We travelled from Mendoza, Argentina to Santiago, Chile on a 7 hour bus ride going straight through the Andes. The scenery was absolutely spectacular. We had a slightly arduous customs crossing, where they literally took everything for searching and confiscated our delicious bag of lunch!

We arrived to the hostel, Casa Roja, which we had selected purely on the basis of the swimming pool (complete with swim-up bar!). It was a huge mansion converted into a hostel for about 100 backpackers at a time. We realised pretty shortly after arriving and speaking to a few people that Chile was comparatively dull after Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

We spent a day heading up Cerro San Cristobal, a 800m peak on the edge of the city (about 3-400m above the rest of the city). This provides 360 degree views of Santiago, and you can see the Andes in the distance, though the city is pretty smoggy. There is a metropolitan park at the top and it is all accessed by a funicular, and then a string cable cars.

The park covers a large area and there are 2 huge open air swimming pools, an ampitheatre, a church and lots of green space to picnic and sunbate. There is an area called the Sanctuary of the Immaculate Conception, which has a large statue of the virgin Mary (it has nothing on Christ the Redeemer though!!). Pope John Paul II gave mass there in 1987 and the French donated the statue in its honour.

Several people recommended a great steak restaurant called the Fat Cow - so we investigated this for Valentine´s day and had a fancy meal out with more delicious South America meat! We went back to the hostel for a few drinks and to partake in pan-pong, which had been created the night before. It is much like ping-pong, only it is played with kitchen pans, meaning more people can play at any one time, as well as a few additional drinking rules. It started with 4 people, and ended up being a tournament between 7 teams. We had to work out a league system and everything!

Slightly hungover, we left the next day for Vina del Mar. This is a beach resort 2 hours from Santiago. There is a continual breeze from the pacific so even if it´s 30 degrees, it doesn´t feel like it. It gets absolutely freezing at night time and the water is similar to that in Devon! There isn´t a great deal to do there but we just wanted a week of chilling out in the sun before we flew to cooler climes in New Zealand. We have spent the days at the beach and in the evenings we have been cooking for ourselves, sitting out with some of the local wine, watching films and catching up on our sleep.

Last night, we had a few drinks finale drinks with the 3 English people, 1 Irish and 1 Aussie that we´ve been with for a few days. It was nothing too heavy as we fly tonight and didn´t fancy doing it on a hangover! Heading to the beach now to catch our final South American rays before getting the shuttle to the airport this evening. We arrive into Auckland on Monday and our relaxing time is set to come to an end as we have so much to see and do in New Zealand in the 5 weeks we are there. We are really sad to be leaving here, especially as it shows how fast time is going, but very excited about New Zealand.

Will write soon,

Love Ali and Phil xxx