120- ( yes we are counting this as another day) after the worst flight we have ever been on for 11 and a half hours which included, 1 film with the girl from sex in the city (dnt watch it) getting hit by every flight attendant that walked past, quite a bit of turbulance, lack of air con that resulted in a lady passing out in the aisle, and no sleep for either of us and a bit of a dodgy landing we arrived in santiago 17 hours behind new zealand. So having left auckland at 5pm friday evening we arrived in chile at 1pm friday afternoon, go figure!! After picking up our bags we were told by our hostel to look for a guy in yellow and blue jacket, who we couldnt find, and with alot of reluctancy we jumped in another cab who turned out to be with the same company, but with no evidence of it ( after being told by the hostel not to for obvious reasons). A bit of chin wag with the taxi driver and it was soon apparent that therer would be a language barrier. Thank god for the universal language of football!! as we soon conversing about chilean football players and the local team!! Arrived at the hostel which was alot better than we expected, it was straight to bed in our very big bunkbeds!!

121- *are u awake* reading the time on the phone, we realized it was still in NZ time and neither of us had a clue of the actual time and heard no movement anywhere in the building. This resulted in me having a look round to find the time. 5am and we were wide awake, so we hit the net and sorted out emails etc. Time for brekkie and they didnt hold back on the american pancakes and homemade bread. Off out we set, or so we thought only for 2 stray dogs taking a keen interest in us and especially D's bobble hat and gloves, resulted in us going back to the hostel and waiting 15 mins for them to leave. We went to leave again only for the same 2 dogs to be sitting on the bloody doorstep. So the owner got his dog to chase them away. Into the city ( or so we thougt) we ventured. Taking in the sights we soon realized we knew nothing aboutwhere to go in santiago so we grabbed some food and went back to the hostel Still jet lagged we were in bed by 8pm.

122 Up nice n early again (6am) breakfast and a bit of info on where the town centre was and we were out to have a look round. On the very cheap metro system (20 p) we arrived at the city centre where much to D's excitement we found the main cathedral, which in fairness was nice. Typical gold, high walls, tombs etc. Walking around the town we noticed some very hard off people, i.e no limbs etc, bit depressing really. On te other side of it though there was alot of street entertainment going on which we stood and laughed at for a good hour ( the art of mime, and taking the pi55 is the same in every language). TIME TO SORT OUT THE BUS TICKET!! spanish book in hand to book a ticket. As I was the one who was conveniantly volunteered to do the talking he seemed to understand me, (thank god for the book) trouble is I didn{t understand what he said back. After repeating himself and usng the calculator we soon understood and had 2 tickets to mendoza for the next day. Back to the hostel fo a movie marathon!!

123- Up early and taxi booked we headed to the bus stop. After 15 inutes of waiting we soon found out that our bus had been cancelled because of a mini avalanche which cut off the road until wednesday. Back to the hostel for another 2 nights. Feeling tired we hit the sack, wondering what we were going to do as the weather also took a turn for the worse, so movie marathon wih a few other people it was.

124- As the weather got better we decided to head up to the gondalar, and go up a mountian, and across via some cable cars to get some views of the city. This was D's first time in a cable car and wasn{t very appreciative when some unkown force started swaying it ( still dont know who that was lol). Caught some good views, where you could see pretty much the whole of santiago, aswel as the big mountains. Back to the hostel no more jet lagg and hoping to get that bus to mendoza.

125- Onwards to mendoza, finally after getting up early and another taxi we were on our way to mendoza via the alpes. The coach was luxury compared to australia and back home, we actually had leg room!! Taking in the views for the next 7 hours of the chilean alpes was most impressive, whilst the driver miguel decided that our coach was special and refused to wait in a line of traffic. After stops at customs we arrived in mendoza after an 8 hour bus ride. Bags down and booked up for the next day to go white water rafting we hit the sack, in our smaller bunks!!