ADIOS SOUTH AMERICA!

The journey to Santiago, quicker than we had been led to expect because of the road closure, was marred by another person, this time a grown-up, throwing up on the bus. But we were in a buoyant frame of mind. It was our last night in South America, and we had high hopes that the hotel we were about to stay in and review would provide a fitting end to our time on the continent. As we headed to the hotel by taxi Duncan tempted fate by saying that he thought it might be one of the best places we get to stay in on our whole trip, particularly as it was top of the list of hotels in our guide book. But what a disappointment! The hotel was a faded business hotel that has been restyled as a boutique with a thin veneer of heart-attack paintwork on the corridor walls and eye-aching clashing citrus colours in the bedrooms. Really awful.

We quickly escaped and headed into the city, which of course was more or less deserted because of the public holiday, although there were some people doing traditional dancing in the street, which was fun. There was a small market taking place which seemed to feature several stalls claiming to have the cure for fungal toe infections, bizarrely - clearly a big problem here, although given the cost of the potions, we're not sure too many people would be able to foot the bill. There were also stalls selling old historical photos, including interesting pictures of former president Salvador Allende, and the bombing of the presidential palace in which he was killed in 1973. Later we headed back to the hotel to have dinner in its empty restaurant (because we had to) and tried to ignore the sound of the microwave pinging in the kitchen just before our food was brought out.

Next day we met up with our stalker, Siobhan, and spent a couple of hours wandering the city in the lovely hot sun before finding a pleasant little café to have lunch and a refreshing beer. Later Emma and Siobhan went to an exhibition at the Casa de la Moneda, underneath the presidential palace, of Frida Kahla and Diego Rivera, leaving Duncan to write emails outside in the sun. The exhibition was really interesting - a well put-together selection of Frida's artwork and paintings reflecting a sequence of traumas in her life, from an accident where she was hit by a runaway trolleybus as a teenager, a series of miscarriages and her split from Diego because of his philandering ways - although they later reunited. As a muralist he enjoyed more acclaim during his lifetime, particularly in the US, but he acknowledged that she was more talented than he was.

Afterwards we said what we think are our final goodbyes (unless she somehow tracks us down in New Zealand!) to Siobhan who had been a fun companion over the past week, and headed to the airport to catch our flight to Auckland at the end of a brilliant time in South America.