Santiago 14/4/06 Excellent trip & our last journey in Peggy. Tarmac all the way. We stopped at a magnificant waterfall called Saltos de Laja. We arived earlier than expected on Good Friday. Santiago was a lot quieter than normal, probably due to holiday weekend. Quiet a few of the Tucan tour hung around for a few days. Our first meal there was a curry, it was really good - Majestic Hotel. The following day the tucan team had left long before we got up so we were kinda on our own except there was probably half the tour group aroundd for a few days. We moved to a hotel across the road recommended by our Tour Guide Julie. It was much quieter than the one included on the tour. Santiago was really quiet, which I am sure was due to the fact that it was Easter weekend. We headed of to the Bus Station to book our tickets a return to Valparaiso and then a one way ticket to Mendoza. Booking the tickets seemed to be relatively painless and we were very pleased with ourselves. One of the girls on our trip was going to Valparaiso a day before us and we agreed to meet up with her. On our last night in Santiago we hada meal with Jim & Elaine dinner in Ciratorio a revolving resturant which had a piano player, a nice and expensive evening. 19.04.06 Weds We managed to catch a slightly earlier bus back to Santiago and checked back in at the same hotel - it was starting to feel like home! We had arranged to meet Ingrid from our Tucan tour for an evening of Chilean Song and Dance over dinner. We went to a Museum in the afternoon. The evening was interesting - we arrived a little bit too early - South America does not go out until late. So getting to the restaurant at 8ish was early. The food was fine and the dancing and singing was fun and extremely lively, and it was great to spend sometime with Ingrid again. We were off to the Refugio tomorrow! 22.04.06 Refugio to Santiago We asked Oswaldo to organize a taxi for us for the following morning for 10.30 so that we could get back to organize some laundry and to pick up my prescription sun glasses. We eventually managed to get them before the shop closed. We booked a taxi for the morning to take us to the bus station - we needed to be there early on a Sunday and with all our luggage.