Hola from Santiago.

So this was our first stop in South America. Both kate and I have been pretty apprehensive about the place considering the abundance of warnings from loved ones.

I think our first mistake was picking the wrong exit at arrivals. It seemed the loved ones were the door to the right and chaos was the door to the left - Which one did Kate and I choose? Chaos. We were bombarded by taxi men. It was a shock considering we hadn´t experienced this since Thailand which was a few months back. That´s what 4 months in Australia will do to you, relax all your defenses.

Santiago will hold good memories for Kate and I. We met our university friend there on our first day of arrival. We had planned on spending the rest of our time in South America with her.
Also we were welcomed into the hostel by the people staying there and also the people that ran it. As soon as we were through the door we had a little group. It was so much fun. We didn´t experience this in Australia as in most hostels people have been there for awhile and have already created their little cliques.

Santiago itself was quite intimidating but as the days went on the more I got used to it. There wasn´t an amazing amount to do and what there was to do we did within the first few days. We visited the gigantic Virgin Mary and the top of the hill. We visited Santiago Zoo which was quite depressing. - We saw a Zebra eating its own faeces and there was hardly any water for the animals in sight. The plus side was that it cost us the equivalent of around two pounds for the entry.

For the days that we were there before our tour group we spent drinking and roaming the streets for a good hangover meal.

One night we went to a foreign exchange student party at a club. Now normally I don´t think Becca, Kate and I would have gone but we had known the canadian and american guys for a few days now and they were pretty awesome. Also the owner of our hostel tagged along with us. The club was a mixture of salsa and modern music. It was pretty fun.

On Becca´s insistance (She had been in Chile for 2 weeks before we got there) we tried a Chilean hotdog (completo) which consisted of frankfurter sausage, chopped up tomatoes, Guacamole and Ketchup. I had two in one day, I have no idea why as they were pretty bland and did funny things to my tummy. Another thing we tried were Pisco Sour´s. Now I´m not totally sure whats in it but tradtionally egg white is. I was insulted at even the thought that I would try something like that so we compromised, Pisco sour without the egg white. Twas okay but VERY strong. none of us finished it.

Santiago was our first stop on our pre-paid two week guided tour. We met our group the night before we officially started. It was fasinating to meet these 14 other people we would be spending the next two weeks with. Our first response was horror as it consisted mostly of women. There were two men and they were with their partners. Now I´m not saying we were looking for men, it would just of been nice to have something nice to look at and not feel guilty. However, our thoughts soon changed because everyone was really nice. Two weeks down the road and we realise how lucky we are to have had a group like we did.

Except for our constant paranoia of mugging, the fear of petting dogs that were pitifully adorable, all in all Santiago was a refreshing start to our travels again.