Some of you don't know how much of a sad git I am. All will now be revealed.

Anyway, Don and Pauline have been ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. They´ve FedEx´d new plastic to me (so I´ve now been able to pay the hotel) and are doing the same for my new phone and the rest of the cards. So I´ve had to promise to lick their bikes clean when I get back.When I buy a bag (of any sort) it gets named after the place where I bought it. So the bag (holdall sort of thing) I bought in hong Kong in 1986 was called my Hong Kong bag, and when it expired in Aleppo in 1996 it was replaced by the Aleppo bag. A Damascus bag was subsequently acquired (in 1998), then an Isfahan bag (in 1990, in order to transport a Persian carpet back to the UK which in its turn knackered my rear suspension), both of which are extant (in storage in Newbury). So, my St.Petersburg bag (shoulder bag sort of thing), which was stolen here, has been replaced with a Santiago bag.

I haven´t mentioned manhole covers have I? Er, well, that started in Libya in 1996. Another story, really. More sad-gittery.

Had another great ride yesterday to see Aconcagua (highest mountain in the Americas). The road goes north then east from Santiago, through the foothills and up the Rio Aconcagua valley to Los Andes (dusty little town), then east up the pass to Argentina. At nearly the highest part (around 10,000 feet) is Portillo, a *very* exclusive ski resort (more or less closed at present). I went a little further, as far as the border with Argentina at the entrance of the Cristo Redentor tunnel, and the scenery was, well, more recalibration of the wow-scale. This is one of only three good roads across the Andes between Chile and Argentina, so is a major truck route. The climb is amazing, the air the clearest I´ve seen for ages, and the trucks aren´t underpowered so you never get stuck behind anything doing 2mph. Totally cracking ride.