Friday 23rd April 2004 Well after an 11 hour flight, which was extremely turbulent, we landed in Santiago airport. Things were relatively straight forward with collecting bags and negotiating a bus to the hostel. After checking in we went straight to bed for a couple of hours needed sleep. In the evening we went out to town to a take away pizza chain, where we saw one women and her son going through bins and dashing to tables after people finished to eat what ever leftovers they could find before the staff threw them in the bin. Being lovely people we gave the young boy a slice of pizza and our left over coke! After returning to the hostel we attempted to go to bed. This was the night of parties, toilets, etc and we finally got to sleep around 6.00 am after going to bed at midnight! Saturday 24th April 2004 After awaking to watch Man Utd v Liverpool we checked out of the squalor that was called a hostel, we never had bed sheets, pillow cases etc, very basic and very dirty! We headed for a hotel that we found and checked in paying the same price as the hostel - scandalous! In the evening we went out for dinner in the posh suburbs of Santiago, with an English couple whom we had met in the first hostel. Dinner turned into a little more as we partied in Chilean bars till the early hours of the morning - 6.00am to be precise! When we returned to the hotel, the toilet flush broke, so Dan decided to fix it - water burst from everywhere and soaked him and the bathroom! ooppss!! Never did mend it either! Sunday 25th April 2004 Today we checked out of one hotel for a better one which we had found the previous day but had no vacancies for the previous night! The place is amazing and its clean and peaceful in the heart of things! We checked in and hit the sack again for a much needed sleep after the nights activities! It was very hard work trying to convince a Chilean that we will only pay $38 US for the room when she wanted $68 as this was the rate we found on the internet, but we checked in and all is great! Monday 26th April 04 Not the nights sleep we were praying for due to severe jetlag. We were awake from 1 am till 4. Today we checked out of posh hotel for a cheaper one the other side of town. After checking in we headed into the city for the first time. Its very big, busy, and smoggy, but with a charming feel at the same time. It's funny walking through a big city with the Andes in the background with snow capped peaks. Tuesday 27th April 04 After checking out of our hostel this morning we caught a bus to the city of Valparaiso (an hour north of Santiago) and checked into a small B&B owned and run solely by Patricia (an English speaking Chilean). Patricia offered to do our laundry which she hung on a washing line attached to the very high ceiling and next to kitchen so was returned smelling of food!! In the afternoon, we had a short walk around the city but as we were both feeling under the weather we retreated to our room for an afternoon of rest and relaxation! In the evening we went into the city centre in search of a place to dine but we could find nothing so opted for cooking for ourselves at 10p.m! Wednesday 28th April 04 We awoke to be served breakfast by Patricia, after which we walked to the nearby Ascensor. This is an old-fashioned cable car that takes you up a cliff side, where we saw great views over the city and harbour. After returning to the bottom of the hill we walked into the city and to the naval harbour of Mulle Prat. We were careful not to take any photos here as you can incur a huge fine or even be put in prison! After cooking again in the evening we opted for an early night for our 7.15am bus to La Serena tomorrow. Thursday 29th April 04 After our 6 hour luxurious bus journey we arrived in the beach town of La Serena, where we found a noticeable difference in temperature from the more southern parts of Chile. It's very warm here!!!! We had a look around a nearby shopping mall after checking into a small B&B and booked ourselves onto the bus tomorrow morning to the small town of Caldera. After dinner we spent time working out an alternative route across South America as Chile is eating into our funds in a big way!! We have decided to head back south to Santiago where we will then cross the Andes into Argentina and work our way up to Bolivia and Peru from there and hopefully fly from Peru to Brazil where we fly home from. Friday 30th April 04 We managed to change our bus tickets from Caldera to Santiago and arrived there late that evening. We checked into a hotel close to the bus station, which admittedly wasn't very nice but we were tired and needed sleep!!!! We will depart for Argentina tomorrow!