Hi everyone! Salutations from Santiago (and Mendoza)! Having escaped from rainy Chiloe, we were greeted not only by warm sunshine on arrival in Santiago, but also by our own personal chauffeur to drive us to our hotel. No, not flashpacking this time - at GBP12 per twin room with free airport pickup, we calculated this was cheaper than a bus into town and a dorm bed in a hostel...bargain! Our driver (a formula-1 wanna-be) appeared to be on the lookout for a gringo wife, and figured he had the 45 minute journey to woo one of his passengers... neither of us succumbed! Staying in the city centre meant we were easily able to go exploring on foot. We began at Cerro Santa Lucia, an imaginatively landscaped hill-cum-park with swirling pathways leading up to decent views over the smoggy city. We continued on to the large metropolitain park atop of Cerro San Cristobal (another hill!) where a funicular railway took us up to the statue of the Virgin Mary watching over the city below. The park was also home to some botanical gardens, a pleasant place to meander and enjoy the sunshine. The following morning, before catching the bus out of Santiago, we paid a visit to the highly recommended Museum of Precolumbian Art. This held an excellent collection covering a period of 10,000 years and the region from Mexico to Southern Chile - all really well explained and displayed. The seven hour bus journey to Mendoza in Argentina took us back across the Andes through some fantastic scenery. By the time we arrived, it was late, so we dumped our bags at a nearby hostel and went out for a bite to eat. Returning to the hostel, we went straight to bed - a harder task than you would imagine! We were in a dorm for six and both on the top of the highest bunk beds we had ever seen. No matter how creative we got, we could not think of a suitable method of sharing the one available ladder between the three bunk beds - as a result the next morning we both awoke ladderless and stranded. Zena had to stretch over to the third bunk to retrieve the ladder, climb down herself and go and rescue Kirstie who had been awake for an hour wanting the bathroom, but unable to get there! On discovering the rest of the hostel was not as nice as we expected, we checked out and went to find somewhere better. Second time round we hot gold - Damajuana Hostel had a beautiful garden with swimming pool and BBQ area, fully equipped kitchen, ping pong table, cable TV, book exchange and free internet access. The first couple of days were overcast, but this didn't stop us enjoying the town, its restaurants and the local wineries. Our hostel offered a wine tour for GBP5 per person. However, we figured it was better value to take public transport to the wineries that ran free guided tours and tastings anyway, and with the money we saved, buy four bottles of quality wine from the local supermarket and taste them at our leisure! In Bodega La Rural, we even got two (free) tours for the price of one, having first joined the tour in Spanish, and then going round again in English to pick up the bits we missed - sadly we only had time for one tasting session though! One of the hostel's better activities was a GBP4 all-you-can-eat, all-you-can-drink barbecue. The event drew a big crowd and was a great opportunity for us to get to know the others from the hostel. By 3am an impromptu jamming session had begun - we were amazed how many people had hidden guitar playing talents. Eager to join in, we formed the percussion section... using cooking pots as bongo drums, saucepan lids as cymbols and firewood as woodblocks... it was great fun!!! The next day, the atmosphere in the hostel was unsurprisingly subdued! Luckily the sun and mid-20s temperatures had reappeared so we camped out on the sun loungers by the pool with our books. Despite initial plans to further explore the region, this remained our preferred position for the next five days! We did occasionally drag ourselves away, usually to top up on fresh supplies from Carrefour, but also to take a walk around Mendoza's plazas and parks. Whatever the diversion, we always ended up back in our favourite spot by the pool! Finally the time came for us to leave this utopia. We made our way back to Santiago and back to Hotel Plaza Londres where our friendly chauffeur drove us to catch our early morning flight to La Paz in Bolivia. To find out what happened there, tune into the next exciting episode of the Happy Hippos on Holiday! Hope you are all well. love, Kirstie & Zena