Chile

So its 5.45 in the morning and neither of us has slept on the plane thanks to the entertainment system having some great films to watch! We got off the plane and made our way through customs fairly painlessly and changed some money before collecting our luggage and making our way into the pretty deserted airport terminal. We had already booked a hostel over a month ago so now we just needed to get there, which meant taking a bus from the airport and then the metro before a short walk down a street or 2. As we were standing looking at the bus timetable one of the drivers came over and helped us work out which one to take. It was about a half hour drive to the metro called los Heroes and as we went along we saw the outskirts of the City and the smog that surrounds the centre! When we got to the stop we found our way to the metro, bought 2 tickets and even managed to go to the correct platform, then we saw the massive crowd of people waiting to get on!! We waited in a bunch with many other people but when the first train showed up it was so crammed that only about 5 people were able to cram themselves onto it, we started to have misgivings about getting on at all when the next 2 trains were the same and eventually decided to go and sit down with our bags until the rush hour was over. We eventually made it on and the journey was still crammed but fine, getting off at the University of Chile stop we made it to the hostel for about 10 then had to wait until after 12 to check in...by this point we had been up for 36 hours and were a little grumpy! We were however able to dump our bags in a locker and go out to find somewhere to buy a drink and ended up in a shop full of things you cant buy in Cuba...like cheese and chocolate and fruit and Redbull and all sorts of yummy things!! We were good though and just got some 'red' drink and a tube of toothpaste. We then went and sat out in the sun next to a poster advertising Cuba holidays while we drank and relaxed for a while, taking in our surroundings and watching the people who dont dress at all like the Cubans preferring clothes more subtle in both appearance and colour. After a while we returned to the hostel and fell asleep on the sofa for 5 minutes before the maid moved us to sweep the floor, soon after we were able to check in and both decided to sleep for a couple of hours before doing anything else. At 5 o'clock we got up and went out to find something to eat which despite my best efforts to persuade Andy to let me have nuggets, turned out to be a 'completo' which is a kind of meal deal most places do consisting of a hotdog with lots of fillings and sauces, chips and a drink. We devoured these then made our way back to the hostal and after chatting with some other people in the dorm collapsed on our bunks and went to sleep.