sort of way protected/immuned me) from some of the less pleasant things that have been going on the world, and even back home (eg SARS). Since we started our journey some month or so back, we also haven´t seen a single mosque along the way as well, which meant that, other than watching CNN to know what has been happening in Iraq, the predominantly Roman Catholic population here are generally more concerned with the many domestic problems they already face and terrorism of the sort that the world is fearing now is almost non-existent here.. in fact, this has been the only time and place i´ve travelled and not seen the domes and crescents of a mosque anywhere i went.. very puzzling indeed..

anyhow, we got off the highway yesterday evening, after driving some 800 km or so and are now back at the coast! :) we will be spending today and tomorrow marvelling at the might of the Pacific Ocean and visiting this artist (another one of my friend´s friends) near the bohemian town of Cachagua before we cross back to Argentina over the 3779m pass near Aconcagua (the highest peak in the Americas).. hope i don´t get altitude sickness...