We arrived in Santiago (late of course) and immediately could tell we weren´t in Argentina anymore. The bus station (of which theres about 4 just to confuse you) was full of people hassling you to get on their bus. We eventually found an ATM and went about trying to decide how many thousands of chilean pesos we might need. It was all a bit too different and disorientating.

Eventually we manager to get to our hostel, La Casa Roja, in the bohemian neighbourhood of Barrio Brasil. We were greeted with 'you finally made it!' by the woman at reception. And we were so glad we had. The hostel was set in a 19th century mansión with really high ceilings and loads of comunal spaces, including a huge kitchen and a bar. There was a swimming pool and jacuzzi in the garden too but both were cold and so was Santiago so we didn´t get in.

We had dinner at a really cute little cafe/restaurant that only served very large and tasty wholemeal empanadas. It had gingham table cloths, vintage posters of paris, dali pictures, poetry, and the tables were mostly from old singer sewing machines. Theres was an 80s ski themed party in the bar at the hostel but we were completely zonked and had to go to bed. The place seemed packed and there were people constantly rushing around the halls.

The next day everyone disappeared. It was really bizarre, suddenly the hostel went quiet. We wandered around the local area, getting our bearings. Took our washing to the launderette, went to the supermarket, and went to a precolumbian art museum. Nothing too exciting, the weather was a bit crap and we were pretty tired still.

The next day was infuriatingly mostly spent in an internet cafe making phone calls and trying to organise various things online with very lttle success. In the evening after a huge plateful of home made stir fry and pineapple, we decided to go out with some girls we met at the hostel. We got a cab to Bellavista which was supposedly a good area to go out but ended up in a very strange, very small bar/club (very mini dance floor) full of an odd mix of chileans. They played a mix of some proper club tunes, cheesy RnB and then songs which made the chileans go crazy and us go very quiet.

The next morning we packed up our stuff, put it in the left luggage room and headed off on an hour and a half journey on public transport to Viña Concha y Toro, Chile´s largest wine producer. We got there 15 minutes to late for the english tour we booked so ended up on a spanish one instead. They showed us a really cheesy video about the company and what it does and then showed us round the cellars. We went down to the Casillero del Diablo (devil´s cellar). They sell that brand of wine pretty much everywhere in London so it was cool to see where its come from. The devils cellar is their oldest cellar which has been there for over a hundred years. Mr Concha y Toro kept his best wines in there. Its so well constructed that it stays at the optimum temperature and humidity without regulation. He got annoyed cos people kept breaking in and stealing them so he made up a story that the devil lived down there and the theiving stopped. They turned off the lights whilst we were down there and directed us to a little room in the corner where they´d projected a picture of the devil. It was lame but quite fun anyway. We did two wine tastings - one of a premium wine and one of a Casillero del Diablo wine. The Casillero one was more interesting because it was a camenere. Its a grape variety that got wiped out worldwide by a plague. Years later a french wine expert visited Chile, went to Concha y Toro, did some tests on their merlot and discovered that it was actually camenere, the lost variety.

After the wine visit we headed back to the hostel briefly, packed some overnight bags and headed to the neighbouring city of Valparaíso. The weather had been getting increasingly worse and it was raining quite a bit by the time we left but we were told it might well be sunny in Valpo...