Fifth country and counting! After a GRUELLING boarder crossing (it took TWO AND A HALF HOURS!!!!) we have arrived in Mendoza! The scenary coming across the boarder was pretty spectacular - snow capped mountains etc. but my god, nearly 3hrs sat on a stationary bus is boring. We have settled in a nice hotel solely picked due to its gym and pool facilities! (we feel fat!) Thus, we have spent the last hour in the gym (andrew) and the pool (sophie) and so we feel mu...

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 - ...

Well, we are in Santiago, and from first impressions, it appears to be a very nice place! We got the bus froom Vina del Mar this morning, then we were brave and rather than get an expensive taxi, we got the underground into the city centre (its like being in New York or London!) - didn`t really have to be that brave, it's very safe here. Anyway , we are staying at a well swanky hotel called hotel vegas in the beautiful paris londres area - the architechture is m...

Since we last spoke, we have been star gazing in one of the worlds best observatories, cycling along the sea front, learning about the exploits of Sir Francis Drake and have explored another city! We'll start with star gazing - we went to Mamalluca observatory just near the village of Vicun Tuesday night. We saw the moon - and got an amazing photo of it! through the smaller telescope, and we also saw lots of clusters and constellations not visable to the naked e...

Well, we attended our second south american party last night! One of the girls at our hostel is from germany and only started working there last wk, so this was her welcome party. Yet again, we had to force food down our faces to avoid looking rude, as we had eaten dinner a few hrs prior to the unexpected event, however, we were not made to drink snot juice this time - thank god! Everyone was really friendly and most had abit of English, although we generally co...