Santiago May 2 - 4

After an awesome time in New Zealand and a very difficult and tearful goodbye in Auckland I was left on my own until Fossey arrived. We both knew it would be difficult but it ended up being harder than we both imagined. I couldn´t check in for another hour or so, so I decided to sit in the sky deck area and watch Sean take off - this just made me more sad though so once he had gone I went and checked for my flight. This seemed to take forever but once it was finally done I headed through and met Zara and headed for the bar. One glass of wine down and we boarded the plane.

The flight seemed to take forever, partly as I was still feeling wierd without my original travel buddy and also as I just couldn´t sleep. The two times I managed to get to sleep a kid kicked me in the head and then some loud Spanish woman was shouting to a friend waking up half the plane. Anyway, 11 hours later we arrived in Santiago, 3 hours before we actually left Auckland. Confusing hey! That´s what crossing the date line does for you!

We caught the shuttle to our hostel and luckily the room was a decent one. After dumping our things we headed out to get water and have a snack. Suddenly the tiredness hit us and we had no choice but to listen to our bodies and head back to bed. By 4pm we were in bed, with a plan to get up at 7pm. 7pm came around and we were still exhausted so slept on and off until 7am the next day. A good way to get over the jet lag that´s for sure. I did wake up confused several times though, thinking I was still in the campervan and also wondering where Sean was!

Breakfast was included in the hostel so we filled our faces on bread, yoghurt, fresh fruit and tea before heading off to meet a tour guide for a free tour of the city. This works the same way as many in Europe do - it is free but you give the guide a tip at the end depending on how much you have and what you thought of the tour.

Santiago itself is the capital of Chile and quite a modern city at that. It was originally founded in 1541, but many of the old buildings have been lost due to earthquake damage or knocked down during certain political regimes. Santiago does have a disturbing past in very recent history and only now are people able to talk about it. It is only since around 1990 that Santiago has been able to become the modern, pleasant and vibrant city that it is today.

The walking tour itself starts at the Plaza de Armes - the centre of the city where a vast range of characters hang out. You can spend several hours just watching them should you wish. We had a low down on the background of the country and were shown the cathedral (they definitely know how to make them here), old Presedential Palace, a museum that is apparently a waste of money and then headed to see many other famous landmarks and areas including the Congress Building, Supreme Court, new Presenditial Palace, Stock Exchange on New York Street, The Opera House, Plaza Italia and Bella Vista. Enroute we also peered into a couple of the ´Coffee with Leg´s´ places, basically they opened up for business men to visit to make then have a smile on their face all day at work. You go in, get a coffee and then a lady in very tight or very little clothing will come and chat you up - apparently with no added benefits. There are also premium coffee shops with girls in bikinis which were removed for óne lucky minute´each day!

Bella Vista is the funky part of town which is also home to many of the Santiago universities. It has lots of cute restaurants and the food looked amazing as well as cheap. We then headed to Pablo Neruda´s house. He was a Chilean Poet with many wives, and a huge collector and hoarder of things. His house in Santiago was built in the shape of a ship and has thousands of bizarre items on display. We didn´t go in but will visit his house in Valparaiso instead!

After the tour we tasted one of the hot dogs from a recommended vendor, covered in different sauces which ended up on our clothes. We wandered along the river to some of the local markets seeing the crazy cuts of meat for sale and tons of fresh fruit and veg. We also went to the fish market which is undercover - designed and built in Birmingham in the 1800´s! A couple of men declared their undying love for us so we made a quick exit and returned to the hostel via an ice cream shop!

We planned to rest for a couple of hours before heading out for dinner and wine, but jet lag got in the way and we both fell alseep around 7pm. I woke just after 9pm but Zara looked peaceful so I left her to it and caught up on emails and reading. Finally I went back to sleep at midnight and slept until about 8am. We both woke up starving after missing dinner again!

Wednesday started with a visit to the Palace to see the changing of the guards, a ceremony full of cheerful music, marching and beautiful horses! After this we took the funicular tup San Cristobal Hill to see the statue of the Virgin Mary and the views of the city, which were slightly hampered by the smog, yet amazing to see all of the mountains. Zara was a little bit scared that the funicular was going to break but once we reached the top it was well worth it.

That brought out visit to Santiago to an end - next stop Valparaiso.