We have reached Santiago, our final destination in South America. In many ways I feel ready to move on to New Zealand. Probably because I crave a measure of familiarity like Breakfast Tea, Cadburys, toilets that you can actually put toilet paper in and other silly things like that. Furthermore, Chile has been somewhat of a disappointment. It's seems Chileans are not particularly fond of gringos and seem annoyed by our very presence. This has been most evident i...

We are now in La Serena, nearing the end of our epic 35 day tour of Peru, Bolivia and Chile. To reach here we took a 17 hour bus ride. Surprisingly I slept a fair bit but Ruth didn't. I suppose being next to the toilet didn't help. La Serena is a coastal town, fairly modern with a mall and everything. I had my first Big Mac of the trip. It's been a while since we've been at sea level so I'm taking in big gulps of the air. I have little else to report other th...

We've reached Chile. We're Spending 3 days in San Pedro before heading to La Serena. Chile is vastly more expensive than Bolivia and Peru. I understand they have a growing middle class. This access to wealth has been fairly evident. Restaurants are more classy and the service more personal but I miss Peruvian food in particular. Strangely, a large proportion of our group has fallen ill, not with my cold, but some stomach bug. Everyone is dropping like flies. ...