Petra flied back to Germany while I fly into Santiago to start the last month of my trip in Chile. After two weeks in Bolivia and Chile, Santiago is like a different world to me. After having been in a poor country where hardly anything works, this is a culture shock - new buildings, motorways, and traffic is fast. For the 15 km's from the airport to downtown we only need 20 minutes, and the car is actually new, has insurance and a meter!

Gianni told me that it is a city that could be in Europe, and that is a very good description for it. Everything (and everyone) works. Some things might be still a bit out of date (for example many formal things still work by pen+paper+tables rather than with computers), but in general this country is clearly on European level. I really enjoy this a few days, but then get bored of Santiago - because the downside is that it is really a working city. You don't actually meet people here, and they are not very talkative. So I'm setting off to the coast.