Well we have been having a simply wonderful time here in Santiago!

On Sunday we walked around town and visited Cerro Santa Lucia, a park on a huge piece of rock in the centre of town, with?many neoclassical arches, plazas and fountains - very pretty, (also has LOTS of steps!) at the top of the park?is Castillo Hidalgo, which i a kind of castle ruin with turrets etc.? In the park were trees and plants from all over the world and the view from the top was amazing - could see?all the snow capped mountains surrounding the city, however the city itself is covered in smog!? Then we walked to Parque Forestal, where we were befriended by a huskie-like dog which we named Woofy - it followed us everywhere (because sophie scratched its bloody head!). Next was the Plaza de armes and then the Plaza de la Constitution - both very pretty and with the obligatory stray dogs!

Yesterday we walked to the other side of town to Parque Metropolitano - a HUGE park on a HUGE hill! It towers 870m above sea level and is quite a hike! We went to the summit, where there is a statue of the Virgin Mary - we were knackered by the time we got to the top! However, the walk up was amazing - we were surrounded by woods in the middle of a city! bizarre! We had lots of fun strolling around the massive wooded hillside, and despite being up there for a few hrs, we only did a tiny section of the park - apparently there are some really nice swimming pools at the other end - will try and see them at some point!

Today we went to the zoo! It is at the bottom of Parque Metropolitano, but still on a hill.? We couldn?t go in yesterday, cos it was closed, and we didn?t really think we?d be that interested in it - yet?we appeared to have spent the whole day there! Saw lots of amazing animals; black jaguars, white tigers, normal tigers, lions, POLAR BEARS (MASSIVE!!!!!), brown bears, penguins, zebras, giraffes (that drank each others wee - eww), elephants, anacondas, tarantulas, sealions, camels (with canine teeth!), llamas, vicu?(yawn, ten a penny!), spider monkeys (who took biscuits with their tails!),kangaroos, condors, toucans, golden pheasants, porcupines, frogs (colins relatives), baboons (with?deformed bottoms!), turtles, terrapines, boa constrictors, swans, parrots, macaws, a deer (that wanted to kill us - it kept head butting the fence!), honestly, the list is endless! The animals all looked in fairly good nick,?however we seemed to be the main attraction! Herds of school girls, on a school trip, were taking photos of Andy, and small boys kept saying hello to Sophie! Crazy!

Anyway, we have?three more nights at our hotel (which we love),?and plenty more city to explore! So watch this space!???